HILARIOUS!

I was just looking over a couple of blogs I often visit, and thought this was HILARIOUS.  Yes, this is exactly the process I go through when I sit down to sew - can't you just see it?!

Summer Bucket List

We've been reading various blog posts about the summer 'bucket lists' that people are putting together, writing down all the things they want to do during the summer months.  So we thought it would be a fun way to celebrate the solstice, and sat down to compile a list of our own.  Of course, there are many other things, like house projects we want to complete, but we decided to keep those off the list and only include the fun-filled adventures we hope to enjoy as a family over the next few months!!!!  Feel free to share what is on your list, or help us fulfill ours:-)

- get an ice cream cone at the local ice cream stand in Almonte
- go to the pool/lake/river (ie SWIM LOTS!)
- go canoe camping
- go to Mont Cascade waterslides
- make homemade marshmallows for our bonfire s'mores
- buy an ice cream maker and start making our own ice cream
- go for a picnic dinner
- do a sunset photo shoot
- set up a slip and slide in our yard
- go berry picking
- make homemade ginger beer (and try some new 'pop' recipes)
- build a simple fort and some rope swings in our yard
- find and learn one paddling song (beyond row row your boat, shoo fly and land of the silver birch)
- make solar prints
- make a faerie garden
- go to an amusement park
- ROAD TRIP
- go for a hike
- build a sleeping platform in the back and sleep in it under the stars (with a bug net!)
- catch a firefly
- go to Don and Betty's cottage at least once
- go fishing
- go rock-climbing
- organize a pick-up game of baseball with other families
- find a drive-in movie theatre near here and go to a movie there
- go to a summer movie in the theatre
- build up our campfire cooking skills
- dance barefoot in a rain storm

We'll see how many of these we accomplish, and we may even add a few more - but really, the fun is just in trying all these things!!!!  Yeah for happy summer days:-)

School Fair

The kids' school decided to have a big fair to celebrate the end of the school year (which is fast approaching), and so we all tagged along for a fun evening.  There were bouncy slides and bubbles, fishing games and snow cones - but the kids loved most the military training route.  I'm not sure they realized it was military, they just liked the idea of the obstacle course.  The woman who was painting Kea's face asked her if she was going to join the army when she grows up.  Kea gave her a perplexed look and said, "No, I'm going to be a marine biologist."  Tiegan refused the camo facepaint and opted instead for peace signs and flowers on her cheeks.  But excelled at throwing water balloon 'bombs' at the human dummies at the end of the obstacle course.  Oy, there are so many aspects of the kids going to school that have forced me to let go.

I have to say, I had a hard time with the bbq aspect.  There were veggie burgers and dogs, which was much appreciated, but otherwise it was chips, pop, snow cones and cupcakes.  Just that day the kids had completed their health class all on Canada Food Guide, and although we don't generally follow it, there's at least a huge emphasis on eating veggies and fruits, and eating healthy.  Yet there weren't mini carrots available, or corn on the cob, or fruit kebabs, or slices of watermelon - so much could have been done to round out the teaching they're getting in class and I think most kids will eat fruits and veggies if they're readily available.  I don't mind the kids having a bit of a treat every once in a while, I'd just much rather they be able to eat some REAL food first:-)  I think I just volunteered myself to step up to the plate for the next fair........

 Ray's Reptiles were there, wandering around with various animals for the kids to check out.  Huge snakes, caimen, turtles and toads.

 Bet you can't see Kea there in all that greenery:-)

 The route for the obstacle course, which the kids did over and over and over again throughout the evening!

 And this is a photo of Ryland with one of his favourite buddies from school.....

Toronto, day four

And finally, our last day in the big city.  This was the day that I really cursed how much gear we brought to the hotel, because Jamie was so busy with his conference - coming home late, collapsing into bed, and getting up at the crack of dawn to start again, that I was left packing it all up and then trying to store it all with the hotel so we could transfer it to the car once we took the car out of the parkade later in the afternoon - what a logistic nightmare!  ANYWAYS, I survived:-)  And we wandered up to the Art Gallery of Ontario, where there was a really interesting exhibit of Picasso paintings.

Well, if you're me it's fascinating.  If you're the younger two in the family, it's extremely boring!  But they humoured me and were most excited about the cookies and tea in the cafeteria afterwards!  Kea listened to the audio guide all the way through, and found a couple of sculptures she really liked, but ultimately she came away saying, 'wow, that guy sure loved a lot of different women'.  Yup, I guess that pretty much sums up the artist. :-)

From the art gallery, we walked a few blocks down the street to order lunch to take with us, once again at our favourite eatery in Toronto:-)  I have to admit that as healthy as all the food is that we get from here, I also got TWO orders of the quinoa-encrusted onion rings for us all to share:-)  Jamie picked us up here (which was a feat to coordinate without a cell phone of my own - I think this trip has finally shown us that life would be MUCH easier if I would just get a danged cell phone so that's the plan.....no more searching out elusive pay phones, or borrowing waitresses cell phones!)

And finally, we were on the road and heading home.  Ry picked up his set of corn thingy's and created this sculpture.  He called it a hammerhead shark and said it in such a way that it should have been obvious to us what it was.  I blame it on the morning spent with Picasso:-)

I pulled out my knitting (started a new project - a fun sweater for Ry.  I have quite a few other projects 80% done and NEED to force myself to work on some finishing.  But starting is so much more fun!  AND this pattern seems to have very little finishing to it, which bodes well for me!) and we worked a little on the Story of the World.  Kea is DYING to get to Ancient Greece, and we're almost there - Moses just has to part the seas first, the Israelites have to leave Egypt and a bit about Babylon.  Perhaps on our next road trip!!!!!!

Toronto, day three

Today was another hot and muggy day, and although the first part of the morning was spent hanging out in the air-conditioning of the hotel room waiting for the arrival of our friend Andi, the rest of the day was spent walking all along the streets of Toronto.  The kids quickly began to melt in the heat, and much whining ensued - until we came across this little water park in the middle of the city.  Such fun:-) Unfortunately today I didn't even think of packing up the swimsuits, the kids either stripped down to their undies (no one around here knows us anyways!) or got their clothes soaking wet - the relief from the heat was well worth it!

After a good hour or so of that, we continued our walk, and the kids quickly got too hot again:-)  It also threatened to rain, so we were happy to find this random stretch of sandy 'beach' with huge umbrellas, and hid underneath those and a great willow tree while the rain spat down.  What a fun spot to take photos:-)

This sugar factory was right beside the park, and the entire time we were there, this huge scoop was moving loads of sugar from the barge into the building.  So much sugar was falling out of the scoop, it seemed like such an impractical way to move it, but it sure did make the air smell sweet!

From this fun park, we made our way to the distillery district, one of Andi's favourite areas of Toronto. There's lots of neat old buildings, art sculptures, funky stores and food places.  A wee bit out of my price range, but fun to explore - and I found I *could* afford a cool drink for the kids to cool off with:-)

Ry was determined to get some rollerblading in, despite the crazy uneven surfaces.

Poor guy couldn't join the girls inside the stores while he had his rollerblades on, so he just looked in the window.  Considering how much glass was in these shops, it's probably just as well:-)

And a final photo of Kea in the Distillery District, before we walked back to the hotel - stopping half way in order to eat dinner with Andi before she drove back home.  A great day, just wandering about and exploring different areas of the city and catching up with an old friend!

Toronto, day two

On our second day in Toronto, Jamie was up early and heading into the Toronto MH office and we were trying to decide what to do.  Most of the museums and galleries are closed on Mondays, and it was going to be a hot and sticky day.  I decided to pack up a few snacks and the bathing suits, and head over to Toronto Island.  I wish we had our bikes and could really explore a lot of the parks and beaches, but since we were on foot with little gear, I opted for the Centre Island ferry.  It turns out MANY other people had the same idea!  Here we are, waiting F.O.R.E.V.E.R. (ie 20 min) for the ferry.  At this point, the kids have no idea where we're heading.

FINALLY, the ferry arrives, and we jostle our way onboard.....

Safety first, obviously!!!  The entire ceiling of the boat is covered from front to back with this sea of orange:-)

People watching on the ferry is always fascinating:-)

When we first got off the boat, we veered to the left as everyone was going to the right - we found a lovely little park with swings (the kids were SO excited to find the swings, part of me just wanted to stay there all afternoon!), ate our lunch and watched the swans and enjoyed the shade of some big trees.

And then I decided to direct them a little further along, where we came across Centreville (which is about as dated as this sign shows, but still a lot of fun!), and that is where our exploration of the island stopped!!!!  The next 4-5 hours were spent riding rides and resting between rides:-)

This is the ride that I made myself sick, taking photos while spinning crazy fast.  Ry LOVED it, but I had to sit out of a couple of hours of rides just to recover!  I used to be such a ride-junkie as a kid, and now I'm far too queasy.  Boo hoo!

SO many people fed these geese, which made them HIGHLY annoying when we sat down to actually eat our lunch.  What aggressive creatures - forget a blanket on the grass or sitting under a tree, we had to hide away behind this fence!

These guys just crack me up:-)

It was a really good day - lots of fun rides, ice cream cones and cuddles in the shade.  A perfect start to the summer season:-)

I took this photo on our walk home.......I noticed that we could see the tower from pretty much everywhere we went in Toronto, and it shows up in many of my photos from this trip!!!!  Jamie was out late this night, so I ordered in some delicious food from Fresh and enjoyed my book while the kids continued to catch up on their TV watching!