Father's Day

Father's Day weekend was supposed to be a camping trip with Scouting, but it was cancelled due to a death in the Scouting community. So, I gave Chris his father's day gift a day early, a fire bowl, and we "camped out" in the backyard. We began the evening with roasting weenies on the fire. For dessert we made smores and then the older 2 boys were going to sleep in the tent with Daddy.

Sitting around the fire roasting weenies. Surprising that Sam and Percy never got burned!

Chris with his weenies (he he) and smokies all ready for roasting.

Smore + 2 year old = ONE HUGE MESS!

Ben and Aidan in the tent, about 10 mins before they were taken inside to sleep in their beds. Camping and smores proved to be too exciting for them and they wouldn't got to sleep. They had many warnings, and at 10:30 Chris and I decided to envoke the noise bylaw and brought them inside to sleep.

New Puppy

This is the best picture I could get with the 3 kids and the new puppy, Percy! Sam doesn't like to get too close to the puppy yet, he likes him, but from a distance. He is slowly warming up to Percy though. He is a wonderful puppy. He is in the chewing phase at the moment and really loves shoes and chair rungs, we are trying to break that habit now. He has lots of chew toys and bones. He is quite playful and last night I took him for a walk around the neighborhood and he followed me the whole way.

Doghouse

Well, I can finally say that Ben is in the doghouse!

The Boys

Last night we went out for a celebratory dinner because I was accepted into the nursing program at the University of Manitoba. I had a busy day of trying to get some of the things I needed to have before school starts in Sept. I was out all morning with the boys, paying my deposit for my place in the program, getting my criminal record check and my child abuse record checks started. When I was getting the boys dressed, I pulled out Aidan's clothes for him to wear, Ben was going to wear the same color shorts as Aidan so I pulled out his Manitoba Moose shirt for him to wear too. Then it was Sam's turn to get dressed and decided he should wear the same as his brothers. They were very cute. And everyone that saw them yesterday thought that they were adorable! I will admit that it made it easy to keep track of them, I just counted the black shirts.

We were going to go to Kelsey's for dinner, but then at the last second Ben pipped up and said, "Can we go to Hannah Montana's for supper", meaning Montanas the restaurant that was right next door to Kelseys. So we changed plans.

Red River Ex

Last weekend we went to the Red River Ex. The kids enjoyed themselves immensly and didn't really notice that they didn't get on many rides. The tickets were expensive, and unlike the South Shore Ex, if your child had to be accompanied, you had to pay tickets too. (In Bridgewater they let you go on the ride with them and didn't have to use tickets) We used up our 50 tickets pretty quickly that way.

Sam enjoyed his very first ride on the Merry-Go-Round. The picture here doesn't show it, but he WAS all smiles!
I don't know why this picture is turned like this and I can't turn it. But this is me and the boys on the same ride with Sam and Daddy. Everyone loves a good Merry-Go-Round ride. It was too short.
Sam looks so grown up here drinking his fresh ice cold rootbeer! He has a sweet tooth for sure.

Manitoba Hydro put on a free activity for the kids. They got to be farmers and go around and learn about and collect things from different farm animals. They also had to "feed" the animals some corn. Once they collected everything, they went to the market and earned a play dollar to spend at the country store.

Trying their hands at driving a tractor. Aidan was having so much fun he drove right out of the course, so that's him coming back in.

The boys also got a chance to build a brick wall. They were able to keep these construction hats. Sam was quite excited when I showed him the "Bob the Builder" hat.

He wouldn't take it off. He even took it to bed with him!!!

Ben's Firetruck

For whatever reason, last week Ben was desperate to see a fire truck. I took him to a fire station to see if we could have a look at the trucks, but the guys were busy doing some training. They said to come back later in the afternoon. When we went back they were out on a call. Ben was so disappointed! Later that day was Aidan's school Bar-B-Q. We went and had hot dogs, hamburgers, got balloon animals, it was a lot of fun. While the kids were off playing I spied a fire truck that happened to come to the school. I got hold of Ben and he was off and running. He told the fire chief that he was "So Excited"! I explained our day and our attempts to see a fire truck, and said this couldn't have been better unless we planned it ourselves. They were great with Ben and he sat in every seat on the truck, asked what every door had, turned on the lights, watched the lights when someone else had them one and tried to wear the fire captains hat!! He was proud as punch to see that truck! Here is a picture of him on the truck. We have printed this picture and had to buy him a frame for it. It sits on an overturned box, right beside his bed. It's his "most special picture"!

Football

Aidan began football this week. He participated in a 3-day spring camp, but will actually start practices in Aug once we get back from NS.
He's pretty tough. He got "rocked" a few times the first night and recovered very well (no tears). They play British Bulldog at the end of every practice, the bulldogs have to tackle the ones running to the other end. The night I went to watch, he was the last man standing!! He got to ride the shoulders of one of his coach's and the others had to run a lap around the field!! He was pretty proud of himself.

Ice Cream Truck

Dickie Dee, eat your heart out, you have nothing on the ice cream truck in Winnipeg. The kids can hear this truck streets away. As soon as they hear it they go outside and wait for him afraid they might miss him! There have been a few instances where we have had to chase him down and Ben still talks about missing him and chasing after him crying and our neighbour, Bob, stopping the truck.

This is Percy

After a second fish incident where Ben tried to take the whole fish bowl to bed with him (the fish survived this time), we have decided to get a dog. Well, we actually decided a while ago. We weren't ready for the longest time, and of course we could never replace Hanely. So we are getting a little cocker spaniel puppy. He will be coming home a week from today. His name is Percy. Aidan, as you can see, is in love already. We went to see the puppy again on Sunday. The first time we saw him he was only 9 days old, he looks much more like a cocker spaniel now.

We took him outside to play for a little bit and Aidan decided to take him on the swing. He sat there with Aidan and enjoyed the swing, he didn't even try to get away!! He is very sweet. He is the biggest in the litter, figures Ben would choose the biggest.

Here are some videos of Percy, our new puppy!!

Aidan's Soccer

This is Aidan's 3rd year in soccer, his first in Winnipeg. He has been enjoying himself. He is a great player, not super aggressive, but out there for the fun. He is one of 4 boys on his team, but the girls keep him in line. This year they are old enough to actually learn about the game itself. They are assigned possitions but are still confused about how exactly they play that position. It is so fun to watch, they try so hard. Aidan

Here he is doing a throw in. Pretty proud of himself.

There he is, #12.

Aidan with his medal. It was a good season!!

Ben's Soccer

Finally, Ben is old enough to play soccer. It has been an interesting venture for him and us. He is so happy as long as he gets the ball and can score. We have had numerous meltdowns when the ball gets taken away by another player or the other team scores. "The point of the game is to have fun, right Ben?" "No, the point of the game is to score!"

Two teams of 12 kids each running on the field, pure chaos!!
And when you can't get the ball and are getting bored in goal, start playing with the goal pylons. When he was told to put them back he replied, "I moved them so the other team doesn't know where the goal is and can't score." He's pretty smart and always thinking!
In the end, he had fun and got a medal!! He's very proud of this.