Beachin' it!

I arrived at the cottage to see that my new Poppy plant had bloomed!

Unfortunately, the rest of the plant didn't look so great, so hopefully it's making some good roots underground! A nice lady down our road gave me a tiny poppy plant that should do better next year.

It was pretty windy at the beach, so we all went down to watch the waves! Our little one and Kurt were having a great time!

Big Boy was making something in the sand... not sure what though! It's between him and the sand, and so it should be:

Later that afternoon, Kieran and Kurt ran outside quietly to experience the beauty of nature:

These beauties of nature were JUST ABOUT TO EAT MY FLOWERS, so I'm glad that they went to witness them! Since then, I've been perusing the Breck's catalogue for deer free plants!

We all had flan on Saturday night for supper... I like to make flan, because I like to SAY flan:


On Monday morning, the kids went to the children's games... looks like someone thinks it was somewhat hot!


After which, we were amused to hear our little one say "Nana"...



In this video we were trying to get him to say it again, however he was clearly exasperated, wondering how we couldn't see where she was:

...

On the other hand, it helped us realize that he hadn't said "Nana" by mistake, as in just some random baby sounds; he meant to say it!

By the time we made this video below, he was done with this game as you can see by the outright refusal:


This is a good couch for a snuggle with your baby brother:

Up goes the porch!

A taste of summer!!!

We FINALLY got a really nice weekend, and off we went to the beach even though it was only for abou 26 hours... but 26 HOURS OF FUN! Worth it! First, we had to finally get Schaefer with his very judgemental pout that he keeps inflicting on everyone when things go slightly askew from what he wants...

Yep, I think he looks like me:


Kurt started getting ready for putting the porch on the cottage, by getting rid of a tree that I love, but oh well... I also love the idea of enjoying an evening breeze without getting attacked by mosquitos in a screened-in room:



Later we went to the beach... Schaefer took a bit of time getting used to the water!

But then he perked up:


Cute sounds after supper:

Art, Dad's day and parties...

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm winding down now that it's the end of the school year, but I find that since spring break in March, it's just been spiralling up to a complete frenzied peak that I'm worried hasn't even arrived yet! It's been nonstop busy at school and home with special projects, university assignments, reports, soccer extravaganzas, end-of-year parties and organizing lake stuff... but it's fun! Last weekend, we celebrated Father's Day at the beach:

Looks kind of messy, but when you take into consideration that it's sloppy because of all the gooey cream cheese icing on the "DAD" carrot cake (Kurt says this is a favourite), then maybe messy is not so bad!

Our big boy loves sketching/doodling/painting... and does a lot of elaborate pictures on non-permanent media which I take pictures of quickly before they disappear. This one was swiped about .25 seconds after I took this picture by our little one, which really made Big Boy upset until I told him that I already took the photo so the picture wasn't gone forever:

This one was very elaborate, so I asked him to describe it:



There was a school BBQ, for which Big Boy decided to be painted like a "Puma" which was the name of his soccer team! They had their jamboree this week, and Big Boy scored a goal in their game against the parents! He was pretty proud!

Another tooth!!

Big Boy has lost his second tooth! He was playing at a neighbour's house, and he was having corn on the cob for a snack, and out it came! So! Looks like the Tooth Fairy will be on the way again! Next time he has a loose tooth, we're sending him to the neighbours' house for more corn on the cob! :-) Oh, and here is his new haircut, too!

GET A HAIRCUT!

I came home this week, to find our little one looking like this, to get the hair out of his eyes (although it wasn't doing such a fantastic job, I feel it was more for effect): Message received! So yesterday, I piled the boys in the car, and off we went to get haircuts... and then ice cream at the neighbouring Dairy Queen! So now he looks like this: But as you can see in the video below, hair in his eyes is the least of our concerns:
On the other hand, then there are moments of genuine cuteness... he makes this sound ALL the time now, so I had to catch it at least once before the phase ends!

While the cat's away, the mice will play!

Kurt was going fishing this weekend, which made our big boy really sad because he missed his daddy, and he wanted to go with them but because they would be portaging across a lot of ground, this doesn't work with a little 5 year old. So, too young just yet for a fishing trip with the big boys!
So! I decided to make the best of it, so we filled EVERY moment! We got up, had pancakes, went to the Millenium Library to get a fun movie to watch, had mac 'n' cheese for lunch while watching the movie, then when our little one woke from his nap at about 3:30 we started getting ready to go to the zoo!

This was made MUCH more fun by inviting Christoff who happened to be outside... this made Big Boy's day!

We came home and ordered pizza and ate it outside while playing with all our nice neighbours! Big Boy exclaimed "this has been the best day EVER!" which melted my heart, as every parent knows this is one of the best things to hear EVER! We came in and he made his own sundae using brownies I made earlier in the day, and lots of different toppings (including, of course, ice cream and chocolate syrup): We decided maybe we'd leave some brownies for daddy, hahaha! And thus ended the day of treat after treat, which apparently worked because he actually had fun and didn't sulk at all...
Sunday is more adventures until daddy gets home...Big Boy says he wants to go inside the building with C3P0 on top which I just LOVED! I have NEVER thought of the Golden Boy that way! He has seen pictures before because my African Drum Club played there and he saw the neat statues and would like to see them "for real" as he likes to say!

excursions...

Hey... did you have a fun field trip today?
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wait for it...
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That fun, huh? Then what happened?
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Wow... must have been a busy day!

Long weekend!

I'm adding these late, but I left the camera at the beach....

A special VB bike ride!




Neat ice crystals in the water...

The beach on Mother's Day!!

We set off for the beach this morning, after our own little Mother's Day celebration... Our little one was asleep when we got there so we had to wait for his reaction. Big Boy, on the other hand, was racing around the cottage finding all his beach toys and games while we unloaded the car of things we wanted to bring down for the summer. We ate lunch, played around a bit outside, then went for a walk on the beach before early dinner at a little local restaurant. The boys taking off down the beach:



Surrounded by ice and snow (even though it felt pretty nice on the beach):



Can't wait to play in the water!



Kurt and I decided we're going to put him in a lifejacket for the entire time we're at the beach!

Chilly May!

Big Boy started soccer again... He is really into it so far!





I've been busy making pies and cookies for Mother's Day, and our big boy is enjoying watching the process of making "REAL PIES"! He loved the apple corer/slicer, and was on hand, ready to eat any extra pieces (as was his little brother). He loved watching the lattice top being made, and was instrumental in choosing fluted or forked edges on each pie (on the apple blueberry he picked both so it's half and half)! There was some lemon juice mixed with blueberry juice and I guess a bit of apple juice at the bottom of the bowl where I mixed all the fruit with the sugar... Big Boy asked if he could drink it... so I mixed it with a lot of water and a bunch of ice cubes and ended up making an extremely yummy fresh fruit apple-blueberry lemonade... in which Kieran chose to drop a few blueberries for effect! He's drank about half of it now and I keep asking if he's done because I love it! And sadly, I have no idea what the ratio of any of it is, so it is one of a kind! :-)

Half way through May, we talk about April!

We started off at the Museum of Man and Nature (by far Big Boy's favourite museum):

Then moved on to some new outside toys! The little ones always want the big kids toys:



Some hangin' around: Some swingin'

And drawing with some of the neighbour children (our little one is more an art enthusiast during this type of activity):

A lesson in perspective...

Beauty is all how you look at it... With the right perspective, one can see a positive space...


(our newly organized craft cupboards)


...or with the wrong perspective a negative space...





Now you try!
A positive space...

(newly organized laundry cupboards)

... or with the wrong perspective another NEGATIVE SPACE! AUGH!

Getting ready for The Tooth Fairy!

Oh my goodness, we've lost our first tooth! It's been loose for a few weeks, but it came out today while his Nana was here watching the two boys. Turning 5 wasn't a shock, but this is! Big Boy and I made a little tooth box to get ready for the visit from the tooth fairy! He is so excited!



Here's a little "pocket" inside for the tooth!





It's been so nice out lately, we finally had time to make a snowman a couple of days ago! Kurt did the first two BIG snowballs, then Big Boy and I added the last one and the decorations after!

ACTUAL 5th birthday!

We had a great time on our big boy's birthday, with some surprise guests! Unfortunately our birthday boy developed a fever in the middle of the party, but he still wanted to see his presents and cake even though he was almost asleep! So, we enlisted the help of some dedicated present-openers and continued on! By the time it was evening, he was very interested in trying his dragon cake!






Yeeeaaahhhhh.... that's not what that's for!

Birthday party #1

Our big boy is ALMOST 5... but he's already started celebrating like a pirate... Aargh!




Will Turner and Jack Sparrow commandeer the cake...

Some winter fun!

We've been out tobogganing..... .... making snow angels.... ...eating snow (in the country where there are no dogs or salted roads)... ... riding around in style in Nana and Bop's custom made kid carrier that was originally used by my sister and I (I rode in the shady area in the back)... ... checking out the skating on the river... ... and generally loving winter so much that it's even great to take a nap outdoors!