Kitty pic....

For Today......

Outside My Window...  I'm actually sat on the front porch right now...it's a lovely sunny evening.  Lloyd is hitting the baseball for the dogs to go and fetch.  I can hear the dogs panting.  Kitty is walking about down on the grass with Lloyd.  I'm sat on the white wicker love seat.  Amber keeps coming over and licking me....slobber.....ewwww  lol....she loves me...what can ya do???  ;)  The children's bicycles are left where they dropped them earlier..always half way up the driveway.


I am thinking... that I really should have put sunscreen on today - I am VERY red :(  I guess I still don't have my head around Summer weather in April!!!!  I am slo thinking that I am going to look rather lobster-ish in the swimming pool tomorrow!

I am thankful for...this gorgeous weather - even though we desperately need rain - and the fires burning everywhere - and homes being evacuated are quite clearly telling us so!!!  Rain would be lovely please but keep these gorgeous temperatures too!!


From the kitchen...We are in Summer mode - the barbecue has been fired up a lot - my veggie burgers are always on the go....salads, baked potatoes.....eating outside on the back deck......relaxed meals and I haven't used the crock pot since last week some time....I have also been trying out several recipes from the Oh She Glows website and have loved them all so far - and so has everyone I've tried them on :)  I find if you don't tell them what is in it until afterwards then they LOVE it and are surprised afterwards - I often have them guess what is in things and they never get it right :)

I am wearing...black soccer shorts, black t-shirt, undies.  bare feet.  It's HOT :)  I'm LOVING it.......OMG I sooooo love Summer :)


I am creating...I'm still crocheting, I'm also working on a few projects to do with outside and Summer....my last ATC swap is about to go off and I'm not signed up for any more at the moment.  I probably won't sign up for any more through the Summer unless we get a string of bad weather.  Lloyd is off of work right now and I am enjoying hanging out with him and keeping busy - and being outside all the time now the weather is good.

I am going... to a new restaurant with James and Val this week - we're trying out a new fondue restaurant in town!!  I'm really looking forward to it!!  
I am reading...a book I got for Christmas that I just haven't had a chance to read yet!!  I haven't started it yet but tonight is the night.  It's the third in a series.


I am hoping...that Susannah gets some good news this week with final confirmation from her school of choice!!  It sounds like her interview went really well so I'm hoping she gets the place she wants so much!!

I am hearing... the magpies in the wood down by the roadside, and the red-winged blackbird over by the bird feeder....the dogs panting....the frogs down in the pond....and the distant rumble of the grouse drumming...Sam giggling inside the house through the window behind me...

Around the house...Lloyd is home for a while now and is busy working through his list of jobs to do around the house.  Unfortunately when Lloyd is home I tend not to do very much as I switch in to 'weekend mode' and just want to relax!!  So I am trying to work through that!!  Luckily he has had a few meetings to go to and so I make the most of those times and work fast!!!  We're making the most of the good weather though and are doing a lot of yard work!!

One of my favorite things...having Lloyd home - and so it is lovely at the moment - every day is like Sunday - brunch on the back deck...lazy mornings.....walks around here during the day....and knowing he's home tomorrow - and next week - and the week after and the week after :)  We have some field trips booked with the homeschool group and it will be so nice to have him join us!!

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week...swimming, dinner with Val and James, having the furnace vents cleaned out, brunch out, hopefully breakfast or coffee with Val (???), trip to Michaels to use my coupon, and I want to go and find a cedar picnic table for the side woods meadowy bit - I want to have a little place there for picnics and also somewhere we can take our notebooks and art journals on sunny days and paint/ write.  I want it to age quite quickly/ well so that it fits into the woodland setting quickly.  


From The Simple Womans Day Book - find it HERE

Toadstools and Fairy Rings....

This afternoon we took a blanket outside and sat in the sunshine to do our craft.  We found this wonderful craft HERE - which I think you'll agree is a FAB blog full of great ideas to keep little ones busy!!

This craft uses up some of the plastic Easter eggs - especially broken ones!!  Sam and Abigail really enjoyed creating the toadstools and deciding what colours to paint them!!  :)  Then they helped decide where to put the fairy ring and how to arrange the toadstools!!

I love the end result!!!  Not sure how long they will last - whether the dogs will attack them or the weather!!  But for now I think they look soooo pretty :)  

Of course (as the other website mentions lol) Laurence came home from school and burst out laughing saying they look like a bunch of schlongs!!  Hahahaha....well yes, they do...BUT - to Sam and Abigail - and to me, they are toadstools and I think they are lovely :)

I want to be eight again!!

I want to wear sparkly pink, flowery Summer shoes in the garden :) 

My boy.....

Green Monster...or Purple Beast????

Lol....Lloyd renamed this mornings Green Monster - he called it The Purple Beast (which almost made me want to spit it out hahahaha)  It was DELICIOUS though!!!!!

Todays smoothie contained:

flax

oats

whey protein powder

spinach

pineapple

blackberries

beetroot

cucumber

apple

bananas

almond milk

ice

it was fruity and yummy and creamy :)  You could taste the berries and the bananas but couldn't really taste the pineapple or anything else which surprised me as pineapple has such a strong flavour!  

I have won Lloyd over with my recent Green Monsters too and he has been having a glass with me.  Abigail had a glass of this mornings too.  I always save Susannah a glass for after school too - or she has a glass with me.  

Ooooh and I made Lloyd and Laurence a bowl of the 'Pumpkin Spice makes Everything Nice' oatmeal onSaturday as we were all hungry.  They loved it!!  So I made some more last nice as an evening snack when we were hungry BUT I didn't have any pumpkin left - soooooo I blended up some carrots and used the pureed carrots instead of pumpkin and it tasted the same!!!  IT was just as yummy!!!  So 'Carrot Spice  Makes Everything Nice' oatmeal is just as good an alternative!!  Yummy healthy and sweet with no added sugar - just fruit and veg :)  Who would have thought it would be so good!!!

So weird!!!

I am still drinking my coffee with no sugar - and because of the green monsters I've actually cut right down on the amount of coffee I drink too!

If you haven't given these drinks a try yet - GO FOR IT!!!  I know they sound weird but they taste just like a yummy McDonalds milkshake!!!  Yes - even with carrots and cucumber in them!!!  You can't taste the carrots and cucumber at all - add some cinnamon, some pumpkin, a couple of bananas and its all good :)  

Tree planting...

Potting up the trees that we were given at the Earth Day festival today.  We have quite a few that we've planted around our acreage over the years since we've lived here, and it's lovely to see how they've grown......

Don't jump!!!!

Checking out the view instead of checking out the missing roof tiles - they were ripped off during the high winds last week so he's off to buy some replacements this week.  

What are you doing at 4:20 on Tuesday????

Are you hanging out with the Waldo's???

My Son told me that Tuesday was an important day and that something big was happening at 4:20...he said I should google it.....I did lol and I came up with THIS!!  Read it and let me know if you're joining in with your local Waldo's!!

Oh and lol no Chris isn't joining in as far as I know.....we just have a long standing joke between us because he knows it's on my bucket list.....geez I have yet to try the stuff and my Son probably already has!!

Oh Canada :)

Chris sent me this :)

Kitty cat pictures....

Mouse catcher:

Enjoying the sand box....

Farm boy...

Signs of Spring...at home

The rhubarb is doing well this year....

We have a roughed grouse near the house somewhere...we can hear the male drumming loudly quite often - we've had them most years but don't remember them being here last year so it's great to have them back.  Lloyd saw one the other day over in the wood by the treehouse - it flew off when he and Sam were in there - Sam was describing it to me - he said it looked like a small turkey with a fan tail :)  

I love listening to them drumming...such a lovely noise!!!

The frogs are getting noisier too - and there are so many different bird songs in the trees now - and our Robins have been back for a few weeks now and their song is nice - Oh I love the sound of Spring here!!  

Earth Day Festival 2010

This afternoon we headed to Fort Edmonton Park to the Earth Day Festival.   It was such gorgeous weather - you just never know with Earth Day here - there have been years when the Earth Day Festival has had TERRIBLE weather!!  I think they moved it to the Hangar at Fort Ed so it was more sheltered in case of bad weather...but this year no shelter was needed - it was lovely and warm and sunny.

Checking out the creatures in our rivers and ponds:

Laurence was enjoying some kettle popcorn - behind him they had a huge telescope:

Abby with her scooby doo ice cream - behind her they were doing Tai chi:

We came home with about ten baby trees to plant (the whole reason Lloyd went), lots of wildflower seeds to plant, stickers, bookmarks, literature and a reusable bag!!  

It was a lovely little festival - it's a shame it hasn't grown more over the years we have been here - if anything it is now smaller than it was!!  The last time we attended in Hawrelak Park, it was much bigger than it was today!!  I'm not sure who organizes it or why more companies don't get involved - you'd think it would be growing quickly now!  I was surprised not to see SHINE or any schooling alternatives represented.  Last time I attended, the Caraway project had a stand there.  This time there was nothing there for alternatives in education.  

There was also very little in the way of food offered - apart from a pizza stand and hotdogs/ popcorn.  I would ahve liked to see a few of the vegan and vegetarian restaurants there with a Taste of Edmonton style sampler menu!!

I'm sure there are many more companies out there that could get involved - what is stopping them????