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.

A day with Maman

Since we do not have a babysitter for the summer and I can not bring them along to the hospital (like I did to the store last summer)we had to improvise. Nicole took the day off, or rather, worked on the laptop, and I worked a 12-hour day. Tomorrow I am on nights so I am home with the kids and as long as Nicole gets home before 5:30pm everything will be ok.

The kids said they had a good day but many details were not forthcoming, so I guess I will leave it at that.

A day with Aunt Lisa

I forgot to take soem pictures of the kids with their Aunt, well, I didn't forget per say, I was gone from 6:30am to 7:30pm so that made it difficult to take some pictures.

The kids had a good day. They played scrabble with Lisa and her caregiver for a few hours, walked to the mall where Lisa let them each pick out a gift. The girls went went with dolls and Jacob a new game for his GameBoy Advance. They stopped for icecream on the walk home and for supper they feasted on Chinese food. Apparently they were well behaved (as usual) and everyone enjoyed themselves.

We finally made it back home at 8:30pm and the kids wanted to sleep out in the tent again, which they are going to do apparently. We had rain during the day but it may hold off tonight.

Work was crazy today, but I did get permission to work an extra shift this week and have Sunday to Friday off next week. GGGGREAT!

Kids not happy with Daddy....

Today was cloudy with a few rainshowers which meant the kids always had an excuse why they did not have to go outside to play. I did manage to convince Jacob and Rachel to jump on their bikes and go pick up the mail. They came back with package and they were very enthused when I told them the package contained a book for each of them. They were not, however, as enthused when they opened the package and saw..


I know, I know, summer vacation is supposed to be a vacation, but I hate that the kids will try and spend half of their summer vacation on the computer. If they complete their books we will come up with an appropriate "gift" at the end of August. Plus, it will help keep their skills sharpened and ready for the fall.

We also went to the library and joined a summer book reading club. This was their idea, not mine, so no more comments from the peanut gallery. They each signed out a book and I think Erica has finished hers already.

I was off today and Nicole worked, which meant I had to prepare lunch. I hate making lunch! Rachel helped and we had eggrolls and instant noodles in a sauce. I need to buy some Kraft Dinner.

We don't have a regular babysitter and Nicole has meetings tomorrow so my sister (Lisa) has agreed to look after them tomorrow. Rather than trying to wake them at 5:30am I am going to bring them out tonight. As an added bonus, I will only have to get up at 6:15 tomorrow.

A lawn mowing day

Well, it took me almost 5 freaking hours to mow the lawn today..what a way to spend a Sunday. The sun bore down on me from 11-3pm and I have a nice burn to show for it. I can normally cut our acre lot in about 3 and a 1/2 hours but the ditch was overgrown and I spent way too much time re-starting the mower. At least it is done, and hopefully the grass will slow down a bit - this was my fourth straight week-end mowing.



The girls spent the day across the road at their friends pool and Jacob's friends were away so he just milled about. No, he did not volunteer to help mow the lawn either!

We went for a walk after supper and then I washed the kitchen floor and the kids headed out to the tent for another night.

Summer Vacation - Day One

Today officially began the kids summer holidays and the weather is certainly cooperating. It was a beautiful 28 degrees and sunny. Fortunately, there was a bit of a wind which kept the bugs away.

Another busy day at the Taylor household. The kids slept out in the tent last night and were a little noisy when they came in/out/in/out this morning. I could not sleep through all the racket so I got up and went the store till 1pm. Nicole was up around 10 and took the gang grocery shopping.

The afternoon was rather laid back. Our neighbour helped me fix Jacob's bike chain so now I am able to use my own bike again. Nicole had a mid-afternoon nap so the kids and I went for a bike ride to the community centre....



and down to the river where we found two bikes that someone had pushed off the cliff.


We rented "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" which was just like most sequals; awful. Still, when it only costs 99 cents to rent a DVD at NIKKO's automated store who can complain too much. After the movie, we made popcorn and the kids headed out to the tent. I wasn't sure they were going to want to stay out as the neighbours were having a bit of a party and the country music was pretty loud but the kids insisted it was no big deal, so out they stayed.

School's Out for Summer

The kids are now officially on summer holidays, and I must say they seem to be very pleased with the ending of the school year. All in all, it was a good year. Jacob was on the honour roll; all A's. Rachel and Erica did excellent as well. Looks like I better start putting more money into the kids RESP's for university!

Here they are this morning...



And last September (2005)...

Father's Day

While Father's day is supposed to be day of relaxation, maybe watching a NASCAR race, it certaily wasn't for moi. After planting Nicole's garden we drove to her parents place for lunch and then at 5pm went over to mom and Ken's for an hour. Then, an hour drive back home, supper, a few gifts and bedtime. Maybe if I wasn't always the first one up I would get breakfast in bed?

Planting the Garden

We are a little late getting Nicole's garden in this year; too much rain the last two weeks. This is the first time I helped out as I was usually at GNC when Nicole planted. It feels nice not to have to work every Saturday!

I am not sure of what we planted; carrots, string beans, radish, tomatoes and cucumbers for sure. I wonder if our groundhog will make a surprise visit in a few weeks.