Amelia stays overnight! May 8

Warning ... all about Amelia. :)

Monday I head out to the Highway 18 Junction to pick up Amelia at 8:30 am. Jason dropped her off for an overnight with us as he had an appointment in Victoria. Fun times!

Shortly after 9am we were back home and she is so happy to see Papa. We enjoyed a busy morning playing with her toys, a walk to the lake park before lunch and nap time. She was an angel for the whole visit, sleeping well and no tears. Definitely a happy little girl unless of course Mommy is around, then she is very demanding. :) Kristi calls her the "little dictator" at 28months old. lol It's also nice this time as she's not sick, which seemed to be the case since we got home March 15th. The downside of daycare lol

She even insisted Papa change her diaper ... not Nana. Too funny, first one he's had to change on Amelia since born. lol

An excavator and dump truck are working at the lake park. Amelia loves watching them work and the operator let her get in. but she's not too sure about it. lol

Snack with Papa after her nap.

A bike ride and walk before the rain really began after nap.

It's a rainy afternoon so we spent most of the time playing inside. Notice how she set her papa up with a pillow. "You sit down Papa" :)

Reading to Papa.

Nana made tunnels.

Amelia went to bed without any problems. I think we wore her out. Tuesday morning she woke early at 6:15 am . Amelia is not supposed to get out of bed until 7 but I heard her calling for mommy, so knew she would not go back to sleep and I did not want any tears so I got her up. Cuddles for Nana.

Once we were up it was time for blueberry pancakes which Amelia helped make. 

Playing ball with Papa and of course Zeus wanted in on the action. :)

At 9 we loaded her into the car for a ride to the duck pond, the new children's park. Next up, Tim Horton's for a donut before coming back home. She loves the Boston Creme, digging out the custard first.

Bike ride down the road to wear off more energy before lunch and naptime. Her "baby" has to come and has her own basket to sit in.

She ate an early lunch and went down for her nap and asleep by 11:30, an hour early. She asked to go to bed :) Good thing though, as Jason picked her up at 1:45 and had to get back to Nanaimo as Zeus had a vet appointment later in the afternoon. I had her snack ready to go in the truck and off they went.

What a great visit, so much fun. Now to put our house back in order ... toys everywhere!

May is here! Planting time and getting ready for Lake time! May 1 - 7th

Hard to believe May is here! We are finally getting some warmer weather. Today we spent some time tidying up after having Kristi and Amelia were here for the weekend. "De-babyfying the house". lol

I planted my cedar boxes in front of the house. What a lovely day. Too early to plant the tomatoes and pepper plants as it still gets too cold overnight.

Tuesday I planted the rest of the planters on the deck with bedding plants. 5 planters are waiting for the peppers and tomatoes next week.

Lettuce and other veggies seeded, with some strawberry plants for Ray and Amelia.

The metal tub is Amelia's garden with peas, carrots and radish seeds planted.

Ray did a quick trip into Duncan for some items and saw this wonderful 1957 Roll Royce.

This was the warmest day yet. Once he got back from town, we spent some time down on the dock after carrying down our chairs and tables.

Wedneday, another gorgeous day. Ray helped me by filling up the pots in the yard with potting soil and  I planted them. He kept busy reseeding and fertilizing the lawn. The seed our gardener put down three weeks ago rotted I think, with all of the rain.

My side perennial garden did well over the winter.

The heather is doing great too.

Thiursday I have an appointment in Nanaimo so left early to do some shopping and pick up my baskets from Costco. I left Ray at home to putter on his projects. This is my first load lol. I did get 2 baskets for Pat next door too.

Friday my new umbrella came in, so I tried it out inside to make sure it's all intact before destroying the boxes. lol Nice to have such tall ceilings in the house. Made summer happen in the house as it's such a miserable day outside.

Today being so miserable, I spent the day in my kitchen making bread, blueberry loaf and in the afternoon got our chicken going on the Traeger. I've done turkeys, but this is my first chicken, so moist and delicious.

Saturday morning, the rain quit and the forecast is for a whole lot more sun this week. Time to get my final plants in their pots. Deck boxes done. other than Ray hooking up my micro irrigation.  

Since Roy and June took down the big tree between us, it sure opened up the view to their space. I've ordered two metal screen panels to give us both a bit of privacy but still allow the sunshine to come through for my plants.

I bought some herbs and planted them for Pat too. She's recovering from her replacement knee surgery. Here is Pat's planter. Now it's time for Darryl to pressure wash his deck lol

Sunday we were up early. A beautiful sunny day on the lake. We emptied the garage and moved the motorhome so we can launch our boat. Then of course all the stuff went back in after the empty trailer was put in lol. That took a few hours.

The launch of Kyle's Kraft.

After that, I made a fire so we could have hot dogs for lunch. We did get chased back inside though around 1 pm as some passing rainshowers came through. Nice to be outside for awhile though.

That was our week. Next week is supposed to be sunny and hot!

April Showers ... make that rain! Kristi and Amelia come to visit. April 17 - 30

Monday thru Friday ... nothing to report. It rained and rained and rained. Ray is busy working on a puzzle and down in his workshop ... lots of noise down there, but have no idea what he is doing. lol I've been working on resting my right arm from "tennis elbow" without playing tennis!. Self inflicted moving planter boxes to the garage last week. 

Finally, Friday morning we decided to go into Duncan for a little shopping and lunch out at Original Joe's. I checked out herbs and plants for planting, hopefully soon. Still pretty cool out, but next week we finally are in for some warmer, dry weather.

The weather for Saturday and Sunday the same, wet and dreary.... but tomorrow if the predictions are correct we are in a dry warm weather trend finally!

Monday, mostly cloudy with some sunny breaks but finally warmer outside. Off to Duncan to start buying some herbs. Still too early for bedding plants. I am going to try some veggies on the sundeck this year as well as my usual peppers and tomatoes.

Tuesday afternoon is nice enough to finally sit outside. This guy's enjoying the day too, eating a crayfish from under our dock. Our broken window in the bedroom got fixed today. Yeah! Unfortunately the seal in the window in the bathroom is gone too, so another window ordered. Don't want it to blow out next year. The house is now 15 years old and that side of the house takes tremendous heat on it through the summers which I suspect is the reason those two windows lost their seal.

Wednesday I finally got my herb garden planted as the weather finally turned nice. Tomatoes and Pepper plants purchased, but need to "harden off" before I plant them in the boxes on the sundeck.

In the sun and out of the wind at the front of the house.

Thursday night, Kristi and Amelia arrived for the weekend. Baby time! Great fun for the next few days with going out to lunch, and playing outside in the nice weather. Kristi was a big help moving the planters onto the sundeck for me.

First up chasing Amelia on her bike.

New toys, Grandma donated a couple of purses.

Snack time before bed watching Frozen II.

Friday morning helping Grandma make the waffle batter.

Momma teaching her about the water and that she must wear life jackets on the dock and hold an adults's hand.

And holding a hand going down the stairs to the beach. She didn't mind the life jacket this year .... it was a big struggle last summer.

Using up more energy, off to the Duck Pond Kids Park.

Lunch at Tim Horton's.

Gotta vaccum up Zeus's cookie crumbs. 

Watching Grandma plant veggies.

Helping Grandma pull out the old plants. She is such a good little helper.

Saturday lunch, Jakes at the Lake.

Our neighbour Pat managed to hobble over after her knee replacement surgery to enjoy the sunshine and get out of her house.

Thanks for the strawberries Grandma.

Grandma dug out her old play dough recipe and made a batch for Amelia. lol

After she woke up from her nap on Sunday, Kristi and Amelia headed home. What a fabulous visit.

Ray's puzzle is just about complete, unfortunately he dumped his drink ontop of a bunch of pieces so has to glue them back together before finishing the last dozen pieces or so. lol