My little Lloyd....

This was Sam after his bath last night and I just had to post it because in this picture, to me, I think he looks soooooo much like Lloyd did when he was a little boy. It's funny in some ways that I knew Lloyd when he was a little boy because there are moments when I look at Abigail or Sam and it's JUST like looking at Lloyd all those years ago!!! Especially in Summer with freckles and a sun-kissed face!!

loving this.....

.....Sitting by the fire pit while I blog.......on a gorgeous, warm summers evening :)

I can see dark clouds roling in though and I'm hoping we may get a storm - or at least some rain - it's so dry!!! we need rain!!

The girls are riding their quad bikes and Lloyd and Laurie are working on the tree house. I'm relaxing here, enjoying the chance to catch up with my blog and maybe some Emails and facebook if I have time!!

Lloyd worked from home today, my cleaning ladies came this morning and this afternoon the girls had their classes at the library and each took a friend with them. Susannahs class was a dance class and Abigails was the Fancy Nancy tea party which she just LOVED! I will post a picture of her and her friend in their 'fancy best' heading off to the tea party later!!

Horse show at Amberlea Meadows......

Yesterday morning before the berry picking, we headed over to Amberlea Meadows, to check out the Western Canadian Miniature Horse Show.....Amberlea Meadows always has free admission to their stables for the public - and it's a chance to have a wander round...see the horses, feed them treats and just get up close with the horses and riders for the girls - which of course they love right now because they are so horse obsessed!! There is a cafe there too which does great food and drinks :)

It's not far off of Hwy 2 just north of the airport if you ever want to check out a friendly stable!!! :)

Susannahs art journal.....

This is Susannah's art journal that she made last week while I was working on mine...I think she did a great job!!! I love the colours she used and the little gem stones she added down the edge!!! She is going to do some music pages as well as some every-day art journaling pages!!! I love it!!!!

Abigail has also been busy in hers!!! :) Abigail collects things to stick in hers when we are out and about - I love that she is thinking about hers during the day - she is very like me in that way and I can see her using journals as she gets older!!!

Sams flowers

Yesterday Sam and Susannah were out and about together and they came back and gave me a bouquet of wild flowers they had collected from our land. Sam handed them to me and it was just the sweetest thing EVER :) I was so grateful that I had my camera with me (I was snapping pictures of the treehouse developments) that I was able to catch the moment on camera :)

Using up the Saskatoon berries we picked!!

When we got home we put the berries to good use by making a compote to have with scones and cream!!! Mmmmmm we had this at A Taste of Edmonton too :) Saskatoon berry compote Mmmmmmmm

Today Lloyd made smoothies for the kids too :)

Saskatoon Berries are a superfruit as they are so high in nutrients!!! :)

A fun Summer Sunday....

More from the U-pick farm!!!

Berry picking....

On Sunday we spent the day out and about enjoying the gorgeous weather. One of the things we did before heading home, was we stopped off at a U-pick farm and learned all about Saskatoon berries! We have been here 7 years almost and had never tried Saskatoon berries! we had wanted to go strawberry picking bt you have to be up so early to do that and several of the non irrigated farms have lost their entire crop this year. The farmer at this farm joked that we hurt his feelings when we weren't interested in Saskatoon berries - he said we should come on down and learn about them!! So we gave him another call and said we would!!!

We ended up having a really great time there and they were so child friendly that we will definitely be going back! He joked that they don't weigh the kids going in or out so you can basically eat as many as you like while you're picking, and they are soooooooo SWEET!!! I had thought they would be like blueberries which I only like in muffins (lol) but these are soooo much BETTER!!! Yummy!!!

The guy that runs the place (Will) walked us over to the best place and showed us all how to pick them and gave us some secrets to cook with them and was chatting away to the kids.....they gave them all freezies at the end too....we came away with 5 buckets full for just $15!!! :) And we had had sooooo much fun!!! What a great way to spend a sunny afternoon!!! :)

Semi-formal dinner...

The 'theme' for Lauries special night was 'semi-formal dinner' - and they turned the lodge in to a restaurant for the night with waiter/ waitress service and they had to wait to be seated etc....it was decorated with pretty lights and flowers and was all done nicely for them. Maybe Laurence can say more about it as I may have some of this wrong......oh and he says he was talking in the formal picture which is why he looks funny ;)

Fun in the camp pool!!!

Laurence enjoying the pool during his week at camp!!!!

Art journal pages...

I am loving composition journals, so as well as my music composition journal...I have started another journal....I gave a composition book to Susannah too and she has started one!!! I must take a picture of hers!!!! It's GORGEOUS!!! Abigail has hers too and has done a TON of pages in hers!!!! :) Suannah is busy thickening the pages in hers!!

In between our busy days out in the sunshine, we have been cooling off inside in the air conditioning by getting artsy fartsy with our journals, mod podge, and paints etc etc.....and its been fun!! :)

Bird atc

An ATC I made for a bird swap....

Boat house at camp...

Laurie is back from camp!!!

Laurence is back from Birch Bay, and when we went to get him last night, we got to see a display of what he has been doing all week on his 'get a grip' camp!!! Here he is (in the middle) at the top of his 'Ascending' climb!! He went first! He had to use both arms to ascend the rope by co-ordinating his arm muscles and pulling himself up the rope, tightening the two pullies as he went!! It looked hard work - especially at 31c temperatures!!! He soon made it to the top of where he had to go though!

Behind him were two climbers...to the right of us were two people who were twin descending or something or other from the zipline and to the left of us people were ziplining - although Laurie may be able to correct me on the correct terms to use - it was amazing to see everything and I have a TON of pictures to add - although Laurence didn't want ANY taken so I apologize now that there aren't many good ones as I had to be sneaky about taking them ;)

I think Laurence had an amazing time - made a LOT of great friends and is VERY sad to be home again. when we got to his cabin he wasn't there - we grabbed his bags and spoke to some of the boys there who all announced that they loved Laurence!! :) So my fears that he wouldn't have a great week were washed away instantly!!! :)

Next year he wants to go again AND he also wants to stay for an extra week as a volunteer!! Cool!!! :)