Julia and Emily's World

On Saturday morning we went to Mya's birthday party. We had the extra pressure of getting there on time because we had the birthday girl with us. The highlight of the party was the critter show. I was surprised to see how brave all the kids were. They even touched a spider! No way was I going to do that!

Julia slept over Grandma K's house for 2 night this week. Selena and Mya also joined in for a night. Mommy, Emily and I were in Leamington. Julia likes to go to Grandma because she gets to do whatever she wants. Tonight the sleepover party is at our house. Selena, Mya and Jenna are here for the night. Auntie Jackie and Jacob were over in the afternoon for a swim too. Tonight we went to Chuck E Cheese for "dinner". The girls had a great time. Afterwards the girls went for a night swim. The air was cool but the water was really warm. The heater's been cranked up high all day! Tomorrow morning it is off to Selena and Mya's for Mya's 6th birthday party.

This week Julia took advantage of the nice hot weather by staying home from school for a 3 day "Stay-cation". Finally we were able to really use the pool all week. On Saturday we headed to Bracebridge for the day to go to Santa's Village. I remember going there as a kid so I thought it would be fun to check it out. Well the drive up there was hell! The 400 was packed with cottagers. We broke off the 400 and head up hwy 27 which was only marginally better. With a 30 min stop in Barrie for a break, we finally arrived after 4 hours! Now we only had 3.5 hours until it closed. We basically saw everything in that time. It's not that big a place. It's a nice place but not worth the drive. It's a good place to go if you're cottaging in the area. The trip home was just over 2 hours...no traffic. Surprisingly the kids were great in the car. Today we just relaxed in the backyard. Everyone was still tired from yesterday.

Emily's Baptism was on Aug 9th. The service was long but Emily didn't cry. She was her fidgety self though so it was tough holding her at times. Thank you to Uncle Ron and Auntie Gina for being the God Parents. After the church we headed back to our place for some summer fun and food. Luckily the weather held up for just long enough. It was hot and humid but as least it didn't rain until everyone was ready to go home. Thank you to everyone for all the generous gifts.

Well, as of July 22nd we are officially in our now house. That was the day we moved out of our old house. The move was long. We had a crew of 4 guys and they took all day. They did a great job though. They disassembled and assembled all the furniture. Not one piece was damaged. They did damage the hardwood stairs at the old house but the moving company sent a repair guy and they had it all fixed up in a couple of hours. Since the move we have been doing our best to get organized. This house is significantly smaller than our old house. We really bought it for the yard so we are sacrificing square footage. It has been a challenge dealing with less space. Nothing major on the renos has started yet. Just a bit of painting and trim work in the bedrooms and wallpaper removal (thanks Auntie Weezie and Auntie Linda!). Lots to come though. We have decided on a contractor to do the structural changes so that's one decision out of the way. We are finding that keeping to our bud...