The girls enjoying the sand box

We call them sand pits back in the UK but in Canada they call them sand boxes.....to me a sand box sounds like something a cat poops in lol so I still find it weird to call it a sand box...I still want to call it a sand pit....like I still want to call it a bucket and spade instead of a shovel and pail ;)

The sand box...

Lloyd wasn't at work today so he spent this afternoon building a 10' X 10' sandbox for the children. Yesterday while we were at the garden centre we ordered the sand for it. We get the sand there because its the softest sand we can find - the sand you get in the bags at toy stores is gritty and not soft at all - it has quite large grains and isn't that great for building sand castles - but the sand we order from the garden centre is very very fine and so so soft! It's like the finest beach sand down in Florida lol!

So they delivered it today and the sand box is already in use - we bought the toys last week when we vought the summer toys. We went to Canadian Tire today while Abby was at drama class, and bought two tarps - one to go under the sand to stop the grass growing through, and one to go over the top and get pegged down to keep the sand dry and keep the cats out when the sand isn't in use. The sides are high enough to keep Charlie out.

Post Secret

Anyone else teary-eyed at any of this weeks post secrets?

Too funny!!!

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6083468.stm

Wow - Pelicans are really the bad boys of the news today!!!

Ouch!!!!

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7394384.stm

And I can just imagine Val thinking this is just ANOTHER good reason NOT to move to Florida ;)

Happy Mothers Day :)

I hope all the Moms everywhere have had a lovely day - Happy Mothers Day especially to my Mom Josephine and to Lloyds Mom Terry!!!!

And thank you Val and Bobbie for the messages this morning :)

I have had a lovely day! As well as all my bees ad bee equipment and everything, I also had two wonderful dvd's - Juno and a So Graham Norton dvd :) (by the way last nights Graham Norton show was soooooo funny - another hour spent laughing out loud - he had Elle McPherson on and whle she was on they did this bit about woollen lingerie...


www.wolltraum.de/ click on fetisch and they got two audience members to dress up in some of it - HILARIOUS!!!! :) why on earth would people want to buy this stuff????? OMG there are such weird people out there :) Hey whatever floats your boat lol it certainly made for a funny show last night ;) Graham Nortons shows are so funny - Friday nights at 10pm on BBC Kids and Saturday nights at 10pm on BBC Canada!!

This morning Lloyd and I went to Greenlands and had coffee there and bought some perennials and some different bits and pieces...and then came home and have pottered about outside all afternoon. The children have had a blast outside again. We've had a lot of trips down to see the hives and see what the bees are up to. I've planted a lot of new perennials into the flower bed but it still looks quite empty as there are a lot of bulbs in there and much of what I have planted will spread so I can't plant anything else.

Lloyd is working hard in the vegetable garden with lots of prep work still - we still have a bit of a chance of frost this week out here - tonight there seems to be a chance of frost out here but the rest of the week looks pretty good and after that it seems fine for planting so we might be good to go!

The children have track meet in town tomorrow and Abby has drama class tomorrow so we may drop in on the track meet for a while and watch for a bit.

I was invited to a candle party last week at Lindas place (kids friends Mom) but couldn't go as it was date night so I need to get my order ready for them to take with them tomorrow. Gold Canyon candles or something or other (????) There are two I want.

OK off to make my gorgeous guy a cup of tea :) then we are heading off to water the flower bed as it doesn't seem to want to rain even though they said we might get a thunder storm!!!

They're here!

The bees are here - check the bee blog if you'd like to see pictures feel free to pop over to Bee Tales to see :)

Thanks so much Val for remembering my big day :) You were the only person who bothered to let me know you were thinking of me and it meant a lot :) I've been so excited - so you writing really meant a lot. You're a good friend :)

Friday

So finally all the workmen have gone home! The trenching is complete and the gas line is up and running again :) Richard - our contractors gas man came back and finished off his part this afternoon.

Lloyd is now home and is pottering out in the garden - we are trying to decide where to put the new sandbox for the children. And when to uncover the strawberries - we keep sneaking peaks at them under their bedcover of straw. They look so cozy under their winter bedding. Its cold under there but they are growing beautifully under there and are all lovely and green still from last year :) No wonder they are called strawberries :) Amazing how they survive such cold temperatures here just under a layer of straw :) and then grow so well to give us such an amazing crop each year!

Our raspberries didn't fair so well - we moved our big bed of raspberries last year - was it Daniel or Oliver who helped move the raspberries? And they did well in the new place last year - but the moose have feasted on them this Winter! Oops! So they are a little stunted and only a few seem to be shooting up this Soring! So we are going to get a load more on Sunday! I think we will buy more rhubarb too - although we will also split the rhubarb we already have - but not until next year I think as we just don't have the garden ready to do it this year.

Laurie has a friend over to play. Susie has gone to her friends house to sleep over. Chris has gone to his friends house - may or may not be a sleep over.....depends if he can get a ride home in time in the mornings as we can't go and pick him up as its too far in the wrong direction as we have to be in Spruce Grive by 9am to PICK UP MY BEES!!!

Yes!!!

I GET MY BEES TOMORROW!!!!

Yay!!

:)

So tonight is a quiet evening :)

more gardening, last minute preps for my bees - like putting some more beeswax on the frames and preparing the sugar syrup ready to go. Checking my list of things I need to get at the store....making sure I have everything ready and set up to get the bees in the hive.

Lloyd is about to plane off my entrance reducer because the stupid thing doesn't fit! Yep we leave things to the last minute!!! We have to bang the nails in the entrance feeder too (ie the jam jar lid lol!)

Have a great Friday night everyone - and a wonderful weekend - Happy Mothers Day to everyone on Sunday and enjoy the lovely weather :) It's so nice to have all this sunshine!

Flower bed ready for planting!

This is how we left the flower bed last night! All the new soil was in ready for planting! We took all the plants on the rock inside to the mud room to protect them from the frost as they were the ones we wanted to keep! The edge of the bed doesn't look neat or edged nicely but thats just the loose soil that needs to go back into the bed.....This morning I started to put the plants back into the bed and I want to buy some peonies to go in it too. I've also put some bulbs in.......

Bertha

Bertha made such light work of digging up the front flower bed! This morning I have replanted all the flowers and plants we wanted to keep! All my bulbs are in and almost all my day lilies are moved :) And my irises are moved too. Abigails tree is replanted. Some seeds are in.

Right now we ahve to stay indoors for an hour while Atco dig right beside the flower bed. Then we will be outside again! I just want to be outside gardening all the time :)

Tomorrow my bees arrive :)

Mongolie Grill

Wednesday night was date night. I wanted to head over to Toys R Us on Calgary Trail as I wanted to get stocked up on Summer toys for the children. Every year we go around this time and get things like sand toys, balls, games for playing outside, bug catchers etc etc. So we went there and did that (hence the Swing ball below). Val thats where we got Sams bee shovel - they have a set of metal garden tools in bug designs and we got bee ones for Sam and Ladybug for Abby.

I got a set of sand toys to keep in the car for at Broadmoor Lake and Miquelon etc and a set for at home as Lloyd is ordering the sand this weekend for the sandbox.

After Toys R Us we headed out for dinner. We have been trying some different restaurants lately because all our favourites have such long wait times (thanks to the Alberta boom) so we decided to try the Mongolie Grill. People rave about it on LP so we thought we'd try it and see. We'd never been so didn't know what to expect.

We walked it and the girl that camew to greet us was dressed smartly (Joeys Global style. She got a couple of menus and almost threw them at us and they landed on the floor - it was hilarious and she laughed too and put them away and got a couple of others and showed us to a booth. the restaurant inside didn't look very nice - kind of cafeteria style but with a big kind of grill in the middle of the restaurant - kind of hot plate style with a few chefs stood around it stir-frying on it and a buffet style bar at one end.

Most of the tables were in a dining room kind of area and then at one side were some smarted looking booths in a darker section and thats where we sat. It was nicer there thankfully!

Our server came over and he was really nice and he took our drinks order and explained all about the restaurant and gave us our bowls.

Basically, for those who have never been, its a stir fry restaurant. You go over to the raw buffet. You fill your bowl with all the raw vegetables, meats, fish and sauces that you want and then you take it over to the chefs. You then go and sit down. the chefs cook it for you in the middle of the restaurant and then your server brings it over to you with rice and wraps. How it tastes depends on what sauces you put in, what vegetables and meats etc etc you put in.

I have to say the vegetables were GORGEOUS and fresh! I had soup and green onion cakes to start and I had all vegetables in my stir fry. I added some peanuts and had a lovely honey and ginger sauce. And a spicy and hot sauce too. Lloyds was even nicer though! No idea what he put in his though!

Afterwards we shared a banana cheesecake cooked on the grill.

I wasn't very impressed with the restaurant. Its a very bland cafeteria style restaurant. The food was ok. I found it expensive for what it was - nothing special for the price. I wouldn't hurry to go back. It might be ok for lunch but not for dinner. It was the same price as a dinner at Joeys Global and to me it just didn't compare. We had a lovely evening - it was lovely being with Lloyd and trying somewhere new - glad we've been but not in a hurry to go back :)

But then thats probably why the restaurant was empty!!!

Swingball!

Swingball was a HUGE part of childhood for Lloyd and I. We both grew up with one in our gardens! We wuld spend many Summer night driving our neighbours crazy playing Swingball all evening :) and chatting across the fence :) Often untill Mrs Foot would call across the fence to tell us to be quiet and that Anna and Robert were trying to go to sleep!

My Mom and Dad bought my us our set in 1979 to keep us entertained all summer because we didn't have a summer holiday - instead we were saving up to go to Disney World the following year!

Its funny - I played Swingball so often way back then that I got REALLY good at it - and it's obviously a skill you never use because we set out new Swingball set up yesterday and even all these years later I have retained my Swingball skills hahahahaha! Much to Christophers dismay - twenty (er...something) years later (less said about that the better lol) I am STILL AMAZING at swingball!!!!! OMG who would have thought it!!!! hahahahaha!

I could bloody play Swingball for Britain!!! (Sorry Canada I WOULD play for Canada in the way that Greg guy choose to play for Britain but I am not yet Canadian)

I THRASHED my 15 year old Son 4 times last night!!!!! There was no way I was going to let that smug little guy win hahahahahaha :) Not after he put Jane is crazy on my Ma earlier this week :)

Swingball (kind of like Boggle) must be my THING :)

It always was :)

But sad to say....like everything these days the manufacturers have taken a good thing and made it crappier. It is made cheaply and thinly and isn't made as well as it was. It no longer pings up when someone wins. It no longer goes sturdily into the ground. It stands into a thinly made box you have to fill with water but then still wobbles badly when you hit it. The bats are not as solid. It's hard to tell if you have won. It just isn't as good quality as it was when we were little. Sigh.

But my kids love it as much as I loved it when I was their age. We were all out there all evening last night and I can see us having many nights of fun with it all summer long - and it doesn't cost much so as long as it lasts this summer then thats fine!

It kept the children busy while Lloyd and I got on with the flower bed we were working on last night (we got it finished woohoo!

Dd anyone else have a Swingball when they were young? Anyone else have one now?

I definitely recommend it :) Tennis fun for a small yard :) Even my 6 year old LOVES it :) Great for hand - eye co-ordination!!!

siblings....

Abby and Sam watching tv this morning....

Geez this gardening malarkey is tiring!

Mom have I got somethin' on my face?

I think Sam needs a bath :)