Chilling

The art of doing less = I get more done?

This past weekend was beautiful!  We both both days outside in the garden, planting and the boys spent it playing with their water guns in the pool.

Yesterday the boys and I headed to the river after work.  We spent a while just finding cool rocks and trying to skip them.  Cy is getting the hang of it!

Then we came home to a mostly made dinner, the boys colored while I did a clean up.

A great start to the week.

My weekly dinner plan: P.S I started making dinner at night after the boys go to bed, right up until I cook it... the next day its so easy to finish dinner, no worry of what we are having.... no spending time in the kitchen when I could be in the sun with the boys :)  My new plan rocks!

THIS IS A DINNER PLAN FOR YOU HEATHER!

VEGGIE TACOS SALAD, JUST SALAD WITH BEANS AND CHEESE AND SALSA

SPINACH LASAGNEA ROLLUPS WITH GARLIC BREAD (DOUBLE)

BROCOLLI NOODLES AND THAI PEANUT SAUCE

KRISPY LOADED BUFFALO FRIES AND MEATBALL SUBS (DOUBLE)

LEFTOVER DAY

Mites!

Found mites on the tomato plants, and on the pumpkin plants!  AAAARG!  The leaves have little white spots on them and some are drying out and dying.  (leaves not plants)

Found THIS  to kill them.  So I have just trimmed all lower leaves and chopped them up, ready to spray everything tomorrow.  I really hope it works, have had very good luck with these plants so far so we would be very disappointed to loose them to minuscule invaders!

Boys and I had a great day today!  I woke up at 6:30am, before the alarm. (I know, crazy eh?)  Had nice coffee/e-mail check by myself.  Then boys got up.

The boys strung beads on pipe cleaners for almost an hour while I knitted (yay!)  Then we made pizza dough cookie, very yummy, the recipe is HERE.


Off to playgroup we went.  Met up with Heather and her crew.  Went to the park after then back to our house for Popsicles.  Lindsay walked by so she stopped in with her crew too!  Lots of kids in our yard, it felt like a park :)

Then Cy requested a movie and both boys lounged  on the couch and watch Bambi, they were worn out, Mama also watched quite a bunch too.  I really like that movie, so mellow and so many lessons too.
I finished the laundry finally.  Not a stitch of dirty clothes in the house other then what the boys and Q took off before bed.  Hopefully I will be able to stay on top of it.

The boys and I headed outside for another hr of play and garden before a dinner of hot dogs and butternut squash soup.  Then Q came home and bed for the boys.  They both complained before bed but 5 min later ..... silence :) two happy sleepy boys

Garden Days

We spent another whole day in the garden.  The other day... Friday we spent 5 hrs in the garden.  The boys just ate pb sand for dinner because we were outside until 7:30 pm playing and gardening!

I LOVE summer!  Even though we had snow Friday morning, I drove to work in slushy snow :0

Unfortunately lately I have been too busy with the boys to get any pictures of the boys.... tomorrow for sure.  I have finally emptied all the pics from our camera so I can use it again.

Here are some pics of the garden and Roxy's sweater I made her last year... I just found it.

Went for Tea at Kim and Devon's new house yesterday.  It's very beautiful and so much room!  The boys ran circle around the kitchen, but the only person worn out when we left was Kim I think. HEE hee

 Strawberry patch "before" check back for my "after" later this week

 Baby corn! All of our corn has come up this year :)

Old pic from cy July 6, 2009- times have changed

 Fairy house that Q put next to raspberries

Not sure which boys hand this is....

Roxy's sweater

My Snack Jack pumpkin...all our old ones went rotten so we replanted them :)

Strawberry flowers, already!

Tomatoes and pumpkins getting some fresh air, they will be planted next week with our lettuce, carrots, radish, beets, zucchini, beans, and peas.... I think that's everything.

Waldorf Kindergarden

We just got home from a meeting for the Waldorf Kindergarden in our town.  It's a go! Yay... I really like the concept of the Waldorf philosophy.  Cy is in the preschool already, T will go next year.

They are also offering a Forest Play a few afternoons a week where the kids just get out and play outdoors and learn too.  Cy will love it.

The price is a bit over our price range so I am going to finish my bookkeeping courses this summer so I can start working.  Then we will have the extra moola that we need.  The best part is that I will be able to work from home so T can still be home with me.

Today I saw a bluebird just outside our yard.  It's been a while since I have seen one as they are very rare.

The boys had a great time playing outside today.  They made up a game that involved a king and rolling balls down the slide.  I was able to capture some great photos, I will post them tomorrow as I am sleepy now.

Cheers

Birds and Bees.....

Saw our first bumble bee today!  It was huge.  It's almost time to let our mason bees come out of hibernation... maybe this weekend.  I am really excited to see how they do.

We saw a Yellow Headed Blackbird today in the yard.  I have never seen one before and it looked tropical to me.  Not my pic... (i  wish)  it came from here 

Hope to see more of this guy and many others as the season continues.  Also some some Junco's eating from Cy' feeder last week.  Also Q saw a bald eagle on his way to work.

Lindsay and I almost hit a black bear last friday on the way to knitting.  It ran right out onto the road!  A very large one, pure black , at least 400 lbs I think.

I LOVE living here!

Here is my little grow-op!

Big Hill Springs Provincial Park

Big Hill Springs Provincial Park was our first official hike as a family! We took the kids last weekend with a packed lunch and the Ergo.

We first ate lunch by the little waterfall at the start with a bunch of other families. This little hike is great for kids so it's no wonder why it was so busy with little people. Only 25 min outside of Calgary we had a great time without going too far. Since we went Cy has been asking to go hiking again! I can't wait until we move (in 2 weeks) so we are back in the mountains and ready to hike.

A beautiful morning! After our circle time from Little Acorn Learning December Childcare Guide. We went out for a nature walk so we decided to see what the river does in the winter. Almost right away Cy spotted a white hare in the trees. I still can't believe that he spotted it! Then we saw the frozen river so Cy threw rocks to see which one would slide the farthest. Ter wished that he could walk in his snowsuit.

The dogs had a great time and Cynda even has started to run around like a normal dog. She jumps on me and gives me hugs... when she does that Cynda is taller then me. Good thing she is so gentle.

We spotted these on the way home and found they were from a Fisher! Not seen this side of the BC border in a really long time!

This was our fall nature table in all its glory. Our first experience with nature tables and Cy and I both had a ball finding treasures to add to it. Also creating art work to complement. Today we dismantled our fall table to use the parts to decorate our first Advent Wreath!

After we decorated our wreath we started on some "snow balls" for our winter nature table.

Cy made his snow balls himself! He did all the wrapping of the wool and I just cut it. He even pressed his finger to hold the knot well I tied off the balls! We found a great tutorial here

Cy named the poms, green=daddy, muti= mama, white=cy, purple=ter, a family of poms!

Best Weekend Ever!

This past weekend we went to Butter field Acres.  A small farm where you can get in the pens and pet all the animals.  It was better then I expected!  Cy was scared of the pony for the pony ride but I think he will be fine next time. 

Stinky pigs, they tried to eat my pants!

After the farm we went to Prince's Island Park.  We saw lots of ducks and geese with babies.  Cy and daddy spent a ton of time at the park and playing soccer.  Ter practiced sitting.  

A c-train ride.  1 st for the boys...

Huge buildings.

I CAN sit...I am 7.5 months now!

Rolling with daddy.  The best way to travel!

Snack break

At the end of the day on the way home!