july 2011

july 24

aaah.. 2 year olds.. they can be such fun.

zoe's rules for a quiet life:

• socks must be blue
• only blue dora shoes are acceptable [it doesn't matter what the weather is looking like]
• diapers must be pampers [but only the ones with the cookie monster on them - not the other 75% of the packet]
• dresses only acceptable one day a month [exact day to be determined]
• pjs must be blue with monkeys
• drinks must be in a 'zoe cup' [specific colour/style to be determined each day]
• orange cheese must be cut into squares. white cheese must be grated
• no visible fruit or vegetables EXCEPT:
  • apples might be acceptable but only twice a month [on secret days]
  • spinach on pizza is ok
  • banana chocolate smoothie might be acceptable, but only if served in a dora cup with a straw

it's been a long week. between head lice, doctors appointments for toby and zoe, dentist appointments for toby and i [along with a very attempt to try and trick zoe into opening her mouth for the dentist - which she did briefly, accidentally!] and eye doctors appointments for toby and zoe. it was also our wedding anniversary which we celebrate by seeing each other very briefly between 11pm [when sascha finished work] and midnight when we fell asleep, during which time sascha sliced his hand open on a broken bowl. next week has got to be an improvement right?!

fortunately, we had a very nice long weekend in victoria the weekend before with peter and hitomi which included some golf, horse riding, a beach geocache, a train ride/car show at heritage acres, some gardening and lots of eating. i also came home with a bag full of organic goodies from the garden.

i read an interesting article this week on whether kids should be taught cursive writing any more. much as i'm always big on moving forward, it does seem kind of sad. i love the comment in the article 'how else are you going to read grandma's birthday card?' i guess they will be having lessons on texting shorthand instead.

we finally conceded to letting aly on facebook last week after a year of nagging and the production of the following '3 reasons why i should have facebook':

• it will help my typing skills
• you can share and see photos [i'm not sure that's actually a benefit]
• i can keep in touch with my friends over the summer

i can only imagine what having teenagers is going to be like!

july 10 2011

sorry for the delay. i'm starting to think maybe a monthly update is in order!

while she was here, mum celebrated her 64th birthday. we celebrated with a meal, and a spot of geocache hiding [our very first hide]. we sung 'when i'm 64' along to sascha's iphone whilst exploring the countryside!

zoe, mom and i went to reifel bird sanctury last week. i've come to the conclusion that although it makes toddler very happy, they are perhaps not the best companions if you want to see rare breeds of bird! the last time we went was with aly and toby around the age of 3 and i don't think we saw anything other than geese and ducks that time either. zoe was fearless when it came to feeding the canada geese that were as tall as her!

mom and dad are now back in the uk, but before they went we made a trip out to the quayside in new westminster. it's only a 15-20 minute drive so i'm not sure why we've never been before. it's a lovely little quayside. we didn't make it to the fraser river discovery centre this time, but we did climb aboard a lovely old paddle boat for a poke around [zoe enjoyed making me some delicious invisible dinner in the gallery].

it's harvest time on our balcony at the moment. toby is very happy with his supply of strawberries, aly loves to dig up the potatoes and i'm very happy with the endless supply of sage, mint, chives and lemon balm [if only i was competent enough to grow some basil]. speaking of lemon balm, a sprig went in each lemonade the children have been selling from a lemonade stand on the front path. aly is such an entrepreneur - she has a card making business, is running a yard sale for richmond family place tomorrow and has been selling slushies/lemonade with toby. i've resisted letting her do all these things for a few years since they always seem to involve a lot of work/clean-up on my part, but i've decided i should be nurturing her entreprenurial side since it's in her blood.

back home