Aftermath...

That's right. Aftermath. The Fat Man comes and leaves this house in a hurricane and it's up to "SUPERMOM" to put it all back together, clean it up, and find places for it all. It's all okay though, it was worth it to see the faces of my family light up with glee at their surprises. Graeme got the biggest surprise of all - his parents bought him a brand new 2007 Chevy Cobalt! It was quite a shock to everyone, most of all him! I couldn't be happier for him, he is the BEST and deserves it. He is a wonderful husband, father, and son. I could not be happier unless I'd bought it myself for him.

Kennedy had a wonderful day filled with High School Musical and Hannah Montana - she was thrilled right down to the core. The boys were a bit more subdued but what do you expect of an 18 and 16 year old that early in the morning??? We enjoyed a beautiful dinner (if I do say so myself...) - I actually searched out and prepared several "Martha Stewart" recipes for the stuffing, a side dish, and the turkey - all were delish! It was a very special present for all of us to have Kennedy join us and dine with us at the table for our holiday meal together.

So now it's back to the cleaning, re-organizing, etc. I hope everyone who reads this blog had a very merry whatever-it-is-you-celebrate and some wonderful, peaceful, healthy, restful time with family & friends.

Yay for Hannah Montana movies!


Yay for new cars!

Shortbread Cookies

I spent the day doing a lot of holiday baking - when Kennedy came home afterschool, she wanted to play outside in the snow for awhile. When she came in, she noticed the rolled out dough and shortbread cookies cooling on wire racks. She asked if she could have one and proceeded to gobble TWO down (with a bit of frosting on them). The next question was, "can I have that frosting in a bowl, mama?" - that's my girl, complete with sweet tooth! It was pretty special seeing her eat her very first holiday cookies! She was very concerned about which ones we should leave out for Santa. I told her we would save him a couple of the big ones. She is so excited and things are a lot of fun around here right about now.

December Pictures

Kennedy sang in the Holiday Musical at her school today. It was called "Once on a Housetop" - a great multi-cultural, multi-traditional celebration. Her song was part of the "Santa" portion of the show; he was stuck in the chimney. The song was "A Big Red Fella" - the video is getting transferred onto DVD so I can get it up online. In the meantime, here she is singing:


And here she is, post-show, posing in front of the tree:




And the other day, shoveling snow with Dad (we are doing that a LOT lately - lots of snow already!):

Letter to Santa 2007

This was an independent effort on the part of Ms. Kennedy. I was proud that she thanked him for last year's gift and asked about the "artic" and Mrs. Claus.
I'm guessing Santa will be able to find couple Hannah Montana movies for her.

Pictures from our trip to Nova Scotia

All this studying is keeping me away from the blog lately; here, finally, are the pictures from our trip last month to Nova Scotia, where we spent a few days with dear friends Jeanie & MacKenzie and then went into the hospital for Kennedy to have her g-tube taken out and stoma closed. There are photos from their swim at the White Point Beach Resort, at Jeanie's House, and at the IWK. As always, remember if Flickr! is being naughty and says "no such photos found!", hit F5 on your keyboard to refresh the screen and that should set everything right.

22 More Sleeps!

The Holiday Madness has begun! Kennedy woke up Saturday morning bouncing off the walls to open her advent calendar. There's nothing like brightly coloured Santa & Reindeer waving in your face and the whiff of cheap chocolate to lull you not-so-gingerly out of your slumber. Seriously, though - the holidays are just too much fun when you are dealing with the energy dynamo that is my Kennedy. We put the decorations up this past Saturday & Sunday and though it's no winter wonderland by any means, Kennedy loves it all. She was just about busting with excitement as each of the large plastic totes were brought down from the attic by Daddy. It really is all about reliving things through your children's eyes. It's a lot of fun, even when I'm not 100% in the mood, with the impending doom of six cumulative exams hanging over my head.

This morning, another usual December tradition started...when Kennedy comes upstairs around 6:30am, ALL of the lights must be turned on: the little tree by the front door, the ceramic "North Pole" that sits on the coffee table, all of the little village houses on the mantle and even the candy canes and star in the big picture window. They stay on until Miss K is on her bus off to school. I don't know anyone who loves it all more than Kennedy, which always serves to get me in the mood, too.

Bounced Back and Singing On TV

Kennedy's surgery to close her button/stoma went very well. She was sore for a few days after (to be expected) but is doing great. Today was our city's annual "Empty Stocking Fund" - an all day televised type of fundraiser where local children/choirs go on and sing and people call in with pledges to provide holiday gifts for less fortunate families. It's now in its 71st year I believe. She had some tears prior to going on stage because Mommy forgot her lip gloss (bad mother, bad mother...). She did come around and sang well with her choir, though. Here is a photo taken after the performance:

Surgery Monday

Well, we are off to Liverpool to visit with Jeanie & MacKenzie for the weekend and then to the IWK on Monday for Kennedy's big surgery - G-Tube CLOSURE!!! I'm so excited for her; she's been counting down the days "only 3 days left with my button, mama!" It's so cute. So wish us luck and to all our American readers, hope you have a great Thanksgiving next week!

Cookie Monster

Today is a VERY exciting day in our house. Ms. Kennedy ate a cookie for the first time in her LIFE. Not only did she eat "one," she proceeded to then eat two more of these large, molasses, jam-in-the-middle-on-top type of cookies. I am so incredibly proud of how far she's come, I could just cry. It's amazing how a cookie can make someone THIS happy.

This is her first cookie after school today - it took her almost 55 minutes to chew, swallow and finish the whole thing.



This is her third cookie, tonight after Girl Guides, this one she finished in less than 20 minutes - quite an improvement!

Who knows what will be next on this adventure - peanut butter sandwiches? cream-filled donuts? chocolate cake? The possibilities are endless. This is all so exciting and comes one day after I get the call from the children's hospital that she has an O.R. date of November 19th to have her gastrostomy closed.

These little things are just so amazingly huge. It really is all about perspective.

Girl Guides of Canada Profile

Kennedy has been featured on the Girl Guides of Canada web site, if you would like to see her profile, you can see it at http://www.girlguides.ca/media/new_site/docs/guiding_profile6.pdf.

Halloween 2007

Tonight Kennedy decided to be a kitty-cat for Trick-or-Treating, I got into the spirit and donned a jester costume to hand out treats while Dad took her out to get some goodies.

This past week, she has been to FOUR Halloween parties, to one of which she wore the kitty costume; the other three parties she wore her Ariel costume she got in January in Disney World (the poses are all her idea...she's a diva!):


Hope everyone has a safe, healthy, happy Halloween!

Grammar Queen

My little princess got 38/40 on her big Grammar test today and I am so proud of her! She had to differentiate common/proper nouns, give the meaning of a noun, do plurals, and find nouns in a list. I am doing the happy proud mommy dance tonight :) She seems to do quite well with literacy/reading/language arts type subjects, so I'm very happy about that. She is loving school this year and I am loving her school this year. Yay for teachers that "get it!"

After Nine Years...

This is a beautiful thing:

I had been all excited at the prospect of uploading videos straight through Blogger but it didn't work - back to Google Video I guess!

More of Kennedy's School Work

School is going well, Kennedy appears to be doing really well so far in grade four. She knows what she is doing with her homework, I'm not feeling like I'm re-teaching anything this year. It is a practice time for concepts she has already learned at school. She has also gotten a couple of great marks so far: 12/13 on a Social Studies Test about the Canadian provinces and territories and 8/10 on this paragraph about food. I had a good laugh on this one because she isn't allowed to eat downstairs (and she always asks) and she listed it as her favourite place to eat!!!

My favorite breakfast is cereal. My favorite lunch is pudding. Cake is my favorite dinner. My favorite place to eat is downstairs. I know how to cook supper. I want to learn to cook some eggs too. My mom and dad can cook supper.

Yep, cake & pudding for two of her favourite meals - that's my girl!

New Babysitter

Kennedy had a new babysitter tonight and she had a GREAT time with her. This lovely young lady, Marysa, bowls with Kennedy in the next age bracket up. Kennedy bowls with her younger sister and absolutely adores both sisters. Since this was her first time, Marysa came on her own to get herself used to everything. Next time, I think her little sister will be coming too. Kennedy is in seventh heaven!

When I got home, Marysa told me Kennedy kept hugging her and telling her, "you're my best friend!" all night, which was I think, indicative of a very successful night. I must say that this young lady put more effort into babysitting than just about everyone else who has ever watched her. She brought a big bag of things to do with Kennedy, games, books, Webkinz pets, and some other stuff. I have no doubt that Kennedy had a ball and by the time I got home, she was in her bed, all tucked in and snoring away. I am so happy we've been able to find a regular babysitter I can call if I want to go out some evening. It's a bonus that this young lady is just about the nicest girl you've ever met.

Lucky us! Lucky Kennedy!

Kennedy's First Night of Guides

Kennedy went to her first official Girl Guide Meeting tonight. They did some games and introductions last week when she was getting registered, but this was the first, "uniform-on-no-moms-and-dads" meeting. She did great, met a few friends she knew from school and came out smiling and gave me a big hug. They chose "patrols" tonight and Kennedy wanted so badly to be in the "Red Rose" Patrol - guess what? She was chosen to be in the Red Rose Patrol. She loves the little Rose badge, ever since she saw it in her Guide Handbook.

Here she is in the front yard, just before we left this evening:

Peanut Butter Babe

As we continue our adventures in life with oral eating, we discover new and wonderful foods we love. The latest craze d'Kennedy is definitely PEANUT BUTTER. She is seriously obsessed with it, and after eating her other food, eats a generous "mound" of the stuff. She would eat it constantly if I let her; she asks for it ALL the time. I've recently made the decision to relocate the peanut butter to a higher shelf where she cannot see it because I'm just not so sure how much I trust the little curly-haired imp.

I wonder if it's okay to feed your kids peanut butter EVERYDAY? I hope it is, it's protein, right? It can't be THAT bad.

On another semi-related food/eating/tube note, I changed her button earlier this week and it promptly fell out in the middle of the night (faulty balloon). At 1:15am, Graeme & I were awakened by, "Something's happening!" - poor Kennedy was holding her gaping stoma in a sleepy stupor wondering what was going on! We took her to the hospital because we had no other spare buttons and ran into her pediatrician, who said we could just let it grow over. It was a bit sooner than I'd planned, but I thought, "what the heck, it fell out anyway". Usually a stoma will begin to close almost immediately (emphasis on "usually"). Kennedy did fine until the next morning after breakfast, just as she arrived at school, the ol' breakfast started pouring out, then lunch, etc...finally we put another button in her stomach. It looks like it will have to be surgically closed when we're ready.

Kennedy's First Spelling Homework

This was Kennedy's first day of having spelling homework. I removed her new "Spelling Connections 4" text book from her bag and proceeded to gaze down the list of words. She had to make a sentence for each word; here is the list (you can click on the photo to enlarge them to read them easier):

As you can see, although she attends a secular public school, "God" was one of the words in her list. Now I will share with you some of her own original sentences, without any help whatsoever, including the one with "God".

The Craze Dayz Are Here Again

Yep the hectic nature of all the "Back-To-School" has had me in a whirlwind this past week. That, coupled with the fact that I almost severed my pinky last weekend (trying to cook and get ahead, cleaning up and stupidly pushed the garbage down not noticing the serrated edge can on top!), has left me little time to post anything.

K is doing great in grade four - she has her old kindergarten teacher who we love so yay for that! The new Teacher's Assistant is doing well, K has been eating fairly well at school (what she doesn't finish at lunch usually ends up as after school snack but that is a-okay with me). Still managing well without the Ritalin as well. Hopefully as my finger gets better, I will be able to update more often.

Here she is on her first day of grade four, complete in her "cool" High School Musical outfit, giving me a sassy pose...

Tomorrow Is The Big Day

Grade four begins for Kennedy tomorrow; we have learned that Kennedy will be having the teacher she had in Kindergarten, who we loved very much and who "got it". We are looking forward to a very positive grade four! Fingers crossed.

Unfortunately I start on Thursday and I say unfortunately because I've had an accident yesterday where I almost lost the end of my pinky finger on my right hand (of course). So, typing and other work with my right hand is limited and slow - hopefully I can keep up with the profs and with Kennedy.

Here's to a great school year for all the kiddos and especially our friends with CHARGE, may they all have teachers and administrators who "get it"...

Last Trip of the Summer

Kennedy, Ryan, Kyle, and I made the trek last weekend to my sister's neck of the woods in Antigonish, NS for her nuptials. Kennedy & I were both members of the wedding party so I didn't get a lot of "wedding ceremony" pics, but plenty at the reception and from the rest of the visit with her cousins and my sister Tammy and new brother in law, Kevin. Mom, Kennedy, and I stayed on an extra couple days and had a nice visit. It was great to see Kennedy running around playing with her cousins Keith and Kendra, playing at the playground with them, and even getting her hair straightened by her cousin, Kerrin. We don't get together nearly enough.

Estrofest 2007

We recently began a summer tradition for the female members of my maternal side of the family: each summer, we all go up together to visit my cousin Sherri, who lives in Tide Head, NB (near Campbellton). Graeme dubbed it the "Estrofest" last year when we were all up there. We visit, laugh, talk, swim, play some cards and assorted games (Aunt Lois & I kicked butt on 80's Trivial Pursuit this year woohoo!)., spend time with the kids, and did I mention EAT??? Sherri went way over the top this year on the food scene, next year, we are going to all start bringing some grub so she doesn't have as much work to do (not that we're complaining, she is an AMAZING cook!). This year's Estrofest participants included my mom, her sister (Aunt Lois), her other sister (Aunt Helen), my cousin Angela and her daughter Ella, my cousin Sherri, Kennedy, and myself. Sherri's boys are also in some of the pictures as well, they are Riley & Andrew.

California Pictures

Here are all of our pictures from the California Trip, including the CHARGE Syndrome Conference, and our visit with Debbie, Steve & Anthony, which included a trip to Disneyland (with MacKenzie & Jeanie), Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament, SeaWorld, and the beach (for Kyle anyway, Kennedy was feeling sick the last day, which was beach day, so she & I stayed at home...)

Kennedy's Summer 2007

Here are some of Kennedy's August 2007 pictures - these include a Pirate Party at our friends Connie & Shane's house, and a trip to Liverpool to see Jeanie & MacKenzie.

Exciting News

I've been so busy, I've barely had time to post...why? Kennedy has begun to eat orally; she hasn't had a tube feed since this past Saturday. It's scary and complicated trying to figure out what/how much/textures/etc, but we're learning together and she's drinking 4-5 cans of Pediasure orally on top of the other foods we're getting in so I think we're okay nutritionally.

I got her pediatrician to send a referral to the feeding team to double check everything nutritionally, get tips on introducing texture, and to see if they think we should do another swallow study (last one was age 2 I believe, which she passed but that is a long time ago).

So after 9 1/2 years with a tube, it's a little weird around here, watching her put food in her mouth. I must say, however, that I always said, "she will eat, somehow, to whatever degree she is comfortable with, at some point when SHE is ready..." There were times when I started to doubt after it taking so long, but I always truly believed she would. Wish us luck...

Summer Just Got A Bit Busier

I just had a phone call from the hospital - seems they want to send me some more medical students. When they are doing they internship at this hospital, the head neonatalogist, who looked after Kennedy for the first five days before she was transferred to the Children's Hospital, has them go out into the community to meet an actual family, talk to them, interview them, etc to learn what things are like from our point of view. I can never say "no" to this because I truly 100% believe that this type of training is absolutely vital in creating good doctors. I think some of the doctors we had encountered over this nine-year journey could've used a little more training like this. I always have certain things I want to say to them, and I always do - I don't know if it makes a difference but I certainly feel like I'm doing my part to help educate them from the family point of view.

So, in addition to our trip to the IWK Children's Hospital next week for the best part of the week, the trip on the weekend just after that to my cousin's in Campbellton, and my sister's wedding the week after that in NS (of which Kennedy & I are both to be a part of), and shopping for everyone's back-to-school supplies, I need to fit these medical students in somewhere before university & school starts in early September. Wish me luck...

Videos From the Conference

Here are a few videos I took at the conference, mostly of Ms. Kennedy & Ms. MacKenzie together.

These are all from the dance/carnival on Saturday night. We begin with the girls doing an eloquent version of the Chicken Dance:


We then move on to the Disco portion of the evening with our two little "Dancin' Queens":


Now we have the "Egyptian Twist" - I'm sure Chubby Checker could even appreciate the girls' take on his tune:

A little spinning and a little twirling from our mistresses of the dance:


We end the videos with the "Funky Town Clap-Down" (I think Jeanie & I were both shocked that, given their combined coordination, nobody got slapped in the face during this particular ensemble):

Home

The conference and vacation was great, although Kennedy came back with a nasty cold. We are on hold with the after-hours clinic, hoping to get an appointment as I think she's got an upper respiratory infection. Other than that though, we had a great time and she really enjoyed her first conference. I've posted some pictures from the conference here and there are lots more to come.

More later, still unpacking...

Gearing Up

We are busily packing and planning for the big day on Wednesday. Kennedy has a lot of questions and I'm getting excited just like she is. This is by far the biggest trip we've ever taken. Wish us luck and to those of you reading who we will be seeing at the conference, have a safe trip and we can't wait to see you!

Swim Party!

Kennedy's buddy Samuel had an impromptu swim party today - Kennedy and a couple of other neighborhood kids got invited over for a day of splashing, painting, running through sprinklers, and general kid-mayhem. The kids were all younger than her, but she enjoyed herself immensely and was really good with them.

Here are a few of the pictures:
What An Angel!


Soaked and Loving It!



Usually Doesn't Like Dirty Hands...Not Today!!!


Splish Splash


The "Gang"



It's A Rough Life...

The Insult Game

Strange title to a post, I know. Here's the thing, we have this whiteboard at the bottom of the stairs right near Kennedy's room. We leave a whiteboard marker attached to it all the time and I use it to write little notes to Kennedy. Well, sort of notes...I use it as sort of a silly insult board. There's nothing serious going on; it's just another way I get her reading longer, more complicated words. For example, I will write, "Kennedy is a spaghetti and meatball sandwich". She reads it, laughs her head off, erases it, runs upstairs and says, "I am not a spaghetti and meatball sandwich!!!" If I wait too long before the next "insult", she usually asks, "write another, mama?"

Today I went down, and to my surprise, Ms. Kennedy decided to get creatively involved in the game for the first time:
(I love the emphatic exclamation mark and BUTT in all caps)

Grade Three Portrait

As usual, the photographer taking Kennedy's school photos didn't take much time to get her to smile, her hair was messy by the time they got to her class, and the photos came back with a black spot right on her face. Needless to say, I didn't order them, nor did I send her back for re-takes. If they won't take their time the first time, they wouldn't the second time and I'm a firm believer in not partaking in activities which I believe are an exercise in futility.

I recently took a photo of Kennedy that I absolutely adored; however, we were outside in the evening at the campfire and she hadn't had her face washed in awhile, resulting in a dirty nose. Thanks to my handy dandy photo editor, I airbrushed the dirty nose and voila! the perfect grade three portrait (albeit at the end of the school year). I just ordered a bunch from Superstore and they turned out great.

Don't setlle for icky school pictures - you can take better pictures yourself!

Playing Tourist

We took a mini-vacation yesterday. Where did we go? Some exotic getaway? Nope. We stayed right here in our own little city. We packed ourselves up, went uptown and acted like complete tourists. We did all the things people do when they're tourists in a new place: we visited all the landmarks, took goofy pictures of ourselves, spent too much money eating at a restaurant overlooking the water, and we just took our time and walked up and down the city streets we so often fly by without giving them a second thought. We read plaques and monuments that we'd never read before, looked in shop windows we'd never stopped at before, we basically took a moment to stop and smell the roses of our own city, to appreciate the things we take for granted about where we live.

I'm not saying it's not good to get away or visit a new locale, but it doesn't hurt to stop and take the time to remember the great things about where you are right now. Try it sometime - go be a tourist in your own city!

Here are some other photos of beautiful uptown Saint John. The architecture is really impressive; I guess that's the one positive that came out of the Great Fire of 1877:

Walgreens Story

My friend Crystal sent me this link that I wanted to share with my readers; it's a great story about Walgreens and people with disabilities!

Pony Tail Girl

Kennedy likes me to do her hair in a pony tail once in a while (which she usually leaves in all of five minutes before she's "finished" and wants it out). Her hair is getting quite long as of late and I thought this bouncy pony tail was so cute, I had to take some pictures.

Left Profile:


Right Profile (you can see her BAHA implant fairly well in this one also):

The "Bush":

Countdown Is ON!

The big countdown until the CHARGE syndrome conference in California has been added to the top of the blog. I am excited to be finally having Ms. Kennedy accompany me to one of the conferences; she is going to have a ball. Kyle will also be coming to help his poor old mother and enjoy some southern California sun (and girls as well, no doubt!) Ryan & Graeme will be working so they won't be able to come unfortunately. I can't believe it's only 23 days!

Night Parties

Any of you fellow parents of a child with CHARGE, and most of you with children who do not have CHARGE, know what it's like to go without sleep. Sometimes, Kennedy wakes up at unbelievable hours and is clapping, singing, and just rarin' to go for the day; at 3 or 4 am, however, we are not. Even at 6 am some mornings (weekends, e.g.), it's just not happening. We decided on a new plan of attack this summer so we wouldn't be awake each day at the crack of dawn: a visual.

Kennedy is an excellent reader and LOVES signs, especially "rules signs" - she's the only kid I know who goes to the McDonald's Play Place to read the rules over and over and NOT get on the play equipment. She even likes to sit by them. There's just something she finds so appealing about those signs with a line through them representing "no smoking" or "no shoes" for example. If she isn't familiar with one, she has to know what it means.

Last night, she was up really late (and tonight again as well with the Canada Day fireworks), so I strung some tape across the top of the stairs with a note about when she could come up and get us. Tonight, when I was reminding her verbally and with sign, "don't come up until 8:30", she said, "I know, mama, we can put a string across the stairs with the sign again." Yep, she asked ME for a sign. What a girl!

So, Graeme and I made two loops in a string and put it across the top of the railing (which she can easily crawl under no problem) and put a sign on the middle telling her what time she can come up and to remember to close her door (that way, when she does want to get up and have a night party, put DVDs on, watch TV, play video games, etc...she doesn't wake up the whole house). She's very independent and doesn't get into anything, she just needs reminders when she wakes up and is super excited that everyone else doesn't wake up with quite the same "joie-de-vivre" as she does (to put it mildly). Here's our latest "Kennedy Visual" - the when-can-I-go-jump-on-mommy-and-daddy sign:

Happy Canada Day

We spent the day giving my brother a hand moving and Kennedy was a complete angel the whole time. She had fun running through all of Uncle Scott's empty rooms and playing hide & seek with mom. We brought our walkie talkies and she would take one and I would take one and we would give each other clues about where we were. She was pretty cute. We had a nice BBQ afterwards and now Graeme & I are just trying to stay awake long enough to take Kennedy to the fireworks.

Here is Ms. Kennedy enjoying some chocolate frosting off of a Canada Day Chocolate Cupcake:

Those Summer Nights

These are the sunset clouds outside our house the other night. Kennedy came running upstairs saying, "look at that, look at the pink, take a picture, take a picture!" so of course, I grabbed my camera and snapped a few.

Here are Kennedy & Daddy enjoying the sunset together on the deck. What a beautiful ending to a beautiful day...

We had another bonfire tonight - Kennedy is obsessed with burning sticks in the fire: holding it in there until it lights, blowing it out and repeating the process. Hope we don't have a future pyro on our hands! :)

First Weekend of Summer Vacation

Yesterday we headed down to New River Beach for the big sand sculpture contest - it was a nice day, not too hot with a slight breeze. We loved looking at all the sculptures (although Kennedy just wanted to get down and play in the sand...) and we had a picnic on the beach. Afterward we went down to the blueberry stand to visit Nana B and have some ice cream. On the way home, we stopped at a few places I've always wanted to photograph and I got some great photos. Here are a few, starring Ms. Kennedy of course most of the time...

Cool Slideshows!

Today we are going canoeing - I really must get back to studying statistics one of these days!

Summer Days Are Here!

"No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks"
Remember singing that song on the last day of school??

Well today was the official "last day of school" and I am excited to have the kiddos home for the summer. A couple of days ago, Kennedy's class had a fun day where the kids went for a walk, did some outdoor activities, and got their faces painted. She looked so cute when she came home after school I had to take a few pictures. Here are a few photos from that day, including her last ever homework for grade three. I love her little hands when they are doing her school work. Click on the pages of the little book to look through the pictures.

Cool Slideshows!

Three and a Half Days Left of Grade Three

One of the last times Kennedy will be doing her cursive writing and spelling homework for grade three:

Look at the quiet intensity while she does her spelling in cursive writing:

Father's Day 2007

We had a nice relaxing morning then we were off on our quest to get a chimney/fire pit for the backyard. Kennedy LOVES camp fires and eating toasted marshmallows, so we decided to get a pit for the backyard. Mom & Dad came over for supper and stayed for the inaugural run of our backyard chimney.

Kennedy with Nana & Papa, just after Dad lit 'er up for the first time:


Marshmallow Haze:


Sticky Fingers:


The Two Favorite Dads in my life:

Day Trip To Nana & Papa's Trailer

Kennedy & I took off up to visit Mom & Dad today. We stopped on the way and took some great photos and took the Gondola Point ferry at Kennedy's insistence both ways. It was a nice relaxing day and I think we will be seeing them again on Father's Day tomorrow for a special dinner.

The road up to Mom & Dad's trailer:


Kennedy on the Gondola Point Ferry; there's nothing more fun than hopping out to look at the water on the way across!

Sandbox Fun

Kennedy loves to play in the sand and we love to encourage her to do anything that doesn't involve a screen (although she very much comes naturally by that between her father & I and her two brothers!!!), so we set up her little sand table today and cleared away all the icky spider webs and stuff so she could get onto it when she got home. She had fun making sand tunnels and getting dirty.

I love the little lines she says about what she's doing...she cracks me up!