Back Home Again

The kids are back home again, for a few days anyway as we are heading out "tenting" tomorrow, and of course, what did they miss the most while being gone all week?

Rock and Roll Camp / July 24-28

The kids had a great week at Rock and Roll Camp and even more fun staying at Nicole's parents for the week. The weather started cooperating on Wednesday and they spent two afternoons having a ball at Ritchie Warf. Nicole and I stayed out Thurdsay night and Nicole took them to their last morning and taped their "jam". They did pretty well; Rachel seemed to enjoy the bass and she has the head banging down pat. Jacob found the electric guitar to be a challenge and Erica was making great progress on the drums.

Kids off on another "vacation"

After the girls returned from an afternoon birthday party, we all piled in the car and headed off to Nicole's parents. They are going to be looking after the kids for a week as they attend a "rock and roll music camp." Should be interesting! The price is $125 for each child for three hours of lessons for 5 days, hopefully we will get a family discount.

It will quiet around the house once again, on the brighter side, at least I will not have to do two loads of laundry everyday!

Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest

We spent three days trying to find the first Pirates movie but for some strange reason no retailers had any in stock and none of the video stores had any copies to rent. I realize that nobody expected the sequel to do so well, but apparently there is a lot of people out there who have not seen the first movie yet.

Did we enjoy it? Yes, it was well done and even though it was a little long it was very entertaining. Erica did not want to go as she thought it was going to be too scarey; she went to a sleepover tonight instead.

Kids away for 6 Nights (July 14-19)

It was a quiet house from Friday morning until Wednesday night. I had to work some make-up shifts and we don't have a sitter so mom and Lisa came to the rescue. I dropped the kids off at 6:30 Friday morning and their adventure began.


What did they do? Well, when it was hot, they went to Ritchie's wharf twice and they also went to the beach. They ate at Burger King. Rachel and Jacob each spent a night alone with Lisa, which of course meant a walk to the mall, gifts and Chinese food for supper. Somewhere in their they went to a beach an hour away and papa and Jacob also had time for 4-wheeling and fishing for trout.

All in all, they had a great "vacation" away from mom and dad.

Front Yard Football

Last summer we played baseball often, but a line drive by Jacob into the head of Rachel put a little damper on that sport. This summer it is nerf football; Rachel has a pretty good spiral, Jacob can really kick the ball and Erica can scramble really well.

Playing around

Just a few pics of the kids having fun in the basement.

Summer 2006 - Our first day at the beach

The plan was that on Friday the cleaning would be completed and I could finally relax and spend the day doing something with the kids. However, the rainy weather this week seemed to encourage the grass to grow so I spent three hours this morning mowing our lawn. Afterwards, I was hot and sweaty so we packed up the van and headed for the beach. Naturally, as soon as we arrived, the clouds rolled in and a nice strong cool wind decided to make its presence felt.

The water was cold and I was the only one who dared to jump in. Rachel had her jeans on ten minutes later, but Jacob and Erica played in the sand of an hour or so.


I am back to work tomorrow and this week off turned out to be rather disappointing. But, the basement is clean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the kids were threatened to make sure it stays that way.

Two days of Cleaning

I was so excited when I managed to switch my schedule so that I would be off for 6 days. Nicole booked her holiday's for this week and the plan was to go camping. Mother Nature, who had been rewarding Atlantic Canadian's with a hot spring decided to make the first week of July cool and wet. The long range forecast was not really camping type weather so Nicole changed her holiday's and went back to work. I took one look at the basement and started cleaning.

And that basically what I have done the last few days. I would have taken a "before" picture of the basement but I was too embarressed! Lets just say three kids who have way too many toys and who do not know how to pick up after themselves = a mess. Not that Nicole and myself are much better based on these pictures of the office.


Besides the cold storage room, the basement is clean and tidy. I can actually make it into my weight room now so maybe I"ll start using it again? Here is a picture of the much improved basement, or kids play area. Hopefully it will stay that way.

A Day at the Mall

Jacob and I went half on a new portable DVD player, which came in really handy as I had to work at the store today whcih meant that the kids would have to spend the day at the mall. This mall is not that big so it is hard to keep them entertained (and quiet) for 5 or 6 hours. But, with a Niko automated video store in the mall, and a new DVD player, plus some popcorn from the Dollar Store...the kids actually enjoyed going to the mall for the day. Nicole picked them up at 2pm so it was only 4 hours at the store and they were very well behaved.

I think I spent more money than I made in wages though; lunch at the new restraunt in the mall was pricey, plus the kids made a few trips to the Dollar store. Oh well, I think my retail career is winding down anyway.

Family Day

I arrived home from work this am and hit the sack and slept till noon. Then we tidied up a bit, went to Tim Horton's for some bagles and then went over to Geoprge and Susan for a mini family reunion. Even though it rained and the flies were bad at times, it was a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon. The kids played with their cousins, we had a bbq and later on we roasted marshmellows.


We stayed till 10pm and then loaded up the car for the hour long drive home.

A rainy Canada Day

I had to work nights this long week-end so we stayed decided to stay at Nicole's parents house and take in some of the Canada Day festivities. I was a little tired but managed to stay awake for the whole half an hour that it took for the parade to pass by. I suppose if you call a bunch of old cars and a one true float and one marching band of 10 kids a parade. I am not sure if this is occuring all across the country but I know the Canada Day parades in the 1970's were much better than this. Mind you, the kids enjoyed the parade because it was just like halloween as everyone in the parade were throwing out candies!


The rain held off long enough for the parade to end but then it was a downpour so we did not make it to any other activities. I slept, the kids ransacked their mameire's home (who were in Halifax)and Nicole watched tv.

At 6:45pm I drove over to the hospital for my first night working alone. It was nice only having to drive five minutes to work rather than the usual 60 minutes.