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!

home reno blog...

After nagging from all directions, I finally updated the home reno blog!

home-renos.blogspot.com/

End of year Facilitator meeting

Yesterday we had our end-of-year meeting with Abigails homeschool facilitator. It went really well and I am really pleased with our school board. I have to say our Facilitator is the best one we have EVER had!! She just put me completely at ease, was so relaxed about everything.....so easy-going. Telling me that she doesn't expect any child to be at a certain grade level at any age and she just expects them to be going at their own pace - so long as they are progressing in the right direction...

She told me not to push writing (which is COMPLETELY the opposite of her teacher at school and is EXACTLY what I NEEDED to hear and is absolutely just the best news EVER)!!

...trust me as a homeschooler meeting a new facilitator you just NEVER know what to expect and you don't know what they will expect or how 'schooly' they will be or anything...

She told me she thought I'd done an amazing job of homeschooling through renovations and doing so many activities and crafts in my bedroom with no kitchen or place for studying or crafts etc....that changing our original education plan was completely fine and we had done plenty!!!

It went fine - we are all set to finish the year NOW if we want :) Yep - school is DONE :)

Or we can continue the year until school is out......

Or we can school all year round....

But like I said to her, the kitchen has been out of use for so long, I am just excited to be able to use it at last, for science experiments, crafts, baking, writing, painting etc etc etc......so I just plan to do all kinds of things with the kids there and less 'book work' anyway!!!

We will be outside so much more now the weather is better and many more field trips so there would be less book work anyway and now the pressure is off to do less writing I am much happier. We read more in Summer as we all take part in reading programs at the library.

I don't think 'homeschooling' ever stops :)

I'm looking in to horseriding lessons. I want to get easels for painting so we can go and paint around the acreage and out by the lakes etc around here.

I registered Abigail for next year, so thats done! Funding will be $715. I have no clue how to spend it! I've spent a little already but not much! I'll take Abby to Education Station and Michaels and go crazy :)

Art Classes...

Abigail started art classes last week and has been enjoying them very much. The first class was on 'acrylics' and they painted a colour wheel and then had time to free paint on a canvas. thery also learned about a Russian artist. After the class we went to Michaels and she selected the materials she had used in the class and we are going to spend time working on more acrylic paintings.

This weeks class was on drawing with charcoals. They studied Picasso amongst other artists....then they studied portraits and learned how to drawer a face. They drew a self portrait and then had some time to do a free drawing - Abigail did a horse.

I will take some pictures of her work later and add them! She is loving the classes and I will definitely be signing her up for more!! the teachers are wonderful and Abigail loves being at Smeltzer House surrounded by all that history!

While she is at the class I go for coffee with my friend Jennifer, who is involved with organizing SHINE. I'm planning to join SHINE this year and go along to some of their field trips, workshops and park days. I think Abigail needs this and I need the push! Jennifers pretty good at encouraging me to do more and Abigail loves her children :)

Stable....

So this is what I wanted to buy....a stable block.....it would be ideal...nice and small..big enough for three small horses...ideal for the front paddock.

Sadly they were sold on the first day - for $20,000 each!!!!! I actually think thats a LOT for an auction! You then have to pay to have them moved and then for the concrete foundation and they aren't made THAT well!! So now we have a picture of them we'll just get Denis and Tim to make us some!!!

But we got talking to the lady behind the counter and she breeds horses and she's invited us out to her farm as she knows someone who has some horses that might be suitable for us - broken horses suitable for the children to ride....

Susannah and Laurence can ride, so I'm going to set Abigail and myself up with lessons in the next few weeks and we're going out to this lady's farm to see the horses.

Canada's Largest Auction...

Last night was date night...we went to Moxies for dinner down at South Ed Common. The food was really nice and great service - we got there early and there was no line up - I think everyone else had gone to Milestones for their 'date night' special (you order and your date gets theirs free) as they had people lining up out the door even at 5:30pm!!!

After dinner we drove down to Nisku to the Ritchie Bros auction house to see the huge auction there - Lloyd had registered a few days ago as he was interested in the prices of the track hoes...he knows he will need one eventually so he was interested to know what they will go for at the auction. I knew there were cars, golf carts and diggers, helicopters etc there but I had no idea there would be log cabins and stables there! It was really interesting to walk around and see everything! I really had a great time and we had so much fun! We went in the auction rooms and listened to the auctions taking place - they were selling lots of wood at the time for $900 a lot - there were people online in Saskatchewan going up against people in the room....really interesting to watch! Very fast!

It was a fun date night and just what I needed after a day of facilitator meetings and worrying about Val and her family!!! (sorry Val lol)

Saying goodbye

I can relax a little now I've heard from Val :)

It's been a very difficult few days for her family - and I know it will continue to be difficult for them as they have said goodbye to their youngest little foster child - he has moved on to a new home after 2 and a half years. I have only ever know them with him so it was very hard to say goodbye for us too. Abigail and I spent Tuesday afternoon with Val and 'Z' at Kidz Quarterz. I'm very glad that I had to rush off at the end for Sam because a slow goodbye would have made it even more difficult!

Anyway - I spent all day yesterday thinking about Val and her family and wondering how they were doing. I know Tuesday night was very difficult for them, but I believe yesterday went smoothly (as difficult as it was). So many things will remind me of Z around here.....Sams little car on the deck....my bowl of Christmas tree baubles (I forget what you call them)....even the birds arriving back in the Spring will always remind me of him now I think :)

On a brighter note, this weekend Vals Grandson arrives for a few weeks with Grandma and Grandpa (Grandad??) and I know Val is looking forward to THAT distraction ;)

I wish the little guy all the VERY best for his future and I really hope he is in his forever home very VERY soon. I think he was very lucky to have 2 and a half years with a wonderful loving family.
X

Can you spot me with Susie in the pool?????

Just little dots almost BUT......I have my arms outstretched......waving at Lloyd and the iphone!!!!!

Bungeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Every so often thy stop the waves and everyone turns to watch someone bungee jump off the platform above!!!!!! Fool!!!! hahahaha!!!!

Fun at the Waterpark.....

Today we went to the Waterpark - it was for a fundraiser for CAZA - Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums. We got 12 tickets and took a friend of Laurences and 4 friends of Chris's.....because there were so many of us we rented a Cabana so we could all keep our bags and clothes in there and have the bathroom close by and some chairs and a table etc etc.....We were there by 9am and had a great morning in the pool. We had exclusive use of the pool until 11 or 11:30 or so and then it was opened to the public.

Lloyd and I got out with the little ones around mid day but left the older ones in the pool. We went to Boston Pizza for lunch. Laurie and his friend met us around 2pm but Chris ended up staying at the mall and in the waterpark for the afternoon and is getting a ride home later.

Oh and NO sniggering at me in my bathing suit ;)

This was my first time at the waterpark!!!! Have to say I had a great time!!! I've been to better ones though!!! The water palace in Croydon was better - and the big one near Birmingham........forget the name lol.......but I love swimming and pools and waves and water....so it was great!!!! Lloyd pushed me down a slide and I went sooooo fast OMG!!!! And Laurie went down the red slides a few times!!!! No way was I going down that!!!!! lol!!!!

Paper bag mini album....

This is (a selection of pages from) the mini album that I made at Stacey's Stampin Up party last night - Tess and Cathy taught the workshop (wonderfully!) and it was sooooooo much fun. I loved the kit that Tess gave us, as it was so bright and cheery and full of Spring colours!!! Basically we were given the basics of the bags and the kit, and shown how to put the basic mini album together ina variety of ways (with ribbons or with rings) and then we were left to our own devices with all of Tess's amazing tools!!! We had several hours to PLAY!!!! We could be as creative as we liked and do whatever we liked so all of our albums turned out differently.......there were punches, die cutting machines, all kinds or tools and gadgets and gizmos to use and try out!!!

I finished off my album today at home and I think I might use mine for Easter pictures!!! :)

Earth Day atc's...

atc's for an earth day swap...using recycled items and including a fact about myself saying one thing that I do for the environment - I mentioned that I am a beekeeper!!

Birthday card....

Here is the birthday card I made for Stacey yesterday.......