Our Thursday....

Today we went to see Susannah perform in her schools talent show.  She did amazingly well and performed The Band Perry's song 'If I Die Young'.  She played guitar and sang all by herself.  I recorded it so hopefully will be able to upload it somehow either here or on Facebook.

So proud of her :)

All the students in the show did great - I think they are amazingly brave to even just get up in front of everyone, so well done to all of them!!

After the show we had to head in to town to get a few supplies for a craft the kids want to do.  Abigail makes me laugh now because every time I come up with an idea for something to do - or surprise them with a new activity, she will say 'Pinterest'?????  Hahahaha

As if it is the only place I EVER get ideas now - lol!!  Well, ok, MOST of the great ideas I get now ARE from Pinterest, but that isn't the point :)

Anyway we went to get salt and chalk for a craft we are doing tomorrow - and we stopped off on the way to get Sam his favourite soup.  He hasn't eaten much this week as he hasn't felt too well - so I promised him his chicken noodle soup!

Sam wanted me to instagram his donut - it was very pretty but soooo BRIGHT!!

At the store I finally found one of the gorgeous big wooden windmill's that I have wanted for so long!  I think they are gorgeous and wanted one to brighten up the crate on the back deck while there are no flowers.  It was the last one there, but I grabbed it and for $2. was very very happy :)

I LOVE it :) 

Right now it is raining and TOO windy outside - and more like October, so I have the windmill sat in the corner of my bedroom.  Its so cheery and summery :)  Love love LOVE!!!  :)  Sam carried it back to the car and was soooo HAPPY - he got so excited with how it was spinning round in the wind as he walked!!  :)  

Tonight was date night.  Sam and Abby went to their Dads, Susie spent the evening curled up with Rosie watching Greys Anatomy episodes on dvd.  I went out for my date - and had a fabulous time :)  

I was home about the same time as the children were though - and we then all curled up on my bed and watched Back to the Future - we were going to watch it earlier this week but people weren't well - so tonight was the night!  They all enjoyed it and so tomorrow we will move on to Back to the Future 2 :)

No school tomorrow.  Laurence is at the twins tonights and is working tomorrow and all weekend too.    No clue what we will do yet - it is supposed to rain all day tomorrow and be cold.  We shall see.....

Inspiration...

Wow....so meaningful to me right now.

The days end.....

Tonights book choices from Sam.....

This is one of my favourites...how can you resist a story about a farting dog???  And a book where you have to hunt for a spider on every page???  And a book where a man blames his farts on the dog???  Hahahaha  Lol  Love it :)  

I posted this one on Susannah's FB wall earlier.  She is a total bookworm these days - in fact all my kids are really...Chris probably doesn't have time these days but he always used to love to read - and lately Laurence has been getting back in to reading too:

Today was the last of this set of kids art journaling classes.  The last 4 weeks has flown by!  This set was called 'Bring on the Colour' and was designed to add colour to our lives while the grass was still all brown and the snow was still hanging around!  It has been fun experimenting with all kinds of ways of adding colour to our pages!  

Today we had a lot of MESSY fun - and as you can see, Rosie was hiding under the table at one point:

She does LOVE the classes though as she gets soooo much love and attention from all the children who come here - and she is so sweet natured and good - they all want to take her home!  

One of the art techniques we did today was using marbles to roll paint across the paper...it created really nice effects on the paper that the children could then dry and cut up to create collages in their journals or use as backgrounds for their pages:

The rest of my day was spent admiring Sams Lego building as he works through his 'Lego Ideas' book we borrowed from the library - I picked up some more Lego from my dealer at the Antiques Mall on the weekend and he has been using that.  We also all watched some videos online of art techniques we can try:

This is sooooo true:

While I was on Pinterest looking for activities for us to do and for class ideas, I came across this house - I really like the idea of letting the trees grow closer to the house and having less lawn to take care of.  I think it would shelter the house from the wind too as this house really does get hit by the wind.  I really want to put new windows in - at least upstairs this year:

Thought this was funny:

Love this:

Excited about our busy day tomorrow - so much happening and so much to look forward to :)  

Wednesday Tag..

1. William Shakespeare's birthday is celebrated on April 23rd...when did you last read Shakespeare? What's your favorite Shakespeare play?    I haven't read any since school probably....my favourite would be 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'.....and probably only because I saw the play with school.

2. What food(s) would you recommend a foreign visitor try when they visit your home country? If you mean England, then I guess real chips in paper at the seaside!!  And I've recommended my friend visits the pie shop in Bath when she goes there in June!  To anyone coming to Canada I would suggest pumpkin pie...or something from Timmy's maybe...

3. What's a lie you often tell yourself? Tanning is safe.

4. What's something you're good at that might surprise us? Remember this is a family friendly blog! Reading maps and remembering directions.

5. Who is your favorite animal character from a book? Eeyore from Winnie The Pooh - or maybe Tigger...lol or maybe even Winnie the Pooh :)  I like all of those friends on there :)  

6. April showers bring May flowers...do you have a green thumb?  Nope I'm useless and prefer good quality fake ones because they don't die!!  :)  

7. Speaking of rainy days...which one of the following activities would you most want to spend time doing on a rainy day-

• sort photos and create albums
• bake cookies
• read a good book
• hold an all-day movie marathon
• organize closets, cupboards, or bookshelves
• try a new recipe
• fix something that needs fixing

Rainy days inspire me to do crafts or activities with the kids or read with them...or bake....or do art....or declutter or get organized...I also like to drive in the rain so sometimes it inspires me to go out!  

8. Insert your own random thought here.


Tomorrow is a busy day!

Veet hair removal for men!!

CLICK HERE :) 

These reviews of Mens Veet Hair Removal are HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!

For example:  "Not since Steve McQueen entered the 'Towering Inferno' has a human object burnt so intensely."

Just so funny :)  Thanks Jason for the laugh this morning :)

Sam :)

Sam told me today that he loves this house so much that he thinks he is going to live in it forever.  That when he is big he is going to live in it and spend $10,000 or $50,000 on it and make it all lovely.  He sat and talked about the house and what he loves about all the rooms and everything for a long time.

He just about melted my heart :)

pictures that grabbed my attention this week :)

Love this so much :)

Rain.....

It started to rain last night as we headed into town to get Laurence from work...

The skies were amazing just before the rain - and I love driving in the rain - although maybe not in quite a storm like we had the night Nigel and I went out for dinner with friends last year - wow I've never experienced rain quite like THAT before!!  I don't think Nigel had either - with trucks just stopping in the middle of the highway and under bridges and us not being able to see them through the rain!!  It was so dangerous!  So glad we kept going though as it was sunny and light downtown!  

Last nights rain wasn't like that :)

Sick days.....

Sam and Abby have been sick the last couple of days - stomach pains, fatigue and Sam was vomiting yesterday.  They are much better today - just tired...but we have had a quite couple of days - and I have been fighting a migraine from the change in the weather.  It has meant a lot of naps, watching movies in bed, playing Lego on bed and Abby did some art journaling - I showed her how to use the new pastels that I got last week.

Hopefully we will be back to normal tomorrow.

Rosie has loved having us at home with her though :)

I still have my classes to teach - tonight I have my teen art journaling class and tomorrow is my LAST childrens art journaling class of this course!  Wow time has flown!  

so true xx

Earth Day....

The weather today was just gorgeous! I slept with my window open all night so I could fall asleep listening to the frogs.  Bliss.

Today Susannah and I went to see a movie at lunch time - The Lucky One - and then after picking Laurence up from his friends house, we were home by late afternoon and still had several hours of sunshine and several hours before Sam and Abby were due back.  

Susannah and I did some yard work - cutting grass, tidying up the fire pit, demolishing the sandpit/ box,  sweeping up, picking up garbage....

Then we took Rosie for a walk all round the acreage and played fetch with her in the pond so she got tired out from swimming.  

I picked some Pussy Willow to go in a big jug in the hallway.  It looks so lovely - couldn't believe the prices at the farmers market yesterday!  People pay crazy amounts for some cuttings of Pussy Willow!  We have it growing everywhere!  

All in all, it was a fabulous day - still lots to do around the acreage, but we made a good start and it felt good to spend a few hours outside enjoying this little piece of Planet Earth that I am so lucky to have!!

Our Saturday....

Susannah and I had to head to Whyte Ave to pick up the Roller Derby tickets

so we called in at the farmers market.  We treated ourselves to a bag each of the amazing almonds

that they sell there - raspberry flavoured :)  

While we were there, we got to see a flashmob take place outside!!  Turns out, it was the Edmonton location for the Body by Vi Challenge 'Worlds largest flash mob' and these were taking place all over the world in all different cities!!

The tv cameras were there, so no doubt it was on the news last night!!

I expected to wake up and see Kony 2012 posters everywhere, but we didn't see many at all...a few had already been covered over by other posters on Whyte Ave, but we did spot this ONE on a store window:

Saturday evening, we headed over to the Roller Derby to watch the game.  It was a REALLY good game - soooo violent and crazy!  Bet those girls are bruised today!  They were pushing each other like crazy and going flying off the rink and so many fell over.  Great game - so much better than last time!  

The weather was so nice yesterday and today that out came my capri's and sandals :)  

Bliss!!

After the roller derby we grabbed some supper together:

Susannah was busy chatting with her new beau 'Jon'....they text constantly....but thankfully he is three provinces away :)  

It was a good day....started with me going in to town to see Sandy and get my taxes done - yay glad that is done for another year!  Thank you soooo much Sandy!  

Laurence worked last night and spent the weekend at his friends house...he looks exhausted not just from working but all the walking it means too - but it's good for him I think :)  

So my weekend was spent with Susannah - art journaling, Whyte Ave, Roller Derby, supper, lots of chat, lots of laughing...I feel so lucky to have such a great relationship with my Daughter!  

I missed Sam and Abby but knew they were happy and these weekends without them are a great time to spend with Susannah and Laurence.  

Such a shame I didn't have that chance with Chris.

x