Yellow belly snipper snapper

Ingredients for breakfast collected by Huffle including the picking of fresh raspberries. Pancakes made by me. Fruit expertly cut up by Smallest. Table beautifully set by Small. All of us ate it and sat reading online newspapers, playing games and generally having a lovely Sunday morning relax.

For a late lunch we had a "special price" Fish and Chips and then walked them off with a 7.5 km walk by the lake starting at the Mushroom House. (It has a weird shape and reminds us of a pixelated Mario Toadhouse). Smallest took his scooter and we all had a go on it.

The orange training cricket ball was used as a bowling practice and as a boules at the stopped scooter person. We had a berry throwing war too but I think I came off worse.

PokeStops were found and eggs collected plus various Pokemon caught. We passed a couple of gyms but we couldn't be bothered to do that part. We'll save that for our special Pokemon Day out later on in the week. We had two eggs being incubated and had to walk 5km but soon realised the app had to be running constantly so we didn't quite get those done.

It was very cloudy and dull but very humid and sticky. We made it to the beach but it was quite stinky due to the lake weed and the little amount of rain we had today which we missed while we were eating. There were lots of wild flowers around and birds flitting everywhere.

On our way back we stopped for ice cream and a sit down before setting off and finishing our walk and then driving home.

They weren't really as big as our heads!

Everyone sat on the porch to cool off with a drink when we got back. Huffle sealed the pool yesterday and refilled it this morning and added chemicals. It was a dark green but is now a pale blue. Tomorrow will be a pool day if it is as warm as it was today.

 

 

 

 

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One handed lobster?

OTTO you noisy stinky individual! Why oh why do you need to mow your grass at 8am on a Saturday morning? Why? When you do nothing else all day? Are you crazy?

We all did our own thing this morning and played a three way Stack 'em Up before breakfast. After a long time getting ourselves ready, we went out. I asked Huffle what he wanted to do this weekend and his reply was "I'd like to visit the charity shop". WHAT? Well we did visit the charity shop and part of the way round I was summond by Smallest and told that Daddy wanted to leave because he was being bothered by people! Honestly! We didn't buy anything. When we lived in the UK, Huffle worked in the city and went out at lunchtime and did a bit of shopping, mainly toiletries and household cleaning, bargains etc. Here he doesn't go out at lunchtime and even if he is in the office, it's not rally a place where you can meander around the shops, therefore he thinks he wants to go to the shops to look but when he gets there he realizes it annoys him. Silly Huffle!

We had a a long list of things to get today and we started in Home Depot (one of Grandads favourites) for a ceiling fan for each of the kids. Small chose a very funky modern one and Smallest went for all the old antiquey looking ones. Also we bought some lights for the basement which meant we also had to get lots of bulbs for all our new lights. Now we need MrBasement to fit them all for us. We also needed a toilet seat and a handle which Huffle fit all by himself. We bought a sprinkler to and when we fitted it, we got extremely wet. It seemed to know where we were and point itself directly at us.

The forecast today was cool and cloudy but it was in fact hot and humid with some clouds. We made our way to Unionville for lunch and found the whole place was Pokemon-crazy. Everyone was holding their phones up, not looking where they were going and when we looked at my phone there were PokeStops and Pokemon everywhere, the boys wanted to shout Pikachu to see if they could start a rush.

We had dinner in a pub. The food was only just acceptable but Small caught a lot of Pokemon in there so that made it slightly better. We came out for a small walk, listened to a Jazz Funk band and ate Gelato in the shade. We decided to leave and come home via the supermarket to pick up some essentials.

At home we sat on the shade in the garden and played Jenga and Huffle sealed the leak in the pool which I played Agricola with the boys. Huffle and I sat on the porch early evening and we all watched Robot Wars before bed.

Huffle and I watched a bizarre film called The Lobster. It was WEIRD! Understatement.

 

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Hey! You didn't play AGAIN*

It was quite cloudy today but still warm though the humidity has dropped considerably thank goodness. The morning was spent doing very little. The boys played and watched TV. Huffle tried to do as much work as possible before we dragged him away to swimming for an hour of fun.

The boys and I cycled to swimming and Huffle followed later in the car so he could get back to his work quickly. Smallest passed his Level 10 and she said he had done brilliantly and was a very strong swimmer. He was over the moon as we had just been talking about him doing the badge at Swimming in the Winter, expecting him not to pass. Small got awarded the Hamlet Medallion (which was an old medal she had from ages ago). She wanted to give him something as he had worked so hard. Bless. I got in with the boys today and we swam until Huffle arrived and then we had a boat race. Huffle pushed Smallest's boat that he sat in and paddled with his arms and I pushed Small's boat. The idea was to get to one side and put an item in the boat, get the boat back to the other side to empty it and go again, it was exhausting and I ended up staying in the middle and just pushing the boat past me.

Trying to get a decent photo of them at the same time with their awards!!

Next we played Ball Tag and then Water Polo - also very exhausting. We did a few dives and underwater swims and then all the boys had a frisbee thrown at them while jumping off the diving board. We played frogs in the middle and at the end we had a sponge fight. It was fun but we were all so tired after an hour of it. Huffle drove home and the boys and I cycled back. Small's chain fell off before we got home so I fixed that.

We had lunch, watched TV and played various games. Small and I made chocolate courgette muffins. We were very lethargic. Obviously Huffle had to work but he did finish a little bit earlier. This weekend is Long Weekend Civic Holiday so he is off Monday.

I did a spot of gardening and feeding but couldn't manage much. After dinner we all went to Small's football game. There are a lot of kids away possibly because of holiday or maybe they didn't realise it was on tonight due to the Long Weekend. They won 9-2. *At the end Smallest ran on and joined the line of boys to shake hands with each other and the coaches. Their coach MrShoulderShove said "hey you didn't play AGAIN". (He remembered him from last time).

Beautiful clouds this evening

 

 

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Captain England

Since Huffle hasn't been able to find a suitable digital alarm clock that doesn't keep us awake or bring down planes, I have no idea what time it is when I get woken up. I supppse that's not a problem. Last night/this morning though I was woken by a train coming through the Hamlet. HONK HONK HONK for what seemed like half an hour as it passed all the crossings! Huffle said he didn't hear it but I complained to him and he answered me back (he was asleep!!!). Smallest said he heard it too but there's no knowing with him!

I am very tired today and very lethargic. I don't know if it's the weather or the lack of full nights sleep or the 'four weeks into Summer Holidays'. The kids were fighting verbally this morning about who sat where in front of the TV. Huffle had a word with them as we disturbed him with our shouting (yes me too). They were both very apologetic.

All the washing has dried from yesterday thank goodness and there is no more rain forecast for a while. It is still so humid though. We have never had our air con on for so long.

We are now getting a problem with the wifi as it keeps dropping. The curse of Paul White. We called Bell out and they snuffled around our outside box and the box on the telegraph pole and went away for 20 minutes leaving us with a connectable router but the router wasn't connecting to the outside. He came back and changed our modem/router for a better one which now means we can have a speedier wifi (well we've heard that before but Huffle and DAN, as the boys call the Bell Man, are quite confident).

The boys and I cycled to swimming. Smallest went first today as Small has a problem with his chest hurting (Huffle thinks it's his ribs because of all the deep breathing he has been doing with swimming everyday and football on top of that) plus his knee hurts from football last night. Smallest swam his 500m in just over 15 minutes and then tried to perfect his side stroke. He also swam with clothes on and tried to dive. He found it difficult with his clothes but fun. I have no idea whether he is going to pass his Level 10 but it doesn't matter as he is still too young to take the next level anyway so we can do it again in the Winter when Small does his Bronze Medallion.

Small did half of his 500m but quite slowly and then quit. He was very tired he could hardly cycle back home. He also swam in clothes and tried diving. He perfected his diving and we took lots of photos to show how his legs were. He did really well.

At home we had nothing else planned for the day so we had lunch, played Ghostly Galleon and Snakes and Ladders, played on tablets and on the Wii. I made a new raspberry patch and put in some of the shoots that were escaping on the grass. It was very hot work. I also did some cutting down and found Mina Lobata growing. I had some time to myself relaxing on the porch until MrBell came.

We had dinner and then we all went to Smallest's football game. They played against that awful team we played in the Winter where one of the players constantly fell or rolled over and our supporters shouted at him for diving. His parents and one of the coaches got mad and started arguing on the pitch at the end and one of the parents followed our coach home and threatened him. Because of this, CoachOl returned (possibly to keep things smooth should anything happen). Apparently that same parent came up to our coach and said "remember me?". Idiot!!!!

So, the game......... Smallest was Captain today. The referee was the one Huffle and Small call 'ChampionsLeague Ref' as he makes the kids line up at the beginning to shake hands and applaud their supporters.

The final game was 9-2 to the dirtiest players I have ever seen. Blatant falling and diving by the same one as last time. Definite pushing and shoving and a most disgusting attempt at hacking one of our players down as they were running towards the goal. He got a yellow card and there are never any cards given in any of the games. The referee did miss one of Smallest's hacks but we didn't mind as there had been plenty against us. As far as I know there was no trouble at the end but Huffle was up and shouting abuse at the players and the ref at one point. All of our supporters at one time were standing and shouting about how disgusting the play was and Small said the ref looked over at us and nodded. The coach's son got hacked down twice and had quite a swollen knee at the end. Smallest got a whack to his elbow and a punch to the eye. He also said the players were swearing at our players. Tut tut!

Back home there was TV to calm down before bed.

 

 

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Two swims

Huffle went off to the office this morning around 8am and he was disappointed that the Nuts and Seeds shop (where he stocks up on all our seedy requirements) has moved. The boys and I had a morning of them playing and sorting their bikes and swim stuff (or did they?) and me stripping beds and washing. Two lines of washing was hung out in the blistering 32* heat plus high humidity (I'm only saying because when I got home late afternoon during a rain and thunder storm, all the washing was hanging on the grass and was wet through and had to be washed again - GRRRRRRRRR!

As we were starting out for swimming we realised Small's tyres needed pumping. I could have let him do it himself but the process would have taken too long and we would have been late so I did it, in the blistering 32* heat blah blah blah. Then Smallest forgot his towel and had to let himself back into the house so I told Small to go ahead as his lesson was first. Small then came back because he had forgotten his towel too. Meanwhile Smallest got the key stuck in the door. I was tired, hot and had very little patience and tolerance left and all before 11am. MrsSwim offered me a beer (at 11am?) but I waited till evening time when I could properly enjoy it.

At swimming Small did his 500m in a much slower time and then did some diving and rescuing techniques. Smallest did his 500m and also did it much slower. He did some dives and perfected his side stroke. Tomorrow they both have to swim with clothes on. We cycled home, had lunch and the boys played on the Wii until we went off for round 2 of swimming. This time we met up with Suffolk and kids plus two extra ones and swam at the Leisure Centre. Suffolk and I sat and drank tea, ate an apple and had a good chat. They enjoyed the swimming as they got to play in the Lazy River and go down the slide. They were there for two hours.

On the way home we hit a huge storm. The rain was so hard, there was zero visibility and Small had to help me find the roads. At the side of the roads were huge puddles and we were aqua planing. There was also thunder and lightning. It wasn't nice to drive in. Then when we got home we had to deal with the washing.

Dinner was made quick, Huffle was already home so everyone helped. Small and Huffle went off to their football tonight and Smallest and I stayed at home.

Smallest is very moody at the moment. I don't know if he isn't get enough sleep or isn't coping without the routine of school.

 

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Anyone for croquet?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT PEAR. Hope you had a lovely day.

Huffle and I didn't get up until 9am. This is getting to be a habit. We are going to bed later and later and then rising later too. It has to stop as Huffle has to go into the office early tomorrow.

The boys and I cycled to Swimming again today where I delivered a jar of Comfrey Juice, a bag of Comfrey leaves, a couple of courgettes and a pool noodle. All these fit into my basket, wish I had taken a photo, it looked ridiculous. I gave MrSwim full instructions on how to use the fertiliser and MrsSwim showed me a book about Herbal Medicine. In there, it said that Comfrey was used as a cure for backache for men who had indulged in too much pleasures of the flesh. How funny. MrsSwim said "no wonder it's used widely in England". What did she mean? Small did his 20 laps in less time than before and practiced his lifesaving on Smallest. Smallest did his 20 laps in a quicker time (though I was doing the counting today and I kept forgetting).

We cycled home and Small's chain fell off and got jammed between the frame and the cogs. Huffle and I prised it off eventually but it took us a while. Bikes and kids - Pah!

After very quick showers and a lunch I took the boys to have their hair cut. I forgot to take a photo of Smallest but he was told at football by his coach that he "looks like a fine young man". I did take a photo of how much hair was on the floor because I was amazed and wondered if we could make Huffle a hat for Christmas out of it! After their hair cuts, the boys played with MrsHair's kids outside while we had a chat and a drink together.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing outside, playing on tablets, going to the library, fixing bikes and making dinner. Smallest and Huffle went to football practice and Small and I stayed at home and played Agricola in the evening sunshine on the porch.

This evening we had a visit from MrsRoyal inviting us for a croquet tournament. Unfortunately we are not going but it sounded fun. We will do something else another time.

 

 

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Forgot to post - Thanks Grandad

Sometime around 4am we had a storm with thunder and lightning and a man called Huffle tried to escape the bedroom and get into the basement. Knowing his way around the house in the dark has never been a problem before but for some reason last night (or this morning) he lost his way and tried to get out through our mirror on the wall that looks like a window. I didn't know what he was doing, I just thought it was taking him a long time to open the door! He started to nod off on his 'executive beanbag' with a blanket and a ski jacket thrown over him until he heard the thunder again. I slept on and off half expecting one of the kids to climb in with me as it was very loud and seemed very close. Huffle got back into bed at some time and we finally got up around 9am.

The boys woke during the storm but didn't get up until their normal get up time and watched TV. After a late breakfast and a sort out of bikes, we cycled to swimming. Both boys did their 500m again. Small managed to cut his time but Smallest took a little longer. They did some diving and learnt a little about rescuing.

When we count the laps (they have to do 20) we use the toys to help us. Smallest decided to put them on the diving board today.

I gave MrsSwim a lesson in how to make ComfreyJuice as a fertiliser and promised to bring her some tomorrow. She gave us some spinach for our tea. We cycled home and had lunch. The boys put their clothes away and watched TV and then we left Huffle working and went shopping. The boys Pokemon Go'd on the way there and back (we found a PokeStop on the way to swimming in the Hamlet). We got some food and the boys bought some Pokemon Cards with their money.

Back home they played Pokemon Battle for two hours without any arguments and forgot that they had earned Tablet time earlier. I got on with dinner and made Fishcakes, Cous Cous and we finished off the harvested beans and spinach from MrsSwim.

After dinner we all made our Fantasy Football Leagues but had trouble printing them off (so I'm putting them on here so we know where they are). Watering was done and then we all watched the new Robot Wars (BBC). We only got half way through becuase Huffle dropped a glass in the kitchen and it went everywhere and then while Small was helping us to clear it up, he knocked a glass of water over on the table and water was everywhere too.

Smallest's

Huffles

Famfa's

Small's

There are no storms forecast for tonight so I'm hoping for a better nights sleep. It has been so humid today even though we had a little bit of rain. Lots of rain last night so that was good for the garden but when we got up this morning it looked like we lived in a greenhouse. All the windows were foggy becuase it is so cool inside and so warm out.

 

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Baseball, Rounders and Cricket in one game

What started out as a very slow relaxing day, eating breakfast at 10, turned into a tidy and clean up. We have a stair basket that accumulates anything in the house (downstairs) that doesn't belong there. Now the idea being that when you pass it, you take what's yours. This rarely happens and today it was so full and overflowing that Huffle and I took it upon ourselves to go through it. Most of it was stuff brought home from school but then that resulted in stuff needing to go into the boys rooms which then turned into them tidying and us cleaning.

.....and lots of silliness

The bathrooms were cleaned too during the process and floors swiffed and swept. By then we were bored and we got to sit and play and relax until we decided where to go for mid afternoon dinner.

Today was cloudy up until early evening when the sun came out fully. It was still very warm but not as humid, probably around 28*. During dinner we chatted with the owner about Pokemon Go as he had downloaded it yesterday too. It seemed the whole bar was playing it.

Later this afternoon we Facetimed Grandma and Grandad and then played Baseball. I was playing rounders but the boys were playing baseball. It seems the rules are very different. I didn't realise you had to run if you hit the ball even if it wasn't a good hit so I kept getting out, though I did get a few Homeruns because I can hit the ball! Huffle also got out for forgetting to run. He was obviously playing cricket!

This evening Huffle and Small coached the FrenchTwins and I watched Smallest at his practice. Huffle got injured again when he bent his foot the wrong way. OUCH!

Today's harvest

 

 

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I just caught a Jigglypuff on the kitchen table

Oh boy I can't remember it being this hot before. Today was a record hot day for this time of year. Of course this was the day we had long awaited for tickets to see the Blue Jays and Huffle wanted us to be driving away by 10am. It was I who held the party back becuase I couldn't find my baseball hat and so we left 20 minutes past the AIS time (ass in seats).

It was a busy hours drive down into Toronto but we parked in our usual 'ticket on the dash' car park and started to make our way towards one of our favourite Gelato places, staying in the shade as much as possible. When we got to the gelato shop, it was closed with lots of people outside looking disappointed. While we wondered what to do, the owner opened it up. Hurrah. We had Key Lime, Stratiatella and Raspberry and ate them inside the air conditioned shop whilst watching people catching Pokemon outside.

On we trudged to the stadium and to the outside part where games were being played. We stood under the mister to get cool and Smallest and I made a poster before queuing up for the 'fastest throw'. The girl who was pointing the speed gun was useless. Most of the time she wasn't looking at what was being thrown and the gun said what it wanted. We watched some really fast pitchers who scored a feebly 28 when it should have been in the 50's. Of course when the boys did theirs, we had no idea what their speed was but they seemed to do well. We were too hot so went inside where the kids (and Huffle) had their tattoos put on and then tried the 'Plinko' game where Smallest won two placemats and Small won a bowl and a bracelet. We went up in the lift as we were up in the gods again in the 500's and it was too hot (have I said that already?) and Smallest played on another game while we waited for Small and Huffle. This time he won a keyring. He went back to try his luck halfway through the game when I went to refill our water bottles and won another keyring. He was desperate for a bowl!

Our seats were right at the top, right at the back on row 24. We couldn't get any further. This wasn't too bad as we found behind our seats there was a bit of shade and we stood there for part of the game trying to escape the sun. Today the Blue Jays played terribly against The Seatle Mariners. To be fair, there was so much going on around us, kids standing up and moving seats, mum's going off and getting drinks, Dad's buying beer from the portable vendors, birthday songs, a bunch of Spanish supporters. It was all going on. I tried to focus but everytime I did, something made me look at something else and I missed it. Towards the end it got more exciting though and I did watch that part. Several Homeruns and spectacular catches. They still lost 14-5.

This lady sat in front and made herself some earrings out of peanut shells

This was my view for most of the game. Big headed baboon

We could see the CN Tower from our seats

We walked to the nearest pizza place and ordered our slices for taking to the harbour but they burnt them. Eventually we got pizza and sat on the harbour wall watching the boats and ducks and people catching Pokemon again. This time I downloaded it for a laugh and we caught several Pokemon who just happened to be walking by. What a silly game, but the kids like it. I can't believe you just stand around and catch Pokemon - I caught one on the baseball diamond.

Smallest found a ducky friend

We had lots of drinks, listened to a bit of music, walked around the harbour and finally into a hotel to take advantage of the toilets, ice cold water and air conditioning, before driving home. Everyone was starting to feel tired and headachey and once we were home we had cooling showers, more drinks and Small looked for Pokemon in our home. I found two on our kitchen table. I'm going to regret downloading this!!!!

 

 

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Honey where is the Baby

A very very hot and humid day with temperatures reaching 35*. No idea what the humidex was but it was sticky indeed. The boys didn't want to bike to swimming and I didn't want to make them so we went in the car.

Both did 500m again and they did them within 15 minutes. Small has to do under 15 minutes but Smallest doesn't. They improved from yesterday so by next week they will be super swim machines. More bobbing, diving and a bit of rescuing and then we drove home.

After lunch where Huffle and I braved the porch (soooo hot but with a part breeze that helped) and the kids watched TV, I took them out to buy a birthday present for one of Smallest's football friends. We chose a PlayStation Gift Card, some stickers and we gave him an English Curly Wurley. We then bought some pool noodles for us and for MrsSwim and went and delivered them.

The afternoon was spent relaxing, playing, preparing dinner, a bit of cleaning (by me). It was just too hot to do much at all. After dinner Small and Huffle went off to their football where Huffle took back control of the Coaching by talking to MrFrench. The team is happy again and won a thumping (Huffles words) 9-1 and they got to play in some different positions towards the end. Small played up front for a part of it which he enjoyed.

Smallest and I went to LittleSeymours birthday party at the mini golf. It was crazy (and I mean the kids not the golf). I happened to drop Smallest off late due to the fact our kids were fighting before we all left and I had sent Smallest to his room to think about his behaviour. Anyway, I was told I could stay at the party if I wanted to and I didn't really know what to do. Stay and be part of the party or go and watch Small and Huffle. As I was deciding, one of the kids asked if I knew how to score and they asked if I would score for their team. It was quite fun (though Smallest wasn't in our team) and I was able to assert my authority when things got heated, excitable and just silly. The boys were very competitive and wanted to know the scores all the time so I had to keep a running total. They enjoyed it and afterwards they had snacks, drinks and pizza followed by a cake which had blue icing. The blue was everywhere, over people's faces, all over my hands (I handed it out), on Smallest's hat. After cake they went into the batting cages and all had a go each. We finally left around 9pm.

 

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