Claire The Doctor

Here is Claire fixing Ryan and his "broken leg". The other two sit there patiently and watch. Sometimes, Charlotte and Ryan are sent to fetch things like stuffed animals to be babies, scissors, markers, glue, tape (loads of tape - I can't find a roll of scotch tape to save my life), kleenex, etc. They play together quite well with a few blow ups and the occasional tears.



Does this look official? Claire is always devising ways to take charge of the play. Sometimes she is a teacher and tries to teach kids their letters, sometimes she is a gymnastics instructor. It's rather cute because the other kids fall into it but she consumes a great deal of printing paper and other materials.

After great delay, here are some pictures of our children. At least the ones who are still wanting their pictures taken. These were taken at a park in Napanee, the day after some heavy rain. A little messy but the kids still had fun.



The three of them often do a slide train. It generally works out - you get the odd injury and Ryan does get upset because he likes to monopolize the front.


This is Claire swimming in my parents' pool. Claire took two sessions of swim lessons this summer - the first session she was a little scared of the deep end but by the end of the second session she was doing really well. The weekend this picture was taken, she was able to jump off from the diving board and swim to the shallow end. You could tell she was nervous at first, but she was really pleased with her accomplishment.

A day on PEI.

Welcome to the Penny's. The steps that Great Grammie and Great Grampie are sitting on will soon be replaced by Mike and Sheila. Sadly, we couldn't stay long enough for the after picture.

This is Michelle and the kids at Murray Harbour just after eating at Brehaut's. (Of course!) No, Ryan is not getting sea sick, he's throwing rocks in the water.

Grammie and the kids are finding sea shells and throwing rocks in the water.

Adam and Cheryl's Reception

The happy newlyweds.

Charlotte ready to dance till she drops.

Claire and Ryan watching the band set up.

Charlotte after she dropped.

Adam and Cheryl's Wedding.

We went over to PEI for a day to take in my cousin Cheryl's wedding. As you can see, I will never make it as a professional photographer. Ryan didn't quite make it through the ceremony.

A Visit to the Hatfield Farm.

Thanks to Natalee for finding and recommending the Hatfield farm. It was very affordable and the kids had a great time. In the second photo Ryan is staring down a goat that had jumped up the rocks ahead of him. Thankfully it ended without tears. Lastly a picture of the elusive Tory. She is very good at dodging out of pictures but this time I got her.

Gone Fishin'

Before we set out to the East Coast we spent a weekend with Beau, Gail and Kevin at the cottage.

I finally got some spare time.

Here are a few of our favourites posted in our usual timely fashion. Karen and Daryl will be glad to know we finally added them to the link list.

The Snails

During the gardening this spring we found a number of snails that the kids kept in a bucket on the picnic table. The were each designated a rank in the snail family, such as "Mommy Snail" or "Baby Snail". As far as I know all the snails survived with only slight emotional trauma.

The Camera

We were going through the pictures the other day and found some taken just after Christmas 2007. Charlotte had received a Fisher Price camera that Ryan thought was just great, probably because he wanted to imitate me with my camera. He happily posed to have his picture taken, taking a picture.

Unfortunately for him, Charlotte wanted to have her picture taken taking pictures too. As you can see, the loss of the camera has too great and he collapsed to the floor in grief.

Some Vacation Photos

These are some photos from our trip to Nova Scotia to see John's parents this summer. While there, we all went over to P.E.I. for a day to see John's grandparents.



Here is a picture of Grammie holding Ryan and his cousin, Samuel. Sam lives in B.C., so it was a wonderful getting to see both him and his parents, Chris and Julee for the week.

Belated Post - Claire's Birthday

I was playing Astropop on the computer late at night and thinking I really should do something constructive. So thinking once again of the Christmas cards I never did this year even though I was determined to do so, I thought I'd update the blog.

I'm going to do Claire's birthday just because it's only fair I cover her before going on to Tory and Charlotte's. I may get to the vacation photos sometime too.

Anyways, here we go. We held Claire's party on July 18th and everyone was basically to come in their bathing suits with towels and we set up the wading pool and water balloons. Friends in attendance included Aidan and his sister Emma, Jacob and Caitlyn. We had a princess birthday cake with Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Ariel and a wack of coloured icing because colours make everything taste better! Can't you tell that Claire is impressed?


Thankfully, her arm was well healed by this time. No plastic bags this time. I also included a picture of Charlotte because she looked so cute. In the background, you can make out Ryan in a diaper helping to fill up the pool.