fat lip

Uncle Kev and Esme are visiting! The girls are getting along like a house on fire, and Ollie is doing his best to keep up. We have been spending most of our time indoors, as there are forest fires to the south and west of us, blowing their smoke into Prince George where it seems to lose its momentum. We have been shrouded in campfire smoke for the better part of two weeks, now.

Yesterday, we did brave the poor air quality for a little lakeshore picnic at nearby West Lake. We had a nice time, despite the thick smoke and even thicker wasp invasion. Kids and picnics equals a lot of greasy, tasty fingers, faces, and pantlegs. It was only a matter of time before someone got stung. Poor little Ollie was sitting proudly up on Daddy's shoulders when all of a sudden his face dissolved into a huge howl of pain. Why little Ollie??? Not that anybody deserves a wasp sting, it's just that Ollie really is just the sweetest soul and shouldn't be exposed to the harsh realities of picnicking at such a tender age! He cried for less than a minute. He probably would have actually cried less than that, too, except that I was trying to shove ice in his face which he was vehemently against.

My little bruiser:

wishbone

Me: Izzie! Our wishbone from the other day is dry and ready for us to make our wishes!
Izzie: OK, Mama!
Me: Ok, here, you hold this end, and I will hold this end. Don't pull, yet! Now you think of a wish. That's something you want very much. What is something you want, Izzie?
Izzie: A penguin.
Me: Ok. I wish to see a rainbow.

Izzie won!

Farmers for dinner

Yesterday we took in a bit of local history and headed down to Barkerville! Somewhere along the way Izzie mistook "we're going to Barkerville" for "we're going to have farmers for dinner." Even though we started to correct her (after giggling the first 50 times she said it), she continued to insist that we were going to a place to eat farmers.

We headed up the main street and visited the school, the general store, and a few other neat spots of interest. Izzie got a jawbreaker, of course!

Corey and I goofed around a bit in the schoolhouse!

Mother's Day

Izzie, holding up her glass of orange juice during our Mother's Day breakfast: "I would like to make some toast: Happy Mother's Day!"

untitled

Ok I realize almost a month has passed and nary a post! But It's not like I haven't been thinking about it. Once in a while something really funny or really touching occurs and I think "I need to make a blog entry about that one!" but then life happens and within minutes we're onto the next thing.

Where we're at in time: My new site has just launched and while I'm still ironing out the wrinkles here and there, it's like a ton of bricks has been lifted off my shoulders. I am so relieved to be finally working with a site that is reliable and user-friendly on both sides. Phew! Corey is a little less light on his feet these days, though. He's actually at work at this moment (8:36pm), having come home just for a quick supper, change of clothes and walk to Dairy Queen for dessert. He's got 9 days left of busy season, and then we kick off lackadaisical season starting with Izzie's birthday.

For weeks now Izzie has been wanting a blue monster cake. I keep trying to get her to consider other ideas (as last year I made Elmo, and frankly a blue monster is really just a blue Elmo in my mind), but she won't budge. So I've been scouring Etsy for really creative non-Elmo-esque monsters and I think I've come up with some cute ideas. Now to put them into icing and we're gold.

Ollie is really excited these days. He has figured out how to pull himself to a stand, and not only that, he pushes his support object forward and then shuffles his feet to catch up! Not really cruising yet, but almost there. Today he stood up holding onto the back of one of our kitchen chairs, pushed it forward, and then fell backward right onto the back of his head. Worse, he hauled the chair down with him so it bonked him on the forehead and he ended up being stuck underneath it! One big goose egg and about 30 seconds later and he was right back up again, looking for other places to stand. He loves to look out the window. Our living room windows are low enough that he can stand up and look out just above the sill. He stares and stares. I wonder what he's thinking.

A world of magic

Isabelle had an eyelash on her cheek this afternoon. I touched my finger to it and held it up to show her. "This is very special, Izzie. Whenever you catch an eyelash that has fallen, it will do its best to grant your wish. You need to make a wish and then blow it away so it can go make your wish come true! What do you wish for?" Izzie looked at me quizzically. "Ok, what is it that you would really like to have?"
"That eyelash."
"Well, you already have that eyelash. Now you need to make a wish. What do you want more than anything?"
"I want my eyelash."
"Ok. Is there something you would really like to have for your birthday?"
Izzie's eyes got really wide and her whole face just lit up at the mention of her birthday, something FAR more magical than a silly old eyelash that can grant wishes. "Oh! I would like a REINDEER!" She blew that eyelash right off my finger.

Breathe now!

Ok I know it's been ages since the last time I posted something. Here come the excuses: busy, busy, busy! The days are jammed with the regular stuff - lots of laundry, dishes, meal prep, naptime, cleaning up, tidying, arranging, sorting, and all other ways of moving STUFF around. And then there's all the extra stuff: PG WAHM Tradeshow, The Great Naphtali Stomach Flu Epidemic, Corey's busy season, bathroom remodeling, and working madly on the new Cozy Bums website which is in the final stages of editing before it is launched and it takes over the old site. How naive I was to think it would be a mere 6 weeks or so to update my website. We're going on about 10 months now... I've been fairly occupied these days!

But Spring has arrived, and with it a wave of fresh new energy! I brushed the dust off our outdoor things and took the kids to the park. What fun we had! This is Ollie's first time on a swing: