We invited a couple of friends over today, and enjoyed a faerie tea party in our living room. We had grande plans of doing it in our backyard, but since it was cold and wet (where is June?!!!) we had to make due with our living room floor. We're hoping to have many more faerie tea parties, and hopefully with activities like scarf dyeing, flower pressing, wildcrafting and bird watching. It's always so much more fun to plan all this stuff with friends!

Tiegan also discovered for herself today that Ryland has new teeth!!!!

we saw a coyote

we saw a coyote
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

We were walking home from preschool yesterday, and a coyote crossed the street in front of us, and then sauntered into Queen Elizabeth Park. The girls were so excited by their glimpse of wildlife, they've been coyote crazy ever since!!!! Reason #102 of why it's great to have no car!!!!! (I'll post all the reasons why it's not so great at a later date!!!!)

So I'm sitting down here in my office supposedly finishing up Kea's homeschooling portfolio to hand in tomorrow while Jamie has all the kids in the bath, but instead I'm procrastinating!!!! It's so funny, when Ryland is awake, he starts to cry the second either Jamie or I try to sit at the computer with him on our laps. In fact, he starts to fuss the second we get near my office - he REALLY does not like being around the computer! And so it's really limited how much time we get on here - and that's going to be my excuse about why I haven't been blogging much lately!!

That, and Ryland is now working on his second tooth, so we've been having lots of fussiness. Phew, this getting teeth thing is exhausting!

Yesterday Kea inherited a pair of brown cowboy boots, which she has fallen in love with. And now we just have to get ourselves a cow, as Tiegan pointed out on our walk home lastnight.

Tomorrow we've invited friends over for a faerie tea party in our backyard. I had grande plans for a teapot cake that I saw, but the cake did not work out so well. But I think the kids will be thrilled with the chocolate strawberry sandwhiches that Kea is preparing!!! I'll try to take a few photos.....and now back to work!

Our boy is 3 1/2 months old and he is currently getting his first tooth. You can see the little ridges poking through the bottom gum - how crazy is that?!!!

more smiles!

more smiles!
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

And he just keeps growing and growing! I can't believe how big Ryland is, I put on a shorts set that Tiegan wore at 9 months, and they were almost too small for him! I don't know who's genes he got, but I suspect he won't be crying himself to sleep because people are calling him short!

Today was a mellow day at home for us, a quiet, rainy Monday. Our street is having a huge garage sale on Sun, and Kea has decided that she'd like to try and sell her artwork to raise money. I think I've convinced her that small cards would probably be a good idea, and so this morning she went into mass production and now have 7 so far to sell. I also suggested that she may want to donate some of the money, and she's decided she wants to think about that for a while. She'd like to research some organizations that help poor children, and then see how much she makes before she decides!!!! Anyways, should be an interesting experience:-)

drawing the short straw....

Poor Kea has been informed by a couple of people now that she is short for her age. This deeply offends her, and she often cries about how it hurts her feelings. She wants to know what she can do about it, so I use the opportunity to plug HEALTHY EATING!!!, but ultimately I have to admit that it was just her bad fortune to have two short parents so ultimately there's not much she can do about it. I suspect she's really tired tonight after a full day outside in the sun, but right now she is currently crying in bed, bemoaning the injustice of it all!!! One day she'll realize the perks, such as never having issues finding clothes that fit and not feeling squished in cars/planes/trains, etc - but for now it just sucks to be the smallest in her classes.

I've been neglecting this poor blog for a couple of weeks - sorry for the long silences. I promise more regular posting, and photos of our new back deck!!!! Jamie and Scott Williams spent the day framing it today and I'm really excited to be able to open up the back doors finally - hopefully tomorrow!!!!!

For now, though, I'm off to cuddle with my sobbing daughter!