Enjoying Spring Snow!

Archery...

Abigail tried out some archery at the Boat and sportsmen show.

House Shaped ATC's

Here are two House Shaped ATC's I made yesterday for a swap I'm in at Swap-Bot!! I really enjoyed making them - and getting messy with the modpodge :)

60 foot long penis painted on roof

Quote from BBC News Website:

An 18-year-old has secretly painted a 60ft drawing of a phallus on the roof of his parents' £1million mansion in Berkshire. It was there for a year before his parents found out. They say he'll have to scrub it off when he gets back from travelling.

Hhhhmmm maybe Lloyd and I should check our roof to see if Chris has done the same to ours out of revenge after his recent behaviour and punishments ;)

I wonder if people are laughing from the planes as they fly over our house into South Cooking Lake.....

Homeschooling Blog

The homeschooling blog HAS been updated - no idea why it says it hasn't been updated for 7 months (lol) as it has been updated quite regularly :)

If you don't have access and would LIKE access then just let me know your Email addy and I'll send you an invite! It's just a blog that lets you know what we've been up to with our homeschooling and also includes useful links for crafts, activities and homeschooly ideas etc etc.....

athomefirstgrade.blogspot.com/

ATC's......

Some ATC's I've been working on....

London Fog

Drove to two Starbucks last night - first one was closed as the girl had put a sign up saying she was back in 15 but the time she had put was actually in 25 (obviously crap at math lol) so we drove to another......ordered a London fog and was so excited as I LOVE them.......we get to Wye Road and I take a sip and it is GROSS........YUCK.........NASTY :(

I was soooooo disappointed :(

Just goes to show that it really does depend on who makes it for you :(

A really crappy ending to a pretty dismal day :(

(no offence Val lol it WAS nice to see you)!

Spring Break update...

I got some new math workbooks for Abigail this week - one on time and money - just to see how she could do with that - and I was really surprised at how well she did - I mean she has always just sued money and I never really thought about 'testing' her on it - she just used it in 'life'.......but she just knew all the names of the coins and everything without asking and then with the clocks she just knew all the times and everything with both analogue AND digital!!! I was really surprised!!! Yay :)

Our days have the same routine generally - mornings are spent with the children doing their 'schoolwork' Abigail can choose what she does as long as she does a variety each day and as long as by the end of the week she has done a good variety of work - some math, some science, some language arts, some social, some art, etc etc etc.......and she LOVES to help Sam with his too.

Because of the renovations we have going on home-renos.blogspot.com/
we are still having to stay upstairs and so we all do our work in my bedroom either at my table or on the floor, which is less than ideal but we get it done - hopefully it will only be a few weeks now until we can use the table and island downstairs. For now though we can't do many crafts or anything too messy which is limiting and means we can't have too much fun :( but Abby has done a little painting still.

We still go swimming regularly and we go to Kidz Quarterz (the indoor playground). I will be glad when the snow has gone and we can get outside more. the children like to go out and sled now that its warmer though and at least now the snow is wetter they can build snowmen!

I've been through the checklist of things Abigail needs to know before the end of the year - and the things I wanted her to do before the end of the year and there are just a few more things I want to cross off - so I'm heading to Education Station tonight to pick up some supplies....I want some 3d shapes for sure.....She needs a new Social book to work through too. Maybe one on the Inuit so we can use the Inuit books we already have! Or maybe one on maps.......hhhmmmmm

working on the diorama

Abigail continues to work on her wild horses diorama...

planting seeds...

We planted all our indoor seeds this past weekend - Sunflowers, Lupins, Echinacea.....as well as pumpkins, watermelon, tomatoes.

The watermelon have to be pollinated, so we had to plant both make and female seeds and our bees will then carry the pollen from one to the other once they flower! One of the Lupins has already sprouted!

Paper doll

Abigail and her paper doll that she had fun with this last week...

Creative art envelope.....

This is an envelope I decorated for a 'creative mail art' swap at swap bot. I had to decorated two envelopes and then write a letter to go in each......one headed off for the States and the other for Germany....I based mine on Springtime.....I had a lot of penpals as a teen and always decorated the envelopes before sending them...so I enjoyed doing this swap! The blobby mess in the middle is just where I've edited out the addresses for privacy ;)

My Bucket List......

This is a work in progress...Tess set me this task AGES ago...and I keep adding to it.......but I guess I shoul actually blog it and then keep adding to it here anyway!

A bucket list, is a list of things you want to do...places you want go......things you want to see....before you die!! So here is my list:

1. Japan to see the Cherry Blossoms in the Spring.

2. My Golden Wedding Anniversary.

3. Take an Alaskan Cruise.

4. Hand feed a Hummingbird.

5. Take a trip alone.

6. See my Nans 100th birthday.

7. Drive down the West Coast of the US.

8. Meet the children we sponsor through World Vision.

9. Hold a big New Years Eve party here at home.

10. Revisit Scotland and take a drive through all our old haunts and see our old house and how it has changed.

11. Take a hot air balloon ride across the Serengeti.

12. Take a Sex and the City style girlfriends week away - sun, sea, sand, sitting by the pool, drinks and lots of laughs!!!

13. Own a diamond from Tiffanys in a little turquoise box ;)

14. volunteer on an i to i volunteering trip - probably with children.

15. Go to Lancaster PA and see the Amish communities there and purchase a real Amish quilt.

16. Bungee Jump in New Zealand.

17.

Home....

Yay...I LOVE this song...from BBC Canada and finally someone added it to YOUTUBE yesterday :)

Monochromatic Layout.....

I wanted to do a black and white layout - after seeing an article in a recent British magazine about monochromatic layouts.....I did add a punch of colour to go with the dandelion Abigail had picked though :)

My friend Louise....

During my stay in England I wasn't able to visit many of my old friends that I'm still in touch with, but I was lucky enough to be able to go and visit my school friend Louise!! Louise sometimes reads my blog and we chat on Facebook and Email - and it has been so great to catch up with her because of the Internet over recent years! We were in the same form room (homeroom) for 5 years at Preston Comprehensive School (age 11 - 16)......Louise got me my first REAL job in a little store that sold newspapers and candy/ groceries etc etc...

We arrived at Louise's house just after her groceries had arrived - yes, they have grocery delivery in the UK and I was so jealous! When I lived in Scotland I would have my groceries delivered every week! It was wonderful to be able to order them online and just have the delivered to the door! So easy!!! Several big grocery stores do it! I have no clue why they don't do that here in Alberta especially in our Winters when people don't want to go out in the cold!

Louise was busy preparing for a dinner party the following night...a belated dinner to celebrate her birthday which had been the day before my visit!! :)

Anyway, I'm rambling! It was so great to see Louise after sooooooo long! She hadn't changed a bit - was still just as beautiful! Was exactly as I imagined her to be! Her home is beautiful! We met her sweetheart of a dog Meghan...drooled over her menu for the dinner party (which I hear went perfectly) .....

Louise it was great to see you again - thanks so much for having us over :) I hope your boys weren't on too much of a sugar high with their lollipops and cookies ;)

XXXX

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Waiting patiently......

Sam waiting for the plants to grow...he kept asking how long they would take....I told him "WEEKS AND WEEKS"!!!!....and then he went to the bathroom, came back and asked if any had grown yet!! Lol.....

Potting....

Today we planted up all our seeds for this Summers garden.....the children helped plant up the seeds and they are now on the shelf in our little greenhouse......Hard to believe it was well over 13 months ago that we planted all our seeds last time - we decided we did it far too early last time and so we delayed it this year by 5 weeks - especially having heard that it's supposed to be quite a late Spring......well, we'll see how it goes. Last years garden did ok - our strawberries did really well - my beets were a HUGE success.....to be honest we tend to better with things that get planted straight into the ground - so thats mainly what we are growing this year - so we don't have too much being started off indoors this year - just a few fun things really - and some perennials for my flower garden :)

My writing table....

This is writing table in my bedroom...also where I scrapbook and make ATC's....often use the laptop when not sat on the bed...the only thing I wish is that the window was lower so I could see out more when I'm sat down.....in my new bedroom I will definitely make the windows lower - as I have in the new kitchen! I like to be able to look out when sat down!

Cheesy...

....enjoying a grape!!

To celebrate Spring...

Lloyd surprised me with these beauties last week - a wonderful welcome to Spring!!! They look so pretty on my writing desk in my bedroom window! Very cheery especially on a snowy day like today!!

Another wonderful welcome to Spring was the gorgeous sound of Canada Geese flying overhead while we were at Vals house on Friday (the official first day of Spring)!!! Yay!!!

Changed it up!

So here is the finished page - I changed it quite a bit as I didn't like the original page. I added the travel cards from the London tube and the parking ticket from Richmond as well as a few other embellishments!

Sunday Brunch at Starbucks.....

Lloyd and I relaxed in the armchairs by the fire in Starbucks today....Lloyd with his oatmeal and latte and me with my parfait with granola and London Fog (YUM!!!!!)

Edmonton and Sherwood Park are under Winter Storm warnings and the snow is coming down pretty hard now and the wind is starting to blow it around quite a bit - when we got home our driveway had disappeared.

We plan to stay home for the afternoon and start some seeds off then curl up with some movies. Our Saturday was sooooo busy that we wanted a relaxed Sunday with some time just for Lloyd and I and then some family time in the afternoon.

What are you up to this Sunday?????

I wonder what he was dreaming about......

Funny things happen when I talk to Tess on the phone...

....like I get my arm stuck in my sleeve and end up doing chicken impressions.....and my four year decides that he should follow the cat out onto the porch roof and play out there and he should take out half his toys too!!! He must have been out there quite a while because there were also quite a few toys down in the front yard in the snow where the dogs were.....and Grayson gave up playing on the roof and came in with me through my window. Sam eventually came and knocked on my door all excited and told me he had been playing on the roof so I went and looked and sure enough the girls bedroom window was wide open!!! I looked out and was chocked to see all these toys out there on the roof!!!! Oh my!!!! Thank you Laurie for going out there to get all the toys!

Another scrapbook page....

and no I haven't done the journaling yet.....hhmmmm I have quite a bit to catch up on ;)

I don't like this pictures without matting - so I might take them off and do some torn mats.....or something......

I really like using negatives on a page though - I saw that in a magazine last month!

One of my favourite artists...

Kelly Rae Roberts - a collage artist from Seattle. I just LOVE her work. It's just been released on journals and magnets and other household items too! I'm really excited and hope to see it in Canadian stores really soon! I got the book for my birthday (signed copy woohoo)!!! And Lloyd recently bought me one of her prints from Etsy (thank you baby) and we are on a list waiting to hear when her originals are next released.....I would LOVE an original!!!

I chose the 'Let It Go' collage myself because my 'word of the year' is COURAGE....and this collage ends with 'Manifest Courage' but I adore all of Kelly Rae's work.....you can check her work out on her blog at:

kellyraeroberts.blogspot.com/

and follow links form her blog to her Etsy store!!