OK, so whats been going on in the Ryerson houshold lately.
Let's start back in at the end of June, My cousin Alison and her husband Robert stopped into Boston briefly whilst touring the States. Lexie, Josh and I headed into Boston to catch up with them. After lunch at Faneuil Hall we wandered down to the wharves, caught a ferry across the harbour and walked up to Bunker Hill.
We had a great day and the kids did really well, Lexie did lots of walking and it was great catching up with Alison and Robert.(As usual I was at work - Andy)
That was a really busy week for us, a trip into Boston on the Wednesday then Friday was a trip to the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence with some of my Mummy friends (and lots of Lexie's and Josh's friends).
Here's Lexie, Jack and Sadie riding an elephant - none of them seem really thrilled, good thing it wasn't a real one!
Later that evening we headed into our town park where a small carnival was set up. Lex was in her element, what she wanted most was to play (and of course win) on the midway, (Midway is like "Sideshow Alley" at the Royal Easter Show for those of you who have never experienced a Midway), thankfully the place was not too crowded and we were able to play the "wack a mole" game by ourselves so one of us was would have to win, we played two games, the first Josh and I won the the second was "won" by Lexie so both of them got a prize - Lexie a stuffed pig and Josh a stuffed cow as seen peeking below.
The rides weren't quite such a hit, Lexie loved them but Josh wasn't so enamoured, it wasn't till the very last ride on the trucks that he seemed to understand what it was all about.
The next day we had planned an outing down to the aquarium at Mystic Connecticut. Its about a 2 to 2.5 hour drive to get down there which isn't too bad and its really a great place. The kids loved the animal - especially the beluga whales.
Wow what a week that was, but we all had a ball.
Later that week I finally got around to pulling out the sewing machine again and whipped up a few little outfits for the kids. Have to say I'm pretty proud of how they turned out.
First was a little pair of overalls for Lexie, then a similar pair for Josh (but I didn't get a photo of them)
And finally a little dress for Lex.
This photo also shows the hat that I crocheted for her.
4th of July was then upon us, to celebrate of course we had a BBQ. Hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, s'mores and fireworks - what more can you want. (I had lots of help at the grill - Josh is a VERY good helper! - Andy)
One of the mums in our group is an art teacher and has generously offer to host an "art in the park" series where she sets up craft activities for the kids down in one of the local parks. Lex and Josh have been having a ball doing her activities. Here they're painting using nature as paint brushes playing with different textures.
Last week the kids friends, Sadie and Gianna, invited us over to play in their backyard, they have a cool new swing set and had some little pools set up so the kids had an absolute blast.
Andy and I finally went out and bought a new dressing table the other day, this meant that my old dressing table could be repurposed for Lexie, she was so excited - I told her that she could paint it any colour she chose - she chose bright purple. I have to say that she was a big helper when it came to the actual painting, unlike her little brother who had to be thrown into the shower half way though...I reckon it turned out pretty cool!
Last Friday we took a trip up to Sterling to a place called Davis Farmland, it's a place that I've been meaning to go to for ages, I first wanted to go last Summer and never made it and it has been on the calendar twice so far this year and had to be called off but finally we managed to get there, and man am I glad that we did. What a fantastic place, it really does have something for everyone (well everyone under 12 anyway, you're not allowed in unless you have an under 12 with you.) First and foremost it's a farm with lots of weird and wonderful animals, my favourite was the rastifarian looking donkey. But generally it was cows, sheep, goats etc. the best part though was that with a lot of the animals you can get right in with them, feed them and brush them, it was really great. We got to pat a little 2 day old goat which was great, Lex and Josh had a go milking a fake cow.
The second section of this place was like a mini museum, there were a number of little houses set up in a semi circle all set up as different places, the vet clinic, the grocery store, the dolls house, the workshop. According to my kids the best bit was the vet clinic, they had a bunch of cages with stuffed animals in them and a doctor's set to care for them, plus a chicken coop with an egg run and for each kid an aminal costume...
My little chicken and horse!
And finally there was the splash pad, the biggest one we've found and definitely the best. The kids had a blast, although Josh really didn't understand the one-way nature of the tunnel....(you are supposed to go through it in one direction). They also had a foam bouncy house which was a big hit. I'll let the pictures do the talking.
Last but not least we've been having fun cooking lately. Saturday night we made our own pizzas. Lexie was grating the cheese and Josh was cutting up hot dogs - yes that's right the kids decided that they wanted a hot dog pizza - Hmm sounds pretty terrible to me but hey they ate it all up so it can't have been too bad.
And finally our rainly Sunday project - sugar cookies. The kids had a fantastic time making and decorating these...
Hi everyone, Andy here. If you can see the cookies in detail you'll see a "slice of pizza" at the bottom right (just a sugar cookie decorated to look like a slice of pepperoni pizza). Jen did the flower in the middle right and the kids ate just as much of the icing as they painted on the cookies. Lexie and Josh painted a lot of the cookies and were very creative. Lots of fun for everyone!
As for me, work is once again interesting. For those of you that don't know I left training over 2 months ago, and I am now working more on the business side of the company, dealing with some real high hazard chemical plants. I love it!! It's a really good mix of business/financial skills and engineering skills. Can't argue for anything more. Travel is non-existent at the moment, but that will change as I transition from training in my role to actually doing it. I'm also enrolling in some extra financial courses, and am looking at an MBA or some thing in economics.
We are also about to start renovating our kitchen. It's a slow process, as we've discovered. We wanted to have everything finished before our next round of visitors arrived but it looks like that won't happen. So we may have to put it off until the end of the year. We shall see how things work out.
There isn't much else to tell..life continues on as normal. It looks as if Fall has arrived early this year, temperatures are starting to cool down and it's getting rainy.
Anyway that's enough from me...another week of work awaits........
