Mid-Summer Post

My parents are here; thus, blogging has become a little spotty.  This sort of thing happens when I have adults with whom to talk.  But, look!  A new kitchen floor.  I won't even show you the old kitchen floor.  In Isaac's words, "Blech, Mommy?"  "Yes, blech, Isaac."  The old floor was yellow stick-on tiles with what looked like an attempt at artistic white paint drips all over it.  It dirtied up faster than I could say, "I washed the floor this morning."  In fact, so dirty did it become that only hours after being washed it looked as if someone had slowly released the contents of a juice box all over it, allowed the evaporation process to begin until it reached an ideal point of stickiness at which time a bucketful of dirt was thrown down and allowed to adhere to the spilled juice.

 No more, folks.  I haven't washed it since it was laid down and that was, ummm, weeks ago.  One more stress removed from my life.  Sigh of relief.  Brownie points for Dave.

 Hannah's godmother paid us a surprise visit a few Sundays ago.  She and her family live in Saskatchewan and we rarely see them anymore.  Hannah was lamenting this fact only days before Lisa phoned to say that she was in town and would be dropping in.  The prayers of a ten year old girl are very efficacious.

 And the hay continues.  Live action shot by Joseph.

 The kids are in the second session of swimming lessons at the beach.  Unfortunately the weather hasn't been very warm and the lessons are a bit purgatorial.

 The dark and gloomy atmosphere is meant to set the scene for the giant attacking finger in the bottom left of the photo.

 Isaac's approach to the beach:  wild abandon in a lifejacket.

 This little girl took her first steps a few days ago.  She stored up her abilities for the arrival of her grandparents and took a few tentative steps across the kitchen floor.  All we had to do was place a piece of chicken in her hand.  For some reason the ready supply of protein was all she needed to move up the developmental ladder.

 Jacob wanted an action shot of his front crawl.  In incredibly shallow water.

And a smile just to prove that the beach is his favourite place.  If there were a way to swim and read, he would be in heaven.

Joseph also loves the water but forgets which swimming trunks work the best.  He chose his black Nike shorts yesterday before I was able to check on his choice of swimwear.  Thus, there was more than one baring of a cute bottom each time he jumped out from under the water.  I had better squirrel away those shorts for a thicker-waisted son.