12 on 12.

September  :  Thursday

01.  Watching Juliana leave for school.  (I'll never tire of watching my kids leave the house in the morning.)

02.  Meanwhile, back upstairs, I'm getting the stink eye from Tucker.  Apparently he's not ready to get up yet?

03.  On the treadmill at the gym running to the playlist Sheldon made for me.

04.  "Well, hello mom.  Welcome home!"

05.  Look what came in the mail today - my Starbucks Gold card!

06.  Dropping Sheldon off at work - he refuses to let me take a photo of him in his uniform so this will have to do :)

07.  Amanda comes over every Thursday after school.  Unfortunately her visit sometimes includes homework.   

08.  Sheldon's math binder.

09.  Dropping Juliana off at dance.  

10.  Parental Discretion plays at the Cruise In Car Show at the arena.

11.  Music + Sunset = Beautiful evening. 

12.  Tonight's set list.

First days.

It seems like only a few short years ago that we moved to our little town.  Our big boy was starting JK and our girl was in my belly training for the gymnastic team.

A few short years later, Sheldon was already in grade 3 and our baby was starting JK.  Those were the days when the kids were excited and eager to sit on the front steps for first day of school photos.  Then they led us down the path for a family walk to school.

Sigh.

These days the first day photo gets taken in that last second before they fly out the door.

Even though Sheldon and Juliana are in different schools now, and Sheldon starts a day later, I still try to get a photo of the both of them on the first, first day.  This year Sheldon slept in so, instead, I got this:

And later, this:

I think that there is a little excitement still there.  Excitement with a side order of jitters.  And these days, even though they barely let me document it, I'll take what I can get.  This is what I got:  Sheldon's first day, Juliana's second, taken by Peter on Juliana's crappy iPod touch camera.  But when Peter sent it to me while I was at work it still made me smile.  Just because we're parents doesn't mean that we can't have excitement with a side order of jitters too.

Six Weeks of Summer: The Other Little Things.

Peter got to celebrate his birthday early when the two of us saw Wilco in concert.  Special treat:  Feist joined him on stage for 'You and I' (my favourite!) 

We spent lots of time drinking coffee.  Or hot chocolate.  Or frozen drinks.  

Juliana spent a week at Dance and Cheer Camp with her friend, Madison.

We took a great family day trip to do some biking.

He's been searching since the spring and has had very little luck, until now!  Sheldon found himself a job.  Phew!

We went back to school shopping - first I took Juliana to my (not!) favourite store.  (Can you see why my brain get completely overstimulated with all the neon colours and bling?)

Then, the next day, while I shopped with Sheldon, Juliana shopped with Peter.  To pass the time, they kept texting me photos like this:

Shopping fuel.

And what goes with 'back to school' shopping?  Back to school of course.

Six Weeks of Summer: Cottage Life.

Two families plus my Mom.  In a fairly small cottage.  For one week.  

For some, it could have been a recipe for disaster. But not for us.  The cottage left us with full hearts and so many happy stories that it would be impossible to share them all here.  I think that I'll let a picture say a thousand words.  Or, in this case, lots of pictures say thousands of words.

The week began with Sheldon teaching Grandma how to make friendship bracelets by holding the string with her big toe.  (It's how all the professionals do it.)

The mornings on the dock were a little chilly which meant that the kids stayed up in the cottage playing games and the diehards spent quiet coffee time enjoying the view.

By mid-morning, while we waited for the sun to come around to the dock, the kids were in the boats.  They kayaked and they paddled.  Later in the week when Chris bought them water guns, the 'mafia wars' began.  Best of all, they ferried us (and books and cameras) out to the swim dock where the sun hit first.

By noon, we were swimming.

One afternoon, Chris took the kids to the park in a nearby town.  A little later, I drove into town for some groceries.  On my way back I stopped for secret ice cream.  Not so secret, apparently, because look who I ran into!

We also took a break from the water to have a (very buggy!) scavenger hunt near the cottage.  

photo credit:  Susan

Mmmm.  Night S'mores.

On what was probably the hottest afternoon of the week, Susan put the 36 stairs outside the cottage to use and ran a bootcamp class for us. Yikes! I went straight from bootcamp to the water.  No need for a wardrobe change!

Early in the week, I announced that on Friday afternoon, before Grandma had to leave, we would have a Family Talent show.  Everyone had lots of time to discover their talent or find someone to share their talent.  The girls spent all week practicing their dances and creating commercials (which also included their Dads), Sheldon and Josh sang a song about "Jocks" (as in straps, not athletes, naturally), Mom, Susan and I sang our old camp favourite - "Fire's Burning" - in a round, Josh did his magic tricks, and Peter and I sang a duet.  So.  Much.  Fun.

photo credit:  Susan

We ate like Kings, we slept like babies, we played, we read, we did puzzles, and we were treated with a couple of beautiful sunsets and a few visits from a little mouse.  There were games of 'Apples to Apples', some 'Pictionary', and lots of 'Crazy 8's' and 'Solitaire'.  We lay on on the dock and watched for shooting stars.  All that and a LOT of laughs!

Thank you Kashwakamak Lake for such a memorable week!

12 on 12.

The strangest thing happened.

We spent a week cottaging with family.  We arrived on Sunday, I spent all day Monday feverish bouncing from bed to couch, and by Tuesday I was feeling better.  Tuesday afternoon, as my Mom and I sat on the dock watching the kids swim, we had this conversation:

Mom:  What day is today?

Me:  Tuesday.  Why?

Mom:  What day did we get here?

Me:  Sunday.  The 11th.  Why?

Mom:  So if today is Tuesday and it's the 13th, what happened to 12 on 12?

Holy crap.  I slept through the 12th!  A brief, mild panic took over my body until I realized that every day at the cottage is the same.  So if we just pretended that the 14th was the 12th, no one would be the wiser.

So here you have the 12th.  Which is really the 14th.  But still the same.  Because it's cottage time.

August  :  Monday/Wednesday

01.  I woke up to this view every morning.  Beautiful.
02.  Josh is ridiculously consistent.  For example, the kid wakes up every morning with crazy hair.  Crazy cottage hair this week.  It made me laugh every single morning.
03.  Kid's breakfast:  hot chocolate, bagels and solitaire.
04.  This was a very popular couch this week.  Crossword puzzles, cuddling, snoozing, and Chris reading.
05.  Crazy Eights with Susan.  Took me back to our childhood - I loved that game!
06.  Again with the couch.  Only this time it is Sheldon reading.  Wait!  Sheldon reading?  :)
07.  Kayaks and Paddleboats were used non-stop all week long.  So fun!
08.  It was chilly at the water so I felt I needed socks.  And an ugly blanket.
09.  Cameras and books.  Sister and Mom.  It's a great way to spend the afternoons.
10.  Chris bought the kids water guns which resulted in many, many, many Mafia Wars.
11.  Put them together and these two are T-R-O-U-B-L-E!
12.  A beautiful late afternoon in the sun.  

Six Weeks of Summer: Adventures in Camping.

For the past two summers, we have managed camping trips on the shore of Lake Huron.  Those gorgeous beaches keep us coming back.  This year I was a little late on the summer planning and by the time I got around to booking a campsite there were none left.

Not a problem, I thought.  I found another Provincial Park about an hour north and booked five days there.  I figured it was still the shore of Lake Huron so how different could it be?

Well.  Perhaps you shouldn't ask my children.

We arrived, unloaded the car, and, once the tent was up, set off to find the beach. The kids were so excited to find the beautiful sandy beach that would occupy us all week.

We followed the signs.  We stepped through the trees ready to see our oasis.  And when we did, anyone within miles heard Sheldon say "What. Is. This?  You're kidding me.  This isn't a beach.  This is terrible."

We walked over the giant stones, through the tall reeds, over the dead fish head, and got to the water's edge.  If you can call it that.  It sure wasn't the sandy beach that we planned for.  It kinda WAS terrible.

Needless to say, we needed to find a way to make this glass half full.  We put our heads together, decided to search out the hiking trails, find the ice cream, and be grateful that our now non-beach week was a little too chilly for the beach anyway.  That made everyone a little happier.

One bonus?  The sunset on the water.

In the end, it was good that we only spent five minutes being disappointed because it was a great park. The trails were close by and easy to follow - we spent lots of time hiking and biking on them, Sheldon went for solitary morning walks, and one path led right to the park store which was handy for the kids to head off together for treats.

We searched for more beaches and found one that was perfect for throwing stones...

...and make-your-own hand massages.

Juliana had lots of time to set up her Friendship Bracelet operation.

Some of us had lots of hammock time.

We made bannock.

There was awesome camping fashion.

My family continued trying to perfect the photo bomb.

We lit sparklers.

And then, on a trip into town, we found the beach.  The beach that we were hoping for all along.

By then, though, it didn't matter.  Whether we'd found the beach or not, we still would have made our own fun. Because that's just the way we roll.