This picture was totally unstaged and I wanted to capture it for posterity because these harmonious moments happen all too infrequently. Actually they have all been rather good this summer, except for when we had two rainy days in a row. These days happened to coincide with the days that John had all the car seats removed from the van and had it full of drywall. So we couldn't even go to the library or anything. Things are thankfully back to normal.


Picture number three shows you some of the difficulties that can happen. Poor Charlotte, she is really tolerant of some of Ryan's aggressive tendencies. The poor girl was sitting on a little chair eating toast and peanut butter at the coffee table this morning and Ryan came and sat on her lap. He then started eating her breakfast and she couldn't even get up to stop him. He also likes to sit on her chest when she is watching movies on the TV and she can't move. I guess she's being paid back for all the times she knocked him down when he was first sitting.


This picture below is a good one of Ryan's "eye thing" as I call it because I'm not that imaginative anymore. He's been doing this running and with other things. We asked him to find Charlotte today while she was hiding under the futon, and he proceeded to jerk his head around while doing the eye thing. Such funny little people!

Tory's Graduation

Tory's graduation from Grade 8 was on June 28th. She was really down to earth about picking out a dress (I thought this before but it really was confirmed when I saw some other girls with tiaras!). She ended up choosing a skirt, a nice blouse and two necklaces (2 for one) from Reitmans and we found her some decent sandals from Sears. This was accomplished in about an hour and a half on our first night out with Claire in tow. Actually it was funny as Claire kept picking out ghastly pink sandals or glittery shoes that Tory wouldn't be caught dead in. They actually got along quite well and Tory even let Claire in the change room with her.

The ceremony was long considering there were about 170 grade eights graduating. I had to laugh when they had the procession into the gym with the grand entrance music - the kids were half running up the aisle. They certainly didn't want to milk the pomp and circumstance. John started snickering about some of the girls who looked like they were posing for a photo shoot while receiving their diploma. Tory was held up by the boy in front of her (a bit) while his family took pictures and you could tell that she felt she had to move fast to not hold up the next in line. Considerate of her, but not the greatest for pictures. Oh well, it is only grade 8 - I'm sure there are greater moments in store for her.

The next day, Tory and 20 other girls were invited to the Mandarin for lunch by a girl in her class. After that they went to Sydney's house and swam in her pool until 5 o'clock. Tory said she really didn't know this girl that well but I know she really had a good time. I bet she enjoyed that more than the dance after graduation.

Hanging in the backyard

This is about as far as Ryan goes when it comes to the pool. Come to think of it, that's about it for John and I as well. It's usually painfully cold if you put your feet in - I don't understand how Claire and Charlotte can sit right down in it.


This is sweet Charlotte in the sandbox. Notice how little sand is actually in it. Charlotte has been speaking of herself in the third person as "funny Charlotte". She had a little conversation the other week with a bird on our fence with a worm in his mouth. She told him "drop the worm in my backyard birdie or I'm going to get you" and then she did this exaggerated walk like she was stalking him. She is getting to be a really funny girl and she can also tell when we're joking with her. John was joking about putting her in the garbage the other day and she said "No, I not go in garbage, you go in garbage". She really likes when we laugh at her.


We finally got new sand! And as you can see, all four of the kids enjoy playing with it. If only we had a bigger sandbox.

One of these things just doesn't belong here ...

I hope you can see what I noticed while watering my garden one evening. Later on in the week there was actually one flower where about one-sixth was colourless and the rest was normal. I love these little oddities.

Claire's Casts

Claire was in a temporary cast for the first week after her injury. Here are some pictures of her one-armed kite flying. She found some of the limitations rather frustrating. She caught the kite string on the climber one evening and got pulled off her feet and landed on her arm (again). She tripped over the dog. Charlotte very kindly opened the door for her one day and didn't hold it open long enough. She fell off the bunk bed when she was sent up to her room. The younger three were demoted to different sleeping arrangements for the first week or so. Claire went in the lower bunk, Charlotte went back to the crib and Ryan got the playpen in our bedroom. We were relieved when she got her solid cast.


Claire got to choose the colour and I know she was very impressed when her senior kindergarten class signed it. Claire never minds being the centre of attention. This is a picture of her cast without her sling in her "zucchini".


Towards the end, she was even skipping with her cast on. Which was great but it really got her nowhere when she tried to say that she couldn't do something with only one arm. Funny enough the first plea of this nature was her toothbrush "How can I brush my teeth mom with only one arm. Can't you see I only have one arm." If you only knew how this sounded in Clairespeak .. it was laughable.

She got her cast removed on July 3rd and unfortunately this didn't stop the complaints. With Claire something is always not quite right. She was itchy before but she now wishes her cast was back on. I sometimes call her "Mary Mary, quite contrary" or say that she has "princess in the pea" syndrome. She is pulling things around the yard but doesn't admit that she's using two arms to do it. She's still not quite 100 percent but things are improving everyday. I'm glad that it happened early enough in the year that it was off for summer vacation and in time for her birthday.