Chris turns 15!!!!!

Today was Chris's 15th birthday. We've been saying he was 15 for ages now so it was a bit weird to actually say he is officially 15 now! He worked this afternoon, but this morning he opened his gifts (a laptop for high school, a paintball gun set from Laurence a mug that says 'pissed off employee of the month' a Smirnoff Ice bottle and a Pinata shaped like a Movie camera).

This evening we had a fire outside and broke open the pinata (video to follow) which was fun, then Laurie and Chris had a war with the paintball guns through the woods.

We had the cake (a Tiramisu) with sparklers instead of candles just before bed.

Happy 15th Birthday Christopher!!

Amber last night

Amber at the beginning of our walk last night and Amber at the end of our walk last night (after wading into the pond). I think I prefer her at the beginning lol! She's 'blowing coat' right now so she has limps of her under coat popping out through her lovely golden outer coat right now and or lawn is dotted with lumps of white fluff here and there....

Both dogs are a bit of a mess right now really but Amber less so. Rosie is blowing coat too but she swims i the pond almost daily and so her blowing coat gets matted badly from swimming in the yucky pond and ends up just such a mess! Amber paddles but she won't swim so hers is easier keep groomed.

Summer guests

It looks like at least one of our bird boxes has been well used this year...we haven't been able to check them all yet, but this one shows obvious signs of being used :)

Once winter sets in we plan to take them all down and open them up and look inside before replacing them in the Spring :)

Few more piccies from our day at the lake :)

Kayaking at the beach

The younger ones were only allowed to kayak in the beach area - where the motor boats aren't allowed - and where we were close at hand - we were the only ones there so there were no other swimmers or people for them to bother either. Then when Chris and Lloyd went kayaking, they went out into the lake area and went further afield.

A day at the beach

Yesterday we headed to the beach for the day and had such a wonderful time. (Laurie didn't come with us as he was invited to the lake with his friends family instead - for a day on their boat to go tubing and wake-boarding, and he had wanted to do that for ages, so we couldn't say no)!

The weather was gorgeous (again!) and the part of the beach where we were was soooo quiet which was perfect for us :) We took the kayak and after swimming and paddling and picnicking for ages, we got the kayak out and the children went out in it before Chris and Lloyd went off for a while in it out in the deeper water amongst the motor boats and sail boats and jetskis etc etc.

We were really impressed with the lovely clean, shallow water, clean sand, shady trees and easy parking - and how close to home it was - we will probably head back next weekend! Even Lloyd loved it there because it wasn't crowded :) He HATES Miquelon lol!

It was a lovely relaxing day in the sun and the children enjoyed the water too :) Maybe next year the older ones will enjoy it more if we have a boat and toys to enjoy it with.

Trip to the library

We were at the library again today as Abigail had a class to go to called 'Just Plain Silly'. She really enjoyed it - in fact they all enjoyed it so much that it ran over by 15 minutes :)

Summer Reading Game

This Summers reading game at the library is a space themed game. We've nearly completed it - maybe one more visit? Two at the most? Which is good as we have two more days of classes left. The children race over to the game as soon as they get to the library :)

Daylily

Lazy Thursday

Lazy day today. Laurie came in this morning and curled up in my bed and we watched junk on tv. I am ashamed to say that my thirteen year old Son LOVES watching Nanny 911. So we sat in bed and watched that together, then we watched Jon and Kate plus Eight - Oh my goodness those poor children! They took them to the Crayola Factory - what a wonderful place!!! A factory where you get to see how all the crayons are made and then you get to go in this room and there are all these craft stations where the children get to make all kinds of crafts with crayola products - my kids would have LOVED it - there was glue and glitter and air dry clay and and paint and markers and playdough and everything a kid could desire!!! And these 8 children - you could see how excited they all were and Kate said how they aren't allowed paint at home!!! So of course the kids are all excited!!! And yet these children are NOT allowed to get anything on their clothes and they are only allowed to do certain crafts and they can't get anything on their hands and they mustn't make a mess!

In the end all the children are upset and having tantrums and saying it isn't fun and she blames them and says this is why we don't go on filed trips and they obviously aren't ready for field trips because they have melt downs!!! And I'm thinking why take them to a place like a crayola factory if you aren't going to let them have fun!

Kate said that she doesn't want to spend the day in the laundry room getting stains out. Surely the kids happiness is worth more than that? Their day could have gone completely differently and they could have had so much more fun if she had relaxed more and just enjoyed herself and let them get messy!

Grayson was in the bedroom with us while we watched tv and spent the whole time going in and out of the bedroom window for some odd reason - obviously enjoying being able to go outside safely onto the roof without Jasper being able to get at him :)

This afternoon Susannah had a workshop at the library called Wheel'o'rama or something, so we headed into town. While she was there, the rest of us ran to the post office as I wanted to post off a parcel to Stacey, and I ran into my friend Lucy who was grabbing a few groceries for her family canoing trip to Drumheller!!! 4 days on the river - how wonderful :) Can't wait to hear all about it - do you remember Lucy Val???

Got back to the library and ran into my friend Jennifer and we chatted for a while, then with Susie out of her class we headed for the food court where we got some drinks and snacks before heading home. We had planned to go to DQ for their Miracle Day like we normally do each year but Lloyd and I may run there tonight after date night instead and bring the children one home as a treat instead.

Date night was tonight. Lloyd and I went to Milestones for dinner - YUM! I had a Bellini (made me think of Charlynn and wonder how her road trip across Canada is going) and it came with a tiny plastic camel in it. I ordered the Seafood Mixed Grill was gorgeous and came with lavender roasted baby potatoes. Delicious. Lloyd ordered the meat loaf which kind of spicy and came with noodles and mashed potato and a mushroom jus or something or other and I tried it and it was yummy too :)

All in all it was really good and we were more impressed than last time :)

After that we headed off to get Chris's birthday gift for the weekend (he turns 15 this weekend) and then we went to Golf Town to get Lloyd some new golf shoes as he is playing in a game with some of his Directors tomorrow and his other pair have felt a bit tight lately so he wanted to get a new pair. I bought myself some pink golf balls in aid of breast cancer research just because they were pink and pretty and for a cause I believe in :)

The guy serving us in Golf Town asked us where we were from and then told us he was from SWINDON!!!!! Of all places!!! Hahahahaha - he moved over here when he was 11 in the early 90's but has been home several times and misses the food from back home a LOT!!!! (for anyone who doesn't know, Swindon is a town near my old home town)!!!!!

What else??? Oh Staples....we were in there for something for Laurence - he wants to buy himself an external dvd drive but they didn't have the one he wants - he's been saving up by working with Chris on the acreage down the road (hard work by the way!!!) but he will have to wait to get the one he wants that he saw online. I got two spiral notebooks - Lloyd mumbled something about me being a sad git...... lol. I don't care. I HEART them :) and this time of year with all the back to school supplies everywhere is one of my favourites :) I thought it was hilarious that he was from Swindon!

Driving home along the Henday Lloyd flicked from song to song picking out songs especially for me that he knew I loved :)

He was telling me that when he was on his way home from work he got stuck in traffic because of the Folk Festival, so he clicked on the navigation system to find an alternate route. It asked for 'State' and he used his voice recognition and said 'home' and it put in 'Hawaii' by mistake lol!

Oh I wish ;)

Daisies in the evening sun...

Abby - it's time to go!!!!!

I love this picture of Abigail :) It shows her fiery independent nature :) And her green green eyes :)

Little Madam ;)

More pool pics

picnic fun at the pool..