Monkey loves his new pedal car

Mommy loves usedottawa.com. This is not a suprise. Where else can you find lots of stuff that you don't need until the moment you see it for a good price used??

A couple of weeks ago, I saw this Kettler Car "kettcar" for sale for $20. Nothwithstanding the fact that Dave has stictly banned me from buying more things with wheels, I had to have it. These things are between $200-300 new. Forget that I had never heard of them before. Now that I see it, I need it!
Like the Ikea ban of 2001-2002 I was able to get around the ban by asking Dave and showing him what a great deal it was. He agreed that they would love it and for $20, I really should go and get it.

The email exchange happens and it turns out that I know her and she lives up the road. We set a time and Mr I and I go over to buy it. Awesome!

Tonight, with Big C away at a sleepover, I show it to Monkey who looks it up and down and says "mommy, that is just awesome!!". He loves it! Yay!

Graduation Day

Today was Mr I's last day of school. He graduated and got his certificate. I was so proud of the whole group of them. Apparently some of the students have been here for the last three summers. It has been very interesting for the teachers here to watch them growing up.

I appologise for the quality of the photos. The auditorium was dark but the stage was lit. It was hard for my camera to figure out what to do. I went with the "kids and pets" setting after trying several others on the kids who went before him. He is the one in the top left hand corner in all of the group shots.

Waiting for his name to be called (blue shirt, between the heads)

Going up on stage...
Shaking hands...
exiting and getting back to his seat.
Still at the top left
Guess where??
still top left
It is always a sad day when we watch the students start to wrap up thier visit. Off to the airport on Sunday. Mama, you must be looking forward to having him back soon!

We have a wooden swing set to give away

No picture yet. It has monkey bars, a climbing rope ladder, two swings, a set of acrobat ring things, a slide, a platform...from memory.

It is pressure treated wood and is about 10 years old. It is highly unlikely that the chemicals are still present. Someone gave it to us but we already have a plastic one. I passed it along to friends, but they are done with it. It is set up in thier backyard.

It needs a good sanding as her kids have gotten a couple of slivers from it.

Do you want it? Do you know anyone who wants it?

DPoD July 26th - Turtle Day!!!

The day had finally arrived.

We were up bright and early (read 6 am ish) and ready for a great day at the Turtle Races. For those of you who don't know much about it, here's a little history. The Races started in 1974 and involve local youths, businesses and adults registering turtles to be raced. There is a parade, a classic car show, some rides for the kids, a spelling bee (daddy was the junior champion in 1986) and of course, the turtle races. Heats of 8 turtles compete by being placed inside an octagon, The top is then raised and the turtles make a break for the line around the outside near the stands. There is to be no movement from the crowd as the turtles race as they'll well, turtle. The winner moves on to the next set of races and at the end of it all there's a championship race where the winner is crowned. The trophy is absolutely enormous - I think it's taller than Monkey. All-in-all it's a fabulous time for the little town and everyone gets a little closer together as a community. Here are some of the shots of the family attending the big day:

Our turtle - 'Lightning McQueen' (stored overnight in a turtle pool none-the-less to protect him from skunks and racoons that would mke him a tasty snack)

Breakfast of (potential) champions (?)

Getting ready for the parade on grandpa's blanket

The fire brigade arrives with sirens and horns blaring

The old-time fire truck was a big hit for Big C

As were the old guys on little fire trucks handing out lollipops
This turtle stuff is for the dogs (hee hee)
Big C wasn't amused by daddy's joke, but did have his attention on something. You'll notice that there is a purple popsicle in his hand. The heating and cooling guys were giving those out-pure gold!!
The end of the parade is near, as this float has been in the parade every year since it started
Hey- it's the big turtle!!

I got us in for a photo op:

and face painting - Big C got a racing turtle and Monkey got lightning

And we were ready for our race - turtle #1 in heat #1 - thanks for registering us Aunt K!!Monkey was allowed to place Lightning in his penDaddy - you did say this was a race, rightAnd they were off, lightning started slowthen blew past the crowdto win!! The boys were ecstatic! Monkey will gladly show off his trophy if you stop by the houseBig C then took grandpa to the classic car show where grandpa even pulled a few strings to get him to have a seat in one of the cars!

Uncle J was a popular guy. He took both kids to play and really got down on their level. They still talk about him now that they're home

Thanks for a great day at the races.

DPoD July 25th - Last Friday

Friday we decided to take it easy and relax by the pool at Aunt K's house. It was another very hot and humid day, so a little time in the pool was great. The boys got into their life vests and cousin Banana went in her little floatie bus while wearing her vest. Monkey could touch the bottom, so it was great for him to run around and play. It cooled us right off before the kids played around in the yard for about an hour. This lead to another solid nap from Big C.

Big C clinging to the side for dear life:

Then relaxing once he got a turn in the floatie bus:
Monkey having a great time!
Aunt K and cousin Banana are all smiles!
After nap Aunt K was off to a wedding, so grandma and I watched the 3 kids. We had burgers for supper and then the kids played before going to bed at 7. Daddy and grandma reminisced and then daddy got an early night's sleep too. The last one before the big day!

Monkey's Camp Update

He's having a great time at his camp this week - working on how to be a good friend and deal in social situations with his peers. He's had a lot of positive things to say, as have his teachers. Yesterday he was the 'role model' for how to deal with frustrating circumstances. This is certainly a prayer answered.

DPoD July 24th - Last Thursday

Ok. I think I fell a little out of sync. Here's what we were up to last Thursday.
It was still really, really hot and humid. When we were going to bed the thermometer outside still read 25 degrees, but with the humidity and little air movement I'm sure that it was still above thirty when we were trying to get to sleep. Little Monkey was in a pool of his own sweat whenever I checked on him. Poor guy.
So today we headed for the little water park in town. The boys just LOVED it! Big C was a little tentative at first, taking a while to warm up to the idea of running through the water park. THis may have been in some part due to the fact that Monkey would turn on the water effects any time that someone got close. Once Big C got the hang of this though and saw that this is how the game worked, he was all in. He did take some time however to show off his 'skater bum' (the swimming trunks don't fit quite the same ina swim diaper as they do with a regular one) and jump off of the cement that covered all the water controls.

The boys also had a great time playing with cousin Banana at the swings. There were a lot of laughs to be had all around. We even tried to get a photo of the 3 of them together on the top of a fake rock, but attention was hard to grasp from all 3 of them at the same time.

After we had another picnic lunch with some groceries from the local store, we were off to Aunt K's place for some more ice cream cones- woo hoo! We played the afternoon away and had a great time.

For supper we were off to my Aunt J's place. She and Uncle E had a great spread put out for us, but the boys were far more interested in playing with the hose and one of her games before supper time. Big C had firgured out that he has the hose winneth, so he was sure to grab hold and keep Monkey at bay. Both were soaking wet for supper time, but neither cared. After supper there was chocolate cake and ice cream, complete with chocolate sauce. I think that Monkey's piece was literally bigger than his head. He had such a huge smile!

After supper the boys went to investigate Uncle E's boat shop. Uncle knew of Big C's fascination with transportation, so both he and Monkey had a turn at operating the forklift that he had in the garage. I think that for Big C this was the highlight of the trip! Thanks Uncle E!!

Both boys crashed when we got home, ready for just one more sleep before the big race!