Hold them close... and watch them.

This summer Quinn's swimming has really improved.  He can go down the slide without a life-jacket and swim to the side with no problems.  He's been trying to teach himself to dive and has just been loving splashing around and swimming in the pool.

Chris and I have been pushing him to go off the diving board without a life-jacket on.  (at our pool you're not allowed to go off the board with a life-jacket on - you have to be able to jump, and swim to the side un-assisted.).  He was jumping of the board at Karen's pool and swimming to the side with no problems, so we thought he was ready for the big pool.

Yesterday at swimming lessons he screwed up his courage and went of the board.  It was pretty funny actually because I had just put my camera up to take the picture when he literally ran and jumped off the board!  He swam to the side and got out without a problem.

We went back to the pool last night and he decided (after jumping off the side and the starting blocks numerous times) that he wanted to go off the board.  So off he went, and jumped off and swam to the side.  The swim to the side was a bit of a struggle but he did it.  He was so proud of himself that he wanted to do it again - except this time he wanted to do a 'spin-a-roo'. (basically jump off the board and spin around in the air).

He ran, jumped, and spun around.  When he came up he was sputtering - whether it was because he swallowed some water or was disoriented because of the spin I'm not sure.  He started flailing around and then he made this 'whimper' sound.  That was it - I tore off my glasses and dove in (fully clothed b/c I hadn't planned on going in) and pulled him out.  It happened so fast the lifeguards didn't even have a chance to react.

When I got him out of the pool he was fine, a bit rattled but fine.  Who knows if he could have recovered on his own and swam to the side if I had given him more time.  I wasn't about to take the chance.  The lifeguards were beside themselves that I went in after him - I think that the whole scenario really freaked them out, especially the fact that they really didn't react until after I went in.

Quinn and I snuggled for a bit afterwards, and then he decided he wanted to go down the slide.  I was happy to hear this, because I didn't want the 'incident' to scare him from the pool altogether. 

That being said, I really didn't sleep much last night and am still a bit shaken by the whole thing this morning.  It just goes to show you how quickly things can happen, and it reminded me just how carefully we have to watch our precious little ones. In the blink of an eye things can go from good, to horribly wrong so hug all your babies (big and small) and watch them, watch them, WATCH THEM!!!

Weekend Escapades

OK - I know it's Thursday, but I'm just getting caught up on things, and finally have a minute to recap our weekend.

Last weekend we took off and visited Chris' sister Heidi, and her family in Harbor Springs, MI.  The weekend started off well as we tried our new Nexus passes and whizzed past all the cars sitting in traffic on the bridge.  We probably saved at least two hours by using the Nexus pass.  The boys were hysterical - as we were passing all the 'parked' cars they were yelling:  "see ya suckas!!!"

As usual we had another great visit with Heidi, Robert and Robert.  Saturday we went to Thunder Falls waterpark, despite the overcast skies.  We had a great time hanging out and getting drenched (both by the water at the park, and the rain that fell from the sky!).  Aidan was a crazy man, and went down the MASSIVE speed slide, not once but four times!!

See that huge blue slide?  That's the slide!  Aidan kept asking me: "Mummy, do you want to go down the slide with me?"  To which I responded:  "Are you crazy?  No way!!"  But the little monkey just gave me his toothless grin, and climbed up the stairs to rocket down the slide.

The weather cleared up perfectly for an evening BBQ and campout.  We had some serious badminton games going on between Chris, Robert and I, and the kids got into it to and had some impressive rallies.

A campfire wouldn't be complete without s'mores:

And the boys slept in the tent with Chris and couldn't have been happier about it:

We spent Sunday visiting a park, and then we hit the beach to do some boating and tubing.  This is Aidan getting ready for his first tube ride:

Quinn screwed up his courage and went on the tube with me.  He's so funny - he was giggling the whole time, but he held on to the tube as though his life depended on it!

I love this picture of Shannon - she has a goofy expression on her face, but the lighting is just perfect:

All in all it was a great get-away, and we loved spending time with the Hagen's.  As you can tell from this picture, I think Shannon enjoyed snuggling with little Robert and Robert!

A Swingset is Born

After months of patiently waiting, the kids finally have their swingset!

My parents came down to help build that bad boy - and boy did we need it.  First we started by 'raising' the basketball net.  After one horrific drop (yet strangely we managed to do no damage to the net or concrete), all four of us managed to set that sucker in its spot through a combination of balancing it on our heads, swearing, and brute force.  Here it is in all its majesty:

And that, that monstrosity behind it - that would be "the" swingset.  We started sorting the pieces on Sunday night, and it took us another hour on Monday morning before we had everything sorted properly:

Seriously - take a look at all that wood.  It hurts my head just to think about it.  So we worked, and worked, and worked some more on that sucker.  12 hours on Monday, and another 12 on Tuesday.  And it was long, and hot, and arduous.  This would be Chris and my Dad slaving away at about 9:45p.m:

But in the end, we put that sucker together, and boy what a playset it is.  For those who are wondering, it's the Centennial II by Big Backyard.  We still have to attach the monkey bars, and put the finishing touches on it, but for the most part it is DONE!!!

And I'm not sure, but I'm fairly certain that the kids freaking LOVE IT!  Yesterday the boys discovered that the slide is only of a medium velocity.  However, if you run in the sprinkler, then go down the slide you can achieve break-neck velocity in no time flat.  I anticipate that many, many, many hours of fun will be had on the swing set and with the basketball net.

I'll post more 'action' shots later, but for now I'm so tired I have to hit the sack.   A HUGE, HUGE thank you to my parents, for once again saving the day and helping out well above and beyond the call of duty.

This is how we do Friday nights....

First we gather the troops and head to the splash pad....

The littlest of the bunch just LOVED running through the rainbow sprayers:


Once everyone was toweled off and dry, we were off to Ribfest - YUM!  First we rode the rides, and then we stuffed our faces with ribs, pulled pork, chicken, kettle corn, and of course.... cotton candy!!

All in all - a pretty amazing way to spend a Friday night!

Quinn's Soccer Adventures

This is Quinn's second year playing soccer.  He absolutely LOVES playing soccer, and has a permanent smile plastered on his face when he plays.  That being said, until recently 'playing' for Quinn has meant running around the field like a mad-man, with the occasional somersault thrown in just to mix things up (seriously, on more than one occasion he'd just stop in the middle of the field and do a somersault!).  However, his little soccer light bulb has gone off, and now he's right in the thick of things trying to get the ball and score.

Since I'm the 'photographer' in the family, we haven't really been able to get any good shots of Quinn playing because I'm the coach (and it's already hard enough corralling 4 and 5 year olds on the field, let alone trying to take pictures while I'm at it!).  Thankfully Heidi was up a few weeks ago, and took some great shots of Quinn in action.

Getting ready to go:

Going after the ball:

Go Quinner GO!!!

Phew - he needs a drink after all that work!

Red, White, and Blue...

Two years ago we spent the 4th of July with my parents in Ohio.  We had so much fun that we knew we wanted to go back and do it again, so this year we planned a trip down for the festivities.

The boys remembered everything about the last trip, so they were VERY excited about the massive fireworks and the parade (actually, they were most excited about the candy at the parade, but more on that later).

Saturday we kicked things off by heading to a park - they have the best parks around my parents house. Aidan posed with Marin:

Shannon was 'selling' hot dogs, so I gave her a kiss as payment:

And Quinn was busy trying out the monkey bars - I just love this picture of him!

That night we went to a hot air balloon festival.  It was probably about 28 C outside, added with the heat from the hot air balloons, and it was a hot and sweaty night.  But the balloons were certainly beautiful:

Sunday we hit a splash pad to combat the heat, and the kids loved it.  Marin was a maniac running through the sprayers and getting soaked, and Aidan and Quinn made it their mission to get Shannon to go down the slide.  In the end they were finally successful!

Sunday night was the fireworks, and boy do they know how to put on a show down there!  Of course, I forgot my camera, but Chris managed to get some shots on his BlackBerry - which I'm too lazy to download.

Monday we went to the parade and hot doesn't even begin to describe it.  We camped out in the shade, and we were still sweating buckets.  That didn't deter Aidan and Quinn from grabbing as much candy as they possibly could.  I swear those kids collected more candy from the parade then they got at Halloween!

All in all it was another great visit with my parents, and by the time we drove home Monday night we had four tuckered out children.

Happy Belated Canada Day

Canada Day has come and gone, but things have been so hectic I'm just now getting a chance to update the blog.

Canada Day was a gloriously beautiful, sunny day - perfect for the parade and party on the beach afterwards.  We biked down to the parade, which was an adventure in and of itself because people thought we were part of the parade and were cheering us on (the kids thought that it was pretty cool).  The downside of this was that we had to pass the horses, and in doing so we had to avoid the 'steaming' gifts the horses left in their wake.

Here are some pictures from the parade:
Marin, modeling the latest in Canada day gear:

Heidi was in town for a visit, so we were able to snap a picture of the James siblings:

Trying to wait patiently for the parade to start:

Shannon wasn't a fan of the loud drums and bag-pipes:

After the parade we headed down to Angie's house which is right on the water.  It was an absolutely amazing afternoon!

Our little beach bunny:

Aidan and his friends took the terms: "Re-use and Recycle" quite literally when they created this 'work of art' made out of driftwood, bottle caps, old socks, and other garbage they found on the beach.  They were so proud of their masterpiece they asked everyone to come over and check it out:

Hmmm.... me-thinks Marin was really enjoying this cookie:

Nobody loves a bonfire more than Quinn!

For his next party trick, Aidan thought it would be cool to stuff his swim-shirt full of sand.  It was actually really funny to watch!

 

So Canada Day was a resounding success and we took four very tired children home and put them to bed.  They had to get their sleep after all, because the next day we were off to Nanna & Nannu's house to celebrate the 4th of July.  More on that to come...

A Camping We Will Go

This past weekend we packed up the crew and went 'camping' with six other families.  I say "camping" because we stayed in a cabin (that's about as close to roughing it as we get!), but there were many a bonfire, lots of mosquitoes and plenty of dirty kids running around.

There was the jumping pillow - which is perhaps the coolest thing ever (unless you're over 30. If you are and you jump on the pillow you'll feel like you need to pee, or  like you've had one too many 'special' cocktails!):

Our friend Dan took Shannon on the jumping pillow - I think it's safe to say she adored him for that!!

There were many, many playgrounds to discover: (Shannon told me that they were driving to Tim Hortons - I asked her to get me my usual medium regular)

And because we TOTALLY lucked out with the weather (it was supposed to rain all weekend, but all we got was a bit of a sprinkle on Saturday morning), we spent a lot of time in the pool.  Quinn was a wild man, doing his crazy jumps and swimming like mad.

Marin loved the pool too, but since she's still quite top heavy (meaning her noggin is so darn big!) she tends to fall face first into the water, so I stayed right with her the whole time.

A couple of games of football and baseball were played.....(when you're camping no one cares if you're running around in your jammies!)

And at some point, fatigue takes over and you have to crash (behind the mosquito netting), even if your belly's hanging out for the world to see!

All in all, it was a great time, and as we were pulling out of the camp grounds the boys were already asking:  "Can we go back next year Mom?!?!?!"

Whas dat Mummy?

Quinn, God love him, has reached the stage of perpetual questions. Our days are filled with:

"Whas dat Mummy?"
"What doin' Mummy?"
"Why Mummy?"

As sweet and endearing as it is to hear this cute little voice asking questions, the CONSTANT barrage of them is starting to drive us a little loopy. We can't just ignore him, because then he just keeps asking and asking until you finally give in and respond.

Serenity now!!!

Cottaging

We headed up to the Curtis' cottage on Friday and had an awesome weekend with everyone. My whole family was there so it was a Pace reunion, and all the nephews had a great time monkeying around together. It should be interesting when our little girl enters the picture - the lone female grandchild on my side!!

When I asked the boys what their favourite part of the weekend was, Quinn said: "playing with toys Mummy" because he loved playing with the toys on the beach. Of course, he probably would have said: "Peeing on pump" because he also loved peeing on the water pump by the beach - little stinker! Aidan said he liked the "bouncy bounce" (aka the water trampoline) and swimming in the lake. The kid is turning into a little fish - he probably spent about 80% of his time up there in the water!

It was a great, relaxing weekend for us - now we're just trying to get back to reality, and recover from all the mosquito bites!

Quinn laughing with a mouthful of burger while sitting on Nanna:


Aidan kayaking with Dad:


Sliding off the bouncy bounce:


I think it's safe to say that Aidan had a good time: