School's Out!!

Whew! Has two weeks really passed us by already? I guess so!

Last I checked in, we were counting down the days to Sparks Camp. Here's the scoop!

June 16th - Happy Birthday to Grampa!

June 19th - Off to Sparks Camp! We took one of Erin's buddies up with us. When we arrived, we got all of the gear (my goodness we all had a lot of gear!!!) and the girls joined up with the rest of the group to make placemats. Everyone got settled in to their room (the girls in the bunk bed room, and me and my cohort cook got our own rooms! Yeah!!!!) Next it was off to a camp fire, complete with snacks and songs. It was a pretty late night for the little gals, but I was happy to be there to tuck Erin into bed before crashing myself!

The next morning we made breakfast for the girls - thank goodness there was coffee!! Actually the facilities are fantastic and the grounds are absolutely stunning. The girls headed off for some activities for much of the day, including playing on the beach, making suncatchers and playing water games. We cooked up a big spaghetti dinner for everyone, which turned out to be a big hit. There were more activities for the girls and the evening was topped off with another campfire with more songs and best of all..... s'mores! The Sparks were all pretty tuckered out so turned in a little earlier than the previous night!

The last morning was spent tidying up and packing, and the girls got to do some yoga on the beach. We were very lucky that the rain held off for most of the weekend. In fact, there was only a couple of minutes of rain about an hour before we left. You just can't beat that considering the original forecast was calling for abundant amounts of rain.

All in all just a great weekend. Erin is still talking about it and is ready for Sparks to be starting up again! Kudos go out to the leaders who in my opinion offered an amazine program to the girls all year long and topped it off with a brilliantly planned weekend of fun and wonderful experiences for the girls. I'm hoping to get some of the pictures from one of the leaders so I can post some shortly!

June 21st - Erin and I arrived home a little after noon, unpacked, did some laundry, then loaded up the car to head to the market in Kemptville! Talk about a whirlwind day! I was actually contemplating not going, but in the end I'm glad we did as it was a really good day for Dee and I! The rain even managed to hold off, except for a few drops. Amazing! Erin and I then ran to the grocery store to pick up a cake and a few groceries before heading home. By the way - Happy Father's Day!!!!

Erin was happy to see Gord and gave him the gifts and cards she made for him. Erin made Gord a bird feeder and a magnet! Very cute! Shortly after, Grampa arrived and Erin presented him with a clock we made for him, a bird feeder, and a couple of other little goodies to mark both Father's Day and his birthday. We next headed into town to take Gord and Grampa out for dinner at Main Street. The weather was fabulous at this point so we sat out and enjoyed dinner on the patio! We ended the evening with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday and cake with Grampa!

June 22nd - Monday arrived and I worked at home for the morning. Grampa and I dropped Erin off at school and enjoyed some coffee while I did some work. At noon, Grampa and I headed into Ottawa to pick up a graduation present for Erin. Grampa picked out a unicorn from Build-A-Bear (Erin has been wanting one since Christmas and we finally got lucky enough to find one in stock!). Gord and I got Erin a small aquarium and a fish. She has been begging us for one for a couple of months now, so we thought since she's given up on begging for a cat, we should likely go for this option! Splashy, is a lovely blue betta fish. I'll get some pics of the happy pair up soon!

That evening was Erin's graduation from Kindergarten. The little ceremony was adorable and very well done! We topped off the evening by having dinner at the chip stand before heading home!

Tuesday morning saw Grampa head back home and me to Kingston for a day of meetings. It also marked a beautiful week of weather that allowed us to enjoy the pool for a swim every day when we got home!

Wednesday was the last day of school. Erin will spend the summer at daycare (except for Fridays - yeah!!! We will have them off again for the summer!!), then we will likely pull her out of daycare as she heads to school for full days everyday in the fall. The bus will be coming out our way this fall as part of a bunch of restructuring, so we are going to look at options around teaming up with the neighbours to make it work. Of course with my job situation up in the air the chance to save some money is good and allows for flexibility depending on where I end up. I'm not too worried about that, I know I will find something - I am being fussy right now because I have time and I want to stay working closer to home to be around more for Erin.

Friday Erin was invited to a sleepover at Kacey's house. Friday also brought some pretty nasty weather in the form of thunderstorms, which put a damper on the plan to have the sleepover outside in a tent. The girls seemed to have lots of fun anyway and made the best of the night!

Saturday Dee and I tried out the Smiths Falls Farmer's Market. We actually did better than we expected and are likely to back for a day or two in July. We spent the rest of the day swimming and relaxing around the house. Just what Saturdays are supposed to be for!!!!

So here we are, Sunday again. The sun is shining and we expect no rain for the market! I probably just jinxed us by saying that!!!! I have been firing up the kiln this weekend, re-stocking up on pendants and making some Canada Day pins. We were invited to set up in Oxford Mills on Canada Day for a few hours, so we'll go and see what that brings! Hopefully we can get another swim in after dinner tonight and that will top off what's been a pretty fun past couple of weeks!

Next week should be fun as Erin and I only have two days at daycare / work then we are off for an extended long weekend. We are having a bbq on Saturday July 4th to thank everyone who helped us our over the winter, so we'll do some prep work for that on our days off and hopefully get some time to swim and relax too!

Have a great week!!!