Shaving!

In honour of Jeff & Katie's wedding rehearsal I shaved to look half way decent. I figure a tuxedo t-shirt adds the last bit of class. So the girls and I decided to shave together, and I took a few pictures of their cuteness.

Two Little Monkeys...

Our crazy girls...  Here they are doing one of their favourite things - destroying our mattress.  I really don't care, as it may cost us a few dollars per time they are having fun (amortized across years, subtracting capital losses due to everyday use) and heck aren't kids supposed to have fun?  We also play 'tackle' and 'pancake' on the bed (tackle I hope is self explanatory, but pancake involves them being 'flipped' while laying on the 'griddle'.  I later butter them and eat them)

My phone will burst a bunch of pictures in a row, but stunningly enough isn't able to take shots at 1/1000 of a second so they are quite blurry.  I think it adds to the mayhem of the situation.  Thankfully the video looks better than the pictures.

Back in Winnipeg

Well, we're ready for number three any day (or week) now as the baby is living life like a bat in an abandoned mine shaft (upside-down & low).  Cara has been having the Braxton-Hicks contractions, and with the weather as beautiful as it is, which of course is too hot is you are 8.9 months pregnant, we want this baby out!  As such, we are away from the lake, without a return date as I would rather not be racing home with a wife in labour.  Wish her luck...

That said, I have a few more pictures to post from the summer.

So I took the girls for a school shopping expedition to Grand Forks.  I think for them the highlights would be lunch and their slushies at Paradiso (pictured above), dinner (pictured below) and being allowed to run feral through Target.  By that point the girls were full of energy and needed to burn it off. If I ever do this again a play in a park will be planned.

Hey look Sarah, Culver's!  That said, presently they are eating their ketchup bowls with their spoons.  The Mennonite is strong in these children...

Frances is having fun building...

Teresa built this "Sock making machine".  Sadly it broke before it made me socks :-(

Frances wearing the best $10 (US) I have ever spent.

The girls playing in the front yard...  Moments earlier there was an arm wrapped around each other.  Sweet.

So now that we are stuck in the city, we went to the zoo.  They have a butterfly garden now.  Frances is trying to stare a hole through this guy's wings...

They also have a "Birds of Prey" show put on by the Raptor Conservancy of Canada (or something like that).  Here is a great view on an owl.

More awesome owl action.

I believe this was the falcon.

An immature (3 year old) Bald Eagle.  Apparently a week earlier a local bald eagle came to play during the show...  That would have been quite neat to have seen.

That's a stinking big bird.

The zoo is in the midst of a giant renovation, including an awesome looking polar bear exhibit that will have you be able to see them swim from underneath. The newest completed exhibits are the butterflies and these guys, the Stellar's Sea Eagle.  It is huge.

At the lake, getting ready to watch a sunset.  I think I got this because I asked her to smile.  Maybe...  God I hope that she doesn't channel this into her teenage years.

Art time.  A t-shirt I found at Target in Grand Forks that seemed more suited to Frances, but they only had it in Teresa's size (and it was the last of the shirts) so I got it.  Teresa decided to copy the picture, which is something she has started to do.  I love her portraits of Rowdy.

The artist & her art.

A much better view of her art.

And last, but not least here is Teresa and Frances showing their "I-should-be-in-bed-but-daddy-talked-mommy-into-keeping-us-up-too-late-so-we-can-see-the-sunset-ultra-manicness"  There is some fine song & dance here.  Teresa I think is an artistic one, and not an athletic one, although we shall see.

Playing at the Lake

Cara said my last post revealed how sentimental / melancholy I was becoming with the impending arrival of that four letter word: W-O-R-K!  Bleah.  Nothing against work, I actually love it, it's just that I would rather be eternally playing on the sand with my kids.  I hope all parents understand this sentiment (although you may wish to remove the word "sand" and replace it with your happy memory, while changing the structure of the sentence to ensure grammatical accuracy).

This year has been one of excessive water fights due to my mother's short-sighted decision to purchase spraying toys for the beach (Although in hind sight, maybe it was brilliant, as I have yet to see her be attacked without her as the aggressor...  Hmmm....)  All sorts of mayhem ensued this year, including Aunt Carolyn seeking sanctuary inside the display of clothes on sale then after being kicked out, using her four months old grand daughter as a human shield (which failed, these shooters are accurate :).  A couple days ago, Cara attacked we and then when I brought her into the lake and threw her in she tried to use her pregnancy to get out of her comeuppance...  Sad.

So here we are, and I read today's Baby Blues and think of all this, and I hope our children react with joy at adults having fun rather than this...