Birds of Prey..

Great Horned Owl and Burrowing Owl.......

More pics from the show....

Archery....

The children got to have a go at archery at the Sportsmen show...Chris especially enjoyed it!!! The guy that was teaching the children was so great with all the ages and abilities of children - realy helpful and encouraging!

Actually I was really impressed with everyone at the show today - VERY friendly and and helpful and welcoming!!! Best show I have been to there in a long time :) We had a great time there :)

I caught a trout!

Today we went to the boat and sportsmans show at the Agricom - what a great show!!!! (Monica you should have said hi! I was pretending to sulk on the way back to the car because I was feeling pretty crappy by then from coughing constantly and my throat was hurting from it and everyone was teasing me lol. I'm a bit of a drama Queen at times lol (who'd have guessed huh??? lol) anyway you might have kicked me out of it had you said hi ;)

Anyway back on topic - they had a fishing tank for children at the show - for $2 children could have a go at catching a trout - at least I think they were trout.....I have never been fishing before - unless you count minnows with jam jars as a child. So I had a go with Abigail and I did it!!!! I caught a trout!!!!! Woohoo!! I had the bait on the hook and after a while Abby got bored and walked off and left me with the rod and to be honest I was bored stiff .....so Abby wandered back and I told her I was so bored that I could throw something - in fact I told her that I was losing patience and was going to throw something and the only thing around was her so I was going to throw her in the pond! She looked at me like I was mad - and then I felt something tugging! I caught a fish!!!!! I caught a fish!!!!!

Yay!!!! I lifted it out of the water and theres this bloody ENORMOUS fish _ I tell yah it was THIS BIG!!!!!!!!!

So the guy comes over and yells to the crowd 'see it CAN be done' and everyones looking and Abby is thrilled and tells everyone SHE caught the fish BLOODY CHEEK because I CAUGHT the bloody thing ME!!!!!! I caught a fish - it should be MY name on that certificate!!!!!

So Lloyd told me he would take me fishing this year - I hope he doesn't think THAT was it!!!!!

Maybe fishing is MY thing......maybe thats my SKILL....it was HUGE.......

I caught a FISH!!!!!!

:)

Personalised...

One of Lloyds favourite gifts was this Chamois leather that my Mom sent over that she had had my Sister personalize with the name of his tractor and the John Deere logo lol! ...so now Lloyds tractor, Bertha, has her very own polishing cloth!!!! Of course he thinks it's far too nice to actually use ;)

cake magic!

From this:



To this:





I bought a typical white cake from Safeway and scraped off the flower and redecorated the top with a John Deere theme in just five minutes :) Just some simple green coconut and a little scattering of toffee chips for a gravel driveway. One of Sams tractors and a little hay bale and its done :)

Happy Birthday baby!

Tomorrow (Sunday) My gorgeous, wonderful, sexy, loving, kind, generous, thoughtful, amazing, hardworking, supportive, clever, caring, funny, romantic, sweet, strong Husband celebrates his 35th birthday.

Have a wonderful day Baby! I'm so happy that you get to have the whole week at home with us! I wish you could retire now and stay home with us every day! I never get tired of having you at home!

A Treasured Keepsake...

Martha Stewart made Easter baskets this week using crocheted doilies soaked in fabric stiffener. You can find the instructions at: www.marthastewart.com:80/article/doily-basket?xsc=stf_MSLO-ARTICLE

I'm fortunate enough to own a beautiful handcrafted doily, but there is NO WAY I am using it to make a basket!!!!

My doily was a wonderful gift from a friend and I treasure it! Sharon made it for me! I don't know if you have ever seen these up close but if you have, and have ever taken the time to really look at how fragile they appear, I am sure you can appreciate the time and love that must go in to them! In the photographs above you can see the one Sharon gave to me. Isn't it gorgeous?

Is it out on show? No - because I have a three year old who would probably use it to wipe his nose on (sigh) if my pillow wasn't available (sigh) but I think I may back it with black cardstock and have it framed instead.

Dinner at Samantha's

All week I've been meaning to blog about last weeks dinner!

So last week we were invited to Samantha and Ians to help celebrate Ians 40th birthday! It was a lovely evening. I wasn't feeling very good so we didn't stay too late, but we did have such a great time!

Two other couples joined us - Lori and Chris (we've met them a few times before and Lori is coming to work for Lloyd) and another couple from the UK, Colin and Tracy.

Samantha (with her Son Josh's help) had prepared a Chinese meal.....We started with Sake......and then we had a crab soup to start and then Colin helped Samantha to prepare a sauce for the beef and noodle dish (my favourite of the courses). After that we had chicken in a peanut satay sauce with rice.

Lori and Chris had brought some Sushi, so it was a little Asian-Fusion......

Tracy and Colin had brought fruit chocolate fondue. Lloyd and I had popped over to T & T grocery store and bought a selection of very weird Chinese desserts made with mango and black bean and 'stuff'......the mango cakes looked so nice but everyone tried them and agreed that they TASTE the way Playdoh SMELLS...if you can imagine that ;)

The little pink and white cakey things we bought were sooooo soft to hold - they felt like the softest pilllowy-est little things ever - I just wanted to hold them and squeeze them - everyone just wanted to squeeze them like stress balls - but they tastest YUCKY lol!

It was a fun evening!

Leaving Samanthas house is never easy - we can talk for Britain when we get together.....I got my shoes on and was almost out the door when Samantha wanted to show me her new bedroom furniture - so off came my boots and upstairs I went to see her new bedroom!

Her new bedroom is GORGEOUS!!!! I am soooo jealous! But I have to say the HIGHLIGHT of my night - in fact the highlight of 2008 so far HAS to have been looking in her knicker drawers - and YES I say knicker DRAWERS PLURAL!!!!!! OMG I swear I have never known anyone own so many pairs of colour organized, perfectly arranged underwear EVER.....

I had to go back and look again.....twice!!! Just to check I really saw what I thought I saw!!!

I will forever be in awe of Samantha and her knickers ;)

Her secret is out ;)

Thank you for a lovely evening Samantha! And Happy Birthday Ian - you old fart!

A little light bedtime reading......

Beekeeping 101.....last night I was focusing on over-wintering bees. Many beekeepers in AB don't both to over winter their bees - they just kill them off with cyanide. I really don't want to keep cyanide on my property - there are enough dangers on an acreage without having cyanide around - it is VERY dangerous to humans too.....

I'm not sure I actually agree with killing off bee colonies anyway - bees are having a hard enough time surviving as it is - so many diseases killing them off. Before you could order them online each year people just over-wintered their bees because they had to. I'm certainly going to try.

I don't think its any cheaper to over winter....but I think it will be far more satisfying as a beekeeper.

Strawberry Shortcake...

Another of my dolls from when I was little....Strawberry Shortcake.....her hair doesn't smell any more though. And I don't know where her hat is! She still has her socks and shoes though......

Parachutes.......

Parachutes.....

Growing salt crystals

Day one........

Finished hand print....

Flying saucers...

Aren't these just lovely Eastery colours? I'm not sure who my Mom sent them over for...but since the children got home, there aren't many left....Christopher seems to have vacuumed quite a few up!!!! The tissue sheets I bought today for Easter crafts are all the same colours :)