July!!

Hooray!
July weather has been spectacular!  yippee!  It makes life so much more pleasant when the sun shines and the temperatures rise.  We seem to live in extremes...wet and cool or sunny and hot. no sunny and temperate option...and that's life, you get what you get. so, if given the choice, in july, i choose sunny and HOT! It is summer after all.  We can't complain about everything.

We have had a wonderful July.  Andre's work has been much more reasonable - thankfully!  good heavens. it's summer, don't people take vacations? ha.  We finally bought a new car, we've had some lovely weekends away with friends, we've had an even lovelier visit from uncle Robert and Aunt Michelle and baby-to-be!!! and Jake and Sofia just wrapped up their camp season.  Lucky ducks - Only going to camps for 4 weeks and then having the rest of the summer off.  Next up 2 weeks with Nana and Papa who will be here shortly and then thanks to wonderful planning (by Andre) we are off on a 2 week family vacation!!

This year for day camps the kids did Artech camps (computer animation/gaming) and SuperNOVA  camps through Dalhousie Engineering and Science.  Both were wonderful experiences where new friends were made and lots of amazing things were learned.  In other huge news Sofia just got back from a week at sleep away camp - YMCA Big Cove Camp.  She really wanted to go with some friends and we thought we'd give it a try.  It went better than anyone could have hoped.  We had a quiet week without her and missed her very much but always hoped she was having too much fun to be homesick.  and she was!!  Jake and I drove out to pick her up yesterday and were so glad to hear about all her favourite things.  The list was endless...rip and dip, out trip, campfire, zip lining, tree climbing, crafts, new friends, care packages...oh my!  We have registered both kids for a quick 3 night visit in August - this will give Jake, our less keen one, to try camp and it will give Sofia a chance to return before school starts again.  She's already so excited to be going back and is talking about next summer! I couldn't be happier.  While I am sad she's growing up so quickly this is what we signed up for in being parents.  Our toughest job as parents is to teach our children not to need us...to become strong, independent contributing members of society.  While we will always be here for them whenever they ask we must enable them to make their own decisions....give them the opportunities and tools now to try and fail so they can become proud and confident in themselves (as proud and confident as we already are!).  So, all that reflective thought to say, yep, our little girl is growing up and having fun while doing it.  phew!

Sandcastle building at the Waeg

Bye bye old car....

Hello new car!!

While the boys were off picking up the new car and enjoying a wonderful weekend away with friends at a cottage Sofia and I decided to make our own fun and have a "girls weekend".  Sofia planned everything and made a list of 15 things she'd like to do together. I should have taken a picture of the list and all our many check marks.  Sorry, I totally forgot.  Here is a sample of what we did.  Play games, paint nails, watch a movie, make sparkly tattoos, face paint, beads, each snacks, rest....

SuperNOVA science camp!  A huge thanks to Meme, Aunt Michelle and Uncle Robert for helping with camp drop off/pick up and especially for coming to all of the camp presentations with me.  The kids were so thrilled to have such a keen fan club and it was so nice to share those small moments with everyone.

Noodle skeleton

Homemade kaleidoscope

homemade bath bombs! divine.

Bet you can't see the camouflaged bird Sofia made ;)

Artech camp - "game creator"

Such a lovely audience paying such close attention :)

Uncle Robert and Jake have the amazing ability to dress similarly without any planning.  We had every colour of the rainbow while they were visiting here is a picture of "red day".

On one of our weekends away we went to Digby with our good friends the Seymours.  Digby Pines is a fabulous resort for families and it's very close to the largest amusement park in the province - Upper Clements Park. It was a smoking hot weekend so we did a little of everything.

Here are Jake and Will relaxing while Zach and Sofia (and the daddies) did the crazy caged ferris wheel!

The crazy ferris wheel!

Super cute and happy kids on a gorgeous summer day.

Pedal "go carts" - the last ride we did before hitting the water slide.

Zip lining.  Only Jake and Zach could do the zip line because of a minimum weight requirement. They were really brave and loved it! - even after the grown man in line ahead of them got all the way to the platform and then decided it wasn't for him and walked away.

 Giant thumbs up after their death-defying zip!

The giant outdoor chess board at Digby Pines. 

Here is a picture over the beautiful property of the Pines. You can see the water and the resort pool in the distance and our private cottage on the right.

Hooray!!  Family Lobster dinner.  Thanks to Meme and Pepe for hosting and arranging a wonderful evening. 

This is a shot of a tennis game that uncle Robert and the kids invented together. It worked out well as the tennis courts were always full and they created their own scoring system.  Meme did an amazing job at officiating and keeping score...I was her less than helpful lines-person.  

 Here are some shots of Big Cove - these are inside and outside the dining hall.

Happy Birthday Aunt Michelle!!  Tomorrow is the actual day but since we can't be together Meme made an outstanding apple cake and we were able to celebrate together.  Michelle and Robert should be in Paris, with Pierre, by now.  We hope they are all having fun together!  xo