Swimming lessons

The kids have been taking swimming lessons this spring, every Tuesday evening.  Last year we had enrolled Ryland into a session of preschool swimming lessons, but he was definitely not ready to go without one of us.  This spring, however, it is amazing to see what one whole year has done for his confidence and independance - he happily bounces off to his teacher, and freely jumps into the pool and puts his face underwater.  Yeah!

Nana Heather came to watch a session, and cheer the kids on as they showed off their skills:-)

Kea was sick this week, so I didn't get any shots of her swimming - but here is ms. Tiegan, our uber-physical child who seems to excel at all things physical.  This spring she's tried horseback riding, dance lessons, and swimming lessons and with each one of these we've received the feedback that she could go very far if she wanted.  Invitations to join competitive teams, and amazement over how quickly she picks the skills up.  We almost laugh each time, as it's becoming so common - but for now we're happy to have her try out all sorts of things recreationally and enjoy them.  It's nice, though, as she seems to struggle a bit more with the academic side of things, but gains a lot of self confidence in this arena.  I'll be curious to see what she embraces as she gets older......

The month of dandelions.....

Everywhere we go these days, I'm definitely admiring all the dandelions.  In some areas it's a field of yellow glowing in the sun, but tonight we found a field of dandelions gone to seed - perhaps less beautiful but definitely much more fun!!!!  Kea had been home sick all day, but perked up a little when she saw these.......

I couldn't resist taking this shot, after she'd gone through and demolished a huge chunk of the field.  We'll have to come back next year, as I'm sure there will be many many more dandelions!!!!

Tiegan was less interested in blowing dandelions, and more interested in twirling, rolling, cartwheeling and laying in them!!!  It's pretty rare to get a still shot of her, so I had to take two when I had the chance:-)

Check out Tiegan's new hair cut - she got most of it chopped off on Sun, and is loving her new, much lighter bob!  Perfect summer hair cut, I'd say:-)

And while all of this was going on, Ryland was riding his bike - he discovered a couple of days ago that he can ride a two-wheeler, and ever since he's taken every possible opportunity to try it out.  Very exciting times in this little five-year-olds' life, and I'm picturing fun family bike rides this summer!!!!!

A Week in the Life - Sunday

Okay, so we've made it to Sunday - the last day of the challenge.  And in celebration, I seem to have taken a bazillion photos and it appears I will be posting a super long, photo-heavy post:-)  

So, the day started - as many Sundays do - with a lovely little sleep in.  We've reached the stage where the kids will just crawl out of bed and quietly play until we get up, only complaining about being hungry at 9:30-10.  Such a lovely stage!

When I got up, the first thing I did (or course!) was grab the camera to record all the little signs of what had occupied the kids for the two hours that they'd already been up.....

I was also thrilled to see bigger sprouts coming up - check out these beets:-)  Hopefully this is a sign of successful beet growing this summer.

And a check-in to my emails with my hot water/lemon

The kids are trying on various costumes this morning, and trying out different dance moves.

Tiegan discovered a hole on the side of her new leotard from her dance performance, so Jamie sat down with needle and thread to fix it for her.

Luckily she had a back-up outfit for her song - this is what she picked for a dance to the song 'Lollipop'

Kea played the role of d.j. for the various dances, finding fun songs on youtube:-)

Then they wanted me to take a few photos of them with their dance outfits on, to show classmates, teachers and school bus drivers.

In honour of a Sunday morning, I decided to make pumpkin waffles with pumpkin maple syrup for breakfast - yum!!!

One more outfit by Tiegan - I have to say this girl has a lot of style:-)

Next time I turned around, Kea was working on her homework.  I have to assume that this enthusiasm will fade over time, but for now she LOVES working on her homework!

Ry is the king of helping us in the kitchen, and adores whipping egg whites.

Yum - FINALLY breakfast time:-)

One of Ry's favourite games - one that everyone else in the family HATE setting up, so he's learning to set it up himself so he can actually play it every once in a while!

Usually once on the weekend (as long as it's sunny out) I love to air out all of our bedding and wash our sheets.  There's NOTHING better than crawling into bed, smelling the freshness of outdoors!

Jamie spent the morning chopping down trees.  We can't chop trees down between May 15th to July 15th due to birds nesting and such, but we needed more light for our garden and to clear some area for our studio/guest suite so the rush was on to get trees down.

You can see here the rope holding the tree - he would climb a ladder to attach the rope high up on the tree, attach it far back to another tree, then make the cuts, yank on the rope and in theory be in control of where the tree fell........

Here's a pile of some of the rocks we've been collecting as we move dirt around.  They sparkle in the sunlight, and we're excited dreaming of all the rock walls we can create everywhere!!!!

By this time, all the kids had made their way outside, and Cam and Keane were outside too so they all played together.  Ry and Cam moved from catching butterflies to catching themselves:-)

And Tiegan was showing Keane all the worms she'd collected.....

And then there was a huge THUMP on the house.  Ooops - the last tree that Jamie cut down ended up landing on the roof.  Luckily it was only the top tip, and luckily only on the green roof so very little damage was done, but it was still shocking.  Lessons learned:-)

Ryland has declared that he is training to be a wizard.  When he's not a knight.  Or a jedi.

Tiegan is like a mini-mom to Keane, and loves taking care of him.  Putting on his shoes and leading him around....

Boiling some red lentils for muffin making - it's always a struggle to have enough snacks on hand for the week.

Kea decided to tackle baking chocolate cupcakes once more.

She's REALLY enjoying this new author, and devoured two of her books over the weekend.

It was warm enough this afternoon for the kids to pull out buckets of water.  When the splashing got too near all my bedding hanging out, I turned their energy towards washing the car!

The view from my kitchen window - the garden is really starting to take shape:-)

Cleaning up the study a bit, still buckets of 'stuff' that we haven't sorted through yet from the move - but we're still hesitant to get rid of it all until we set up all the shelving we have planned to see what we have room for.  Soon........I'm really looking forward to the day we feel fully settled into this house!

Skipping games on the trampoline - not a day goes by when someone is not jumping on here!

I snuck into the kids room to do a bit of cleaning.  I find it's just best if I don't involve them if I'm hoping to get rid of a few things:-)

This is Tiegan's bed, and the sheet on her bed is the one Jamie painted for me about 15 years ago - so nice to have the kids enjoying them now, many happy memories every time I make their beds!

Practice time....on the front porch again:-)

And this time the cupcakes were very successful, yeah!

Tiegan came in feeling rather upset because Keane went off with Kea and Tiegan resented her stepping into 'her' territory.  I suggested making a snack plate to bring outside, with the chocolate cupcakes, and that went far in making everything better.

Jamie came in exclaiming over how exhausted he was from all that yard work.  He opened a beer, had a shower, and then proceeded onto the next task - a working machine, this guy can be.  Crazy.  We've been meaning to tackle this pantry for a while - the tree sticks out a bit too far so the fridge can't be pushed far enough back, so he chiseled a bunch of it away so we could finally put the fridge in the right place.

I'll have to take some photos of the pantry once its all done - another day.

And then, what's a tale of a day without a tale of a sink full of dishes (or two or three!!!)

The kids vegged out with some Clone Wars while Jamie made dinner (did I mention machine?!  I get exhausted some days just watching him)

And had a snack of smoothie

While I ran myself a bath to soak in.....

Tacos for dinner, with the most delicious-tasing asparagus, YUM!!!!

The kids were, of course, most excited about the cupcakes for dessert - especially because they put nutella and sprinkles on top!

Our nightly routine of tea and herbs - usually I have licorice day throughout the day, and sweet dreams in the evening.

A quick vacuum under the table - we're determined to completely eliminate that ant problem I alluded to earlier in the week, so have been getting rid of all sources of food.....

Scrubbing the stove top as well.......

The kids jumped into the bath as well, and washed their hair in order to get ready for another week of school.

One of Ryland's favourite activity books

and the books he picked out for bedtime reading.....

One more outfit change for Tiegan, before getting into her pj's - as inspired by the Clone Wars:-)

As I settled the kids into bed, Jamie decided to use a few spare moments to FINALLY finish up our taxes (I think the government would go into full shock if they ever received our taxes on time, so we like to do them the favour of continuing to submit them a bit late!)

Goodnight Tiegan

Goodnight Kea

And goodnight A Week in the Life - for this year, anyways!!!!