Canada Day, Lemonade and a couple of Sickos!

Wow... this week was a bit of a roller coaster and summer has barely even begun!    

Some highlights:

   Tuesday was the last day of the school year for John and ironically it was also the first time that John has ever used a "discretionary day" and not gone to work.     Even more ironic than that was the fact that John took the day off of work to ... well...WORK of all things!    He built a fence this week and was feeling the pressure to complete it,  so that extra day came in handy, though he missed out on a fun final day in Waterton with the rest of the High School Staff.    

John is definitely the only person I know who would skip school so that he could go work;)  

 Needless to say after some VERY long days, a few late nights, several complaints from his needy wife (aka:me), and a sore back- he finished the fence.   It surrounded a fairly large property and he essentially built it in THREE days!!!     That's a new record for him and it looks amazing.   Here's hoping his next fence can be built at a much slower pace.   

While John worked, I did my best to keep these kids happy.     The weather has been H.O.T. here and Abby had been begging to have a lemonade stand for awhile.    Tuesday was the day.    They sat out in our tucked away cul de sac hoping for someone to drive by.     Our neighbours were so kind to them,  and even bought more lemonade than they probably even wanted.    Though I think that might have something to do with the way these four went door to door inviting everyone out!   Tacky?   Definitely.   But how could you refuse such cuteness?

I will always smile at the memory of Sam that day as he called out down the street:  "Lemonade!  Get your Lemonade!   Best Lemonade in the "Whole World!!!"   It's moments like that that make being a mom fun!   And isn't that pic of Nate in the bottom corner awesome?
    Summer Days= Dirty Shirts that's for sure!

Of course there were moments this week when being the "Mom" wasn't so fun.   Like on Wednesday night when both Abby and Sam came down with the worst flu ever!     They were hot, cranky, tired, and ...well I'll spare you the details but it wasn't good.    I love the black and white picture of Nate.   You know your child is sick when he falls asleep standing up!    

 It put a damper on our plans for the weekend as we were all looking forward to spending the next night in Calgary with Ben and Kat.    In the end, I made a quick trip up by myself and got a lot done. 

Friday was one of our favorite day of the year...   Canada Day!   It was made even better this year by the fact that John was actually here to celebrate with us.   That's pretty rare as he is usually at a Young Men's camp at this time.    It was so fun to have him around with us and John made sure we partied all day long.         

We were feeling spontaneous that morning, so we grabbed John's Dad and headed out to attend the Raymond Parade.    Luckily, Jewel let us sit with her and her extended Hardy family.  We probably would not have found a place to sit- those streets were packed!   After the parade we stopped in to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Hardy.   We've not seen them for quite a while so it was great to have the time to do that.   Abby sang "O Canada" to them and great Grandpa Hardy (who is now 94 years old!)  sang along.  It was kinda sweet. 

On the way home we stopped off at St. Mary's for a picnic and a bit of fishing.   (but of course;)    After we ate, Max, John, and Abby walked down to the river to fish while the rest of us stayed at the playground.    It was encouraging to hear that they'd gotten a few bites, and it was fun to have Grandpa with us.  

That night we went to the local Party in the Park just as we do every year.    Abby joined the elementary Choir this year as they opened the event with a very cute and rousing rendition of "O Canada!"   I love our anthem!!!   

 Then we spent the rest of the night playing on giant bounce houses, obstacle courses, eating pop corn and snow cones, taking carriage rides, and petting all kinds of fun farm animals!    

Bed time came quickly that night for most of the kids and by the time the fireworks began it was only John, Abby and I awake to enjoy them.    We were all too tired to make the long trip down the street to really view them so instead we snuggled up on our front steps and watched them from there.   It actually wasn't that bad.   

It was a fun way to end a busy week that's for sure!

If this week is indication I think it's safe to say that summer is absolutely going to FLY by!