Team Indi's farewell activities

The house is quiet tonight. Team Indi has gone home (and arrived safely, I am pleased to report) after a fantastic trip. It was great to have them all here to enjoy all the great summer activities in town. The weather held up great and was even a bit too hot at some points during their stay. The kids all got along well and we managed to steer clear of most meltdowns despite the breakneck pace of fun in the sun.

Yesterday was another jam packed day. Although we had kept them up until close to 11pm on Canada Day, the kids were all up at 7am, ready and raring to watch TV. We didn't have anywhere urgent to be so we had a pretty quiet morning. The main event for the morning was Schmoo's first dentist appointment to have a cavity filled. I have to admit I felt nauseous all morning just thinking about it. I didn't know what to expect, from either the experience or her reaction to the experience. We had talked lots about being brave and that's exactly what she was. I was floored by how she just lay quietly in the chair, with her sunglasses and headphones on watching Treehouse, while they froze her gum and then did the filling. I had to hold back my tears for almost the whole thing. I was a mixture of being emotional because she was being so brave and sad watching her go through it all. She managed to hold it together until we got to the door to leave and then the poor thing melted down. Her face ached and felt funny and she wasn't happy. It took about 1/2 hour with many tears and a trip to the pharmacy for some Advil and a trip to the dollar store for some goodies for her to settle down. Within an hour she was feeling much better and by the end of the day she was talking about how much she liked going to the dentist. This is a good thing as her next appointment is in 2 weeks.

The rest of the crew stayed at home for the morning. K ended up falling asleep so they were all still at the house when we got back from the dentist. Papa was working all day so we didn't catch up with him until after supper time. After lunch we packed everyone up and headed to the lookout to see the view. The lookout is also where the kids outdoor pool is located and it had conveniently opened that very day. So we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the pool and the playground. Auntie V and Baby Z hung out in the shade in the park, watching the rest of us in the pool. Schmoo managed to find half a dozen kids she knew and I spent most of my time trying to keep up with her as she moved back and forth across the pool. Thank goodness we have more swimming lessons planned starting next week. We finally wrapped things up just before 5pm and headed into town for a quick stop at the kids shop before attempting to feed all the kids some pizza at the bakery. We were all too tired so the experience was far from ideal. Three kids (Schmoo, Bean and H) got to have ice cream on the walk back to the car. The bedtime process was pretty quick when we got home and by 7pm all the kids were tucked into bed. Papa headed out to soccer and the rest of us enjoyed a lovely take out Thai meal on the front deck, watching the sun go down. The rest of the evening was spent visiting in the front room.
Today ended up being a super busy day. Team Indi managed to get organized and out the door around 7:30am for their last trip to the local coffee house with Papa. Both kids were sad to see them leave and I had to wake Bean up to make sure he got to say good-bye. I got them organized and we headed out to the gym. The heat adds another level to the workout it seems as I felt exhausted! We came home for lunch and some quiet time before heading back into town for Schmoo's speech therapy appointment. She's going to get some help, together with two other kids, with the lisp that she has. Bean played pretty well in the adjoining room until he discovered how fun it was to lick the windows between the two rooms. I promptly brought him in the other room with me.

After that session it was off to C & H's house for C's 5th birthday party. The kids are at a great age now because you can just drop them off and come back two hours later. One of the other moms and I had made plans to head down to the lakefront hotel to enjoy the sunshine and a cold drink and we managed to get our husbands to join us. What a lovely way to spend a summer afternoon. I returned to the party to find Bean running through the sprinkler with the other boys, in between stealing pieces of other people's uneaten chocolate cake. They had had a great time and at 7pm I rounded them up and brought them home. When we arrived, our neighbour across the road called us over to look at the tortoise that he had discovered while out working today. Schmoo was more interested than Bean, but they both seemed keen to check it out walking around on the grass. Bedtime was pretty quick and they have both fallen to sleep quickly.

The exciting news of the week is that pull ups are no longer worn in our house. I almost hate to announce it as I'm sure it will mean a digression, but yesterday Bean pulled the bag of pull ups out and told me he was all done. Last night I bravely put him to bed wearing underpants and he made it through to the morning without an accident. Today has been a fantastic potty day with several poos in the potty and tonight at bedtime he even tried peeing in the big potty standing up (like Papa) for the first time! I know I still need to keep a close watch on him, but I'm hoping there's no going back now! Hip Hip Hooray!!!