Jada – Day 4

Day 4 was a Friday and we decided to go off to Port Dalhouise for our annual trip with Ange and the kids.  I guess this being the third year that we’ve done this that means it’s developed into some sort of tradition.  The girls ask all summer when we’re going ot Port Dalhouise, as if it’s expected.  We don’t mind making a point of going since it is an enjoyable and free (well, if you skip the factor of the cost of gas).  It’s always a nice time because there’s a bit of simple variety while we are there.

The day unfortunately did not start off all that great.

  

After driving for about 20 minutes my vehicle decided to die while we were waiting at a light. 

 

This lovely age of cell phones is so handy for these situations.  Rob was in Hamilton at dutch lessons so he wasn’t all that much help to me.  He suggested trying to give it a boost, although he figured that wouldn’t work given it had just been running.  So the van was pushed back a few hundred metres, off the road and out of the way as we expected it would be sitting there for some time. 

Well I’ve been given some basic lessons on boosting a car, but let’s face it, when you never do such things you get a little sceptical on what you can remember and a bit hesitant to be playing around with power. 

So this time we decided to call Dave seeing as we didn’t want to interrupt Rob too often during his class. Yup, were doing it right …. no it wasn’t helping. This concluded that it was likely the alternator that needed to replaced and we were going to have to come up with another plan for the day.

Ange took half of the gang of kids to my parents place which was about five minutes away.  Then she came back and picked up the rest of us.  My parents were on holidays but conveniently  the keys were available and so we loaded into mom’s car.  Made a stop at the van to transfer our stuff into the car and we were finally on our way again

Yup, you guessed it … Jada decided to take a nap along the way.

 

Upon arrival the kids headed off to the carousel first.  Jada was no interested in the carousel at that point and so she went to play at the playground. 

Matthew also was not interested in going on the carousel as he remembered that the year before he just watched and waved  Funny I was just looking at last years pictures and noticed hat he’s wearing the same shirt

After watching the kids do a round or so on the carousel both Jada and Matthew warmed up to the idea of going for a ride.  After that they were hooked and enjoyed it just as much as the other kids

 

Once we got a few carousel rides out of the kids system we had our lunch.

  The kids played on the playground for a little after lunch while we relaxed and Marietta and Brent made a head start at walking the pier as Brent was still recuperating and relearning to walk after the accident he was involved in in the spring.

 

Each year I am required (by the girls) to take a picture of the kids sitting on he bench at the end of the pier.  Plus Marietta usually likes to have a variety of other pictures.  It’s neat to see them growing up as you look back at the previous years.

If I had angled his jus a bit differently I could have gotten Matthew and Vivian (sitting on ground) on the picture too.

     

Running back down the pier … beach time.

 

   

Matthew and Vivian … they’re quite the pair.  It’s always neat to watch them play as they play so nicely together and understand each other well and communicate in their own special way.  They fight like all kids do, but overall they get along so well and are such a good pair when it come to playing.

The kids wanted to dig a big deep hole that they could actually sit in, so inbetween swims they were busy digging

Not bad for the amount time that they worked on it.

A couple last carousel rides before we head home.

 

By time we left Rob had been to the van, fixed it (it was the altenator) and returned it to my parents place so that I could switch vehicle there.  I love my handy hubby!!

Jada – Day 3

On day three we had a mellow day at home, but in the late afternoon/evening we went off to enjoy the Fresh Air Fund BBQ where all the local fresh air kids could come and enjoy some swimming, boating, tubing, and fellowship with out fresh air kids that they met on the bus ride up (or sometimes already knew for years from the repeated visits).

We discovered Jada likes to sleep in vehicles.  Again it was only a 10-15 minute drive, again she fell asleep during the ride there.

Matthew enjoyed playing in the sandbox and it kept him occupied for some time.

 

The BBQ was at the home of one of the Fresh Air Fund local organizers who lives on the Grand River.  So the kids could go swimming in the river or go for boat rides or tube rides as they pleased … or fill up on food and goodies, which they also did as they pleased.  It was a nice time and the kids had fun.

 

 

Jada had no interest in tubing and the girls did not want to go either (maybe if they had gone Jada would have gone).

Jada also didn’t have interest in going for a boat ride until Rebecca decided she wanted to go for a ride.  Jada went with her and ended up going for a couple rides, Rebecca loved it and went for repeated rides.

  

Back on land Matthew was causing some troubles of his own.  He had to go to the bathroom and so I took him to the house.  He gave me strict instructions that he didn’t need help and that I could wait outside for him.  So I went back outside and made myself a tea while I was waiting for him to finish.  When it became apparent that he was taking a bit long I finally went back in to check on him … he had locked the bathroom door and now he could not unlock it.

Together with our host and hostess we tried various things to try and get the door open from the outside, but could not succeed.  Matthew was able to just reach the handle to open the window a little further so that we could talk to him.  I think he got a bit tired or trying to open the door and turn the lock as each new person that came by to help thought they would coach him on how to turn the lock.  He knew what he had to do, he just couldn’t do it.

 

Finally it was decided to rip the screen and send Marietta in to rescue him.  After the door was opened Rob tried to give him a lesson on how to open the lock, but in the end it was obvious he knew that he had to turn it to open it, but it was a bit harder to do and he couldn’t keep his grip on the part to turn it enough.  So the learned lesson was that he is not allowed to lock bathroom doors until he’s a bit older.

After swimming time the kids spent some time around the fire roasting marshmallows

  

… and eating ice cream … and by that time they were stuffed and tired!

Jada – Day 1 and 2

This summer we participated in the Fresh Air Fund Program.  This programs provides a free country experience to kids of New York city from disadvantaged communities.  We had  a seven year old girl, Jada, come to stay with us for a week.  She arrived Tuesday, August 9th in the evening and left for home early Thursday, August 18 – giving her seven full days at our home.    The Fresh Air Program encourages you to keep your life “normal” and integrate the child into your life.  The child should function in your family like another family member, helping out with chores and obeying the rules set for your family.  You do not need to go out and do anything special with them, but simply let them enjoy life in a different environment.

The bus from New York arrived at around 6:45 on Tuesday, August 9.  During the 10 minutes drive home Jada fell asleep.  It had been a long day for her, her mom said she had to be up at 5:30 to catch the bus.

 

But a little bit of food revived Jada once we got home and she did some exploring around the house and the property.  Rob had the truck home for the night and so the kids  took the opportunity to climb all over it and check it out.

The next day was a day of exploring and “settling in”.  The girls took Jada around the property to see the various aspects of our home.  They climbed up into the barn loft to see the girls pioneer fort and play in it for a bit. It was at this time that I began to suspect that she had allergies and the barn may not be such a good place for her as she started coughing while in the barn and for a good few hours after that.

  

There were still some round hay bales left in the barn so they did some jumping and climbing on them. 

Jada’s signature wave.  At first she would do her princess wave everytime the camera came out, but eventually that wore off.

 

We wandered over next door to the neighbours so Jada could have an opportunity to collect eggs

  

and chase chickens

oh … and a poor old blind and deaf dog, well not really chase him, just carry him around.

In the afternoon the kids decided to go for a walk in the fields across the road.

 

 

While on their walk they discovered a really big mud puddle … with lots of eewwwwwy, goooooeeeeyyyy, ickkkkkkkkyyyyyy, squishyyyyy mud

And they decided to have a little bit of fun

         

After cleaning up the mud and having some supper we headed off to Dave and Ange’s so the kids could go see the little piggies in the barn.  Our kids love going with Rob when he does chores for Dave, it seems to spark some of those vague childhood memories for the girls of when we lived on the farm.

Jada had no fear of the pigs and was in there with the other kids catching and playing with the piggies.

 

Matthew also has no fear and loves going to the barn

  

Once they had had their fill of playing with the piggies we returned home with a few extra kids and they all went for a swim.

I previous wrote how our old dog, Muddy,  chewed up our pool last year … leaving us not-so-happy, to put it mildly.  But it all turned out okay in the end.  Some weeks after Muddy chewed up the pool I received an e-mail response to an ad I had posted on Freecycle at the beginning of the summer when I was looking for  a ladder for the pool.  A lady had a ladder.  I guess I was still fired up enough about how we ended up without a pool that in my response I said we had one available also since we no longer had a pool thanks to our dog.  She responded that she had a pool too and we were welcome to it.  Since you never know what you get with these blow-up pools we warned the kids not to get too excited until the pool was actually up.  Well the pool went up in the middle of July (after our trip to Ottawa for lack of time before that), with only one small hole that we patched and was thoroughly enjoyed by all (but myself since I don’t really swim much) this summer.  It was bigger and deeper then last years pool making it a perfect size for everyone.  Matthew could just stand on the bottom and yet it was deep enough for the girls and Rob to still have room to play and “swim”.