Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Holiday Road, part 1

This year's family vacation started on Saturday with a long car ride to Calgary.  We got away at a decent time in the morning, and took a different route this time through Drumheller.  The road was good and not as boring as the normal way.  Our original plans didn't include stopping at the museum, but we were there midafteroon, so we thought, what the heck.  The girls had fun.  With CeCe wreaking her own brand of mayhem, we didn't get as much out of it as we could have, but it was good nonetheless.  The girls were most thrilled with the fossilized poop I think.  Figures.

Once in Calgary, we stayed with Julie's brother and sister-in-law.  We spent Sunday shopping and made a serious dent in the Crossiron Mills Mall.  Lots of new clothes and good deals.  Julie was very proud of the fact that we saved more than we spent at the Gap.  That's some good shopping.

Monday was off to Calaway Park.  It was quite busy and super hot.  We petered out a little sooner than last year and didn't have the patience to wait for the log ride, but the kids had fun anyway.  CeCe was into it this year too.  All the rides that she was tall enough for anyway.


Today we hit the zoo.  We were last there two year ago when there was a sign that the penguins were coming in 2012.  The girls have not forgotten that fact, so we had to go back this year.  They we pretty cool.

We made our whole loop of the zoo and almost missed the flamingos.  We found them on our way out and Jorja did a pretty good sleeping flamingo impression.  Tomorrow we are off to Canmore.  Later.






Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Neil

Last Friday was Friday the 13th.  It was definitely not unlucky for me though.  No, I got to go see someone I've liked since I was a kid.  I remember listening to the vinyl record of the Jazz Singer soundtrack over and over when I was a kid.  I loved it.  Yes, I went to Neil Diamond.  Julie does not share my enthusiasm for one of the greatest song writers and performers of our time, so I asked my Mom if she wanted to go with me.  She said yes, so she and Dad came down for the weekend.  The concert was amazing - our front row seats didn't hurt either.  There was no fancy stage show or lights or anything.  Just two hours of great songs performed by an amazing band.  The band has been with Neil for 35 years, and they were awesome.  Great musicians and entertainers - funny too.  And for some elderly men, they still have some moves.  They were having a great time and it showed.  Here's a few pics from the night.


Now I must confess that leading up to the concert and since, I have been listening to a lot of Neil Diamond.  The girls are starting to appreciate some of his songs too.  CeCe loves Beautiful Noise and all the girls like Sweet Caroline.  It took Jorja a while to warm up to the song, but she has embraced it now.

The love for Neil lives on.  Later.

Monday, July 9, 2012

G-U-M

Today was my first day back at work after a week and a half off.  It was a nice break, and productive too.  I was planning on getting some stuff done in the yard and paint the trim on the house.  It rained solid one day, so I painted a bedroom.  The wind was near tornado strength the next day (not good for climbing a ladder), so I painted another bedroom.  A little while ago, we decided that we would switch the girls' sleeping arrangements around.  Jorja is always up at the crack of dawn, and the other two seem to sleep in somewhat.  We let them each pick out a colour for their new rooms (from three carefully selected options) and now they're done.  We made the switch Wednesday last week, and the transition has been fairly reasonable.  Here's my handy work.


 On the one day that it was nice outside, I did manage to get the trim painted on the house.  It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.


I've also been playing around with a new collage app on my iPhone.  I think it's kind of cool.

Jorja and Ginny are really into chewing gum these days.  We just buy the sugar free stuff, so I figure as long as they don't swallow a ton of it, it's okay.  They are actually really good at spitting it out.  But because they have gum, CeCe wants gum.  Sometimes I'll break a tiny piece off and give it to her.  Surprisingly, she chews it fairly well too.  In an effort to be more clandestine, Jorja and Ginny have started spelling the word.  "Dad, can we have G-U-M?"  Well, it didn't take CeCe long to figure out what they were up to, so now she asks for G-U-M.  It's pretty cute hearing a two year old spell words out.

I think we may have picked the wrong names for the girls.  Lately when they are playing their role play games, Jorja is Jennifer and Ginny is Louise.  I'm not sure where they got them from (especially Louise?), but that's who they are.  Every time. 

Jorja got her ears pierced last week too.  After seeing the movie Brave, they were wondering around the mall, and Julie asked her if she wanted to.  She took some time to think it over, but decided that she was ready.  There were a few tears, but not too bad.  She did pretty good.



Now to fold some laundry.  Later.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Photo shoot

Happy belated Canada Day!  We spent most of Canada Day indoors because of the rain.  Yes, it rained most of the day again.  It wasn't raining first thing in the morning though, which was good.  Every year, our church puts on a pancake breakfast for Canada Day, and it just so happened that it was on Sunday this year.  So we put on our Canada Day shirts and headed out for pancakes, sausage and church.
The shirts didn't begin as a traditon in our house, but they have become one.  Every year, everyone gets a new shirt for Cananda Day.  This year I even got some for Julie and me.  I was trying to get the girls to pose, but Ginny was getting devoured by mosquitoes in the early morning humidity, so this was the best that I could do.  You get the idea - young patriots. 

The rain held off for breakfast, but by the time we were out of church, it was coming down.  It stayed that way off and on pretty much all day.  The kids are not at an age yet where we would even attempt fire works, so it didn't matter that much. 

Saturday was a beautiful day out and we spent a good portion of it outside.  I was able to get a section of our fence that was pretty wobbly shored up - hopefully for at least another year.  Julie planted some more flowers, and the girls played.  Jorja recieved a flower from her birthday party that we had planted in the garden the other day.  She insisted over and over that the plant was dry and needed water.  Now I've learned that it's not a good idea to bring out the water until you're almost ready to go in.  So when we were all done, I turned on the hose and told her and Ginny that they could water the garden.  By this time, Julie was wrapping up and I was BBQing supper.  I went back to inspect their work at one point and saw them watering the potatoes which are along our back fence.  The fence backs our neighbour's garden. 

*A little aside about our neighbour - He is a fairly elderly fellow that never looks happy.  He doesn't say much, but always seems to be in his garden, just watching it and us.  He is quiet, and I'll be in the backyard doing my own thing, or something with the kids, look up, and there he is, looking at us through the fence.  He must really dislike us - his garden is spotless and right though the fence is ours - not so spotless.  Add to that the noisy kids, and I think you have a recipe for disdain.*

Now the hose isn't quite long enough to reach the back fence, so if you knew what you were doing, you could arch it just right and hit the potatoes.  Or if you are Jorja, you could just blast it through the fence and hit our neighbour.  I yelled at her to stop and she said ok.  Then she gave him another shot.  He was walking away by this time, but not that quickly.  I yelled again, saying someone was on the other side of the fence and she was spraying him.  "I know," she said, and then proceeded to give him another shot. It was all I could do to keep from laughing.  Finally she had things under control, but he was out of reach by that point.  He never did say anything - just stared through the fence with his usual unimpressed look.  Oops.  Sorry.

Friday afternoon was haircuts for all the girls.  It went reasonably well.  The girl we take them to has her salon in an old building downtown.  Each stylist has their own room and their own waiting room.  It works really well for CeCe.  Ginny went first and CeCe wasn't too bad.  Did some colouring and watching.  Then it was her turn.  She got up there in that chair and had the apron (not sure what it's really called) put around her and she didn't flinch.  She is quite the little girly-girl too.  The only thing she ever sits still for at home is getting her toes painted.  Here she is.
Then on Friday evening, the girls went for their photo shoot.  The photographer and her daughter were amazing - both during the shoot and with the editing.  We couldn't be happier with the results.  Here's a link to the photographer's blog, where she posted a bunch of the pictures.  It saves me uploading them all.  http://www.saucysprinkles.com/2012/07/pettiskirt-sisters.html
Right now, CeCe is napping and Julie took the girls to a movie - the new Disney one - Brave.  They were pretty excited about that, so hopefully they (I really mean Ginny) were able to sit still long enough to enjoy it.  Have a great rest of the long weekend.  Later.