Happenings as of Late

Time for a catch up post.

Last Sunday for Father's Day my dad and brother came up, along with my brother's girlfriend.  Tyler made a great dinner for all of us, and the boys had fun playing with them all evening.  It was a really nice afternoon, I always enjoy it when they come for a visit. 

Not long after they had arrived, my dad took T for a walk.  They were gone for a long time and I was starting to wonder where they were.  Then I got a call from Monica from around the corner saying they ended up over there.  My dad has never been to Monica's house, and apparently T had just kinda led them there!  I was pretty amazed, considering we had only been there twice ourselves.  He kept saying "go to Bennett and Marshall's house" but of course my dad couldn't understand him and was just following along.  Sure enough that's where they ended up, and Monica was nice enough to let them play for a bit before they could finally get T out of there.  He didn't want to leave, and in the end they lent him a tricycle and a helmet so my dad could push him home.  All week long T has been talking about how he "went to Bennett and Marshall's house with Grandpa".  Too funny!

One of the highlights of last week for me was I decided to go and get all my hair chopped off.  Actually, I decided to do it right after the last time I had got it cut and wished I had chopped it all off then.  Finally got around to doing it, and while I wasn't sure if I liked it when I left it, I now love it.  Kinda even wish it was shorter (and it's possibly the shortest I've ever had it!).  I no doubt look like a mom now though!  I'm still playing around with styling it, but so far have had success making it look pretty good. 

Last Tuesday while I went to get my hair cut, Tyler's sister Rachael came up to spend some time with the boys.  They had a great time hanging out with her, even F enjoyed himself and didn't seem to miss me too much.  Rachael spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday with us.  She brought up some art stuff and got the boys into painting.  They really enjoyed it!  She is much more creative than I am and helped T complete his first masterpiece.  Actually, I think it's fantastic, but maybe that's just a proud mummy talking.  Here he is showing it off.

The rest of the week we did much of the usual stuff, Wednesday at the EYC and then on Thursday Monica and her boys came over for a fun playdate.

We just returned from another weekend staying at my dad's in Aurora.  Tyler is helping him landscape his house, so we all went down for the weekend since I wanted to go to my cousin's son's birthday in Stouffville on Saturday anyway. 

The boys and I drove up on Friday afternoon like last time, and we met with my dad for dinner at Meadowbrook Golf Club.  We had a great dinner, there was live music which both boys really seemed to enjoy.  They did well, despite not napping very long in the car.  Bedtime however was a bit of a nightmare.  Took me awhile to get them both down for the night and they both went to sleep much later than usual.  But surprisingly they both slept well considering, so I guess I can't complain.

On Saturday we were all over the place visiting family.  We went to Xavier's 6th birthday party, and it was crazy!  There were probably 30 kids there between the ages of 3-8 (with a few younger ones like F hanging around too).  We were late, so we missed making pizzas, but when we got there they were all playing and having fun.  It was complete chaos, I can't believe my cousin and his wife had that many kids there!  The boys had fun, though it was hard for them to join in since they were younger than most of the kids.  Still, it was fun to get to go to a birthday party.

After that we dropped by a family friend's house to visit them them and also my god parents.  It was really great to see them, since we don't get to see them too often anymore.  The boys had fun playing in their backyard for a little while before dinner.

My dad took us out for a lovely dinner to this fantastic restaurant down the street from his house.  Unfortunately T was a bit tired and whiny by then which made it hard to enjoy the experience, especially since it was a fancier restaurant.  But I managed to keep him happy by walking around outside for a bit while we were waiting for the food, then once the food was there he was ok to sit in his chair for dinner.  The food was absolutely fantastic!  If you are ever in Aurora, ON and are looking for a good meal, definitely check out Bijoy's Restaurant.  Hopefully one of these days Tyler and I can go out for dinner without kids, and I'd love to go back there.

Today we had lunch with my mom, then headed back home.  Tyler stayed behind to do some more work on the landscaping and will probably be home late tonight.

It was a crazy, but great weekend.  Once again I am amazed by how adaptable my children are.  Despite the rocky bedtime on Friday night, they actually did very well going with the flow all weekend.  They obviously didn't get as much sleep as they do at home, only getting to nap a bit in the car and going to bed late, but they were still happy and well behaved.  We've had a few issues with T being difficult and whiny, but I think it is more the age rather than just plain overtiredness.  He is just at that age at the moment where it is a bit hard to make him happy.  But overall he did very well, especially when we were out and about.  He is very attached to my dad, so was always wanting to be with him which is really sweet.

They are such great kids though.  They napped all the way home and we got back to Collingwood right when they would have woken up normally, so the rest of the day went on as usual.  Played in the backyard until dinner, ate then bath and bed by their regular times.  It was like they didn't miss a beat.  I know lots of other kids would have a hard time getting back on track, and I am so thankful that mine are so easy going.

I am happy to report that this trip did not bring with it feelings of wishing we can move.  I really feel like I've made great progress on that front.  It is so wonderful to go back, but it is so great to be home again too.  One thing I certainly don't miss about the GTA is the traffic and the time it takes to get anywhere.  Everything is so far apart, and you are always bound to hit construction or other hold ups along the way.  I could feel my blood boiling every time I had to deal with it and that aspect alone made me miss home so much!  Everything here is so close and there is never any traffic.  It's so much more relaxing.

One thing I was not happy to return to though was the bug situation.  I have posted previously about my strong dislike for bugs, and that in particular we have these awful boxelder bugs infesting our yard.  They are all over the area, but they seem to like our place a lot due to the large silver maple in the backyard, which they feed on the keys.  They are nuisance pests, not causing damage to plants or property and harmless to people, but they are everywhere!  And multiplying by the hundreds it seems.  Before they would just sit around, but now they are buzzing everywhere and always flying into me.  And it makes it impossible for me to hang my laundry as it gets covered in them.  When I got home it seemed like there were even more of them around.  We really need to figure out how to control them safely.  I feel like if we get desperate enough, we will actually have to remove our beautiful tree because they like it so much.  Such a shame.

And to top it off there was a big house centipede in the upstairs bathroom, ew!  If you have never seen one, google it.  Probably one of the most vile creatures I have ever seen around here.  Luckily I have not encountered many in this house, which is surprising considering they live in old houses (we used to get tons when we lived in High Park).  But I guess since we were away, this one decided to crawl up the drain.  Now my creep out factor is running high, will take me awhile to feel safe again after today's bug issues!

But other than that, it is good to be home. 

Oh, I guess another important even this past week was Tyler and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on Friday, June 24th.  Well, 'celebrated' is an overstatement.  We actually didn't see too much of each other between him working and me driving up to my dad's with him arriving late at night.  But he brought me some beautiful flowers and we had a chance to sit and talk for a bit before bed.  One of these years we'll actually be able to go for a nice anniversary dinner alone, lol.

I can't believe it's been 4yrs though, time certainly does fly.  And we have certainly kept busy!  In those 4yrs we have moved 4 times, had two children, and Tyler has worked for 2 different landscape companies.  We've had some crazy times, but it's been an amazing ride so far and I look forward to so many more years to come.

So that has been life as of late.  This week we start back up with active tots at the YMCA which I am excited about, and hopefully I will figure out some new programs for me to start too.  Next weekend is the Canada Day long weekend and we might be headed back to Aurora since Tyler has more work to do at my dad's.  We'll see.  Busy busy busy these days!