"Where is our ding-gone? Everyone has a ding-gone, why don't we?"

We've just returned home from a three day whirlwind vacation with our whole herd. Yes, we made it home safely with all seven kiddlings in tow - we didn't lose a single one of them! (Mind you there were moments I wouldn't have minded misplacing one or two of them .... temporarily of course.) But thankfully we all survived and lived to tell about it. I wasn't so sure if my Hubby and Teenager were going to live but they did. Our first stop was Canada's Wonderland (an annual June event for our family.) My Hubby and the Teenager worked up the courage to take the plunge on the Xtreme Skyflyer. {Xtreme Skyflyer is Canada's largest free-fall swing. On Xtreme Skyflyer riders control their own ride experience by pulling the rip cord and initiating a 170-foot power flight that takes riders through a breathtaking pendulum swing, soaring a mere six feet above the ground! Drawing its inspiration from skydiving, riders will experience weightlessness and speeds of more than 100km/hr. } They thoroughly enjoyed the ride .....  although their screams could be heard all across the park and they couldn't stop shaking for a while afterward. They tried to convince me to get up there but I chose to live.... besides, who would take care of all my little ones if I splattered on the pavement?

I opted for a safer thrill...... an ICECREAM COOKIE! Look at the size of that bad boy! A large portion of soft serve ice cream squashed between two delicious chocolate chip cookies, then rolled across a bin of chocolate chips. Mmmmmmm, can you say "cellulite?" These things are so good I actually dreamed about eating it a few days before we left for our vacation. I dreamed I brought a plastic knife with me to cut one in half for the little girls to share ..... so when we stopped to eat on our way up I stashed a plastic knife in the diaper bag just so I'd have something to cut theirs with. Sometimes good ideas come in dreams :) A very big "THANKYOU" to the young guy behind the counter who looked horrified when he saw how many kids we had ... and gave us one icecream cookie 'on the house' :)

It was a bit of a challenge to accommodate all our kiddlings in the park. Some were big enough to ride the adult thrill rides, some were just under the height requirements and had to opt for less thrilling rides and the smallest ones had to wait until we ventured to the other side of the park to Planet Snoopy to go on all the rides built just for little ones. And then the big kids had to sit on the sidelines waiting patiently while their little siblings had a chance to experience their fun. Our family loves thrill rides - roller coasters are the BEST! We are training up the little ones to share that passion too :) The Teenager was in her glory, she got to go on everything twice...once with Mom, then with Dad. (Someone had to stay with the little ones while the big kids played - so we took turns.)

Little Susan was thrilled to meet Snoopy in person. She got her picture taken with him too. While we were on the carousel she spotted him in a crowd and screamed "Hey Shrinkey! Shrinkey! Look, it's Shrinkey!" It seems she forgot his name....but everyone else around her will remember that for a very long time :) Little Susan was less than thrilled with the toilets at Canada's Wonderland. They were all the automatic flushing types. A typical four year old just can't sit still, even on the pot. So everytime she wiggled around the toilet would flush and she would try to jump off in terror. She really came to despise those toilets and could spot them instantly when she went into the washrooms. We found one place that had "regular" toilets and she jumped up and down shouting "Yay! No scary toilets!"

Once the park closed and our wee ones (and not so wee ones) were strapped safely into the vehicles (yup, we have to take more than one... can't wait till the Teenager can drive!) my Hubby and I stared blankly into eachothers eyes..... "What in the world were we thinking?" Tired and sweaty, hungry and sore..... and now all we had to do was find our hotel :) Well we thought Canada's Wonderland was an adventure..... trying to find our hotel was almost as much of a thrill. We stopped at Montanna's for a late dinner. We couldn't seem to figure out which way to go to get to our hotel - ya, we were lost... so we got directions from our server 'Mike'. As we pulled out of the parking lot and turned onto the road I petitioned out loud "Please Lord, help us find the hotel" Latoya added, "In Jesus' Name - Amen." to which the Baby shouted "MeeMen" (which is her rendition of "Amen") We did find the hotel but we probably should have been praying harder..... I had three near-death experiences driving on those roads! People drive like they're going to miss the blue light special in aisle 2 at K-Mart.... cutting you off, not letting you in, racing you for the exit ramp.... oh my goodness it took me a few minutes to settle down and stop shaking before I could crawl out of my van - my legs felt like jello and I needed a minute to compose myself.

All the kiddlings were so spent from their exciting day ....after a rousing game of "hide and seek" in the hotel room they fell asleep in piles on top of the beds.

We went to the Medieval Times Dinner theatre the next day for lunch. (yes, we got lost on the way but eventually made it in one piece.) This used to be an event our family regularly attended.... when a child turned six years old we would go to "the castle" for their birthday dinner and to watch the performance. Prior to now, Little Susan had been too young to sit through the performance and we supposed she would be frightened by the loud noises and mock fighting so she had never been here before (obviously neither had The Baby) so this was a first for both of them :) The Baby looked at me for reassurance once the jousting and "fighting" began. When she saw me smile she relaxed and watched with fascination ... while chewing on a whole chicken leg. Little Susan watched the horses and riders, the knights swinging swords and the king on his throne.... she wasn't nearly as interested in any of it until our knight, the "Green Knight" picked HER and gave her a flower. OH MY GOODNESS .... she was smitten ..... she clutched the pink carnation to her chest, cocked her head to one side and batted her eyelashes. "I love him" she said. Little Susan clung to her flower for the rest of the night. I had to put it in a glass of water on the night stand for her at bedtime :) The Teenager thought this was all quite funny and teased Little Susan - I quickly reminded her that not too many years ago SHE got a flower from the "White Knight" when we visited the castle and she behaved the very same way ..... she kept her flower on her dresser and watered it every day until I found it crumbled all over the bedroom floor one day and threw it out before she got home from school. The kiddlings had a great time at the castle with the exception of Daniel. He was pretty put out and sulked for the latter half of the performance. "Why didn't I get a flower like Little Susan? I wanted a flower too." He complained. Hahahaha.

We took my Hubby to the Bass Pro Shop in the afternoon for a Father's Day shopping spree. He really enjoyed himself there .... in "Man Land" as he calls it. It's a man's version of Toy's R Us. All the guys wander through there with that same glazed dreamy look in their eyes.... stopping to touch, read, try out and fantasize about all the awesome toys for big boys. My husband planted himself in an overstuffed camouflage lazy boy recliner. He wanted the whole camo living room furniture set but I had to put my foot down and insist he wait until he has a garage of his own, big enough to accommodate all his "guy stuff." Phew, dodged that one ..... can you imagine this in my livingroom?!? LOL.  We ended up buying a little infant camo hunting cap for The Baby. He wanted to get the camo dress, onesie and jogging suit for her as well but I told him that the hat would be more than enough for now. She wore the hat through the store and chewed on it for a bit once we got into the van.  She will eventually grow old enough to go hunting with daddy like the other kiddos do - he's just grooming her for it now :)

We took the herd to the Toronto Zoo the following day where we baked in the sun walking from exhibit to exhibit only to find the animals were sleeping and hidden out of sight or "temporarily not on display." We found more water fountains in the zoo than animals but because of the heat we were thankful for that.  Our favourite thing at the zoo was Sting Ray Bay where we touched "sting rings" as Latoya calls them, horseshoe crabs and a couple sharks. The "sting rings" were soft and slippery feeling. They seemed to like being touched. There was the odd ray that thought he'd be funny and glide through the water along the side and splash everyone.... funny guy. It left everyone wet and smelling fishy - so gross but entertaining.  Little Susan's favourite animals were the baby goats. While looking at them, Nicholas enquired "why do they all have earrings in Mom?" He was asking about the identification tags attached to their ears :) Another Zoo favourite was the camel rides. Little Susan almost didn't get on.... she was nervous about their large size. The only kiddlings who didn't ride a camel were the Baby and The Teenager.

The Teenager will have a "real" camel ride in the dessert in Israel soon so she wanted to wait for that experience. I am still not sure how she is going to handle it ...... in the dessert in Israel ..... far from home...... with big foreign bugs and other unfamiliar things. If she can't even stay seated in the van when a tiny little spider walks along the window what in the world will she do on the other side of the world? We had to stop the van and "get rid of" the offending arachnid before we could continue on our way - other wise she might have climbed through the drivers side window to escape his clutches .... all the while howling "GET IT, GET IT, MOOOOM, PLEASE GET IT!"

That's okay my Teenage girl, your big, strong daddy will be there to protect you from all the terrible scary bugs...... oh wait, I just remembered, he tolerates those things about as much as you do! (Don't you remember the june bug that Sarah tried to show him - but it fell onto his arm by accident)  LOL, have fun my loves - scream like little girls together and do the "bug dance" but just make sure someone has a video camera - please!:)

We stopped for a bite to eat along the 401 as we ventured home. After using the restroom my Teenager and I came across a fascinating discovery - so bizzare that I had to run back to our table to get the camera and back to the ladies room to take this short video clip.

Our hands were numb and tingly for a while after that - but they sure were dry!
Grandma Windsor spent a few days with us this past week. - Here are a few funnies from our house to yours:
* "Grandma, you look beautiful in your pajama top" said Daniel.
* I was drawing a map for Grandma to give her directions to get her back to the highway to go home. Daniel got very concerned and enquired "Grandma, don't you know where your house is?!?"
* Grandma was going home today. As Grandma pulled away from the curb and headed toward home Daniel turned toward me and sadly said "I miss her already!" (she wasn't even to the corner yet)
* While sitting on the porch Little Susan suddenly asked "Where is our ding-gone? Everyone has a ding-gone, why don't we?" (she was referring to a door bell)
* While sitting on the porch The Baby reached up to pet our dog Buzzy who was sitting on my lap. She picked up his paw and brought it to her face .... and smelled his foot (paw) then gave a shiver and made a funny face as if he had stinky feet. The Baby probably just got tickled on her nose by the fur on Buzzy's paws - but it sure was funny to observe.
* While having spaghetti for dinner, Little Susan complained that it was too hot to eat just yet. My hubby tried to help her out by spreading it out on her plate to cool quicker. Little Susan looked up at him with an overwhelmed look in her eyes and whined "Daddyyyyy, I don't want THAT much!" (Once it was spread out it looked like she had more spaghetti than she had previously.)

AVON JUNKIES ..... Avon Campaign 17 has just begun. The order will be placed on Tuesday July 6th at noon.  Please have a look at the online brochures and contact me :) See "My Avon Business" page for the complete listing of current online brochures available.

~ A very special Thank You to Margaret M for the strawberry pie..... what a delicious blessing that was.

~ Praise Fellowship Church India Missions Trip BBQ & Yard Sale Fundraiser
Our goal is to raise more than enough funds to purchase a new generator for the orphanage and a vehicle to be used for transportation for the orphanage & ministry.
Saturday June 26th from 7 am until 1:00 pm or so. All proceeds from the BBQ will go directly toward the India Mission’s Trip.
Bring a friend or two .... come on out and support this very worthy cause!
 
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Have an incredibly blessed week :)