Dress up

Sometimes the girls like to drape themselves in their old swaddling blankets and walk around the house pretending they are ghosts. Okay, Wren is a ghost and Ellie has no clue but finds it hilarious. 

For whatever reason, Wren really likes to hide under her purple blanket best though. And Ellie likes to chase her and grab because she knows it's Wren under there. Wren couldn't actually be sneaky to save her life. She always gives herself away.

Then Wren found the old Halloween costumes. I started laughing so hard at Ellie wearing the giraffe one that I startled her a bit but then she broke into a smile. 

She couldn't get over herself in the mirror, just staring at this weird animal on her head!

Old Navy already has costumes out, and this year they look pretty good! (I was so disappointed with last year's selection that no one got a new costume). 

But I really like the zebra, unicorn, and the little mermaid was too much. The parrot was just ridiculously funny. 

In this last photo I totally see my sister as a baby, in Ellie.  I'll have to dig up one of her baby photos.

And yes, she's holding ear plugs here.

On role models

Well unless you don't have access to a tv or the internet, you may have heard about Miley Rae Cyrus's..um..surprising performance at the MVA's recently.

Personally, the part I find most surprising is that some people are mad that she's being a terrible role model. You know what? Miley isn't a role model. And neither are any other entertainer/musicians out there. Guess what, it's not their job to be.

My view on role models goes along these lines...
I like driving and listening to Lady Gaga really loud in the car. I think her music is fun, it's incredibly catchy and ridiculous all at once. But I would never suggest that my girls look to her for an example of  what a good role model is. I can listen to her because I am an adult I know what's for entertainment and what isn't real. I know who I am and who I don't want to be. My girls won't know that when they are young and therefore shouldn't be listening to that music or watching any videos either.

I don't let my girls watch My Little Pony because it's like watching Mean Girls that turned into little horses. It's a really bad show. But it's for kids. It doesn't really add up.

Just because something or someone is in the media, doesn't mean they are meant to be a good role model. Whoever created the My Little Pony tv show isn't really concerned about portraying a good way to behave to children. And just because Miley Rae Cyrus is young and had lots of young fans in the past, doesn't mean they should still be looking to her for a positive example now.

If parent's are up in arms on Miley's performance at those award ceremonies, they shouldn't be, because their kids shouldn't even be watching that stuff. It's for adults.

It's my own view that Kenton and I should be the best role models for our girls. Obviously, we're not perfect, but I'm also responsible for making sure I'm living in a way I feel is positive and a good example. If they can see that those they are close with (like family and good friends) around them are living in positive and healthy ways, then they be better prepared to weather the storms of what they see and hear in the media.

I would hope that if today, Wren was 14 and somehow caught a glimpse of Miley's MVA performance, she would have looked at Miley and felt sorry for her instead of wanting to be like her.

It happened.

It finally happened. Ellie figured out how to get up on the kitchen chairs. (I'm sorry for harping on this subject but it's a topic on the forefront these days). 

Okay so this is pretty cute.

Nothing to really worry about here..

Oh wait, standing. Not good.

You can't see it in a picture but she is jumping up and down and super pumped to have figured this out.

Oh crap.

You have got to be kidding me.

I was dreading this day. All afternoon this is what she has been doing. And no, I took one photo out of amazement and have been pulling her down every since trying to come up with a way to keep her off. Nothing is working, so I hope the novelty will wear off soon!

Monkey Baby

Our little Monkey Baby on the coffee table.

She spends a lot of time naked because she eats, gets it all over herself, and gets naked. It's hot out, so it's a good way to be.

 

 

This is her way of saying, "Oh hey Mom I see you wanting to help me down from here"

 

"No? Guess I'll just do it myself.."

 

Now onto the box. Heave ho!

 

I love this picture. Ellie's sweet little trusting face looking at Wren to help her down is too much. (and so is the little tail of hair behind her ear).

 

Side note: Wren is a bit of a hoarder. She builds a fortress using the doll house, Sesame Street chair and whatever else and then throws toys that she doesn't want Ellie to have back into the corner. Nice Wren, real nice.

Summer treats/ Oh, kids.

Is anyone else disappointed by the new Ikea 2014 catalogue? I always get excited to flip through it when it comes in the mail but this year I found that all of the photos of product displays looked...cluttered? busy? almost messy? And without much of a colour palette to be found. Anyway, it's probably a good thing, now we won't be tempted to make a trip over there for anything new in the house! (Oh wait, being married to a woodworker means that buying any furniture from there was already a big fat "no!" :)

Okay but we both did agree that their new standing mirror with a place to hang your clothes tucked behind it was actually cool. 

Moving on. 

It was what, at least 30 degrees out today? So hot. Too hot for little ones that get cranky and tired quick in the heat. 

So what did I do this afternoon? Make pie crust. and then make those lovely peach dumplings again because I found overripe peaches in our fruit basket on the counter ( happens quick in this heat) and couldn't let them go to waste..muahaha. 

So despite the fact that it was a scorcher today, I just turned on the oven to bake my dumplings without little hands getting in my way. 

The best part of putting in the effort of making your own dessert is that you can eat all the helpings you want til it's gone and you probably didn't break the bank like you would at a place that charges $8 for a slice of pie. Are you kidding me.

But I do pay it once in a while. I love pie. The best is from High Level Diner- strawberry rhubarb with whipped cream. Try it.

And the best summer drink? A Pimm's cocktail. Buy some Pimm's No. 1 (apparently HUGE in Britian, who knew), put two ounces into a glass of ice and pour over lemonade or ginger ale. Toss in some fruit like a sangria if you like. It's hard to mess up. 

And as you know, the summer veggie over at our house is...

peas. So. many. peas. Ellie's poops are full of sand and peas. I kid you not. The kid loves both. Ga-ross.

My mom took a few iphone pics of them when she was watching them one day. Wren's corn (seen below) is actually taller than our fence now. If I would have known if would get so monstrous I would have 

a) Planted it in a better spot and;

b) Planted more of it. 

(we really didn't expect much to grow here people.)

Somehow our last couple of weekends this month have been filled up like crazy. I think there is a rush to stuff in as much summer fun as possible on everyone's end and we are realizing that summer is going to be on it's way out in a short time.

Off topic. But I will let you know that even if you never handed your child a tiara or dressed her in pink in her little life, and then she meets one kid that LOVES all of that stuff, your child will probably follow suit. Wren's departure into the world of princesses was inevitable I guess...

We don't really care. But it's funny, if she didn't meet this one pal that always made it "priority" to play princesses, I'm sure Wren actually wouldn't care about it either. Oh well, it was bound to happen sooner or later I'm sure!

Oh and then there's Ellie. She will find one of Wren's millions of headbands and put them on and traipse around the house feeling so pretty. Love it. 

On a hot summer day, you go to the..

..backyard. Okay we do that just about every day. We actually went to the Legislature Grounds (Ellie's first time) but more on that in a few photos.

Ellie friggen loves peas. Give this baby an open pea pod and she will use some excellent fine motor skills and pick out each one and eat them. Peas are almost right up there with Nutella for her. 

Shovelling them in...

Wren has turned into a little golden goddess this summer. Her hair has blonde streaks and her skin is tanned and her eyebrows have totally disappeared. 

Here, they patiently play in the sand box while we get ready to go to the fountains at the Leg, or in Wren's words, "the mountains". Nope, fountains. 

Ellie thought the water was great. She's not a splasher, but a wader. And constantly walking all over the place. 

Wren had the cutest moment. She looked around at all the kids and said, "Well, who's going to be my best friend here?" She ended up walking up to a nice looking little girl her age and (I presume) asked her to play with her, and she did. 

Flashback to Wren summer of 2011...

and 2012...

and Wren in 2013. I don't think this bathing suit kept up to her growth..hmm..

Ellie always welcomed the challenge of climbing out of the pools..

I realized that it would be such a nice "date day" if Kenton and I could come back by ourselves and lay on a blanket, read books and picnic. Another time.

On a sunny day, it's pretty hard to have a bad time at the Legislature grounds. That being said, we may not make it back til next summer! 

Peaches. Gardens. Getting Messy.

It's cliche to say, but I'm a mom that has a hard time articulating what exactly I've been busy doing. I mean I know I'm busy, and why...but the details of the day escape me and I wonder, "What DID I do today?"

And yet, this was not the case last Friday when we were to bring dessert to our friends place and I decided on peach dumplings from Smitten Kitchen. She doesn't have the recipe online but this is pretty close. It was supposed to have bourbon sauce but because I had none, well, it was just vanilla extract sauce with icing sugar and butter. Same thing.

It was a bit of an undertaking as you can see...

I didn't have a chance to take an "end result" picture, but this is the only one on google I could find that was exactly what I made.

They were delicious and totally worth the effort. My point is, it's August. It's peach season. Find a reason to make something good with peaches. The end.

(Photo from thefreshfeed.com)

The summer days mean less naps and more falling asleep in front of the show being watched before dinner time...

And here's more pictures of our garden from last week that actually doesn't depict it very well anymore. I feel like things have grown since this was taken. 

We've been loving the peas (here and at Nana's house as well) as they're easy to pick and eat. Ellie gobbles them up, which is amazing because she doesn't gobble up any raw vegetable otherwise.

Wren's tiny little corn kernel turned into this mammoth in the garden too. She is SO proud of it. 

And beautiful sweet pea flowers that Aunty Andrea gave us to plant have done well in our disgustingly hard, clay-like soil. It's amazing anything has come up, actually. Wren also likes to pick these and put them in small vases in the house. The smell so good and in turn help her room stop smelling like stinky little kid. 

A friend told me that they took their little one camping this summer, and the best lesson she learned was to stop fretting about her child getting dirty. When she let go, she enjoyed herself more. 

I have been taking this simple advice to heart and remembering that all it takes it just stripping off your kid's messy clothes and putting on another outfit. Who cares, right?

I bring the girls out with me in the morning after Kenton goes to work and we water the garden before Ellie's first 9am nap. It's been suggested to me to move her to one nap a day- she sleeps twice, at 9am and 1pm. 

But after thinking about it, I realized I like her morning nap as it gives me time to shower and get ready for the day. Wren watches a morning tv show while I do all that and it's a nice little system. I'm not ready to let it go. 

On a total side note, we went to the John Janzen Nature Center today to play in the indoor playground, and let me say...it was awesome. I'm sure you've already been there and known all about it. But today was our first time on this rainy morning, and the girls loved it. 

It kind of makes me wonder what took them (and Telus World of Science) so long to install these indoor play facilities for younger kids and parents to visit. John Janzen was basically the most boring place on earth when I was a kid. I'd highly recommend going there now.

Below, Ellie is alternating picking up bits of sand and bits of dirt and eating them, and really quickly. She figured I'd take her hands out of her mouth so she had to be fast...she didn't know I could care less. 

A girl and her dolls

We're kicking off the long weekend by...

quietly playing with the dollhouse this morning.