1500 Photos and 64 days squeezed into whats left of the world wide web - and toddlers saying they love cold beer!

There is a theory that as you get older that time gets faster and the days just seem to pass you by... There is more about this on this link...https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2019/no-not-just-time-speeds-get-older/

I am using that as an excuse as to why I am unable to keep up the blog as often as I used to - That plus many other factors including - 

I am fucking useless. 

Kids are a pain in the arse. 

I work too much. 

The house is a mess. 

Drinking beer is more fun.

My back hurts. 

No one reads this anyway. 

My eyes are tired.

I have to colour in a life-sized drawing of a 3-year-old. 

Snuggles with the same 3-year-old. 

Hannah has gone missing (She is actually on my back but I am not allowed to tell you that)

Hannah is in a mood because I told you.

It's dinner time. 

I have to pick up the food from the floor after dinner.

I have to heat the food from the floor before I can eat it. (This is a lie, I ate it cold)

I forgot. 

The kids are too much fun - much better than typing. 

Raaaaaw Dinosaur!

That's just the excuse for now. 

Luckily, I had a few minutes while taking a constitutional and with the aid of technology, I have written most of this by recording as I talked, transposing it to text and pasting it here! Teck-nol-oji is fecking marvellous!

So here are the last two months squeezed together in one big messy lump -  sorry its a bit of a list  - keep your eye out for the videos of the drinking beers at Folk Fest if you get bored! 

The last blog post was posted in the middle of June. So much has happened since then. Hannah finished her first year at school with a little concert, where she and her class were all amazing and everyone sang and danced for all the parents. (No photos of that as we arent allowed to post pics of other kids) But here's my two messing about on stage and a Hannah self-portrait!

Then at the weekend following that, we had a little birthday party for Hannah at home in the afternoon, but in the morning we went to Car Town where Hannah and Ollie got to race toy cars around some 'roads; complete with traffic lights and a roundabout. Hannah didn't like it at first, but eventually found a nice little pink ATV she could ride while Ollie, who was too young and wasn't allowed to drive cars, got in a car and drove them anyway because Ollie doesn't care what adults think or say and most adults let Ollie get away with everything he wants! He is a charmer!.

And then Ollie was driving around and Hannah was driving all around and they were fantastic. They had so much fun driving around this little car town place we had to drag them out of the cars at the end! 

In the afternoon we had Hannahs's birthday party part 1 - with a theme of Unicorns and dinosaurs!- Hannah made some of her own welcome decorations and big gangs of people and kids came around. They played in the backyard with the paddling pool balloons. There were cakes, games and lots of craziness - the weather was perfect so everyone had a great time. One person maybe had a little too much fun as they were sick on the way out - luckily they had just eaten a bright coloured cake, so the sick was like a rainbow on the floor!

That was the end of June - The next weekend was Hannah's real birthday weekend out at the cabin. We went out and had some fun out there. Pat and Austin were out for the weekend. So we had a trip to the beach with all the kids and Hannah had a family birthday party out there with lots of presents. It was a good weekend. 

Ollie also started potty training.... hahaha - I will say nothing more about that because he is a stubborn little bugar and still pees and poos pretty much where and whenever he pleases a month later!

Back in the city, the weather has been great during summer so there have been lots of trips to parks and lots of play dates for the kids. They have been learning to play tpgather a bit more and to share each others stuff. Ollie even gets to use Hannah's make up!

They have both been really good at learning to ride their bikes too. Hannah on her bigger bike with training wheels and Ollie on his little no pedals push bike.  A couple of weeks ago he was pretty slow, but suddenly he worked it out and now there is no stopping him!!

As normal I have taken a few days off this summer - Particularly when they arent in daycare (they only do two days a week) So on one of these days off we had a day trip out to Selkirk  to what I think is probably one of the biggest splash pads in the world. It's like a hundred metres across. It's almost like a man-made lake with a huge sand pit around the water. So we spent a lovely warm day out there having fun in the sun and then stopped for burgers and hot dogs on the way home at the Half Moon Cafe, which is awesome. 

I nearly forgot to tell you about folk fest - We didn't camp this year but Buffy and the kids did Friday on their own, travelling on the bus from town and then we all went out for Saturday and Sunday.  There is far too much to tell you everything but there was lots of dancing, hair dye, crafts, ice creams, beers, and costumes - too many photos  - so here's a quick sample....

Towards the end of July we had some more hot, hot days, so we went out to the cabin again. the kids actually got to stop and sit on the big green chair by the restaurant that we drive past every time. we had a lovely afternoon on the dock with Grandma and Grandpa, Ollie decided to jump in the lake (He asked us first and then jumped in all by himself) and we had a big fire for the first time in abouteight years. Grandma and Grandpa got to sit outside with the kids and everyone enjoyed having a big fire.

Back in the city, We had an afternoon at Adam and Alena's new house after they had moved. The kids loved playing in their huge new garden. That was great. I got to speak to Gareth on the phone as well cause my phone accidentally called him from my pocket. We also had a night out at the local night market with the kids. Oliver had his first ride on the back of my bike while Hannah rode on the attachment on the back of Buffs bike and the kids had candy floss for the first time ever (Cotton candy). 

We have also had a big party in the front yard as well.  The neighbours got together and  invited a load of people around in all the front yards. They are all open so we formed one big yard and we had about thirty people with all the kids playing together and burgers and food and drink.  I was actually on call but didn't get any calls for the whole day, so it was a really good  Monday afternoon of the August long weekend. It was funny at the end because Ollie helped our next-door neighbour Paula tidy up and carry things back int oher place. He disappeared into Paulas house with her and we found him being shown around asking questions like he was buying her house!

 

We have also been camping - Out at Grand Beach on the shore of Lake Winnipeg We were supposed to go for three nights but we went out late and only went for two nights because the first night it was really rainy in the afternoon. So we decided to wait for things to dry off and went early Saturday morning.

When we got there, we got the tent up and the new bug tent too for the kids to play in and to eat in,. We didn't actually need a bug tent because the bugs were amazing this year. There weren't any mosquitoes at all. We spent most of the mornings playing and riding bikes in the campsite and the afternoons on the beach. There was a big sandcastle competition on, so their kids got to see all these cool sandcastles in the shape of whales, dogs and even a flip flop! 

At night, we had bonfires. We played in the hammock, We did some chalk pictures. We played on the park. One of Hannah's friends, Bowie, came out with her mum and spent the afternoon on the beach with us, doing some surfing and playing.

The last day was a beautiful day on the beach where we spent all afternoon  before driving back into the city in the evening,

Now we are back in the city - The kids and Buffy stayed at the cabin for a few days last week while daycare was closed - they even went on their first hike up Ernies trail, joined by Grandpa - a good mile-long trail up a hill to a cool viewpoint. They did so well!

Now we are getting ready for the end of summer and a few quick weeks of Autumn before the winter heads our way again. Ollie even has a new Orange coat already! It's been hectic crazy summer and you can see why I haven't had time to write this garbage blog in a while! I will endeavour to get it done quicker next time - there are adventures ahead and I want to share them all!