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: