Whooooosh!

That whoooooshing noise is the sound of our weekend as it flew by. What is up with this summer? It seems we have no time to spare!

We were supposed to go camping this weekend. But (as seems to be the trend this year for us) we cancelled and opted to stay home. We just had way too much to get done before leaving and the stress level was getting noticeably high for both of us. So instead, Keith went into work and got caught up on some stuff on Saturday morning while I cleaned the house from top to bottom. Got rid of some of Max's Little Tike's outside toys he doesn't play with (Yeah Craigslist! A lady came by the pick up the Cozy coupe and ended up taking the table and chairs too. Love when that happens!) Keith washed vehicles. I grocery shopped. Keith hauled out the tent trailer and replaced the converter. I did laundry. You get the picture - just general stuff that needed to get done. And the day was over almost before it started.

Sunday evening we had some surprise visitors over for dinner. Well not really a surprise as we received a phone call on Friday night from them. It was one of Keith's old buddies from back in the day. (Meaning...before I stepped in the picture and ruined all their fun! LOL!) Darrel and his wife LaRhonda got married two weeks ago and are out here on their honeymoon. (The surprise for us was that they were married. We didn't even know they were engaged!) They stopped by for dinner and a lovely visit last night. It was a very nice relaxing evening and fun to get caught up with them...the perfect way to close off our weekend. And you know - it really is a small world. I had never met LaRhonda before but we soon figured out that our brothers knew each other and were friends in highschool. Love when that happens!

This morning Max is at "Power Camp" - Vacation Bible School put on by our church. He was up at 6:30 this morning ready to go. Just a bit excited!! He wasn't that happy that he had to wait a few hours before I drove him there.

Lastly those pictures of Max with the block of coloured ice - just want to share a GREAT idea I came across recently.

Go around your house and collect a bunch of odds and ends (buttons, pennies, nuts and bolts, bobby pins, little plastic trinkets, tiny plastic animals, little fake jewels, shells, stones, marbles, whatever you can find). Take a plastic container and fill the bottom with water. Throw in a few treasures and freeze it. When it's frozen, take it out and put in another layer of water and some more trinkets. Repeat process until the container is completely filled and frozen with water and trinkets. Then on a nice hot day (yesterday afternoon for example) when your kid is bored, you pull it out and stick it in a big bowl or tub. Give them some "tools" - like a squirt bottle filled with hot water, a tooth brush, some forks/spoons...and get them busy unearthing treasures. Kept him busy for a good 3/4 hour. He just LOVED it! I also added a few drops of food colouring to some of the water layers as I froze it to add interest! I'm telling you - Max was just over the moon with this activity. He told me he wants a soccer one. I asked him how in the world we would do a soccer one. And he had an answer for me - I'm supposed to take all his playmobile soccer stuff and freeze it for him. What a great idea. While I'm at it....I think I'll do the same with his playmobile pirate stuff. It's little and should freeze nicely. I already have two separate containers started in the freezer. So go and get busy! Dig through your junk drawers and your change drawers and your laundry dish where you empty out pockets. You'll be amazed what you all find that will freeze nicely and be a new treasure. If I get my act together I'm going to make a bunch of them for playdates - that should keep them busy and entertained which is always a good thing! :-)

Enjoy your day and make the most you can out of it!