Our Yearly Painting Tradition

Last year I made edible paint for William to make pictures for Grandparents' Day.

He was so excited when I got everything out to do it again this year.

Although I do believe that this time, he had more fun eating it than painting with it. 

A Week With Grandpa

Grandpa was kind enough to stay with all five of the kids while us girls went on our trip.

There was never a shortage of people to help with Kaelyn,

or to play with William.

You can always be sure that when Grandpa is in charge, you will be having a good time.

They spent a lot of time out side,

playing and exploring.

Even when the older kids went to school, he still had the dog to play with.

Returning Home

The next two days were spent driving, we got back late afternoon on Saturday.

It was so nice to have a week of (mostly) uninterrupted sleep, and not needing to attend to others' every need,

But as nice as that was, it was even better to see my kids again.

"You Ladies Are Crazy"

After stopping at the beach while driving around, Jenn decided that she wanted to swim in it, even though the water was freezing. After a little work, she talked me into it.

Just like anything else, once you are in, it really wasn't that bad. Plus, now we can say we have done it before.

Day Three

Our third day there, we went to Avonlea Village, and to our surprise, everything was closed because of the few number of people coming. The only left to do was to walk the grounds, and the shops of course. 

So we went and played on the playground,

Until my sister talked me into climbing through the window of the school house to get some pictures. I climbed right on it and sat down at a desk. As she was about to tell me to grab the stilts that were sitting on the floor, two workers rush on over and give us an ear full.

We come upon the General Store, which really was a hat store since that was all they had left at this late in the season.

I didn't mind though, it was like a little piece of heaven to me.

We stopped and found Lucy Maud Montgomery's grave site before grabbing lunch.

Next we headed off to the house the she lived in after being married and took a nice little carriage ride around the property.

We got to see the Lake of Shining Waters,

And after much searching we finally found a lighthouse for my mom.

While driving around lost, we took a stop at the beach on the other side of the island as our hotel, and it was beautiful!

Our last stop before heading back was at the home the Lucy was born at.

The Second Day on the Island

Wednesday was our first full day on the island. We got up and had some yummy breakfast, then headed off the see the house that inspired the whole series of Anne.

It was such a cute little house, set up the way it would have been in the story. Even though it rained the whole time we were there, it was very enjoyable.

After grabbing some lunch, we headed into Charlottetown, the major city about thirty minutes away.

We did some shopping and got some tasty ice cream by the water. We walked up and down the streets of this cute little town, went on a scavenger hunt in order to find some dinner (the reason there are very few over weight Canadians, nothing, including restaurants are open after 5!).

That night we went to see Anne the musical, it was so well done, and the girl who played Anne did a fantastic job. After a full day of sight seeing, and getting back to the hotel late, we crashed for the night, but excited for another fun day ahead of us.

Making Our Way to the Island

We had  a blast on our way there, the first day we drove and stopped in Bangor, Maine for the night, all five of us crammed into one room.

The second day we finished our drive off, crossing the eight mile bridge to get to the island.

 We all shared stories, joked and talked, it was great having us all together without a wedding for the first time every.

We were so excited when we finally got to the island, although it was later in the day, we stopped at the row of gift shops and visitor centers before checking into our hotel and grabbing dinner before we headed off to bed, full of excitement about the upcoming three days on the island.