Susannah - some iphone snapshots!!!

Woodland swing....

Playing on the rope swing in the woods this afternoon. It was a gorgeous afternoon and they had said it might be the last of the +20 days so despite feeling under the weather I took the children into the woods for as walk to make the most of it!! You can check out what we were up to, over on the homeschooling blog!

Our pond...

Or at least it WAS a pond.....

THIS is how dry it is here...our pond has completely dried up now - the bees are flying around it desperately trying to find moisture there. We have now had to start giving them a water supply apart from their syrup - they normally just take water from the pond but now that is not there we have to provide water.

They are forecasting a much milder winter than normal - but we NEED snow this year - without a lot of snow our wells are going to be in trouble next year. We are back with a fire ban in our county again because of how dry it is - and if we don't get moisture through the Fall, Winter and Spring - then next Summer will be even worse.

We have never seen our pond like this before. Perhaps it has been like this before we moved here but not since we moved here. So sad - where are the frogs?????

Can you see the darkest brown GRASS - not the mud or the first layer of dark grass, but the TOP layer of dark grasses - well THAT is where the water level normally is!!!!!! Shocking!!!!! We normally have fish in this pond all summer to keep the mosquito larvae at bay....It is normally full of frogs and all kinds of wildlife - the deer and moose normally come here to drink in the early mornings. The dogs love to swim in it. It is a haven for dragonflies in the evenings.....and now it is gone!

From one of my favourite blogs!!!

lets-explore.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/house_count.pdf

I love having simple little ideas like this ready to give Abigail and Sam when I am busy doing other things like making dinner!! It is something that Sam can help Abigail with!!

The Lets Explore blog is a great blog with ideas for younger homeschoolers!! It also often has great links to other blogs and sites and useful online stores!!!

Fall in love...

I'm taking part in an online workshop this week - it's to create a small journal/ mini album about Fall. So far I am taking part online but not actually working on my album - I am doing the theoretical work and the prep work but will do the 'practical' work of making the album this weekend. As usual though, I am loving the course and feeling very inspired. Kara's ideas and prompts are always so wonderful! Even though the weather here has been so very Summery, her ideas and creativeness have me almost thirsting for Fall!

We are hoping to take our Fall family walk this weekend - an annual tradition where we take certain photographs at a specific location. I am hoping for some blustery, Autumn-like weather!!

Yet again Strathcona County is under a total fire-ban. the ground is sooooo very dry and now with the leaves falling to add to the problem, it is just very very dangerous. No more quad biking or fire pits for a while! We are in desperate need of rain (or dare I say it snow, sigh)

Thursdays - busy days...

Thursdays are definitely our busy days!! Today we headed into town as Abigail had her art class. this mornings class focused on Van Gogh. I was surprised at how much Abigail remembered about the artist and his work after the class. She is really enjoying the classes and loves her teacher, Chloe.

While she is at her class, I took Sam to McDonalds to the playplace, with another homeschooling Mom (hi J!!!) and her DH and youngest DD and my good friend Val (they are all good friends). It was a good morning and the time flew by!!

After art class we headed to Broadmoor Lake and played at the playground for a while before taking a walk and going geocaching. We found a geocache close to the fire station :) After that it was time for gymnastics class!

While Abigail was at her gymnastics class, Sam and I took another walk around the lake and went hunting for another geocache a little further afield - we found it!! :) Cache #2 for the day :) We were happy!! We played at the playground for a while again before heading back to watch Abigail in her class for a while!

The weather remains gorgeous! It has been so nice to be outside enjoying the lovely temperatures!!

After gym class we stopped off at Sobeys for a few things before heading home....to enjoy a few more zucchini muffins that we had baked yesterday!!! Yesterday we did more baking - including some oatmeal raisin cookies!!

Sam decorated a treasure box when we got home too - he has been finding treasures all over the place - feathers, lucky stones, silk flowers...all kinds of little things he wants to keep - and so I found him a box to decorate and keep his treasures in!

That was our day...our evening was fairly lazy...supper, baths....computer time and movies, relaxing - the children seem to be playing in their rooms or wherever.....someone is soaking in the bath still......someone is on the phone (as always)....Susannah went for a cycle ride to the store with a friend.....here I am blogging.....

Snapshots of Sam..

Sam asked me to take these pictures!! So funny - at the moment we will be out and about and he will tell me to take a picture of him doing something or sat somewhere! So I will - just because I KNOW that time goes so fast and before I know it he will be like his older brothers and sisters and won't want his picture taken at all!!

A little addicted???? Who? Me????

So, I've started to spend my days crawling around bushes in Sherwood Park....dragging my kids with me. We get funny looks from passing cars and people walking by. Cyclists and in-line skaters watch me with curiosity....probably wondering what I'm doing with two young children scurrying about in the branches of dirty old fir trees behind old buildings or looking behind garbage cans or under benches.

No, I haven't completely lost my mind..and we haven't reached the point in life where we are having to go garbage can-diving yet. We're just addicted to geocaching!!! And when the addiction hits it seems like you don't care who is watching - you just HAVE to find that cache!!! :)

Last night Lloyd and I were having supper at Joey Tomatoes and we saw that there was a cache hidden near the sign that welcomes you into Sherwood Park. By the time we had finished dinner though, it was completely dark. It didn't stop us! we were soon to be found clambering about in the darkness, flashlight in hand....trying to find the little cache that 'thinks like a magnet' - this cache is named 'Now you're in Sherwood Park' and I can't help but finish that line with '...home of the real nutjobs'!!!!

Anyway, today we found two more caches!!! I found one with both Abigail and Sam, and another with just Sam while A by was at gymnastics. Both had 'treasures' inside - pins and badges, a dinosaur, a sewing kit, tattoos etc etc.....so the kids were thrilled!!! Lots of swapping to be done and we added our names/ dates to the caches etc....can't wait to set our travel bugs on the move!!!! Its a great way to fill time - we had 30 minutes between art class and gymnastics and so we found a cache by the fire station! Then while Abby was at gymnastics Sam and I wandered a little further and found another cache a little further down the road!!! It's amazing how many there are all over the place!! Love it!!

I tried to stop myself but.......

...the call of the chocolate was just too much to resist...and so I grabbed the knife and took it to his throat.....he pleaded, he sobbed....he cried for help. The children tried to stop me but when I reminded them of the chocolate they too agreed he had to go!!!

And so, Hank is no more!!! He met his end with a sharp knife, a turquoise peeler, and a very stunning kitchen aid mixer (a bloody work of art may I remind you!!!!) and is now being enjoyed in some VERY delicious chocolate zucchini muffins!!!

I DID do one thing before he went though - I saved some of his sperm (ie seeds lol) and we will grow some of his babies next year....because I must admit - he was one very impressive BIG BOY ;) and made some very tasty muffins ;)

Work...

Abigail continues with her workbooks in the mornings when we are at home. Math is either telling time/ improving subtraction/ addition facts/ speed etc etc fraction work etc etc. She continues to work on homonyms compound words, synonyms etc etc....
We are still slowly working through Coraline (the last week has been sooooo busy)!!

On Thursday Abigail started art classes in town and LOVED them! The art classes were all busy - two of them were held outside with the children painting pictures of trees....the artist they were focusing on specialised in forest scenes. I will take a picture of Abigails painting and add it here!! It's wonderful!!!

On Thursday afternoon Abigail started gymnastics classes. there are only three in her class - all girls and all the same age. She is loving that class too - VERY much!!! I may try and get her in to that twice a week after Christmas!!!

On Friday we ran the homeschooling class at the library. We did it on art journaling using composition books. Abigail was SUCH a great help and was able to instruct other children on how to make their own journals. She helped clean up afterwards and was generally my extra set of hands!!! I couldn't have done it without her!!!! I think the class went well - there were over 20 children there and I got some good feedback! I was soooo impressed with the art journals the children created - and I met some lovely families!!! It was a great afternoon!!! I hope everyone had fun!!

Abby

Keegan!!

Sam snuggled up with Keegan this morning. He had a bad dream in the night and came in with us :) it's nice to wake up with him sometimes still :)

Geocache 2

Last night Susannnah started dance classes again. While she was there, Lloyd and I drove up to near the local airport to find another geocache. It was an easy find!!! Here is the picture of the cache with the planes behind!!!

Photography day....

As Sam had PreK yesterday, Abigail chose to spend the day taking photographs. Firstly we set ourselves for the day by meeting a friend for breakfast!! Thanks Val :) Then we set off with our Nikon SLR's and went to a local lake. We each took photographs of everything from Fall colour, to our footprints in the sand, to each other taking pictures, to the grasses blowing in the breeze.

We stopped for ice creams in the park and Abigail spent a while texting her Dad and playing on the climbing frame. We had a long walk through the woods.

We enjoyed geocaching for the first time and generally making the most of being outside in the incredible weather!!!

Here are a few of the pictures Abigail took all on her own with the Nikon D70s

Our first cache!!

Thanks to a fabulous iphone app, we have started geocaching....and yesterday, while Sam was at PreK, Abigail and I found our first cache - right in the grounds of Sams PreK school!!!! There are actually 4 within 2km of his school so next week we will hunt for the rest!! It was so much fun!! :) We definitely need to go shopping for some of our own cache containers this weekend so we can set some out and about in places!!! Last night Lloyd and I went and found the one by the airport while Susannah was at dance - I will post the piccy of that one on the family blog though!

As you can see, we waited until Sam came out of PreK and we took him to see the cache too!!!

Very cool - a step up from letterboxing I guess :) I didn't have a clue you could geocache on your iphone!!! Very cool!!! Just another reason to LOVE my iphone :)