Susie the Elf

Abby Banana

Slip and slide fun

Laurie enjoying the slip and slide.

Garden colour....

Happy 21st Wedding Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my Sister Clare and her Husband Jack for yesterday.....yes they are Dans Mom and Dad.....

Dan was conceived on their Wedding night...he was just born 9 months early......

;)


I phoned my Sister to say Happy Anniversary yesterday and ended up being on the phone a LONG time :) Had a nice long chat with Oliver and Isaac too....omg Isaac can TALK!!!! I didn't realise you could have quite THAT long a conversation about water guns :) I really wish Clare would bring him over to stay because I just know he and Abby would have soooooo much fun!!!! Isaac is almost 7.

Dad please can you email me the photos of Oliver from his prom - I can't find them on the Western Gazette website - just the pic of the girls....

Happy 21st Birthday Daniel!!

Today is my Nephew Daniels 21st birthday. A year ago today he was here celebrating his 20th birthday with us all! We took him to the zoo for the day (his choice lol) and it was a great day! He chose a 6 layer chocolate cake for birthday cake and wanted a cheese platter for one of his gifts (something he'd always wanted hahahaha! weird kid!!)

Today he is on holiday for the weekend in Brighton on the south coast of England with his girlfriend...for a music festival I believe - and no doubt as with all great music festivals in Britain, its probably raining lol!!!

I hope whatever you are up to Dan, you are having a great birthday! We all really enjoyed celebrating your birthday with you last year!!! Of course your birthday this year won't compare at all (lol ) but we hope you have a great weekend anyway :)

Thinking of you!

X



The folowing was published in the local paper back home (My sisters had a picture of Dan when he was little and cute lol):



DANNY
DANNY HAMMOND Happy 21st 16-05-2008 Love Grandma, Grandad, Karen, Sean, Jane and Lloyd
Published: 16/05/2008

HAMMOND
DANNY HAMMOND Happy 21st Birthday 16th May All our Love Mum, Dad, Olly and Isaac xxxx

Feelin hot hot HOT

I am LOVING this weather :)

27c yesterday.......26c today and 30c tomorrow :) It's a long weekend here in Canada. The children have today off of school and Lloyd is off on Monday for Victoria Day. The weather is pretty damn PERFECT. It has been sooooooo windy but that is set to die down and then it will be GORGEOUS!

What do you all have planned for this LOVELY weekend?

Louise in England is going to be walking in the Moon Walk to raise money for Cancer research:

Hi all,

I am doing the Moonwalk in aid of Cancer Research with Sarah this year in memory of Beth (my mum-in law) It is half a marathon (13.1 miles) and starts at midnight.

If you are able to sponsor me please follow the link below:


http://www.justgiving.com/sarahdavidson-louiselee

Thank you!

Louise
x

Hung over

blegh.

Datenight last night. We went to Milestones. It was ok. Their Bellini's are the BEST - they even put little plastic animals in the top :) I have this LOVE of getting tacky things in my drinks and desserts - like butterflies on sticks or umbrellas - sad I know lol - and in my drinks last night I got little plastic toys - like a camel upside down :) a hairy coo lol :)

But I wasn't that impressed with Milestones. It's a lot more casual than Joeys Global. Food wasn't as good. Service was ok but not as good. I'm sorry but you just can't beat Joeys and THAT is why you have to wat up to an hour for a table at Joeys.....

But Milestones was ok and I would go there again and while you DO have to wait for a table at Joeys, Milestones is an ok alternative.

Had a lovely evening with Lloyd. We shared dessert - a butterscotch kind of cup desserty thing - bit like Angel Delight with a chocolatey topping and crushed Dime bars on the top. We couldn't finish it as it was too rich, but I finished my bellini's - which is why my head is a little sore this morning!

Moths

We found two moth caterpillars outside in our yard and we added those to our tank with our chrysalises.....well, this morning one of them is starting to change into a chrysalis! If you look closely you can see that it is shedding its outer furry skin and you can see through the furriness! It's body is now much slimmer inside this.

Tuesdays sunset for you

Wednesday

Today was an at-home day. I wanted a chance to get my house back into order! We have been outside soooo much and with the dirt delivered, the workmen here so much and the sand delivered - with the good weather here and the children outside playing all the time....with the windows and doors open all day long and us all digging in dirt all day........well, my house has been covered in a thin layer of dirt - LITERALLY! It gets everywhere! My children have been FILTHY! They get thrown in the bath every night - sometimes twice a day because they are so grubby but they have been having a blast just playing and digging and planting and being outside all day long.

I had grubby hand and finger marks going up the stairway walls. A grubby ring around the bathtub. And my mud room literally IS a MUD room :) Thankfully it's dry so its a powdery mud room!

So today I cleaned and dusted and wiped and washed and got this place almost back to normal.....still have some walls and baseboards and windows to do but its a whole lot better than it was!

Abby and Sam were out in the sandbox for a while and I strolled about checking out the plants and bees and hummingbird feeders (which are empty because the wind has blown them about so much they have emptied! The hummers aren't back yet here despite the gorgeous weather - but although its warm its so windy here today that the feeders have been blown around and we have a sticky porch to wash off now! I can't put my feeders on the back of the house this year - I normally have them by my kitchen window but I can't this year because of the building work - so I have two on the front porch and three on the workshop/ one near the vegetable garden.

Abigail went on her first proper cycle ride today - she is doing so great on her bike now so she went to the mail box with Laurence. She was so proud of herself :)

Lots of our trees are now in leaf :) It's so nice to see green trees :) Woohoo :) Trees with leaves :) That must mean Summer :)

I updated the homeschool blog with chrysalis pictures and the bee blog too....

Susie is off to a sleepover tomorrow night. Chris is off to a sleepover this weekend in town. Laurie was off to Rock and Ride this weekend but may not be now.....

They say temperatures this weekend may feel more like July :) that sounds good :) Maybe I should go get that tent now and I could camp out with the kids this weekend :)
That would be fun!

Ooooh and Val invited me to a special breakfast in a couple of weeks - I get to see her Grandson again - haven't seen him since he was a few weeks old so I can't wait to see how he's grown! And to see Jessica of course :)

Two days

Lloyd has been home from work for the last two days :) - well, four days if you count the weekend :) I love it! Apart from taking the children to their various classes, we have been outside gardening the whole time :) We have got so much done and its looking great out there!

Of course...still tons to do....it's kind of a never ending job and summer here is far too short - kind of wish this global warming thing would hurry up and happen so summers would last longer!!!

I love having him home all the time. Love it!

Into the tank!

Today we moved the chrysalises into a bigger tank ready for them to change into butterflies. This is their last home until we release them. Four are still attached to their paper tops so we pinned the papers to the branches. Two didn't attach so we have rested them on the bottom. They need humidity in the tank so they have some grass and moisture in there - some rocks and branches - and when the butterflies come out we will feed them orange gatorade!!!

I will take some better pictures tomorrow but these will have to do until then!

The next stage....

The caterpillars started to turn into their chrysalises at the weekend. It happened very fast. One moment they were caterpillars and then we went back a couple of hours later and they were half changed and then we'd go back a little later and they were changed completely! Within a day or so all were changed! Amazing! They are quite stunning in the light with goldy copper shiny patches in them that sparkle in the light. They occasionally wobble but apart from that don't move and they are quite hard.

All they left behind was their exoskeleton....kind of looks like their heads fell off - YUCK!!!

Happy Birthday Susan!!!

You old lady you!!!! :) Isn't being 36 wonderful????? :) trust me it's even BETTER than 35 ;)

I love the gifts you got for Mothers Day!!! Those framed pictures that Scott has made you over the years are gorgeous!!! And Jakes plate picture is wonderful! Have a lovely dinner with Scott :) Thinking of you!!!

And your little Sammy is just a darling :) She's just so snuggly and kissable :) I love seeing pictures of her - she always looks so happy :)

If anyone wants to see what I'm talking about - head on over to 'It's my blog' :)