Renovations and a long boring blog post

Dhara and Elora's room before...

All the layers of paint and wallpaper coming off... bleah.

The three beds set up in Anya's room. Space was tight.

Phew! We've been working slowly over the past while (ok, 7 months, but who's counting?) to get Dhara and Elora's room finished. We had done nothing to it since we moved in, except for painting purple flowers over the ripped up wallpaper/paint splotches/nail heads etc. That room was Anya's when she was a baby, and because we moved in when she was a week old, we decided to leave it as is so as not to have paint fumes and dust around the baby. Plus we were just too dang tired. :) So the kids have been living in a not very nice-looking room for a while.

The other bedroom (now Anya's room) got renovated when she was ready for a big bed (and that took a long time... almost a year, not including building the new windowsill -- if you include the windowsill, then technically it was 4 years to finish, but whatever, again, not counting, lalalalalala can't hear you.)

Where was I? Oh yes. Then the twins showed up, so we left fixing up the room for later, again.

Well. This summer, it was about time. We made quite a mess. The ceiling plaster was falling down, we ripped up layers of wallpaper and paint (There were so many layers... Who paints over wallpaper, really?) We plastered and sanded and plastered more and sanded more and removed baseboards and made the walls smooth and popcorn-ceiling-textured the ceiling, and primed and painted and painted some more, then did touch ups and ripped out the window, and installed the new window, and built a new window sill and primed and painted that and installed a new light fixture, and painted more touch ups, and put down foam padding and new carpet and replaced the baseboards and phew, 7 months later, we were done. Easy peasy. (Hah! I'll duck now, as my significant other is sure to throw something at my head.)

I say we, but really DH did all the hard parts. I smiled and looked pretty and ate sandwiches, and pointed out what he was doing wrong. (Ducks again.)

The other complicating factor was that we had a bunk bed frame we wanted to put in Anya's room. We got it from my friend Cindy a while ago (thanks Cindy!) and our idea was to have that for Anya's bed, and the other twin bunks for Dhara and Elora, now that they are old enough. The only problem (well, one of the problems) was that it wouldn't fit up the stairs. Our house is old and has narrow stair wells, and no matter how we scratched up the paint, we couldn't get the big metal frame up the stairs. That was a couple of years ago, I think, and we've been keeping the pieces in the garage ever since, wondering what to do with it.

When we decided that we were going to replace the window in Dhara and Elora's room, we thought about bringing the bedframe in through the gap while it was out, and it worked like a charm. DH picked a good day that wasn't too chilly, and did a FANTASTIC job removing the window and putting the new one in. I love him so much. He has so much confidence and patience to try new things and figure stuff out. He's totally in his element sawing and building and using powertools and taking things apart and figuring out how to put them back together. Next I'm going to ask him to put a fourth floor on the house. :P

So the bed got brought inside through the open window gap, and then the new window got put in, so now the bed can NEVER be moved back out again. So. There's that. Unless it's sawn apart, which I guess is a possibility. When we move from here (in the far, far future) maybe we'll just sell it with the house. Then run.

I can't believe we've lived in one place for almost 7 years. That's the most I've ever lived in one place since I was a kid. I've moved 11 times in my life. Ick. (Although that's nothing compared to my sister's moves, eh, Jennifer? What did we figure it out to? 37 or something?)

Now I have to write it down to see where I've lived:

(Skip this part if you find it boring. It really is, for anyone else but me. Are you still here? I could describe the popcorn ceiling texture in detail...)

Underhill Drive (Toronto) Baby - 1 year-ish

Oxford St. (Richmond Hill) - aged 1-7 years old - 6 years

Stately Way (Thornhill) - aged 7-11 - 4 years

New Haven's Way (Thornhill) - aged 11-19ish - 8 years

Fairview Mall Basement apartment (no I didn't live in the mall --

I just can't remember the name of the street) (North York/Toronto) - 1 year

Keele St. apartment (North York/Toronto) - 2 years

Rosemount (Scarborough/Toronto) - 1 year-ish

Danforth apt. (Toronto) - 6 months

Rosemount apt. (Scarborough/Toronto) again - 4 years

Miramichi (New Brunswick) - 1 year

Main St. apt. (North Bay) - 9 months (heh, coincidence? Hello Anya!)

Ferguson St. (North Bay) - 7 years YAY FOR OUR HOUSE!!!

That sort of works out to my age. There's some time missing somewhere, I think. But it's close.

I have decided to win the lottery, and build our own house next time we move. And then that will be it. Realistic, no?

Where was I, before I got distracted? Oh yes, renovations. So Dhara and Elora are now sleeping on their very own bunkbeds, and Anya is enjoying her room all to herself, and everyone is very happy when they aren't hitting their heads on the ceiling (Anya), falling off the ladder (Elora) or pinching her fingers while swinging like a monkey from the bars under the top bunk (Dhara.)

And this was AFTER the conversation we had about not treating the furniture like a jungle gym. Sigh.

Well, if you've made it this far, congratulations (and apologies) on having to read this very long boring blog post. Don't worry, there will be a quiz. :)

Next up: A long detailed description of my belly button lint.

Despicable Halloween

We've been experiencing Hallowe'en now for over a week... and I never thought I would say this, but boy am I glad it's over. "Whaaaaat?" (Imagine confused Minion voice.) I usually LOVE Hallowe'en, but this year was a bit of an overdose. Plus the latex nose wasn't fun.

Hallowe'en #1 was with the Girl Guides last Monday. I have officially quit, but I was asked to help out with songs at the end, so I did. We had fun. :)

Hallowe'en #2 was (for me) at work last Friday. I think the idea was that we should dress up instead of casual Friday.

Hallowe'en #3 was Sunday, when the kids and DH went to the NU Residence Children's party. I didn't dress up because I had choir practice. Thank goodness.

Hallowe'en #4 was the kids dressing up for school Monday, and

REAL Hallowe'en (#5) was trick or treating and the trip to the Fire Hall.

We all dressed up as the Despicable Me family, and I think it turned out rather well. Granny Gru wasn't my first costume choice, but there are a limited number of characters from the movie, and it was either that or the mean orphanage lady. We won 2 contests with our costumes: me, at work, and the kids at the residence party. Woot!

I think Anya is tired of "cute" costumes though... she told me she wants to be an Evil Princess next year. Or a vampire. Or a zombie. Hmmm. A zombie family would be fun. :)

*Mental note: Next year, no latex/prosthetics. Ouch. The removal process is terrible. On the other hand, my nose and chin are very smooth.

Cranberry Festival

We went to the Cranberry Festival in Sturgeon Falls yesterday. The kids had a great time, and got their faces painted and everything:

Tiger

Princess

????

Dhara was happy with her scary... whatever it was.

After we visited all the craft tables, and went through the Sturgeon Museum, we walked the trails and went out to pick our own cranberries. Things we learned this time after last year:

1. Don't go at 5pm. We just made it back before dark last year. Barely. This year we went out at noon. A much better choice.

2. Go early in the season. We found so many more plentiful, bigger berries this year.

3. Go when the ground is dry. Our feet were a lot warmer this time around.

I don't mean to imply we had a bad time last year -- it's just that this year we had a much better time.

Anya in the bushes -- it was hard to take photos because of all the shrubbery

Mommy, Dhara and Elora on the boardwalk

It was dry enough that Dhara decided to lie down in the bushes when she got tired.

We got about 9 cups of berries. Not bad for about an hour of picking.

Ballet Class

The girls started Ballet yesterday. They were very excited. We took a video of the little dance they do at the end of the class, but I have to get DH to smallen it, as I don't want to load over 100 megs. Stay tuned.

Anya and Elora are on the far right, Dhara is at the far left.

And now, presented in glorious "Shaky-Wobbly-Cam", the girls' first ballet lesson. Enjoy!

First Days of School

Next up -- Dhara and Elora's first full day of school -- the jk students are staggered -- Anya had already been going for two weeks by this point. They are all enjoying themselves by now, and love their new school.

Days of August

Brace yourself. New posts! I was going through some pictures on the phone, and realized there are some in there I just have to share. So here is a bit of rambling, and in no particular order...

Anya lost her teeth recently. The first upper tooth actually was lost... it fell out while she was brushing her teeth, and it was gone. We thought it had gone down the drain. "Don't worry, the tooth fairy will come anyway," we reassured her. Elora then found the tooth in the carpet the next morning, and Anya had the brilliant idea of putting it under her pillow so the tooth fairy would leave her MORE money! I tried to kibosh this thought, but it turned out to be totally unnecessary -- she dropped it in the toilet an hour later. :)

Toothless

Dhara and Elora wanted pictures of their teeth too

Nanny came to visit for a week, and brought the girls' cousin Mark. (Shirtless.) On the weekend we drove out to a farm in Verner, and met Jennifer's family there too. Here, all 6 of the cousins are enjoying homemade organic ice cream. Left to right: Sage, Dhara, Elora, Mark, Hayden, Anya, and an extra kid who decided he needed ice cream as well, and that the flatbed truck was the best apparent spot to eat it.

Elora loves to wear dresses and tights.

Even when it's hot out and she's helping with the gardening.

Anya was dressed a little lighter. Here she is on our swing in the backyard.

There is a fabulous park in Callander, and we drive there every so often for

the wonderful pirate ship playground. I got this picture in one of the portholes.

Santa's Village

Let's go back in time and visit the end of July, shall we? (Later -- I relabelled this post with a July date. Woohoo! Actual blog post time travel!) Back to a camping trip in Bracebridge, when our family visited Santa's Village. We took a two day park package, and camped at the Whispering Pines campground (across the street from the park.) The kids had a blast. Grandpa John even came up to visit us the first day.

Swan boats. 3 kids, 3 adults. It worked out perfectly.

Contact!

Um. When did they switch seats?

It was great weather, and a cool off in the splash section was fun.

That's Anya in the brown bathing suit, getting dumped on.

There was even a little beach on the Muskoka river.

Obviously designed for little kids --

I think the buoy line was at the 1 foot deep mark.

The pink shmoo is Dhara.

Jumping star. Like drop zone, with bounces, for little kids.

This was the second day. DH went on the first time with them,

and had nothing kind to say about the wee little seats.

He needed to accompany Dhara, who was just under the height restriction --

but we pretended she was tall enough the second day and nothing was said.

Super bouncy thing. Anya said this was her favourite.

You can see all three of our kids in this shot, except for Anya's head.

Feeding the reindeer. We didn't see Rudolph.

Anya asked Santa what HE wanted for Christmas.

He said all he wants after a long day of hard work on Dec 25 is a nap.

Elf hats. Dhara didn't like hers, but Anya and Elora wore theirs a lot.

Roller coaster, before.

Roller coaster, after. I love the glee on Anya's face.

Fishing

We took advantage of "Family Fishing Week" to go fishing without a license. Originally we were going to borrow fishing rods from the library, but since they were all signed out, we decided to take advantage of a sale and buy our own. We got kitted out with 3 rods and assorted necessary fishing stuff, DH spent what seemed like an inordinate amount of time stringing it all together (I'm not slagging him here, it just seemed like a lot of work) and then Dad and the kids spent some time on Friday practicing their casts on the front lawn. It was pretty funny -- when I got home, there were lots of people driving by, asking if we had caught anything yet. :)

So today we went to Trout Lake to find a cozy fishing spot. We didn't want to go to Lake Nipissing, in case the shads were still hanging around, making the fish all full.

Here's a good spot.

Anya had a pretty good cast. Dad taught her well.

Dhara gets a lesson from Daddy.

Nobody fell in, thank goodness. The rock was quite steep.

Although Anya tripped at one point, right near the edge, and I nearly had a heart attack.

The kids were all smiles.

Dad even got a turn.

Here's Anya holding up her prize.

We caught about 6 or 7 teeny tiny fish

which we put in the cooler so the girls could see them up close before we let them go.

I'll be bleaching that cooler later. :)

We didn't get any big enough to take home, but maybe next time. :)

Camp June '11

We had such a great time at camp on Manitoulin Island last week. Special thanks to Cindy who lent us her screen tent and canoe amongst other things. We had great weather for the most part, and except for the shadflies and some cool weather at the end, it was a perfect week.

You can tell how much fun we had by the fact that I hardly took any photos. :)

* Credit to Jennifer for some of these photos shamelessly stolen from her Facebook account.

The cottage and firepit. We had lots of fires and marshmallows and s'mores. Yum.

The kids loved catching creatures. Frogs, salamanders, shadflies, crickets, lightning bugs, crayfish, minnows and other things I'm sure.

The kids loved sitting on the dock and playing in the water.

One day we went to Bridal Veil Falls. After descending into what seemed like a tropical valley, we swam in the falls! Why had we never been there before?

The water was hard, actually, like falling rocks.

We didn't stay right under the spray very long.

For some reason, my family forgot towels, so we shared.

But we brought snacks, so it all worked out ok.