Catch up!!

What up??!!

 Well, another school year has come and gone and in 2 short months I will have 3/4 in school!!! *insert big sad face here* I thought I worried about Abby starting kindergarten....I'm more terrified for Kylie because she is still a bit difficult to understand. We're working hard on her speech and it is definately improving, but likely won't be perfect by September. Oh well....I'm sure she won't be the first or the last to have speech issues. If she was...I wouldn't have a job to go back to! :)

Here are the girls on their last days of Gr.2 and Kindergarten.

The next series of pictures are completely backwards, but I am too tired to switch them all, so go to the end of the blog now and read bottem to top! Ha! Sorry...but it seems like less effort for me that way.

Thank you so much Nate and Rachel and precious cousins Addison and Kendra for the special time at your house.

 On the last day there the kids and I headed for Toledo for another new experience. I found the zoo without getting lost so that was a bonus. We decided to go to this zoo. Rachel was worried we would be dissapointed in its size. We loved it!! Yeah the Edmonton zoo is pretty pathetic. Can do it in about 30 minutes. This zoo took us 4 hours and we still didn't see everything. It was like the country bumpkins come to the city for the first time. Haha. We were so tired and hot that we.....had another new experience....went out to eat at a sit down restaurant by ourselves. Then we got a hotel room across the street and settled in to bed. The next day we dropped off our vehicle, and had a pretty uneventful trip home. The girls were ready to see daddy but it was sad leaving :( The next day we packed up and headed to convention....all by ourselves. Poor Steve. We are looking forward to convention with him in a few weeks.

Nate made all the kids snowcones. They were really good!!

 Apple collectors

The kids got to ride a camel! Exciting! Kendra doesn't look too sure and Chelsea is thinking "This is an odd experience when mom forgets to put panties on you!!"

Rachel this picture is just for you. Hahahahahaha.

 Of course we had to have ice cream. It was hot!!

 In a cyclone.

One day Rach took us to this neat African safari type thing. You drive through it and feed the animals out the window. Kids really enjoyed it! I did too!

 What a long tongue you have Mr. Giraff

 Please don't eat me!!!

The girls put on a show for us....poor Nate....he put up with a lot with 8 females in his house!!!

 Kendra. I know....don't they look similar??

 Chelsea...

This was after Wednesday night meeting so a little out of order but oh well. Uncle Nate bought an ice cream cake for Rachel and Kylie since their birthdays are 1 day apart. It was an awesome cake.

It was so hot (by Canadian standards) that the kids wanted to swim every day. This was a great little pool and now every time they see it in the store here they ask for it. Hmmm.....

This is at Lodi Station, an outlet mall nearby. It was a VERY hot day, as were all the days, and I thought the kids did really good. It's not always fun shopping when you're a kid. They got to ride this little train that goes around the shops too and loved that.

Kendra is convinced they are all cousins. So cute!

Check out my ride!!

Hayley had been telling me that her head was itchy and I felt it the night before and thought maybe she had a bit of matted hair or something. Left it alone. In the morning she commented again so I looked....here it was a nasty looking tick!!! Ugh!! Thank goodness for nurse Rachel and her mom...they got it out for me. YUCK! I don't have any pictures of Rebecca's baby Bridgette but she is a little doll. So tiny and sweet. Was glad to see them briefly too.

The wait is getting a wee bit long.... So here is where I tell you how the rest of the travels went. They had a medical emergency on the flight we were to board leaving Edmonton (really person....you screwed up my whole trip....wait until you are off the plane, THEN have your heart attack!) so....we had to run to our connection in Chicago. Made it....had to skip supper. We got to Chicago about 9:00 at night. So I stand at the luggage carousel and watch it go around and around and around....people start to leave.....soon we are all alone. My luggage apparently doesn't run as fast as the kids and I do. Sigh....dealt with that. Then we catch a shuttle to the car rental place. Stood in line FOREVER!! Got a nice upgrade though so that was cool. That way if Rachel and I went anywhere together during the day we only had to take 1 vehicle. Plus it had a mounted GPS that I was much appreciative for. WE pulled out and ran through a McDonalds....but oops. I turned the wrong way onto the interstate. Why is this a problem?? Because now one must go through the dirty nasty drug infested city of Detroit at 11:30 at night!!! PLus I slammed on the brakes and stawberry fruitopia went everywhere on the cream colored carpet!! And Chelsea had to pee. Made her pee her pants. I was NOT stopping. So I'm stopped at this red light....the guy beside me doesn't feel like stopping so he just runs the light. On the other side of the road someone must have felt the same? Someone's been hit and they are still lying on the road surrounded by people. Maybe he's been shot. I dunno....just get me out of this city!!!! WE finally arrive at 1:30 in the morning. Nate woke Rachel up....she has pictures of that on her camera but I think we managed to pull off the surprise pretty successfully.

 So here we are in the Edmonton airport awaiting our first flight.

Well thank you for joining us as we bring you on a journey to a land far far away. I have to begin by telling you that as soon as this trip was booked, my first thought was "WHAT WAS I THINKING?!" You see....I was taking 4 kids all by myself to the great city of Findlay Ohio! I was thrilled to finally be getting to see Nate and Rach and their 2 little princesses after 10 years of seperation but to fly to Detroit, pick up a rental, and drive us there all by myself....for the independent this might seem easy, but for the DEPENDENT!!!!!! Oh my!!!!





A bit of Randomness

Hello! Come! Sit! Have a cup of tea and let me fill you in!

Went to Aisha's birthday party the other day. She is turning 4. Here is Steve with her little brother. Doesn't it look good on him? :) Makes me want another one. Whoever says you just know when your done is crazy. I could go on forever having little people. We figure since one sister has 2, one brother has 3, another brother will soon have 4, we should have 5!! Ha! Don't worry all you who are stressing....we can't afford another one and we know it.

Here are the girls at the cool space themed party.

Tonight Kylie had her kindergarten open house so we had to hang out on the playground for a bit. Interesting fact: Graminia is thinking of offering half day kindergarten. I despise the idea myself as I wouldn't get anything done in half a day and there is only busing available to the morning. So I put myself down for "definitely want full days". Here's a photo of the girls 10 years from now. It's truly a terrifying thought.

This is our bathroom in demolition phase. Our shower arrived today and I am soooo excited to get it done! Finally we will have a bathroom bigger then a closet. Barely, but hey....beggars can't be choosers right?

Kylie's party stuff came in the mail the other day. She's having a cowgirl BBQ! This is the cup and plates. Yes that boot is a cup. Cute eh?

Stylin

So in the process of demolishing the bathroom, a few things ended up on the front...lawn? dirtpile? She's not really going potty but it's quite funny.

Pictures out of order a bit. This is Kylie after her urethra repair. Perky and ready to go home.

Modeling her jammies before surgery.

Kylie's soccer team. I missed the other kids pictures but will get good copies later anyhow.

Well thanks for stopping by. Have a great week. Love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABIGAIL!!

So our little Abigail Josephine (yes just a nickname!) had her 6th birthday party the other day. She wanted a monkey theme so here it is. We painted monkeys, did another treasure hunt, made our own pizzas, a piniata, cake, presents and then worn out, went out for supper! A great day. I love the pictures of Abby with her cupcakes. Not often Abby gives you a big light-up-her-face type smile.

Abby is our intense one. Would rather read a book then anything and is really quite a good little reader. She's still kind of shy but that's alright. Kind of bossy, but who isn't once in awhile. Ha! She is quite the perfectionist and if she's not perfect at something the first time, she won't try it again. It's interesting. You'd think she was the first born. We love our little Abby and wouldn't trade her for all the second borns in the world.

Kind of sad this picture at the table is so blurry. Not sure what happened with my camera. Abby is hiding. Little monkey!!

Abby has the same smile as my mom's cousin Roann. One side of her mouth goes down farther than the other. I think it's cute! Maybe the middle of her bottem lip is stuck up from sucking on it so much!!!

Well I'm done my raspberry chocolate truffle coffee, and since I am a non-coffee drinker I'm sure the buzz will come shortly and I can finish my jobs. We had preschool, swimming, grocery shopping, gas and carwash getting, and now grocery unloading, van cleaning, laundry, supper making, and piano. Good times in the life of a mom.

SOCCER CHIX

Okay so I know that this week's post was supposed to be 'biker chix', but it has been raining and I haven't got any pictures taken of biking. So here are my little soccer chix. Presenting #13: Abby Campbell. She has a little friend on her team Jorja so she is excited. Another friend Mya is supposed to be on her team too but wasn't there today.

 Presenting #4: Kylie Campbell. In there like a dirty shirt. She is with cousin Ashley so she's pretty excited about that.

 Presenting #28: Hayley Campbell. She was supposed to be with Jorja's sister Bella, but unfortunately, even though they are only 3 months apart, it puts them in different age groups. So Hayley is with Ethan. All the kids are playing with friends kids. It's kinda nice!

I love the exercise the kids get playing soccer. Villeneuve is such an awesome place to play because it's cheap ($35 a kid) and includes the jersey, medals or trophy, and year end BBQ. Plus it's only 6 weeks, its on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and all 4 kids (well...3....not Chelsea yet) play at the same time on the same big field (obviously in different areas, but you get what I mean....no travel!!) They love it and I love that they are running around being active kids.

Much love to you all....love the updated blogs I've read. Will comment later.

Jen