14th Birthday Party

What do you get when you take a....

Tent...

some balloons and party favours..


a cake...


a bunch of girls...


a snowball fight in June.....


a water balloon fight...


makeovers....


and a Hot Tub???



.... A 14th birthday party!

X-Fence

We don't make this stuff up. If any one still wonders why we had an X-file theme, look at what happens to our fence when the sun hits our windows!!!

It even has the circle around it!~!!

Not cheaper to drive anymore

Well I guess I'm glad we're not doing any cross country trips this year. According to the price of gas today our trip last time ( 6184 km ) would have cost $1132.51 this year. That's approximate and probably low, because of the city/highway factor, and detours and gas price flux. But a ball park figure. I guess it is cheaper to fly, and definitely cheaper to drink!

From the muck it emerges...

Our poor neighbors trying to get out of the muck to go camping....
Hopefully it's not mucky where they're going, maybe they should bring their boards and boots with them?

And yes our new hobby is neighbor watching.

Do you know the muffin man?

We all know the old classic kid tale about the muffin man.....
but do you know the muffin cat??

Escalator Trouble!

I just had to walk up an escalator and that reminded me of one of my favourite commercials:

Happy.....

13.... ah ah ah

Ding Dong

So when is it safe to answer the door? One day someone will be in real stress and they won't be able to get help. Usually if someone comes to the door, and I'm not expecting anyone, or there isn't a delivery van outside, I ignore the doorbell. Salespeople and census is usually all I'm missing. But twice in 2 weeks, I got sucked into answering the door. Maddie comes home at 3:30 ish, and always rings the bell, cause her key is at the bottom of her purse. So I look at the clock and if it's in the time zone I don't think. Last week a guy said that he was selling home alarms. He's sold to many of my neighbors already he claims.... I hmphed him and said, "we have an alarm". This week a new ploy. A man with a muddy dog says "Is this your dog, do you know who's dog it is"? From a crack in the door I say "no". Now, were these real situations? Were these ploys to get the door open? I always lecture Maddie on the tricks "bad people" use to lure kids into trouble, and then I go and open my house to a stranger!! That's it! I refuse to answer the door anymore. If anyone is coming over... you will have to call from your cell and say " Ding Dong, answer your door, it's me"

What would the hail do?

So I casually asked Dean the other day what Hail would do to our skylight? He said not to worry.... well today it hailed.... and he was right. No worries.




it sure looked like snow out there today!






The neighbors had a pile of hail under their water spout!

The Birth of Lake Evanston

When we found our house in Evanston, we never knew it would be near lakefront property. Over the last several months, they have been building up here at a feverish pace. One day I looked over in the new area pictured below a few blocks from the house. There was a pretty nice sized piece of greenspace that seemed to have suddenly sprang up out of nowhere. Over the last couple of weeks it has just as suddenly went from greenspace to Lake Evanston. It really does look like a lake, doesn't it? Or maybe it is supposed to be a lake? Hmmmmmm.....