Monday Morning Link Love

- This water bottle is awesome.
- This made me laugh.
- This button lamp is awesome.
- If you're a fan of The Wire, you'll get a kick out of this, I surely did.... Sheeeeeeit.
- LOVING All Over You.
- Very cool tutorial for tie dye pillow cases!
- Love this DIY boot tray.
- Love this age appropriate chore chart printable (PDF).
- 12 Chalkboard ideas!
- Wow, this is crazy... 1 mom, 6 kids, and she bikes everywhere.
- Love this Lace Maxi Skirt tutorial.
- Loving this velcro fort, what a neat idea!
- Think I'd like to have one of these in my backyard.
- Love both of these images.
- The Northern Lights Tiles are awesome as they appear black at room temp, but move through the color spectrum when the temperature changes!
- Loving this fun frame idea!
- This is a fun way to reveal the sex of a baby! Works for "HE" too!
- Nom, nom, nom, Oreo.
- The Fish in the Sea is a great counting game for kids.
- Some more can tab jewelry ideas.
- Love this Kate Spade necklace.
- Getting married? This is hysterical to include at your wedding.
- Love this fun hairdo.
- With 3 boys, these are fun salt & pepper shakers!
- What an awesome tattoo.
- Neat way to make some mittens!
- What a gorgeous winter jacket. Too bad the price & the fact that it's white though.
- LOVE this dress, wow!
- This watch would be PERFECT for me.
- What a perfect way to make sure you get all your daily water intake!
- Oh wow, this dress is stunning! Ohh, and this one is quite sexy.
- If you write a letter to a Disney character (address included in the link), a character will send an autographed photo back, how cool? I think I want one!
- Must get some re-useable swiffer dusters.

Par 3

Jamie and I golfed again this week, we had such beautiful weather & such beautiful scenery. These golf dates with hubby have been awesome. Jamie couldn’t walk the course today, so we actually got a cart on special (lucky us for the cart being on special today). Next week, hopefully we’ll walk the course again. Jamie also forgot to load my golf caddy into the car, so I would have had to rent one of those had we not taken the cart, and the cart wasn’t much more than renting the caddy today.

I wore new contact lenses today, the first time wearing contacts in ages (maybe even years). I tried wearing a pair a few months ago, but I didn’t last very long in them before having to take them off as I started to get a headache. These new ones, are a new technology and corrected for my change in my astigmatism (more on that later) and I wore them all day & felt great. Wearing contacts meant I could wear some stylin’ shades! I haven’t worn non-prescription sunglasses in years. I can’t even find my prescription sunglasses right now, so that works out well for me. I don’t think I’ve seen them since last summer. They’re probably at the bottom of a purse somewhere in my closet.

My best hole of the day was a par on a par 3. My first shot off the tee, I landed the ball 10 feet from the hole. It took 2 puts to get it in, (one put getting it soooo close and then another put getting it in by tapping it in). I’ll forever remember this hole! This hole compensates for the 5 or 6 balls I lost on the course on other holes (in bushes, down ditches, in water…) I still need to take a lesson with a pro, and get in some practice at the driving range, but I’m loving playing golf. Never would I have thought that I would be a golfer. Glad that Jamie and I got his &  hers matching golf club sets for a wedding present. They’ve come in handy! Now I just need to find myself a cute mini skirt… and I’m set to go!

Ahhh, Knitting.

Ahhh… Knitting! I haven’t been getting too much knitting done at knit nights lately, as I’ve been too much chatting or distracted by other things. I made up for the lack of knitting at knit nights by working like crazy on my sweater while Jamie and I have been watching The Wire. We’re now on the final season, which is the 5th and last season. I heard Season 5 is the best one from them all. We’ll see how it compares. Season 1 was awesome, Season 2 was just ok, Season 3 was bad, Season 4 got better, and I’m looking forward to a fantastic end. We’ll see if they can pull it off.

I’m making great progress on the sweater. I see it shaping up quite nicely. I can’t wait to see more if it done, and be able to try it on for size. Getting there!

Monday Morning Link Love

- I love this idea of using colored/fancy duct tape to jazz up a water bottle for a party.
- In a meeting? At a doctor's appointment? Can't run out and pay your Montreal parking meter? There's an app for that!
- We don't keep stuffies in the house (except a few), but this zoo keeper is awesome!
- Drooling over this dress.
- I'd like some cool inventions, like this tea pot thing, this freaking awesome toaster, and this desk tray.
- Love these chore magnets!
- Love this DIY skirt!
- Is your child sick? Need hydration? Here is a few recipes for homemade Pedialyte.
- Loving this image!
- I tried this recipe for World's Best Chicken last week, it was quite good!
- I love this popsicle kit!
- Thinking about doing some fingerprint art.
- Gluing holes shut on bath toys is smart!
- This is beyond adorable.
- Loving the ring & the bracelet!
- These cookie bars look yummy!
- LOVE this iPhone case.
- Tutorial for homemade foaming soap.
- Money as you grow is a great website for teaching kids about money.
- Love these button shoes!
- This made me laugh!
- Must get some black ribbon!
- Love this swim suit in black.
- For those of you whom are fans of The Wire, you might find this funny.
- Love this table runner!
- Love this round crochet pillow.
- I love this pier 1 vase!
- This is how I'd like to spend my summer!
- This made me laugh!
- This is genius storage solutions.
- Love this loot bag idea.
- This shirt is a neat one for working out with an iPhone. SMART!
- Fun pop tab bracelet. And this one too.

Family Afternoon

Saturday we took Sean & Mackenzie to the driving range as a family activity. Mack’s just getting into it, and Sean loves to do any sport just about. Since it’s something we all enjoy, we put Quentin down for a nap at my parents house, and headed out to the driving range. I totally want to do this again with my boys, it was so much fun. I think we went through 5 or 6 baskets of balls between the 4 of us.

Golf

Today, I got to try out my new golf bag caddy. I scored it for 5$ on a local garage sale site. It’s not brand new, but for 5$ it does the trick. (It cost 5$ each time you rent a caddy). One day, I’ll invest in a nice one (with a cup holder, was jealous of the lady we played with today’s golf caddy and her pink golf bag!) but for now, this was a great deal. Some of the tee off balls for the ladies tee were huge oversized golf balls, it was fun! Since Jamie and I are a two-some playing, if there are singles, or another double, they match you up. There was a solo guy and a solo lady today, so we played with them. The lady only joined us for the first 9 holes.

I’m totally digging the teal/turquoise color combo right now. My new sneakers (well not so new, got them for the holidays 2011), are that color. They’ve been super comfy to play golf in! (I played last week too).

By the 17th hole, I was wiped today. I also pulled something in my arm (somewhere around the 3rd or 4th hole) and it was bugging me big time by the end today. We had to cross tracks to get to the final hole (18th). The 18th hole is on it’s own, near the parking lot. Jamie had me park in a spot where fly balls wouldn’t hit. It’s been said that cars have gotten whacked by balls before. The golf course we went to today, we won’t be going back to. Jamie hadn’t been there in numerous years to golf, and he said it was crappy back then, and it’s even worse now. There’s been no money put into the course and it’s not that fun. Last week, the course we were on was really nice, and big too. (Over 11 km of walking). Today’s course was small (just under 6 km of walking). It’s great exercise, that’s for sure. It’s too bad the course is not well kept. I’m glad that this is a sport that both Jamie and I enjoy. It’s so much fun to spend the entire day together. I shot very well today (I’m not keeping score yet though, maybe after a lesson (which I want to take soon) and after a few more games, to get comfortable). I wasn’t the worst one in our foursome today though, the lady we played with was not any better than me. Made me feel good about my game today.

Monday Morning Link Love

- Love these crazy hair day ideas.
- These headband and bow holders make me wish I had a little girl living in my house.
- Loving this flip flop makeover!
- Love this birthday party idea.
- Love these little baby shoes.
- This is a funny birthday gift idea. Too bad in Canada the lowest bill is a 5$.
- We don't have a pool, but my parents do. This towel rack is AWESOME!
- Love this simple up-do.
- This makes me want to carry around chalk.
- I really need to make this for my car, it'll help the kids clutter stay contained.
- Here is an interesting tutorial on recycling candles.
- Love these owl templates.
- Loving this Dior OUI ring.
- I want to make these for myself!
- This looks soooo cozy.
- I think I need a pillow towel!
- Love this bathing suit.
- Love this magical flute.
- It's summertime!
- These Oreo treats look awesome.
- 50 ways to inspire your husband!
- What a gorgeous dress!
- This pool float is awesome.
- This is an awesome DIY lego costume! Cardboard box + solo cups = lego costume.
- This nail art is cool.
- Now this is an awesome baby shower gift idea.
- This car power port is awesome!
- This iPhone joystick is beyond cool.
- Love this Gift Bag Journal. (Thanks Rhoda for the link!)
- I don't think I'd ever wear these, but these lens bracelets are pretty nifty. (I don't really wear bracelets nor a watch).

Summer Knitting

I have been making a bit of progress on my Fave Cardi.I find summer knitting super hard. It’s hot, and I don’t feel like knitting. I find that lately, most of my knitting (besides one afternoon at my parents pool) has been only at my weekly knit nights. And even that, I missed last week because of the Alouettes game, so I didn’t get much knitting done last week at all. It’s also super hard to knit while hanging out with the boys, since I’m constantly getting Quentin out of the trouble he’s in, or chasing after him (19 months is a tough age!) and so not much knitting gets done during the day. We’ll see how long it takes me to get this cardigan done. Maybe I’ll have to challenge myself to the Ravolympics? During the last Olympics, I knit a sweater in 16 days was it? The Olympics are coming up… so maybe that will be a push! I blame it on the weather.

Alouettes

Tonight, Jamie and I took Sean to his first Alouette’s game. They played the Calgary Stampeders. We were losing most of the game, but came back in the last quarter and won the game, 33-32. It was CLOSE! While it was Sean’s first game, and Jamie’s….. (he lost count) and my 2nd Als game, but my first actual game at Molson Stadium, (the only other CFL game I’ve been to, was the 08 grey cup, which was held at the Olympic Stadium).

The cheerleaders put on a good show too!

Sean asked a lot of questions, he liked learning new things. Jamie was very patient with him, explaining things.

We had a great time at the game. One of Jamie’s friends has season tickets, in a set of 3, so it was nice that we got to take Sean to the game. Note to self: Next time bring some sort of padding to sit on, that bench is darn uncomfortable! I didn’t realize that there are only about 10 home games an entire Als season, so it was pretty cool to get to go to a game this season.

It’s late, the kids will be up early as usual, so I’m off to go crash!

ps – I have been knitting & I do have some progress on my Cardi to show you shortly!

A Growing Garden

Recently, I had gone out to the garden, after a busy couple of days, and the entire garden was taken over by weeds. It was beyond ridiculous! It looked like a bed of grass. After 2 sessions in 2 days, I weeded the entire garden patch. I've never seen weeds this bad before, not in any of the last 5 years that I've had a vegetable garden (started vegetable gardening summer 2008, so this is my 5th summer).

It was starting to look better again. Though, now that I posed this, it needs to be weeded again. Those things grow like crazy, and super fast too! One day they're gone, the next they're back!

Things are starting to grow. We have been eating lettuce like crazy from the garden (in salads, in sandwiches, etc). But nothing else has been ripe yet. Tomatoes are growing, and as you saw in yesterday's post, we picked 3 zucchinis, cucumbers are starting to grow too. We lost a few items due to the crazy weeds (like spinach and green onion didn't take). We had lost 1 cucumber plant due to a storm we had early June. But other than that, the garden is thriving, the bean & pea plants are growing huge, and I should have loot pictures soon for you! I'm so eager to taste everything already!

How's your garden growing, if you have one?

10 on 10

9 am.

10 am.

11 am.

12 pm.

1 pm.

2 pm.

3 pm.

4 pm.

5 pm.

6 pm.

10 on 10 project.

Target Practice

Over the weekend, I decided that we should try this activity, which I linked yesterday. I ran out to get water balloons as soon as I had finished preparing my link love post (those are prepared in advance!) So during Quentin's nap time (one day he'll get to participate in fun activities like this too), we headed outside and the boys were surprised with this activity.

The boys had a fabulous time throwing the balloons at the target. They even tried to get me. They weren't too successful. Though, I managed to get Sean once. Mackenzie kept running & screaming, so I stopped trying to get him, since I was afraid Quentin would wake up from the screaming. That kid's got lungs!

I wasn't too impressed with these cheap (dollar store) water balloons, they took forever to fill with the cheap (crappy) filler tool that was provided. When we do this activity again, which I'm sure we will, I'll definitely invest in a better quality kit. They boys had such a good time, I would absolutely consider doing this activity again & soon.

ps - I'm afraid of balloon, but regular balloons with just air in them, popping. I had one popped in my face as a child and have been afraid of them since. I scream like a little school girl when balloons are popped too closely. However, these little water balloons, filled with water, don't make the same popping sound when popped, so I was totally okay with them. Maybe it's one step closer to getting over my fear of balloons?

Monday Morning Link Love

- I'm thinking the kids might like some beetle magnets!
- I'd love to make a triangle quilt.
- Smash books are awesome - I want one!
- This icebox cake looks heavenly!
- Love these knotted bracelets.
- With Garage Sales all summer long, here is a great list of Good and Bad things to get at a garage/yard sale.
- Love these little pants, wish I had a girl to sew 'em up for. And this knotted headband would look adorable on a little girl.
- One day I'm going to treat myself to a necklace like this, with all my boys names on it.
- Loving these July Desktop Calendars. (Sorry for not posting this link last week)
- LOVE this bubble quilt. As well as this scrap bag & pin cushion!
- How to survive birthday season without blowing your budget. This is another great list for frugal gifting for birthday parties.
- Water balloon Target Practice looks like fun! I think I'll have to get some water balloons!
- Now that our basil is growing, I wanted to learn how to prune it, here is a great tutorial!
- Love these fabric covered books.
- This ice cream sandwich cake looks delicious!
- 5 Things you should always buy at yard sales.
- 11 great ideas for re-using Baby Wipe Containers.
- How to throw a fabulous dinner party on a budget. Or a BBQ!
- Loving this bench make-over!
- Love this tutorial on how to sew a pillow cover.
- Loving this tutorial for fabric covered photo mats.
- Wish I had a girl, loving this ruffled skirt!
- HA! These clothespin people are adorable!
- Going on a trip with kids? This is a fantastic printable list for your trip. You won't forget anything!
- Save cash unnoticeably.
- Homemade finger paint!
- Planning a wedding? This wedding cake card box is a very cute idea.
- Mmmm! Pink Applesauce.

Budding Photographers

I think I have 2 budding photographers in my household. They must get that from their mother! The two of them have been obsessed with taking pictures with my pocket camera, my little Canon SD1300. (I call it my purse camera since it’s always on me when I am not able to bring my professional camera with me). So much so, they’ve been fighting over it. We had gotten them for Christmas last year (or maybe it was the year before) some small kid camera (not the Fisher Price kind, but another kid camera, decked out with the Habs logo all over it, of course), but it’s not up to their standards anymore, I might have to look into getting them better ones for this Christmas.

The face Sean is making in this photo made me laugh. He’s sooooo into it.

Beyond My Goal

I feel great & I wanted to share it with the world. Not only did I REACH my goal, I passed it! I weigh about (give or take depending on water retention, etc) 10 lbs less than I did at my wedding, and my wedding weight (155 lbs) was my original goal. If I can do it, you can to. I even started to throw in some exercise in my life. I started power walking/jogging (and running only on the treadmill, for now). I downloaded this fabulous app called MAPMYWALK (they even have MAPMYRUN, and MAPMYDOGWALK) and they even email me weekly to let me know what I've accomplished during the week. I still have a bit I want to tone (remnants of 3 pregnancies on my belly) and between some situps, and power walking/jogging, I hope it helps! If you have stomach toning secrets you'd like to share, please do!

 
Last week at a splash park. 

American Visitors

In celebration of July the 4th (Happy July 4th to my American Readers), I decided today would be a great day to talk about our American visitors that we had last week. A friend of mine since High School (though she’s always lived in the USA, and I’ve always lived in Canada) came up with her husband and daughter to help us celebrate Mack’s 4th birthday and hang out with us for a week. We met through a Youth Group and have kept in touch ever since. We’ve visited them twice in the Philly area (once for their wedding in 05 and in 2010 we took the boys to stay with them to check out Sesame Place), and met up with them once in Boston (March 2006). They’ve been up to Canada twice before (once for our wedding in 05 and again for a longer visit when I was pregnant with Sean in October 06). Above is 2 pictures from Mackenzie’s birthday party. We rented a HUGE inflatable. IT was so much fun!

We had a fun filled week with them here. We went to a splash park, swimming at my parent’s pool, I painted their daughter’s nails (above) since I don’t have a daughter, this was a LOT of fun for me. I took them for Poutine, to the Children’s Museum, we ate out a lot, the ladies went out to celebrate my birthday last week with some girlfriends for dinner & drinks (no kids!), and we got to check out the Exotarium, which we’ve never been to before and see some pretty interesting things (see pictures below). 

Hope our visitors had a great time in Montreal!