So, its been like forever since I’ve posted anything. But this little blog has been on my mind for months, literally, months! The summer has been busy and fun. The kids are loving the sunshine and being able to wear shorts everyday is a real treat for them. This summer has been so beautiful, hardly any rain. So, here’s our summer...
We were able to go on vacation to visit our family in Ontario. Which was a real treat. We haven't been back home in a couple years and most of our family hadn't even met Elliott! A couple weeks before we went on our vacation Ava had an eye test at her school. Steve took her, so when he got home he told me she didn't pass and was referred to an ophthalmologist. I made an appointment right away, and to make a long story short we found out Ava needed glasses. It turns out she is near-sighted with astigmatism and can't see things far away! Huh, who knew!? We certainly didn't. The doctor said this is something she probably had since birth. We had no idea she had any vision problems! In fact, I was so sure she didn't have any vision problems that I almost cancelled her appointment, convinced that the nurse at the school didn't know what she was talking about. Thank goodness I didn't allow my denial get the best of me. Ava happily wears her glasses and is so proud to wear them. Shes excited that she gets to pick between 2 different styles and colours. She looks absolutely adorable in them and I am so grateful that we got this taken care of before school starts. Her adjustment to wearing her glasses has been a breeze. The first time she put them on, she looked at something far away and pointed to it and said "mommy look it". Then she took them off and then put them back on again. Ava has also been known to get car sick quite easily and we just thought it was from her not eating properly before travelling. It turns out she just needed to wear glasses. We saw this be true just a few days ago when we were driving home from a friends home late at night. I allowed Ava to take her glasses off and within 2-3 minutes of driving she was almost ready to be sick. Once we pulled over and got her glasses back on her she felt much better. The day we left for Ontario was the day Ava got her glasses. We stopped off at the store, picked up her glasses and were on our way to Ontario. We decided to drive since now that our family has grown and it would be breaking the budget if we flew. We had heard of other families travelling through the night on long drives with small children so we thought we would give it a try. I thought it would be a breeze to get the kids to sleep in the car and stay asleep. That was not the case. Sienna was our trooper, fell asleep before the other 2 and slept beautifully with no complaints. But for the other 2, they were quite the little rebels. They didn't fall asleep until after 12:00am and was up through the night more times than I can count, crying and fussing. Lets just say it was a long, long night for all of us. We made better time than we thought and arrived in Ontario early in the afternoon. We surprised my younger sisters, which was really fun. We had a wonderful time visiting family and loved seeing our children get to know family members that had never met before. We were able to stay a little longer than we expected. We tried to do all the fun thing we enjoyed as a kid growing up. It was a really great trip, loved every minute of it. I think I fell in love with my husband all over again. We tried to have a stress-free vacation and I think it was just that, theres just nothing like the love of your family. I miss them terribly, but Nova Scotia is where we need to be at this time in our lives.
Once we were home and settled from our vacation, we celebrated my birthday. I made a cake (yes, I made my own birthday cake, because that’s what I like to do and its cheaper!) and went out for dinner. Our summer has consisted of the beach, lots of BBQ’s, lots of trips to the park, and preparing for school. Our summers, for the last 3 years, have ended on a great note. Our Wedding Anniversary and Sienna's Birthday. We celebrated our 8th wedding Anniversary this past Monday with a BBQ rib dinner and my wonderful husband bringing home 2 dozen long stem roses. What a surprise that was-they sure are beautiful! And then the next day, we celebrated Sienna's 3rd Birthday (she was born early in the morning, the day after our 5th wedding anniversary!) What a blessing Sienna is to our home. Shes a feisty little one, full of personality! We sure do love our little Sienna. Happy Birthday, baby girl!
In one week Ava will be starting school. I get butterflies just thinking about that day. I am so excited, nervous and proud to send her to school. She is one sweet little girl. She always has been. As a small baby I could feel her sweet little spirit. She is really excited to go to school and meet new friends. But I don't think she realizes the work involved in going to school. She thinks shes going to go to school and play, all day long. Ava going to school is going to change our lives, as we know, dramatically....
To end this post, here are some photos. But since my camera battery is dead enjoy the limited photos I was able to get off of it before the battery died!
My sweet Ava sporting her new glasses, just adorable!
We enjoyed a lunch with just our 2 girls at the "Rain Forest Cafe"
while Elliott stayed home with my mom.
Again, at the "Rain Forest Cafe", they LOVED it there!
We had so much fun at "Marineland"
Ava really loved the Killer Whale.
The girls really loved feeding the deer.
Sienna and Ava on the tour bus at African Lion Safari.
Daddy and Elliott on the tour bus, too!
They loved bing able to get really close to the animals.
Thats all I was able to upload from the camera, come visit again in the next couple days to see how we celebrated Sienna's 3rd Birthday!
