Summer Saturday S'mores

Today was the last day of school and tomorrow is the first day of summer break.

We celebrated Summer on Saturday with some S'mores.

Charlotte declared it a summer ritual.

Our house came equipped with an outdoor fire-pit like thing...

but we only used it once.  Parts of it are crumbling...

the bricks are coming apart....

and I just don't feel right about it.

But not to worry...

a couple of candles will work just fine.

I mean you can only eat so many s'mores...

despite it's name.

And it only takes a minute to toast a marshmallow...

and even less time to gobble one up.

Tonight the hubby and I are on-our-own.

The kids have been whisked away to the in-laws for a couple of days.

Summer break means more alone time with my hubby.

Mid week summer date nights are my favourite.

It might be a movie at the old theatre...

or going out for dessert.

Sometimes its both.

I'm off to make myself pretty...

I love the farmers market & my friends...

I love the farmers market. So much.

Do you know what is so funny...that bag of cherries cost me $5.  And we have a huge cherry tree with weighted branches in our backyard.  But the cherries are out-of-reach.  The only ones eating our cherries are the birds and the chipmunks. They LOVe it here.

photo by charlotte

So do I.

But life isn't always a bowl of you-know-what...

and when the dreadful fall happened and I was standing in my backyard with my husband in one ambulance...

and my boy in another...

and my girl...

my girl....

what am I supposed to do with my girl?

I felt really alone.

My friends are all at least 30 mins away...

some of the most special are plane rides away.

But I have found friends and kindred spirits where I didn't know I had them...

and I am so grateful.

~

I finally got around to potting my tomato plant...

and some herbs...

and I can thank Kasey and Paula for the inspiration.

I'm hoping these might be a few things I can pick from my own backyard this summer.

Thank you to all you lovelies who leave the kindest of comments...you make my day.

Welcome...

Come on in.

Home. I haven't been here much these last few days.

It's been a whirlwind of parties and year end shows and family visits.

We've been walking in the door, dropping off, picking up, and then we're off again.

I miss it. I miss home.

It misses me too. It looks sad. It needs taking care of too and I must admit I've been neglecting it.

Too many living, breathing, laughing, crying loves to look after.

Court and I did get to the berry patch in the morning ...

and to the book shop in his pjs in the evening....

but we need some order in the house....

and we need to make it shine...

because I'm going to take some pictures and send them to Mr. Mead...and hope he won't laugh.

And you can too...

just go here: http://www.holidaywithmatthewmead.com/2010/06/our-best-contest-ever.html

My mondays

I love my Mondays.

The day where many head to work and to school and I...

don't.

They are my if I didn't have them you would have to lock me up because I would be so crazy days.

On Mondays I soak up my kids, my hubby, my surroundings...

or at least I try.  I try to just take it all in. Oh and I try and do way too much.

Yesterday, I tried not to have any expectations. I knew Kevin would need my help...

to have a shower...
to get dressed...
to get to work if only for a couple of hours...

and then I would have some much needed one-on-one time with my little guy.

We didn't get to the library as I had hoped...

or go strawberry picking...

or plant tomatoes...

but we had a picnic lunch in the back yard...

and played super hero.

I pushed him on the swing.

We cleaned up the playroom which had reached the "enter at your own risk" stage...

and walked to and from school with Charlotte.

And even I amazed myself at dinner, with only 1 steak in the freezer, I pulled off these quesedillas and goopy's homemade salsa and guacamole for four...and everyone loved it. 

The day ended with Court's first little league game & ice cream cones.

Such a delicious day...

to pull me through the week ahead.

Minor irritation and a new desk chair...

I've been really irritated today...

it could be that it doesn't matter if my hand is down the toilet...

in the kitchen sink...

or scrubbing my own body in the shower...

someone is calling for me.

Or maybe its the dried cherry bits from the Kashi granola bars that are making a trail from the kitchen to the playroom...

or the ones getting stuck to the bottom of my feet.

Court doesn't LIKE the cherry...just the chocolate chips.

So I guess he figures he can just eat around them and let them drop where they may...

yuck.

My new old desk chair.  I'm loving the industrial look.  I got it at the Christie outdoor antique show at the end of May...it was a lovely afternoon...just me, a bunch of antiques and the sunshine...and no one calling my name...for a couple of hours.

Now before hubby cries out for me I'm off to snuggle with him on the couch...

Now & Then...

Nine years ago Kevin and I bundled up our new baby girl and walked home from the hospital.  We only lived a block away...

June 9, 2001

but I was still a little weak and didn't feel I could make it.  My mother-in-law Gina drove up and I got in. 

She was there to pick me up.

I feel very much the same way today as I did back then...

as I was at the hospital last night...

although it was a different one, in a different town, and we now live too far from it to walk home.

And instead of a baby I was bringing home, it was my husband, after surgery to his crushed wrist.

But it was almost 4 in the morning when I got him home...

feeling exhausted and as sleep deprived as a new mother...

and before we could even get out of the car...

his mom was there opening the door to our home...

ready to look after her baby...

and to pick me up.

In knots

My stomach is in knots...

from the stuff that's happened this week.

There was an outdoor antique show, a stag and doe, a first little league practice, a martial arts belt test, standardized testing at school, a porch railing collapse, a horrific fall, one 911 call, two ambulance rides, three x-rays, one broken wrist, two broken ribs, a contusion to the head, a scrape to the cheek, a 2 a.m. trip to the all-night pharmacy, the annual school fun-fair, gymnastics practice and a birthday dinner & movie with 5 screaming almost 9-year old girls...

so...

I'm focusing on this...

the dream that came true 9 years ago tomorrow...

Charlotte.

My heart is so full.


ps...
Kevin & Court had a horrible fall but are thankfully on the mend!
mwha!!

Queen Victoria & Wine

I got up early on Victoria Day to watch The Young Victoria with the divine Emily Blunt. I thought it was appropriate. It only took me 4 hours to watch it...

what with all the interruptions....

to find Bakugans...

to wipe bums...

and to make breakfast...but not necessarily in that particular order.

The movie was lovely.  And so too was the day.

We hopped in the car and promised the kids some fun. 

I know they were so happy when we pulled into the fun park winery.

but we coerced them into staying with chocolate crunch cookies, carrot cake cupcakes and the promise of fireworks that night. 

We sipped wine and snapped pictures, and if you were Court...

found piles of dirt and played farmer contentedly for 20 minutes.

Heaven.