Little friends on the porch...

We spent much of the afternoon out on th eporch with our little feathered friends. We had three female Hummingbirds out there and one male....but it seems impossible for me to get a picture with any of them together....the closest I could get was a blurry picture of two in the same shot....and the male seems to be very unwilling to have his picture taken. What a shame as his red collar would look so gorgeous in the sunlight!

The birds and the bees......

Click on the picture to see this much bigger - a wasp chasing a Hummingbird from the feeder :)

Another design meeting.....

TV Design shows always make the planning of renovations and meeting with arc hitects and designers look really exciting and interesting...

Today we met with our builder again and went over the plans...again....and talked numbers...again....
and talked dates...again. We also ran into a kitchen counter store to have a look at samples of different colours and edges and materials....

And it's all stressful and tiring and....boring! I feel like its constant window shopping which isn't my kind of fun.....and Lloyd and the builder get into discussing measurements of beams and walls and windows and all that.....

I just want to pick out cabinets and flooring and get it DONE already....I just don't want all the hassle in between....and now we are looking at timescales and I will not have a finished kitchen for Christmas - thats almost definite.....even if the kitchen cabinets are in, the counters will not be ready....and the grading and patio and all the outside 'stuff' won't be done until next year....

And then we discussed doing the addition over the garage first and then the kitchen next year.....because the master bedroom/ bathroom and the bathroom renos and laundry room etc won't have quite as much of an impact on Christmas compared to a house with no kitchen and all the work taking place downstairs....

So who knows....and my head hurts.

It will all be worth it in the long run - or so everyone keeps telling me.....

Louise - Marks and Spencer

Hi Louise! We don't have M&S here in Canada - they used to but I was told that the last one closed a year or so before we arrived in Canada. I think they sold a little food and some clothes etc - not sure what else but I don't think they were quite like the M&S stores back home....

The Thomas sweater was a gift from Lloyds parents.....the children get quite a few clothes from M&S as gifts from Grandparents or as hand-me-downs from my Sisters Son Isaac.

A lot of Canadian Moms I know look on Ebay for Next, Monsoon and M&S childrens clothing to buy used and have sent over - its really popular because its a little different to the clothing here and for the most part the clothing they sell here is really poor quality.

We've had quite a few comments on Sams Thomas sweater....oh and thats another thing thats different - here in Canada Thomas is called Thomas the Train!!!!!! I still find that weird - I'm so used to Thomas the Tank Engine lol! It took me a while to figure out what a caboose was over here.....(a train carriage). Considering they speak English here for the most part, its still like learning a whole new language....but we're getting there and right now I kind of speak a blend ;)

Charlynn - coffee cake recipe

Hi Charlynn, the coffee cake is a simple white cake recipe - I simply dissolve a couple of teaspoons of instant coffee in a little boiled water and add that to the wet ingredients at the time you would add the vanilla - I often add the vanilla as well as the coffee flavouring.

The butter icing is normal butter icing again with the same amount of dissolved coffee mixed into it.

The icing is confectioners sugar dissolved in a little of the dissolved coffee. Decorate with walnuts - supposedly so that each slice has a walnut on top.

Marks and Spencer do a lovely coffee and walnut cake if you are ever in the UK :) But then they also do a lovely toffee cake too mmmmmmmm

Coffee cake and candles....

Christopher asked for a coffee cake for his birthday cake - and coffee cake to us Brits means just that COFFEE cake lol...whereas here in Canada coffee cake is a ring shaped cake that can be any flavour that (I'm assuming) you eat with coffee!! So coffee cake here doesn't taste of coffee - it can be chocolate or blueberry or lemon etc etc (yep Canadians are weird lol!) And Chris wanted traditional coffee and walnut cake :)

Our chickens have stopped laying eggs because of the drop in temperature this week so I had to keep sending the children out to see if another one had popped out! By 2pm we finally had the 4 eggs we needed for the cake...one was so fresh it was still all warm :)

Anyway, the cake doesn't look brilliant but tastes divine...with coffee flavoured buttercream in the middle and coffee flavoured icing on top and walnut halves to decorate :) Perfect for my coffee addicted teen

Yum :)

Amazing to think I have a child old enough to get his drivers permit - his learners at least ;) We've said he can get his licence but that does NOT mean we will allow him to drive!

Date night....

Coming back from date night on Wednesday, we came across a HUGE Elk on a corner of Ellerslie....it was HUGE!!!! We weren't sure if it was from a wild herd or from the Elk farm along that road, so we drove down to the farm but no one was home, so we drove back up to the Elk to scare it away from Ellerslie which is a road where cars do quite high speeds....

When we got back, a whole herd of Elk raced out of the trees and jumped the fence and ran into the road!!! So we kind of scared them off of Ellerslie and onto a side road...they then went across the road and jumped into the field on the other side and took off away from Ellerslie....one of the Elk stumbled coming over the fence and fell...so we made sure she was ok before we headed home and as we drove we could see them all walking across the field....

Whether they are a wild herd free to roam (they were tagged) or an escaped herd from the local Elk farm, they were at least safe for another evening and away from the busy road - they really were huge Elk so if a car hit one of those at 100km an hour then it would be a very nasty accident fort all involved :(

Beautiful animals!! I've heard on the radio a few times that a herd of Elk was on the move in that area and in our area.....but it was amazing to see them running free away from the Rockies!

Puppet show time

Abigails gift to Chris, for his birthday, was a puppet show.....she made little stick puppets and performed from behind my big chair.....

Wednesdays sunset for you....

Our new little girl....

Josh Classen, our local weather man (My Mom really likes him lol) is supporting World Vision right now and during August is trying to get 3200 children sponsored by families in our city of Edmonton....

So I am thrilled that yesterday we sponsored a 5 year old little girl named Margori. We picked Margori for a number of reasons - She lives in Peru - a country that Susannah studied at school last year and Abigail will study in a few years.....Margori is the same age as Abigail and she loves mathematics and ball games - Abigails favourite activities!

We have wanted to sponsor a child for so long but were just never organized enough to do it, but now its done and I can't wait for the welcome pack to arrive :)

Yesterdays visitors.......

Christopher turns 14.....

A few pics of Chris opening his gifts this morning....

We had cake around 4:30pm and then we WERE going out for supper together but plans changed and instead Chris and Lloyd have gone to the movies to see The Bourne Ultimatum.....

What colour is your soul?

What color is your soul painted? Yellow Your soul is painted the color yellow, which embodies the characteristics of joy, happiness, optimism, idealism, gold, hope, liberalism, sociability, friendship, death, courage, intellect, confidence, communication, travel, movement, attraction, persuasion, and charm. Yellow is the color of the element Air, and symbolizes the sun, grain, and the power of thought. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

It's official....

The new Parks and Rec guide is out and the classes I will be teaching are:

Little learners
A terrific setting for children ages 3&4 that will provide
quality time, indoors and out. Kids will participate in a well-
structured program with arts, crafts, songs, stories, discovery
centres, games and circle time that will encourage movement,
imagination, creativity and good times. A chance to explore the
outdoors and the playground is provided each day.

and

Preschool Delight
Educational learning meets outdoor rural life in this unique
program that brings this preschool program to the country. A
healthy dose of exploring the outdoors are included in every
class. Arts, crafts, songs, stories, circle time, discovery centres
and games all focus on preparing your child for kindergarten.

Afternoon at the beach.....

Today was lovely and hot but it isn't going to be that hot until the weekend now so we didn't want to waste it - we packed up the car, picked up a couple of the boys friends and headed off to Miquelon for a swim. It was a wonderful afternoon....we had so much fun - the water was so warm and we all swam for ages....the wind picked up later in the afternoon and created big waves.....I had great fun with Sam and the girls having races to leap over all the waves and then diving into the water :)

Afterwards, to dry off we ran races along the beach - it was a great workout.

We got home just before 7pm. The pics above are from my cell phne so are tiny but in the one that looks like just water you may be able to make out three little dots that are Laurie, his friend Chris and Susie bobbing about!

I'm tired now -w e have all showered off and are all quiet and tired from all the fun!