Live it!

CHA - Chicago

I'm back. The show was fun and busy. Our booth was hoppin' and I didn't really get a chance to break free and tour around the show much at all. The only 3 places I was able to quickly visit was Elsie's booth (which was so cute) and over to Sonburn to see my friend Renee's 2 new paper lines with them (which I loved!) and Fontwerks - I always love their stuff. Fancy Pants (one of my fav companies right now) was right across from us with their booth and i didn't even find a moment to go see their stuff. Wah!

The Autumn Leaves booth is fun to work. If you gotta work, it is a good place to be. We have all become good friends from many shows together and I already miss the girls and all the laughs we shared over the past 5 days. I took my little point and shoot camera and still managed to not take photos. I suck at that when i'm away. Hopefully Becky and Jenn will have some they will pass on to me :)

I attended the 2peas get-together on Friday night and that was fun. After the event Jenn, Tia, Renee C and I rented a horror movie (because it has become tradition that we do so at every show). We watched the Hitcher and it was really good. Lots of screaming and eye-closing through the movie.

Jeff took us to a nice restaurant on our final night there and I laughed so hard throughout that dinner that my sides still hurt. We had a toast and said good bye to our good friend Tim who is now the proud and excited owner of the Fred Hill Group. We will still see him at the shows but we will miss having him with us at the booth.

Sunday my flight out of O'Hare was on time and I even got home a bit early. (SHOCKER) I was so anxious to see the kids and Shaune. They picked me up and I got the best hugs and kisses ever. Being away for 5 days this time pretty much sealed our decision to take them to Vietnam when we go next year to adopt their sister. It would be too long to miss them for sure.

So, I'm back. Enjoyed my time in Chicago but am glad to be home - in the country - with my family - Shaune took wonderful care of the house and kids while I was away (with some help from some great family and friends). Thank you babe... you are wonderful. There is no place like home.

Our favourite park

The kids love to spend an evening at this park. It is not too far away and they can take their bikes on the 'bunny park' mini ramp section for the younger kids. There are lot of skateboarders and BMXers for them to watch at the large ramps and then they love the playground with the tall slides too. We spent last night there so Keaton could try out his new bike. It took him a few laps and a few falls to get used to a bigger bike but he is not a quitter and figured it out in no time. Chloe was quite happy to ride along side him, but is not willing to try the ramps quite yet :)

Day Trip to the County

Shaune and Matt were both in the Walshy Classic golf tournament yesterday so Kerri & I gathered up the kidlets and headed out on a little day trip over to Wellington in Prince Edward County. They have a quaint little park right on the water and it was a fun day for the kids... skipping stones, getting wet, running on the beach, etc. Kerri had them searching for heart shaped rocks, which kept them busy.

After the park we came back home for a little pool fun and a bbq. Kerri took this photo of Addison and Chloe - decorating their hair with my flowers (buggers!) and posing for the camera. It is a cute photo of the 2 buddies.

Great holiday weekend

I'm slowly recovering and even had a little cat nap this afternoon while the kids watched "The Christmas Story" (of all movies - Christmas in July I guess). We had a fun but busy weekend. Canada Day weekend here in Canada.

On Saturday we headed out to John and Michelle's trailer in Prince Edward county and the kids had the best time. The weather was sunny one moment and thunder storms the next but we did ok and you know children never care about stuff like that. The park had a karioke dance set up under the pavillion and the kids had fun dancing around and singing songs for everyone. We ended up staying up way too late (kids included) and spent the night.

Sunday we had to rush home since we had a pool party of our own scheduled to celebrate Canada Day. All our friends came with their kids and it was a lot of fun, regardless of the crappy rainshowers that would come and then leave again every hour. We finished the party off with Guitar hero and I think Chris won the boobie prize with that game. A lot of laughs!

Holiday Monday we went over to Ang and Elmers and met Lori & Chris there (and some of Elmers' buddies too). We took the 3 boats out and Keaton and Chloe had their first rides on a sea-doo... they were really happy to get to ride them and i got video of them holding on tight - I will have to figure out how to upload video from our new video camera (I hate reading instructions!)

So another weekend ends with a dirty house, no laundry done and no landscaping done around the pool. It is just too hard to turn down a good time. Maybe next weekend we will get something done around the house.

PS: I was so lazy about my camera this weekend - i took ZERO photos. :)