Can you spot me with Susie in the pool?????

Just little dots almost BUT......I have my arms outstretched......waving at Lloyd and the iphone!!!!!

Bungeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Every so often thy stop the waves and everyone turns to watch someone bungee jump off the platform above!!!!!! Fool!!!! hahahaha!!!!

Fun at the Waterpark.....

Today we went to the Waterpark - it was for a fundraiser for CAZA - Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums. We got 12 tickets and took a friend of Laurences and 4 friends of Chris's.....because there were so many of us we rented a Cabana so we could all keep our bags and clothes in there and have the bathroom close by and some chairs and a table etc etc.....We were there by 9am and had a great morning in the pool. We had exclusive use of the pool until 11 or 11:30 or so and then it was opened to the public.

Lloyd and I got out with the little ones around mid day but left the older ones in the pool. We went to Boston Pizza for lunch. Laurie and his friend met us around 2pm but Chris ended up staying at the mall and in the waterpark for the afternoon and is getting a ride home later.

Oh and NO sniggering at me in my bathing suit ;)

This was my first time at the waterpark!!!! Have to say I had a great time!!! I've been to better ones though!!! The water palace in Croydon was better - and the big one near Birmingham........forget the name lol.......but I love swimming and pools and waves and water....so it was great!!!! Lloyd pushed me down a slide and I went sooooo fast OMG!!!! And Laurie went down the red slides a few times!!!! No way was I going down that!!!!! lol!!!!

Paper bag mini album....

This is (a selection of pages from) the mini album that I made at Stacey's Stampin Up party last night - Tess and Cathy taught the workshop (wonderfully!) and it was sooooooo much fun. I loved the kit that Tess gave us, as it was so bright and cheery and full of Spring colours!!! Basically we were given the basics of the bags and the kit, and shown how to put the basic mini album together ina variety of ways (with ribbons or with rings) and then we were left to our own devices with all of Tess's amazing tools!!! We had several hours to PLAY!!!! We could be as creative as we liked and do whatever we liked so all of our albums turned out differently.......there were punches, die cutting machines, all kinds or tools and gadgets and gizmos to use and try out!!!

I finished off my album today at home and I think I might use mine for Easter pictures!!! :)

Earth Day atc's...

atc's for an earth day swap...using recycled items and including a fact about myself saying one thing that I do for the environment - I mentioned that I am a beekeeper!!

Birthday card....

Here is the birthday card I made for Stacey yesterday.......

Play Doh Creations!!!!!

Sam adores playing with his playdoh!!! Here are a couple of his creations form today! Sponge Bob Square Pants, and a snake with googly Eyes!!!! :) Oh and he also wrote out his name which I thought was fab - but I didn't take a picture of that! He shaped each letter of Sam!!! :) Abigail was very impressed :)

My week....

Sunday - We headed to South Edmonton Common to kit the kids out in new clothes and shoes for Spring and Summer. I even found myself a cute tshirt for Earth Day ;) The shopping was exhausting but fun! The kids loved it though! We had lunch out and then headed home. I took Chris to the golf course for his orientation session - he starts officially next week and thinks he's going to love it there :) Lloyd spent the afternoon emptying the basement ready for the work to start down there this week. Susannahs friend Madison came over to play. (Madison just moved here and has moved to a house close to our mail box which is really handy as its close enough that Susannah and her can play together regularly) Lloyd got a fire going and the kids made Smores. Lloyd and I had jacket potatoes on the fire for a late supper but the kids didn't want a supper after their lunch out and were happy with sandwiches and smores!

Monday - Abby, Sam and I had lunch out on the deck on Monday which was really nice - it's lovely and sheltered out there so that even when it's windy it is nice and warm and sunny. We can sit and talk and eat our lunch. Val Emailed that she had had some bad news, so I gave her a call and told her to come over for coffee (and some distraction and chat)!! We spent the afternoon outside on the deck and out by the sandbox while the kids played with the rocket launcher and in the sand, and then we took a walk round the back field and through the woods. The weather was warm except for the wind which was cold. I caught the sun - too much on my face - which is worrying me a bit. I seem to be catching the sun too fast already this year and my face is tanning waaaaay too fast! (The only part of me on show so far this year really - apart from a couple of days when I've worn a tshirt and then I end up with tshirt lines fast). So Lloyd is trying to find out if it's my drugs and the high dose I'm on. Whether they make you photosensitive and more likely to burn. Monday night Lloyd and I had to go to Home Depot and so we went to Starbucks too for a yummy London Fog and drove home the scenic route and stopped off to see a really old car thats for sale. It's beautiful on the outside but turns out the inside is just nasty......what a shame!Oh and I had made these special orange juice lollies in the holders Samantha gave me last year which have straws on them where you get to suck the melted juice at the bottom - they were a big hit!!

Tuesday - I took Abigail swimming while Sam was at PreK. She is practicing her swimming on her back and floating on her back. The weather was GORGEOUS 21c. After swimming and when we got home, the girls cycled to the mailbox together. Sam and I walked down to the pond together and sat there and watched the frogs swimming across the pond and jumping about and making circles and listened to them get quiet and then noisier and noisier....Sam got REALLY good at spotting them! This weekend we will get new nets so that we can go pond dipping again. Dollar store nets tend to only last one summer around here ;) Tuesday evening we were just outside because it was such a lovely evening - hard to believe the weather was going to change!!

Wednesday - Earth Day!!! I took 26 Juice Boxes to school for Laurence as it was our juice day at drama club and didn't remember until I woke up and Laurie had forgotten too! He remembered mid morning too lol but by that time I had already dropped them at reception ;) Then I took Sam and Abby to Save On Foods with their own Reusable bags including Sams from his book 'Me and My Bag' which Abigail continued to read again and again in the car on the way there......We tried to buy Earth Friendly items there but that didn't prove easy as I said they could choose something for lunch and sadly everything they wanted didn't come in earth friendly packaging (sigh)........BUT it was recyclable thanks to Strathcona County's wonderful recycling program so thats good I guess! We did ONLY buy what could fit into our bags or could be carried!! We came home and all that days 'schoolwork' was Earth Day based. In the afternoon we had some fun playing with some messy crafts though by building a volcano and erupting it with baking soda!! Wooooooooosh! Then Abby and Sam played with cornflour. Those pictures are all on the homeschooling blog if you want to see them! Susannahs friend Cassie came over after school and stayed for dinner. I drove her home around 7:30 and went in to see her new kitten 'Abby'. Very cute!

Thursday - Abigail started art classes at a local community centre. They are homeschoolers classes and she loved it! The first class was on 'acrylics' and they painted a colour wheel before painting a canvas. Each class lasts an hour and a half. While she was in the class I went to McDonalds with my friend Jennifer and her little boy. Abigail is going to teach Sam and I what she learned in the class, so we bought the materials yesterday. After her class we drove to Millennium Place and had lunch, then took Sam to PreK, but he knew we were going out for coffee and cake so he started crying (he's never done that before) and it was awful. He clung to me and in the end we decided that the teacher would take him and snuggle with him and if he was still upset she would call me but of course he was fine very quickly! He LOVES school and has never been upset before! It was just because he knew we were going out!! Abby and I went to Second Cup on Baseline and met Rhonda for tea and cake! We sat and chatted for ages....I got told I was as bad as her husband for not noticing her new glasses, hair colour and cut ;) Sorry Rhonda lol!! Ran in to Michaels for a few things...back to MP for Sam who was back to his happy self - gave him his turtle cookie :) Headed home......date night with Lloyd Joeys was busy, Boston Pizza was busy grrrr We normally go out on Wednesdays which is quiet AND we normally go early but the workmen left late so we had to leave later.....we ended up going to Kelseys but got a table straight away and the food was served fairly quickly and was fine so all was good! Popped into the scrapbook store (as it was soooo convenient hahahahaha - then ran to Winners and got myself a new swimsuit for Sunday. Finally went home where I decluttered the linen cupboard.

Friday - my plans so far are: lazy-ish day at home followed by Staceys party tonight!!!!! Susannah has a party tonight that she is going to straight from school. Hers is a camp out/ survivor party!!! Have to say I am VERY glad that Staceys party is NOT a campout/ survivor party hahahahaha :)

New rink design....

Yesterday while we took Sam to PreK we stopped to watch what looked to be a group of students painting designs on the floor of the nursery rink at Millennium Place. It has been closed for maintenance and trade show for the last month. It was interesting to see it without ice and see them painting the the floor. Then after PreK they had finished painting and we saw them taking pictures of the 'students' (I'm assuming here) and they were starting to spray thin layers of water on top of the paintings and allowing it to slowly freeze! It was cool to see how an ice rink is built up slowly in layers!

The new design is of a race track with racing cars :) Sam and Abby are excited to go there and have a go at racing each other!!!

Picture fun!

Solids and liquids..

Playing with cornstarch and water...first with very little water then slowly we added more and more water.....

Volcano....

A mini volcano we created :)

Happy Earth Day 2009....

I hope that however you spent today, you spent a little time thinking of our Mother Earth, your footprint on this beautiful planet of ours and how you can reduce that footprint - even if, like in the story below, that reduction is just in a small way....

A story for Earth Day.....

The little boy walked dejectedly down the cracked sidewalk. His backpack was heavy and his feet were slow. He stayed to his path, pausing every now and then only to pick out a new can or wad of paper to kick as he went along his way. His heart felt as heavy as his backpack as he opened the door to his house and went inside.

His mother was in the kitchen, taking brownies out of the oven. She smiled as she turned around but stopped when she saw his face. "Tyler, what happened? Is everything okay?" "Nothing is okay, mom. Nothing will ever be okay again." He stood in the middle of the kitchen as his mother came over to the kitchen table. "Sounds like you had a rough day, Tyler. Is there anything I can do to help?" "That's just the thing, Mom. We can't help. There's nothing we can do." He sat down at the table and put his head in his hands. His mother sat down and waited a moment until Tyler began to speak again.

"Today, in science, the teacher was talking about Earth Day and the environment. Earth Day is supposed to be a day when every person promises to do something to help take care of our world. Mrs. Green was telling us how many companies are not careful about how they get rid of their industrial waste. She said that our world is getting dirtier and that many animals and plants are dying. She wants us to think of something we can do to help and I thought all the way home and there is nothing I can do. I can't stop the companies from polluting our air and water and I can't save all of the animals! There is not anything that I can do to make a difference."

His mother sat for a minute, thinking. "You sound like this really concerns you and that you have put a lot of thought into it, Tyler." Tyler nodded. "Let me tell you a story that your grandfather told me. I don't know where he heard it, but I think that it might help you think about your problem in a different way." She began, "one morning a man was walking down a beach that was covered in dying starfish. The tide the night before had been especially strong and thousands of starfish had been washed up on shore, too far up for them to make it back into the water by themselves. The man shook his head as he trudged along thinking what a shame it was that all of those starfish would die on the beach.

He came upon a boy who was throwing starfish back into the ocean as fast as he could. He was out of breath and it was obvious that he had been at this task for a while. "Son," the man said, "you might as well quit. There are thousands of them. They are washed up all over the beach as far as you can see. There is no way you can make any sort of a difference." The boy did not even pause in what he was doing. He kept bending and throwing but as he did, he spoke to the man, "I can make a difference to this one, and this one, and this one." And the man thought, and he knew the boy was right. He began to help return the animals to their home, smiling at how life's biggest lessons sometimes came from the smallest people."

Tyler stared intently at his mother. "But he did make a difference, didn't he? To every starfish that he threw back in?" His mother nodded, smiling. He sat for a moment, thinking about what his mother had said. "So, what it means is that even though I can't change everything, I can make a big difference by doing the little things that matter?" "That," she said, sliding him the plate of brownies, "is exactly what I am saying." Tyler grinned and took a brownie from the plate. "That gives me an idea." His mother smiled even bigger and said, "I kind of thought that it might."

The next morning on the way to school, his feet hardly touched the ground. He told his teacher the story of the starfish and his idea. Mrs. Green thought it was a great idea, and decided to let Tyler share the story and his idea with the class. Everyone got to work immediately, cutting out the large green leaves.

On Earth Day, there was an assembly and everyone in the community was invited. Many of those gathered were startled to see the large brown tree trunk affixed to the auditorium wall. They sat, puzzled, and waited for the program to begin. A boy, dressed up to look like a man, walked across a stage filled with starfish. The play went on as Tyler and his class told the story taking place. When it was over the audience applauded as Tyler stood at the podium.

"We were all thinking, and it was frustrating because we didn't think that we could do anything. The problems seemed too big for us to do anything about them. But we decided that together, even the little things we do could add up to mean a lot to our world." The kids began passing out the green leaves and pens to the audience. "We want every person to think of one thing they can do that could make a difference to our world. Even if it seems like something small, it will matter."

The audience began writing, and soon the tree was covered with the green leaves. Tyler and his class read many of them as they attached them to the tree. "I will walk to work." "I will use both sides of my paper to save trees." "I will have my pet neutered so there won't be any puppies born that won't have a home." "I will plant a tree every year." "I will start recycling my newspapers." Tyler thought, and bent to write his promise on the leaf. Soon, the tree was beautiful and green and covered with the Earth Day promises. People were laughing and talking as they left, thinking of what they had promised to do.

When the dismissal bell rang, Tyler got his backpack and began the short walk home. As he reached the sidewalk, he pulled an old grocery bag from his backpack. He began picking up the trash as he made his way home, instead of kicking it . He smiled all the way, thinking of the difference they would make.

Free at last!!!!!

Today we moved the bees out of their winter home in the workshop and let them out for their first flight since early November!!!! It was wonderful to see them flying at last, to be able to have a good look in the hive and check on them...and to be able to see how much honey and pollen stores they have left. I will be updating the bee blog in the next day or but thought I'd do a quick post here now!