Its ours again!!!!!

Today was our first day back to the library since the schools reopened....yay we had it to ourselves again....Sam played with the train table all by himself and Abigail had the computer to herself......the children had the space to sit and read and look through the dvd's and language courses etc etc..................

Chris picked up his letter of reference from the library Manager...he did voluntary work there all summer again this year and he gets a $10 gift certificate for the cinema and a letter to put in his resume...................this all helps towards his portfolio for college and applications for scholarships at a later date...............last year a member of th epublic even wrote in to the library to ask them to thank Chris for being such a great assistance to their family during their visits......that was wonderful :) He is such a great young man :)

The big pile of books in the picture is HALF the books we took out......we always take out so many..........they almost always get read or at least used for projects and research.....I love going to the library and thankfully my children love it too..........even Abigail knows how to find a certain book using the computer or by asking for assistance all by herself at the information desk.....its such a great library here too and they know Chris by name because he works there so often.........

Friday is here.....................

Yay its Friday and so far its a good one! 8am I was on the phone and booked the children into their science workshops! I am so happy as they fill up fast! So for $66 I have booked all 4 children into science workshops for THREE days......it's like $5 a workshop!!!!! Classes like Forensics Lab and Electric car garage..............even Abigail is booked into classes.

So then at 9am I booked them into city classes. I am so happy that all the classes we wanted were available........I was so worried they would be full already.....the girl on the phone said they have been sooo busy taking bookings :)

We have also booked flights and villa for our big trip :) so today has been a good day :)

Chris and Abby are playing Risk right now and Laurie and Susie are playing a math dice game similar to Yahtzee but involving multiplication.................Sam is asleep......I've been pottering around booking things and vacuuming and stuff.............

We are heading to the library at some point today...............I offered to take them to the SHINE park day yesterday and also to the Odyssium today as a few families are going but they said no........they are waiting for the new exhibit at the Odyssium before they want to go back again ...so probably when we go for the workshop......................

Oh and now they are playing a history of Canada game.............they just came to ask me how many provinces there are in Canada as the answer card said 10 but they had counted 13 on our wall map of Canada....so Chris says the Territories don't count........so we checked online and he is right.......so we learnt something new today........10 provinces and 3 Territories.....so what is the difference between a province and a Territory......????? They are researching this now :)

I love unschooling.......it works so much better than 'schooling' at home............the last two days I have 'encouraged' (ok pushed) them to do 'some' work........and it was stressful and I have no diea if anything was actually learnt...so today we are returning to unschooling and LOOK at how much learning is already taking place!!!!!

And Chris has been in touch with the Japanese Consulate and they are sending hima ton of stuff on Japan.......he has been learning more of the language and he has a list of books he wants to get out of the library including one on the Japanese religion (I forget the name lol) and one on architecture........and none of this has come from me....................this is UNSCHOOLING at its best...............

Oh and on the news this morning they showed all the knives confiscated from school kids in Edmonton.................hundreds of 'weapons' that kids as young as grade 6 carry for protection!!!!! They interviewed a teacher and she seemed so nonchalant about it all...she said its sad but thats what life is like these days......................WTF????????????????

The View...............

Lloyd and I just came in from a few laps of our land on the quads........when we got up onto the side field we spotted a pair of white tailed deer watching us from behind the hay bales........a Doe and a stag...............the stag had fairly large antlers.....they stood still and watched us for a few minutes and then turned and hopped into the woods with their little white undertails flashing as they went..................then as we looked ahead we saw a bird of prey perched atop one of the hay bales...................and then as we drove along the edge of the back field we saw another bird of prey sat on a haybale in our neighbours field...in fact THIS bird sits on THIS haybale every night at dusk........Its a redtailed hawk and is gorgeous when it flies.........I had no idea they were such creatures of habit....we learnt that this year though as we drove down RR 222 three nights running and the same pair of hawks was sat on hay bales in the same field EVERY night............

I love living here so much...there is always something wonderful to see no matter what the season..........right now its the wildlife and the ever changing colours in the woodland.......the occasional duck on the pond...the magpies on the lawn at dawn, the seagulls on the back field at supper time...................

I cut the grass today....just a little section left to cut tomorrow.....we have friends coming over both days this weekend so it will be nice to have a tidy yard!

Bug time again..........

We found this amazing looking bug out on the driveway...it is so leaf-like that once it hopped into the grass we couldn't spoit it and had to walk carefully in the grass until it hopped again......very cute! My Bugs of Alberta book is useless though as it doesn't have ANYTHING like this at all...what kind of hopper is this??????

chick chick chick chick chicken.......

lay a little egg for me..........................

The children feeding the chickens some grass last night and some chick-mix..............
They are such sweet chickens........they like having their backs stroked and they love to come and see you when you go inside....they peck at your shoes...last night they were almost ALL on their roost cuddling up for the night :) Very sweet chickens................

I love him :)

I just asked Lloyd in an email if there is anything he wouldn't do for me....his response was:

"Nothing........but I reserve the right to retract that should you give me a weird request! Xx "

caught speeding......................

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5322302.stm

We can drive faster in Canada because there are less goats :)

Bubbles..........................

Sam and Abigail played with bubbles on Tuesday evening...................

Big Bird.................

This bird of prey was in a tree at Elk Island on Monday...we stopped for me to take a picture but of course in Elk Island if you stop your car then EVERY car stops to see WHY you stopped and to see which animal oyu are looking at..................so all these other cars stop and scare the bird and it flied off....but luckily it circles and then comes to sit on the grass not far from me.....and I snapped these pictures.............

I can't find a bird in my Birds of Alberta book to match this one.....anyone know what it is?

More pics of Elk island....................

Last few snaps of Elk I think!!!

S'mores and burgers.................

Some pictures of s'more-making and burger eating at Elk Island on Monday evening.............Sam stole his brothers burger and started tucking in which was hilarious as it seemed huge :)

A Lesson In Photocopying...................

So todays lesson.....how to photocopy body parts :) A very useful educational experience.............art, science, health studies (is this safe?????? lol) and TEAM WORK!!!!!

What else did we do today? They all watched their Math U See dvd's.......Laurie is really enjoying his................Susie wrote a letter to her penpal.......she also did some of her Write Now book..........Chris did a book review and made himself some flashcards for his Japanese studies...he then had me test him and he knew them all...he has taught himself a LOT of conversational Japanese in a DAY!!!!

I offered to take them to the SHINE picnic today but they all said no and requested to go to the library instead...................do I have weird kids or WHAT????? Lol they are sooooo like me :)

Laurence picked up an old workbook and did a couple of pages on the abbreviations of the provinces and he had to look up towns and places of interest and figure out which province they are in......that was interesting.......................Nanavut (sp?) doesn't have an abbreviation!!!! Why???? I think they should call it Nan. or Nut!

The highlight of the day so far though was definitely the photocopying........I dread to think what body parts will get photocopied when I'm not home GULP!!!

Christies new tattoos................

Christie came over for the afternoon yesterday. We went for a walk down to the mail box...Susie and Laurie rode their bikes while we walked with Sam........there was a parcel from my Mum and Dad in England....magazines for each of the children.

After the walk we sat out on the porch and drank OJ, ate ice creams and chatted........the children sat and read their magazines and Abigail sat and decorated Christie with Dora stickers.........they were EVERYWHERE! In fact last night CHristie emailed me to say that at a meeting last night she had been uncomfortable (lol) and found a sticker down her pants (trousers lol)........

It was another gorgeous sunny day...I think it was 26 or 27..........again!!!

After Christie left we made the kids a quick pizza supper before Lloyd and I headed out for date night :)

Two things...................

Two things I meant to mention and didn't.......one of the Moms broughta gorgeous cake to the HS group on Tuesday it was a 'Not Back to School' celebration cake and we stood all the children around it and took a picture :) It had the yummiest chocolate dipped strawberries on the top!

The other thing was that the Prime Minister of Australia offered Steve Irwins family a State funeral for Steve.....and they turned it down........I am so glad they turned it down I really didn't feel it was right for him.....and like his Dad said....'Steve was just an ordinary bloke......and thats how he'd want to be remembered................'

I think they made the right choice :)

Thank you................

I like to reply to most of my comments and this week I have had many lovely comments.....but no time to reply! So thank you to everyone who has left me compliments on my pictures and comments on my posts.......I really appreciate every single one! I'm glad you all enjoy the pictures and visiting my blog.....I enjoy posting :)