Abigail...

Early Monday Morning Visitors.......

Susannah called us this morning to say that when she was out feeding the animals this morning, there were three deer drinking down at our pond! They stayed for a drink for a few minutes and then walked on through our side woods....probably towards the road and then across into the field the other side (their usual route).

A wonderful way to start the week :)

I didn't have time to change my lens so click on the pictures to see them better :)

Art students optical illusion artwork :)

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/lancashire/8030766.stm

So clever :)

Looking for frogs.....

We went hunting for frogs down at the pond today, but they were too good at hiding. We didn't catch any but we saw plenty of other pond life! We DID hear the frogs and we certainly saw signs of them - check out the frogspawn in the picture!!! Once the grass grows a little down by the pond, we will have frogs EVERYWHERE again, and they will be hopping through the grass and up by the house again...soooooo easy to catch THEN!!!! The children had fun trying though!!

Visitors to the pond.....

A pair of Mallards were visiting our pond today, but we were heading down there to look for frogs, and they didn't hang around to 'chat' with us, lol......I guess they thought Sam and Abby were just a tad too noisy ;)

Fresh coat of paint.....

This afternoon I used some spray paint to give some furniture a fresh coat of white paint. the porch furniture I bought with the money my Grandad left me, was looking very tired and shabby, so I sprayed it white, and I've also bought some new black and white cushions to go on it.

I also FINALLY fixed and painted the miniature rocking chair that I bought at a yard sale about 3 years ago!!! In Summer it will go on the porch and in Winter it will go inside with a doll or Teddy on it! I need some more paint as a I have a wicker sofa to spray still!

Doesn't the white paint make a big difference though???? You can see I took a picture of one chair painted and one NOT painted......

What is Abigail up to?

Buzz on over to the Bee Tales blog to check it out ;)

Drama Club Plays....

Laurence has been in his Junior High Drama Club this year and last night was their end of year performance. They put on a day time show on Thursday morning, an evening show last night and then will be showing it to a number of schools in the area.

It was a series of short plays where each one has a moral about being yourself. It was wonderful - the plays were so funny and enjoyable! Well acted and interesting and the moral of each story worth thinking about! Laurence played a poor fisherman who wanted to keep his wife happy. She even slapped him at one point - she REALLY slapped him too :) He caught a mermaid who granted him three wishes and his wife chose bigger and bigger houses.....the poor fisherman just wanted his wife to be happy but she never was!

Well done everyone!!!

After the plays they served free dessert and coffee in the cafeteria and had free plants to give to each school volunteer as a thank you for all their help through the school year. :)

We can craft!!

Yay - as soon as Sam was awake this morning, he shot out of bed and and yelled that he had to get dressed! He was so thrilled that we finally had counters and this meant that he could paint and do crafts and all those things we haven't been able to do for AGES!!!! First things first - he wanted to paint his plaster of paris Bob the Builder kit!!!

Head dresses...

We decided to make Native Indian Head dresses after seeing Stabbed-By-Mistake's Head Dress at the Royal Alberta Museum.

More acrylics painting...

Abigail worked on some more acrylics painting - this time at home!!! She remembered exactly what she was taught at the class and she ONLY bought acrylics in the primary colours as well as in black and white - she then set about mixing all the other colours herself and got the shades and tones she wanted by mixing with black and white. She refused to use any of the paints I had but ONLY the paints she bought and by mixing them :)

She spent most of the time mixing paint colours and I think this is the part she liked the most :)

Art class work

Acrylics colour wheel and canvas, and charcoals self portrait and horse.....

(work from the first two art classes Abigail has been to. She has really enjoyed these classes.

My Gracie.....

Enjoying the new window sills in the sunroom part of the kitchen.....I made sure they were all wide enough to take my widest plant pots - trays of plants in Springtime and strong enough to sit on!!! The ones in the basement are the same :)

Oh and yes, thats a pumpkin growing ;)

Time for a Pow-wow.....

We've been meaning to make head-dresses since we were at the museum the last time - every time we go and we see 'Stabbed by Mistake's amazing Head dress we always say we will go home and make some just the same....

Today with the kitchen so nicely finished and all the space and the counters all done, we were able to get the paints out and make lots of mess - most of the crafts and activities are more applicable to the homeschool blog and will be put on there (just ask if you want access to that blog) but here are a couple of pictures of the Head dresses.

June 27th!!!

The Muttart reopens!!!

I can't wait :) I've missed going there! I love going there and often go there either at Easter or Mothers Day, but it has been closed for so long during their renovations!

I can't wait to go back and see the changes! Yay!