I had my Pioneer camp all this week and I had a blast! We played Cops and Robbers and Capture the Flag every day, and got sweaty every night running in the maze. I already can’t wait for next year!

He said

Thursday night this week as I was leaving work at 8:30pm making my way to the car in the parking lot, I noticed that it wasn’t sunny out like it had been. In fact, the sun had already set! It took me a minute to register what that meant precisely. After it finally did, I’d be lying if I tried to say I wasn’t the least bit melancholy — I mean who wouldn’t be recognizing the end of the summer was approaching? As much as I love fall, this summer has been such an amazing time, I just don’t want it to end.

Emelia had her Pioneer day camp every day this week, and luckily having Tuesday, Wednesday off work, and Thursday a later start, I was able to be the bus driver to shuttle her and her cousin Vaughan to and from camp those days. Each morning we got to talk about what was planned for the day, as well as watch Emelia confidentially walk off to the camp group each morning without the slightest of hesitation or even a brief need for Daddy to begin her day.

It was great to see the shy girl we know bound out of her shell each day. And the best part was on the two days I was there for pickup, I got to see her just flourish with this new group of friends with little to no need to prop herself up behind her cousin. In fact, in most cases she was the loudest in the group and seemed to be getting the most from the camp. Each day, I was told, she wasn’t ready to go home yet. And the icing on the cake was that she has emphatically told us on numerous occasions she’s already excited about going next year.

This week I have Tuesday and Thursday off work, and I am down to Toronto on Wednesday for some work stuff. After a two day stint back at work on Thursday and Friday, Saturday we are off with Wolfie once again to the Jellystone Park in Niagara Falls. We had looked at a park on the Bruce Peninsula but their policy on the weekend was that we would have to book all three days of the weekend, even if we weren’t going to use them, which nixed that park and left us with Yogi’s campground. And, as it turns out, a friend of Danielle’s happens to be camping there with her kids that weekend too. Should be fun!

As for job I applied for at work, I expect to know a lot more in the next two weeks. The more I think about what I can bring to the position, as well as the potential to establish my desire to grow and move on in Apple, the more excited I am getting about it. I have had a lot of feedback about it and the chance to speak with some really great people I respect deeply, and it’s been a huge source of support. I am excited to see where this takes me!

Potentially if I get this job, there could be a lot of change to our tight Creative team of four, where we see it go all there way down to just my brother Matthew. Leon has taken a career experience position for the next six months as an In Store Guest Trainer, and Jordan has let us know that his wife has taken a better position in Kitchener and they are moving there in the fall. So, poor Matthew could be all on his own, in a very short time. But, this will also make for some very exciting opportunities for some teammates.

The other exciting piece of news is that thanks to the urging of Danielle and giving the 30 Day Shred routine a try that gave her such good results, I am actually down to the weight I was at my lowest as an adult, and prior to Emelia’s birth. Took me more than 7 years, but it still feels good. Albeit doing a 30 day shred for something like 60 days…

So with that, and Danielle actually done her part, before mine, we’re going to go shred and squeeze the last bits of this quiet Sunday evening together.

She said

As John has said in his part summer is quickly coming to an end. As I write this we are going into our last week of summer vacation for Emelia. As excited as I am for her in this next big stage of her life and I do relish the quieter days ahead (as quiet as they can be with 5 children 3 and under) I will miss her terribly.

I have been using this idea as a motivation to make the most of every evening, every weekend night to spend as much time with her and I one on one. Add in this week with her being at camp and I realized how much I will miss her in just over a week.

So this weekend we were on a mission to make the most of our weekend just the two of us. It started out with the normal errands. Emelia my partner in crime and helper with our morning errands. She actually for the most part likes going grocery shopping with me, she like being able to help plan the meals with me and asking about a million questions. And knowing the importance of nutrition for us as parents we are hoping the more involved she is the healthier her food choices will be. Doesn’t always work but she is always wanting to be involved in the choices. After the errands were done Emelia and I popped over to the mall.

Now sadly and emotionally I have one of my long term daycare children graduating at the end of this week. Emelia and I were on a mission to come up with ideas for Reece as a special little gift for his last day in care. I cannot believe this little boy who was only just over 9 months when he started care is going to be off to school in just over a week. I know that in the coming years he most likely will not remember his years in daycare but I know we will never forget our time with him. Emelia and Reece have a very unique friendship. They spend more time together than any of my current daycare families as Reece is often my last pick up by about ½ hour. He and Emelia have a lot of one on one time together. So what has developed is more like a brother/sister relationship. Which means they go from fighting like cat and dog to best friends. I know she is really going to miss him and so will I. Thankfully his mommy is expecting baby #2 in about 2 months so they will be part of our lives for a few more years at least.

So back to the mall. Emelia went up and down the isles at Target trying to find the perfect gift, we have a few ideas in mind and will go back to pick them up later in the week. And as not much of a surprise I will pick up something for Emelia as well. Because as she pointed out, she is graduating from daycare too, and all the daycare children when they graduate get a little gift. It pulled at my heart but I will get her a little certificate like the other children and a little toy to remember this moment in her life.

Once we were done with all that we made our way to visit with Grandma for a bit, give Emelia and grandma some visit time and to bring some things back that we had at our place and pick up some things from them. The visit was short but sweet.

After our visit we were on to the big event for Saturday which was a bbq at my best friend Kelli’s place. We had originally planned a larger daycare provider gathering but with vacations and other obligations of our daycare friends it turned out that it was going to be too small of a gathering so we decided to have a family bbq with her boys, husband and our little family of three.

Emelia had a blast, she and Kelli’s youngest are very close in age and have many of the same personality traits, very shy and quiet until they are in their comfort zone and the when they are watch out! Talk talk talk. Emelia and Ryan get a long so well and add in big brother Josh and the quiet neighbourhood was filled with the noise of three happy kids and four adults having a great time together. We will have to do it again and soon!

We came home, Emelia crashed and John and I settled in for a movie night.

And today, another day when I had to get some organizing done but it was Emelia’s things I was taking on, the fall season is around the corner so I have to get her clothes in order for the season change over. So she and I went through it all, what clothes were for donation, what would go to her friends who we have passed clothes to in the past and what was for sale. It is all organized, the donations things are gone, the bag of clothes for friends is bagged up and ready to leave and last is the to sell pile which is my next project. All in all the morning was focused on this but it feels great to have it all in order.

So now that the boring stuff was over we were on to fun for Emelia, her choice whatever she wanted. She picked a trip to Gibbons Park to play on the climbers, feed the ducks and go to the splash pad. She ended passing on the splash pad when we arrived, not sure why it was certainly hot enough. But she spent a couple hours playing and feeding the ducks. All in all a great afternoon.

We made our way home to get her cleaned up, changed and then off to get her back to school pictures done by a friend of mine. Laura who owns Every Little Photo is our favourite photographer and we have used her for a few of Emelia’s last photos. Love her so much we plan on getting her to do our family photos this fall. Emelia of course was shy but with a few making silly faces behind Laura we got her beautiful smile and laugh to come out. I cannot wait to see the final results.

So that was our weekend in a nutshell. I am going to sign off, get our workout in and enjoy the rest of Sunday before I am back to work. It is going to be a week of celebrating with the daycare kids and enjoying as many moments as I can with Emelia before she goes back to school.