home again!

first of all....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

TO MY SWEET, SWEET SISTA..

TARA!!!

teehee.

hope you have a super fabulous day missy!!!!

( and you can be tara cullen JUST for today, since it's your bday and all...)

we were at the lake again this weekend...good times!

but since friday was courtney's 11th birthday, we stayed in the city running a few errands, then going to St. Vital Centre with my mom!

we paid a visit to Build a Bear Workshop ( a favorite shop for the kids ) and got a couple new outfits...a new Webkinz from Hallmark...

...and then our first 3D movie at the theater!

It was awesome!!

we also had lunch in the food court too...yep, what a fun afternoon of celebrating!

then we came back home and gave courtney her birthday gifts and then we were off to the lake for the weekend!

YES...THIS WAS A TOTAL JONAS BROTHERS WISH LIST!!

( some US dough for the long weekend )

...and my mom made courntey this awesome chipboard album too.

we threw courntey a totally cool Pirate party for her birthday 3 years ago, and GRANDMA made courtney a little keepsake album of it!!! soooo cool!!

Thank you again mom for making such a special gift for courtney!!!

...and birthday cake came out at the cabin around 10:30pm...

hahahaha....

what a busy day!!!

...saturday, we went to Lac du Bonnet for mike's uncle's 50th birthday.

FUN stuff!

The kids went for their first boat ride, a three seater jetski ride, fun on their water trampoline and lots of good food, drinks, and family fun!!

today we're recouping from a busy weekend and cleaning up!!

whew!!!

:O)

Today my baby girl is celebrating her

11th BIRTHDAY!!!

wow.

it seems like yesterday that i was holding her little hands and teaching her to walk!

looking forward to a fun day with you miss courtney...

happy birthday lovey!!!

:O)

OH YEAH!

...what a TOTALLY relaxing cloudy /rainy day.

i've been playing around on the new keyboard, and it's just KILLING ME

that i CANNOT read a note of music!! i wanna play!!!

( mine and tyler's piano lessons starting in a few weeks will fix that...)

anyway, i'm very proud of myself because i attempted a pretty much all afternoon task of

TEACHING MYSELF

via the internet piano tutorials

Bella's Lullaby from Twilight!!

teehee, i love it!!

...and what did YOUR mojo inspire you to do today???

:O)

busy days...

...before i get into the goings-on over the last couple days...

THE SCRAPPIN STUDIO

FALL HALL CROP DATES ARE BOOKED!

~mark your calendars~

Friday, Sept. 11

Friday, Oct.9

Friday, OCTOBER 30----HALLOWEEN CROP PARTY!!!

Friday, Nov.20

...all 6pm - midnite

if you are not already on my email list and would like more details, you can email me at

thegriffs@mts.net for more information regarding crops and classes!!

:O)

ok...

the following are some pic's from monday - tuesday 'whilst' at the cabin...again!

we were taking lori, alex and kailey out to the lake for a sleepover, but in the end, lori was unable to come....but i took her daughter alex and friend kailey just the same!

alex and kailey are courtney's friends she takes her highland dance lessons with. despite a gloomy, rainy day monday, we made the best of it with lots of fun games in the cabin, a couple quick walks and watching TWILIGHT in the evening with LOTS of junk food!!

teehee.

...tuesday was predicted to be "isolated showers" all day, which, in fact turned out to be

+26 degress and mostly sunny all day out there!! YAY!!

in the morning however, it was overcast and a little cool, so after breakfast ( pancakes with blueberries and strawberries ) the girls went for a walk, did a "photo shoot" down by the water...and then even braved a quick swim!!

( the water was actually pretty nice...it was the chill in the air that was cool )

Charlie's Angels???

BAHAHAHAHA!!!

( wink )

...oh yes, and I received another proposal from my little man...

( gotta admire his dertermination!! )

Luv you buddy!

...later in the afternoon, i took the kids for a Blue Raspberry dipped soft ice cream cone, then a drive out to Great Woods Park in Bousejour to explore...

( and yes...they all had blue tongues by the time they were done! )

...this park has a pretty cool suspension bridge hanging over Brokenhead River.

they thought it was cool!!!

...the park also has some pretty great trees to climb too...

i think they were just calling out to the kids to come and climb!

...and lest we not forget the importance of annual summer

FROG CATCHING!!

hahahaha.....

myself, kailey and tyler were the only brave ones...

...and some swinging fun too...

...the kids were all jumping off them ( and sometimes at ridiculous heights too, some near heart attacks for me...)

...yep...good times!

I hope you enjoyed yourselves girls!!!

...and of course...always keeping a watchful eye out my windows while driving..

about 30 seconds after i took this ( also while driving...heeheehee ) it was gone! a lost photo opportunity...never let anything beautiful pass you by...

capture the moments of your life in time!

:O)

...and one last thing...

i can't believe that on this day, one year ago, my family was in Scotland.

this day, one year ago, we were in Edinburgh.

It poured rain ALL DAY!

we sat in wet puddles ALL NIGHT at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and went home to our flat,

IN THE RAIN.

Winnipeg's beginning to feel a lot like Scotland.

:O)

stay dry everyone!

funny story....

...to tell you...

the kids and i were in superstore this morning grabbing a few groceries before going to the lake for the night tonight,

and as we walked down the

"Feminine Hygiene" product aisle,

TYLER picks up a package of maxipads and says,

"are these BANDAIDS mom?"

HAHAHAHAHAHA.....

courtney and i looked at each other and had a good chuckle...

oh, sweet innocence...

:O)

HOLY COW!!!!

ok. ok. ok.

SO i've been on holidays...

the blog's slackin' a little, ok, well like for 2 weeks now...

heeheehee.

so....here's the update!

FIRST of all.

I had the proposal of my lifetime while at the cabin.

my little man TYLER picked a flower from outside and came in and knelt beside my bedside,

and said,

"Mommy, will you marry me?"

it wasn't easy to say no, that i was already married to daddy, but i still love him lots 'n lots, and that one day someone VERY lucky WILL marry him!!

( plus explaining the logistics of it all would be just wrong!!! hahahaha....)

AND

i also want to get this off my chest too.

a week and a half ago was the finale show of mine and courtney's favorite reality show

So You Think You Can Dance, U.S, season 5.

we were pulling for BRANDON right from auditions, he's AMAZING!

anyway, we were totally disappointed when Janine won in the end, Brandon was second.

too bad the show is based on VOTES in the end, and not on true excellence in quality training and performance by judging, otherwise he totally would have won! ( any thoughts???)

Grrrr...now on to Season 2 for SYTYCD CANADA!!!

:O)

...hmmm...

back to our holidays..

of course, we spend most of our time at the cabin, as much as we can this summer

we had our good friends, the Malinowski's out with us a couple weekends ago and we all had a blast...this just looked like beach party central when they arrived with their trailer!!

hahahaha....couldn't resist a photo!

bonfires, pinching and smacking...all i'm gonna say...

the kids all had a FABULOUS time trying out a new toy that weekend too.
Kneeboarding.
Good times.


Miss Kelly...

Rachel...

Carson...

...The Dad...

heehee...and YES...even I did it too, sorry no photos were taken though...

...lots more tubing...

and wiping out!

( courtney and rachel )

...lots more jetskiing...

( tyler says " eat your heart out Edward Cullen" - the windblown hairdo )

hahaha..

AND...

for the very first time EVER,

our family has a sunset photo on our lake.

the cabin is on the south shore, so we never get to see the sun set on the lake.

and for all the many, many years that our family has owned this cabin ( which was built by my Grandpa over 60 years ago ) nobody has EVER done anything about taking a sunset picture.

Until there was Kim!

the story:

i put my camera into a ziplock bag inside the camera bag.

tied the camera bag around my neck.

drove out alone on the jetski to the other side of the lake, down in the bay.

turned off the jetski and voila.

did the reverse and came back to shore to show it off!!!

...oh, and some more kneeboarding shots...

Miss Courtney...

...yep, even tyler gave it a go...

two rides around the lake...woohoo buddy!!

the babes.

let's see...

friday the 14th was my mom's birthday!!!

( happy birthday again mom!! )

we spent the evening picking up Grandma and Grandpa and going over to mom's with a cake and had a little visit!! ( and yummy snacks too - thanks mom! )

hope you had a relaxing day!!!

we love you tons!!!

and yesterday ( saturday ) the griffin family through a

retirement party for my MIL out in Woodmore.

it was a surprise and it turned out to be a great day...despite a few little showers!

Congratulations Liz!!!

this is mike's mom and dad, Liz and Ken!

...ooohhh...

i've just been paged by my hubby that our dinner is ready!

BBQ'd steaks, potatoes and onions...mmmmmmm...

gotta go.

BUT real quick...

remember the last photo in my last post? the one with the Tupperware inspiration for a scrapbooking project?

well, here's the progress so far....it was all about the colors!!

what's been inspiring you lately???

( Bo Bunny Bare Naked chipboard album, 6 x 6 )

cheers everyone!!

:O)