some busy weeks

I was checking out my camera the other day and realised that I took very few photos while at the cottage. :(

I think overall everyone had lots of fun. My cousin said her kids were full of stories of thier adventures on the drive away from the cottage. The two oldest kids were 'teens' and got to have lots of late night adventures including a night at a bowling alley. CO didn't like his program too much so I ended up taking him for a walk to the dump to find a treasure to keep him busy in the mornings. We settled on an antique sewing machine. Not only did it keep him busy, but his cousins and the neighbour kids too :). So between that and playing at the park with the Hewgill grandchildren, he wasn't missing his program at all. He declared that he was never going to school ever again...sigh.

The week was filled with crayfishing, swimming, park playing, volleyball, friends and stories. This year I read the children Danny Champion of the World. It was hard to get the reading done in the evenings with two small children as well as two teens and two in the middle, but we got many chapters in. I have to admit that one evening I was so captured by the story that I picked it up after all the children were in bed and I finished it (didn't get to sleep until 1am that night). I ended up sending the book home with my cousin so she could finish the story with them. Hopefully by now they are done.

 

Above are two of my favorite photos from my camera of our time at the cottage. They are of my cousin's youngest daughter M (these photos are sooc as my editing program is on my dead laptop...but they don't really need any editing). I love how they have captured her inner beauty and joy.

After the cottage we loaded everyone up and brought them to my house. Monday was a day of laundry, resting and swimming. Tuesday...a day of Marineland. It was expensive for all of us to go but overall very worth it. Everyone had LOTS of fun. Even little J. We rented a 12 passenger van and it was lots of fun all being to travel together. There was a dvd player in it so there was some movie watching too...to help keep the kids content.

When we arrived home from Marineland, CO's grandparents were at our house. We got to spend almost a week with them. We went to Centerville. It was a crazy ride down on the subway as J decided that he needed to have a huge fit and scream most of the drive. I think it was a mixture of tired, not feeling well and mad that I had put water in his bottle as he had drank the milk on the way to the train station. But after a nap in the stroller, he was much happier and he had LOTS of fun. I am SO glad that CO's grandparents were able to join us for this outing. I have been there many times in the past with my cousin and her kids when they were small and I knew that CO would LOVE it...and he DID! J too had a blast. CO's grandfather blogged about the trip here and here (and yes he posted photos of J...oops...CO's grandfather is BIG into 3D photography). I have yet to upload the photos off my camera from our time since the cottage...maybe next week...or after I finish the cake this week.

Yes I am doing another cake. It is for a party for a couple who are getting married next month. Thier family is having an auction and game night. Due to the fact that we are having a major heat wave here, I am kinda at a loss as to how to make this cake without it melting...so I am going to try my hand at marshmellow fondant and see how it goes. I have the air conditioner set to fairly cool to assist with the cake and keeping the humidity down so that all my ingredients don't turn out to be a big flop!

So the heatwave, on top of trying to get a cake done...is leading to some craziness today. J was put back to bed shortly after 9am since he was just too grumpy and I was sick of all the fighting and crying. CO and I headed out to eat some cherries outside in the shade but overall it is just TOO hot outside (34...feels like 38). So I have resorted to letting my son watch some curious george and berenstain bears. We've also read stories, did some puzzles and he helped me make the lemon filling for the cake.

CO has a speech appointment Friday morning, so we'll see what the next step is with that. It has been a year since I first started the whole process to get his speech assessed. Overall I am not very thrilled with the amount of help he has gotten. He started off with the 'home program' which was stuff for us to do at home (which I was more than fine with), but since then his therapist went on mat leave and so he was assessed by another lady and then invited to join a speech camp. Since then...nothing has really happened. I guess this upcoming appointment will show if he is progressing well enough with just me following the resources they gave me from the camp or if they will do something more. He hasn't started using any of the sounds that he struggles with at the begining of words but he has begun to add them to the middle and ends of words but he was doing that in the Spring. His pronunciation maybe lacking but his vocabulary has improved in leaps and bounds (all that good literature he is exposed to when I read to him I guess). This is one of the ones he is loving the most these day.