A good start

Today was a good start to summer holidays.

At 9:00am, Max's little friend Anika arrived for a play date. Anika recently emigrated to Canada from the UK with her family. She has the cutest little accent. I found myself smiling throughout the morning as I heard her telling Max things like "we're having a jolly good time" and saying that she wears a "swimming costume" and wondering if Max is allowed to say "blimey"? They played extremely well together considering this is their first play date and they didn't really know each other before today. Most of the morning was spent playing "Night at the Museum"...pretending they were the guards at the museum. Especially cute considering Max hasn't seen the movie but has heard about it tons from all his little friends. So I guess he was able to go along with the flow.

Early afternoon Anika left and we had to get out of the house for a showing. So we packed up some snacks and sunscreen and headed out for a nearby beach. It started out good (no one around) however we soon figured out it was a beach where dogs were allowed and as the afternoon wore on we were surrounded and jumped on by crazy (wet!) dogs so we left once that started happening. But the first hour was mighty fine indeed.

From the beach, we headed over to a little neighbourhood playground at the end of our street. We've actually never played there before. Sad, considering it's only a 5-10 minute walk. I think because whenever we think of it, it's later in the afternoon and the sun hits it full force - not many shade trees. We'll aim to go there in the mornings so it's not so blazing hot.

By 4:00pm we headed out to pick up Keith, arriving on a flight fresh from Ontario. We went back home, bbq'd a simple meal of burgers and dogs and played in the back yard. Finished off watching Night at the Museum 1 (Now Max will actually know how to pretend when he plays with his friends!)

Max loved today. He said it was because he didn't have to go on any errands and into any shops. Cheeky kid! Today also began a tradition - the appearance of "Max's Summertime Chore Chart". This is the third year. We have lots of things to work on this summer and Max did very well today with his chores. He's got his eye on a special toy that he wants to earn by the end of the summer. Incentive is a wonderful thing!

Looking forward to a nice low key weekend. Hope yours is fabulous!