What happened to June?

We are firmly into summer now. School is over. End of year festivities are done. Granny has flown in from BC and now just returned home. And my biggest boy just turned ten. June (like September and December) is a fully loaded month around here.

Some highlights:
A company picnic at Marineland where we got close with this orca whale.

 The hands down highlight was meeting our big cousin Brianne, a beluga trainer. Each kid got to feed and touch the whale. The consensus was that the belugas felt like inner tubes and hard boiled eggs. Who'd have thought?

The next day was spent at "Marleneland", aka my in-laws' house in Niagara. That too, was a super fun day loaded with cousins, swimming, and trampolining. Bliss.

Then there was a Canada Day picnic to say good-bye to our playgroup friends who are returning to Germany after 3 years in Canada. We'll miss them!

And L-man, just last week, hit the double digits. We haven't completely finished celebrating yet, since he turned ten at camp, but he did get his ceremonial birthday breakfast in bed, a family birthday shared with his 16 year old cousin, and a very fun, crazy, boy-filled sleepover party too. Let's just say we've had a lot of ice cream cake this past week.

And now I'm off to spend two days at a cottage with one other fearless mama and our collective seven kids. Yee ha!