The Museum...

One of Lincoln's favorite things to do is to go to the museum (Exploration Place.) We have a membership because for about $80/year, you can go as often as you want. It's very kid friendly and has a huge indoor play area that includes, a big sandbox, waterplay table, a huge ship to drive and climb on, tunnels and a slide. That's not mentioning the animals that they have. Today the projector thing for the floor wasn't working, which was  bit of a dissappointment because that's one of Lincoln's favorite things to do. 

Lincoln playing with the big waffle blocks.

Doing a magnet maze puzzle.

Checking out the huge bull-frogs.

Checking out Sally the turtle.

They had a little presentation going on at the Museum while we were there.

The kids got to make little rubber bouncy balls. He thought that was fun.

And on a side note, while we were doing there, there was a ladythere with her husband and kids.

The woman kept looking over at me. Finally she said, I feel like I know you.

Where did you grow up in? Turns out we were from the same town.  Small world.

Rolling the goop around before it becomes a ball.

A bit more rolling and it's a perfect little ball.

They also fed the turtle, Sally, while we were there.

Apparently, when they feed her, the put her in the sink.

It saves on having to clean her tank all the time. Did you know that turtles eat mice??

I didn't. While she was in the sink, Lincoln was asking about the lettuce, oranges and pellets that were in the sink with her. The guy was telling him about the food the turtle eats and then menitoned that if the snake (**WARNING*** the next pictures are of that SNAKE!!)

Anyway, if the snake doesn't eat all her mice, they give it to the turtle! Who knew?!

SNAKE!! After the turtle in the sink, Lincoln asked the guy if they could give the snake a bath too.

Lincoln meant, were they going to put the snake in the sink, but apparently, the guy thought he meant "Let's take the snake out of it's cage and touch it!"

NOT MY FAVORITE PART OF TODAYS VISIT!!

Lincoln looking at the snake. He also got to hold it. (Yeah, I was thrilled!!)

I took a video of that, but for some reason, I can't make the videos come up on here.

I will try later though to see if I can make it work.

Lincoln and the tarantula... Her name is ... CUDDLES??

Yup, I'm not kidding!

After looking at all the animals, we went upstairs to check out the sport game and the mini-movies. While we were up there - this little oriental girl - who we saw at the mall was there as well. They played together for a while and had quite a good time. Then on our way back down the stairs there was a spider, yes, a really big spider! Not the kind they keep in the cages, just some random huge spider. Lincoln was very concerned about this and we had to go downstairs, get the worker, take him back upstairs and show him the spider. He seemed a bit shocked that it was sooooo big too and asked Lincoln to keep his eye on it while he went off to get some paper towel to kill it.

I felt bad for this poor worker. While they were talking about the turtle downstairs, he had to field questions about the mouse being dead that the turtle was going to eat. Then he had to field questions about the moose antlers that came to the museum interlocked because the two male moose had charged and battled each other and then got their antlers locked together and they couldn't get untangled so they starved to death. And then I think there was one other 'death' conversation downstairs about something and then the poor guy had to kill a huge spider! I think he earned his pay today!

Anyway, we had fun at the museum, despite the snake being let out. Then we came home and did a bit of cleaning. Watched a few Scooby Doo episodes and did some laundry.

Tomorrow, it's back to work for me and Gramma Big E is coming to babysit. So, I'm off to bed.

After this block, I have TWELVE glorious days off and we're going to visit Nanny and Grandpa!! 

August Block Off

This is what I wrote on our 12 day trip to Tumbler Ridge. It's actually only one post so tomorrow after work or on my swing day, I'll type up a bit more of our holiday ... but for now... This is what I wrote up while I was in TR.
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Today we drove to Nanny and Grandpa's -- or as Lincoln calls him Grandfathers. On the way, I stopped to buy a box of timbits. I just bought an assorted box, except, I specified not the kind with raisins. I hate those kind. Lincoln really only likes the chocolate ones. So anyway, he asked if he could have some so I handed him back the box. The first one he took was a chocolate one. For some reason, Tim Hortons has a new chocolate tim-bit and in the middle of the chocolate one was some kind of strawberry cake mix. Lincoln was not impressed. He quickly told me how unpleased he was by this discovery and passed the half bitten tim bit up to me to try. It wasn't that bad. Lincoln then says, "Hey, Mommy! I got a great idea."
"Oh, do you? What's your great idea?"
"Well, I could take a bite of all the donuts and if I don't like them, then I could put it back in the box and then you can have it later. Isn't that a good idea?"
Well, I explained to Lincoln that no, in fact it was not a good idea. I don't mind sharing with him but if you put half eaten donuts back, the middles dry up and they are no good. He thought it was brilliant and I felt a little bad having to ruin his great idea.
Lincoln fell asleep soon after that. Then a few hours later when he woke up, he asked me if I saw any animals while he was sleeping. I had not and I told him that.
His response was one of disbelieve. He looked at me and said, "Really Mommy, not even one little old deer."
We got to Tumbler and went to see Lincoln's new baby cousin. He was pretty darn cute and sooooo tiny. Lincoln asked if we could take him home. He was a bit disappointed when he was told no.
We also went for a drive around town. Mom and Dad were pretty excited to show Lincoln a few things. There are these wooden little people that are bent over so all you see are their legs and bums. Lincoln calls them 'the bodies.' They are taken in during the winter and put them out in the summer, so it's been a while since he's seen them and he was pretty excited about it.
There is also new little thing that thrilled Lincoln. Over in the trailer park there is another wooden outline in the garden. This one is of a little boy with his back to us, he's propped against a tree and he's going pee so his pants are around his ankles and his little naked bum is out there for everyone to see. Lincoln thought this was amazing. He laughed and laughed quite a bit.

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Day Two.
Today we went swimming. I had called to see if Lincoln's cousins wanted to come, but they were going to their mothers so we went alone. Lincoln had a very good time. He went down the big green slide by himself, which was a bit of a big deal. The last time he went down it, he bonked his head on the bottom and he's been a bit scared of it since. So, today, I told him that he was bigger and if he went down it, he wouldn't bonk his head and we'd go to the trailer court after the pool so he could look at the little boy peeing.
He went down the slide. Then he went down the slide again. And again. And again. And again. He had a great time. He must have gone down that slide about 50 times. Then we went outside and he climbed on this big netting thing. He had a a lot of fun on that as well. I should have brought my camera, but I wasn't expecting to go on it. So, after the pool and the climbing we made a loop past the peeing little boy. Lincoln laughed again. He thought it was hillarious and then he said, "Mommy, if that boy was turned around to the road, it would be rude, right? Cause people don't want to see people's pee."
That wasn't what I though he was going to say, but it worked. That reminds me of another time, I don't think I've written about this before, but it was pretty darn funny. It was a few years ago, I think Lincoln was just over 2, maybe 2 and a half or so. We were having a bath and I had just wet my hair and pushed it all back from my face. Lincoln was sitting at the other end of the tub. He looked at me and, as though he'd only just noticed, he said, "Mommy, you have ________ " Now before I tell you what he actually said, I feel that I should say this. We were in the bathtub. We were naked. There were no bubbles. You can imagine what I expected was going to come out of his little lips.
He said, "Mommy! You have ears!" I was fully expecting him to say another part of my anatomy, that's for sure. Ears would not have been on that list. I don't know why he suddenly realized that I had ears on that day. I would have to say that I have my hair pulled back and in a pony tail at least 75% of the time. Probably more, because I very rarely leave it down. I'm sure he'd seen my ears before so I have no idea why suddenly one day while we're having a bath he realizes that I have ears. It was pretty funny.
So, back to today. We went to the pool and had a good day all in all. Lincoln was a little fussy near the end of the day, but otherwise, all in all, it was a good day. He spent a fair about of time outside in the afternoon 'helping' Nanny. He had the hose and he washed the headlights on her van. Washed the swingset. Washed the house. And his favorite part, was the big puddle he ended up making from all his 'washing'. I took his pants off of him and let him play in his undies and-tshirt. He thought that was pretty good fun. Once he was done, I brough him in and he went straight into the tub. After supper, he went over to his uncle's house and picked raspberries with his Nanny. He was quite proud of his berries too. Although, he did come running back home part way through and ask me to go fill up his raspberry bucket, because he was too tired. He went to bed just after that and pretty much just crashed.
Tomorrow, we're going to head off to Grande Prairie for the night. It should be pretty fun. They have a fantastic pool there and the last time we went, Lincoln had a great time. He's pretty excited to be going back there again.

Lincoln's first Drive In

So, Friday night, I was debating what we were going to do, when I remember that there was a drive in movie here. I thought, hmmm, Lincoln's never been to a drive in move, we should give that a whirl. To say he was super excited was a bit of an understatement. He was thrilled. In hindsight, the next time I spring a drive in movie on him, I'm not going to tell him about it until we're ready to walk out the door. I kept trying to explain to him that we couldn't go until it got dark, but he wasn't really getting it. I told him that he could go in his pajamas, so he went off to change. We also brought "My Buddy" with us -- he wore his pjs too.
One other thing that I would do in hindsight is to make sure Lincoln has a nap before we go next time. It's about a 20 minute drive from our house and he fell asleep on the way there. He nodded off a little bit during the movie. He also fell asleep on the way home, but since it was nearly midnight when we left, that was expected. He didn't even wake up when I carried him into the house, which did shock me a little bit.

On the way up there, Lincoln informed me that 'My Buddy' should wear a seatbelt too. "My Buddy" is a hand me down toy from Uncle Lorne. I bought it for him when he was about 6 or 7 years old. He's gone through a couple of grandkids and now lives with us. The dolls name is actully called "My Buddy." I always call it "My Buddy." I will say, "Pick up my Buddy." or "Go get My Buddy." Lincoln will always call him "Your Buddy." We were getting ready to go and Lincoln said, "Okay, Your Buddy has his jammies on." I just think it's pretty cute that he calls him 'Yours' instead of the simply, "My Buddy." or even just Buddy.
Anyway, we went to see Brave. They always play two movies so we could have stayed for 'The Avengers or Marvel' or something, but by then it was already midnight and staying meant we wouldn't get home until about 3am, I'm sure.

So, we put on his jammies, and My Buddy's jammies, and off we went to the movies. He slept all the way up there and when we parked, I let him keep napping for a bit. I woke him up to go and get some popcorn and a chocolate milk, then after a quick trip to the bathroom, we were heading back to the car to get settled.

The screen they play the movie on... and the crack in my window.

Once it got dark and the movie started, you didn't really notice the crack.

They tell you in the rules that if you are going to start your car during the movie, to make sure you don't turn on your headlights. My lights come on no matter what, and I was a bit worried that my battery might die so I had planned to start my car at least once or twice during the movie. I've never had my radio running without my car running as well, so I had no idea how it was going to go. Luck enough, they announce that if you have a car that as daytime lights that don't shut off, if you go to the concession they will give you free headlight covers. I thought, okay, sounds good and we wandered back to the concession to get out free covers. I wondered what the heck free covers were going to be. They are very high tech let me tell you, paper bags and masking tape. So, we once again returned to our car, I taped up the lights and ta-da we were set.

I told him he could watch from the front seat, but that only worked if he sat on his knees. Lucky for us, I had a small kids desk and chair in the back of the car that a friend gave me and I hadn't brought them into the house yet, so I thought, hmmm, let see if that works. We brought the chair up to the front and put it on the passenger seat and he sat up on it. It worked just right, except that part way through the movie, he started to nod off and kept tilting almost falling off the little chair, so he moved over to my lap for the rest of the movie.

Lincoln and My Buddy sharing some popcorn.

I have no idea why, but he wanted me to take his picture while he was posing his hands.

Who am I to not comply! If it involves a picture of my little guy, you know I'm going to take it!

A lot of people were in vans and they just backed their vehicles into the parking spaces and watched like that. Some also watched from the back of their pick up trucks. But there were a ton of bugs! So, I am definitely glad that we opted to watch from inside the car. During the first half hour of the movie, I started the car  couple of times just to run the air conditioning but after that it cooled down a bit so I think it worked out quite well.

When the movie was over and we were driving home, before he fell asleep, I asked him if he had fun. He told me it was very fun. I asked him what his favorite part was. He said it was when the bears were all over the movie. Then he said he should have brought Mr. Bear (his favorite teddy) with us because Mr. Bear would like to see a movie with bears.

I told him my favorite part was cuddling with him while we watched. He told me I was silly because cuddling with him wasn't part of a movie!! I don't care, I said, it was still my favorite part. Then he fell asleep, we got home, I carried him and my buddy into the house and tucked them into bed. The next morning he asked if we could ever go to see a movie like that again because he had a lot of fun and he even had a dream about it!

I told him that the next time there is kid movie there, we will go again. Maybe the next time his cousins come for a visit, we'll have to take them too!

Two Sleepovers and some bad words!

So, Lincoln ended up having two sleep overs in a row! Christine and her kids came over and then Lincoln asked Myles to spend the night, but Myles didn't want too, so Grace said she wanted to. I don't have any pictures of that sleep over because really, by the time Christine left it was late so I let them jump on the trampoline in the dark for a few minutes and then it was off to bed with both of them.

A funny thing happened the following day though. They had finished breakfast and I was going to head off for a shower, BUT I didn't want to get out and find that they had taken out every toy on the shelf and made a big mess, so our conversation went like this:

Me: "Okay Lincoln and Grace, I'm going to go and have a shower. "

Lincoln: "YAY! Grace, do you want to have a shower with my Mom?"

I explained that neither of them were going to have a shower with me, thank you very much!!

Around two, Grace decided that she wanted to go home, so I drove her home and dropped her off. On the way there, Lincoln asked if Myles could come for a playdate now?

I told him I would ask Myles and we'd see about it. Myles did indeed want to come over so I exchange kids and we were off again. On the way home, we stopped at a school playground and field to let them play and run around.

They climbed on this big spider web thing...

The rock wall... pleased with himself that he made it up there...

This, he informed me is how you 'row' your surfboard out to the big waves...

One footed surfing... so talented - he gets that from me.

Shaking on the surfboard...

Running along this wobbly snake thing...

Another proud face at the top of the rock climbing wall.

Lincoln and Myles wandering into the bush...

In case you can't tell what they are doing in this pose...

note they are both dealing with their shorts....

and I leave that for you to figure out.

One more clue to why they went into the bushes...

Running around in the field...

Playing tag...

Taking a break...

Buddies...when they were younger, Myles was constantly hitting Lincoln, or pulling his hair or knocking him down... I have to say, I never thought I'd be taking a picture where they were hugging. They've outgrown the 'beating' phase and play quite well these days.

Making a 'grass angel'...

While at the field, he fell somehow and hurt his foot.

The two of them checking the injury... GOOD NEWS! It didn't have to be amputated.

I'm OKAY!

Making shadows on the field...

More shadows, this time yelling "Yippee!" on the concrete area.

Making airplane wing shadows.

If you look really close at Lincoln's, you can see his little devil horns!

Making his shadow do karate kicks.

HI-YAH!!

Running the numbers with his shadow.

His shadow on the monkey bars...

Another shadow on the monkey bars - this time with part of my head and the camera in the photo.

Peeking from between the monkey bars...

I couldn't decide which picture I liked best of him peeking down from the monkey bars...

So, I put them both on here!

The ride to Save on Foods...

While we were at the park, Myles came over and told me that he was going to sleep at Lincoln's house tonight. Didn't ask, just told me the he was going to sleep over. I asked him who said he could and he said his mom did. (She didn't - but oh well.) He then proceded to tell me that he was also going to eat supper at our house and that they were going to have hot dogs and french fries.

So, with the new plan, after the park, we stopped at Save on Foods to buy hot-dogs and french fries. While we were there, Lincoln mentioned the plastic seeing eye dog statue thing that you can put pennies in to donate to CNIB. Lincoln asked if he and Myles could have a penny to put in there. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no change in my wallet. A lady who was in front of us in line had been chatting with Lincoln and she asked if she could give them each a penny. You would have thought that she had given Lincoln a pony! He was sooo excited. So, pennies put in the seeing eye dog, hot dogs, buns and frozen french fries in a bag, and we headed for home. It was only a five or ten minute drive - but it was certainly eventful. Lincoln and Myles were dancing in the back seat. I'm going to try to upload the video but we'll see if that works.


Once we arrived home, the boys headed off to Lincoln's room to play. I began making supper for them. I heard Lincoln say "I'm telling on you, Myles!" And he starts to come running down the hallway. At this point, I'm already heading in that direction to find out what is going on. Lincoln is only a few feet down the hall when he turns around and heads back to his bedroom to ask Myles:

"What did you say again?"

Myles (silly boy - not very bright in this situation I have to say,) repeats what he said, and this time I'm in the hallway to hear it.

Myles, "I said - I'm very mad - F*cking!"

Lincoln now turns on his heels and comes running back down the hall yelling, "Mommy! Myles said F*cking!!"

Well, needless to say Myles got a time out and we all had a discussion about words that we DON'T say in our house!! I explained to Myles that he couldn't say it at all and I explained to Lincoln that if someone said it, all you have to do is say they said a bad word! NOT repeat it!!

The rest of the night was uneventful. I let the boys sleep on the living room floor and watch a movie. Myles crashed pretty quick - by about 9... Lincoln made it until just after 10.