And now she is 6

Birthdays are always big around here. And I love that. For KJ, the summer birthday seems to last a week by the time we get in all the families and friends in. In fact this year she celebrated Sunday to Sunday.

The day before her birthday, we were at my parents house. Dad's birthday is the day before KJ's, and anyone who knows when Kaylee's birthday is should know that. That is because when people ask her when her birthday is, she always says "August 22 and my Grandpa's is the day before on August 21st".

On the actual day, Kaylee got to go visiting with Grandparents, Great Grandparents and Uncles. She loved that. Queen wherever she went. As per Dye House rules, the birthday child gets to pick what she wants for meals. She got Grandma and Grandpa to take her to Wendy's for lunch and it was Sushi for dinner with DQ Ice Cream Cake. Mmmm.

The next day, Chris' Dad, Sue and Gumpmom came for dinner. Gumpmom also has an August birthday, so we always get together for the youngest and oldest family members to celebrate together. Kaylee's choice for cake that night, strawberry shortcake. Mmmmm

A few long days (all days are long when you are six) and finally it was her party day. Now KJ is just like me, gets so excited before the party happens that by the time it finally does happen, she's pooped. Her six buddies (all boys) arrived for a monster party. They made a monster craft, played zombie tag and monster lunch was spiders and octopuses followed by a six eyed monster cake.The cake was only going to have 3 or 5 eyes, but when I told the birthday girl that she promptly informed me "um, it HAS to have 6 silly", and so the 6 year old had 6 eyes.

Water balloons, aka monster eggs, were tossed after lunch with a little sprinkler time and me realizing that 1.5 hours would have been fine. None the less, they all had fun and the birthday week came to an end.

Six. Wow. That was fast! Happy Birthday Kaylee, love you lots.

All in the numbers

30 + 5

I read on a blog about picking 5 mini goals and working towards them. That seems to be right on track the way I am thinking these days, pick something attainable and go for it. Be happy with results, because any result is movement forward.



So here are five mini goals. I will give myself two weeks to accomplish them. Someone remind me to check in.


1) No more fast food junk. I'm not saying no treats, but if I need to "drive thru" to get it, I'm not allowed. Now this goes with my 30 for 30 challenge that I am in the middle of (day 14 to be exact). So if the bottom half of my 30 days includes no junk - even better.



2) Clean kitchen countertops daily. Now, let's think of this...........will it be realistic? Ok, 5 of 7 days, the kitchen counter must be cleaned up and free of debris before I go to bed. This way in the mornings, I'm not starting my day surrounded with clutter.



3) Laundry goes into drawers. Sersiously, this is one bad habit of mine that drives me nuts. Laundry gets washed. Laundry gets folded. But not a lot of it goes away before it gets worn and then hits the cycle of needing to be washed again.



4) Purge the kids rooms. After seeing success at the garage sale with my parents, it proves more and more that my kids have way too much crap. So before the new school year starts, their rooms are going to get reduced in clutter.



5) Add 15 on four days. So this 30 for 30 challenge is great. But for the next two weeks, four days of each week will be 45 mins. I need more of a push and I don't want to get into bad habits. This is such a good one, I really want it to stay.



In case you are wondering what the 30 for 30 is........there is a group of us that have pledged to do 30 mins of exercise for 30 days straight. It can be walking, hiking, swimming, yoga, in fact, you can even include cleaning if you are doing it and breaking a sweat! The thought is that at day 24 you have done it enough to form a habit. And by day 30, you've pushed past the ugly wanting to quit and your body is now "craving" the movement, thus making you want to continue.



Tonight, some of the group is meeting to do the Hoskins loop together. We have a few bears in the area, so safety in numbers. Plus, it's always more fun with friends.

40 Years

When pregnant with me, my parents bought the house that my brother and I would grow up in. That was 40 years.

40 years of birthdays, Christmas', anniversaries, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and 40 years of living lives. Good lives.

40 years worth of stuff. Some junk, some good, some memories and some "where did that come from". Today was a day to mark on the calendar, as it was the FIRST garage sale in 40 years. There was a lot of stuff.

I wish I had taken more photos...there was lots to see (I thought I did take more, but for some reason they didn't stick on my phone, oh well).

Some "treasures" included there two pieces of Mexican art that my Mom and Dad brought home from a trip.

And some things that my Grandma had up in her house, one cross stitch she did and one that an Aunt made. Not my thing anymore but I put them to the side and as it turns out, my cousins are thinking about taking them.

And our skis that we spend hours and hours and hours on as kids.

For entertainment today, this sweet kitty showed up at 7:30am and hung out with us for the process.

In the end....I ended up with a box of stuff to take home too. A few photos, a couple of tea cups that have memories and a couple of mirrors for KJ's room. Richard grabbed a few things too I noticed.

And Mom and Dad put a couple of things back - like the ugliest almost so ugly it's cool platter / tray that 40 years of family meals have been brought out on. I'm glad it's staying. Somethings still belong there.

Vacation 2011

Hard to believe that I've been back at the real world for a week, it seems like vacation just happend, yet a million years ago at the same time.

We headed back to Madrona again this year in Parksville. I really do love where we stay, it's a perfect spot for the kids to run around and us grown ups to relax and enjoy the view.

Chris took the opportunity to head out before us and ride down to Victoria to cheer on Lynn Valley as they were playing in the BC Little League Championships. He loved that he got to take his new ride for a real trip.

Tons of time on the beach this year, our weather was perfect with only one morning of clouds and the rest full of sunshine.

Hit all our typical spots: Golfing

Coombs:

the massive playground:

But there were lots of kids around Madrona so we just to hang around and enjoy where we were.

With the wet wet summer we have had, the silver lining would be that there were no fire bans this season, so marshmallows were roasted, s'mores were devoured and some late fireside nights of just us grown ups were very much appreciated.

One NEW adventure we took in was MooBerry Farm and we had a ton of fun. The only people on that tour the kids got up front and centre with the cows, got to learn how milking happened and how cheese is made. Did you know that a cow eats 100lbs of hay a day and poops 65lbs out? Lots of very interesting info that day, and we will go back for sure.

Meeting a one day old calf was pretty cool too

We did have one unexpected call while in the middle of it all, Chris was called to say that he was being laid off. It did put a damper on it for a day but in true vacation spirit we moved on from that and enjoyed the time together as a family.

I know people travel all over the world to find the most beautiful beaches, but I know how lucky I am living a quick ferry ride from this.