A late lake adventure!

Yesterday at lunch I decided that I wanted all of us to accompany Kurt to the lake today (Saturday) because the weather was so nice! He was going down today anyway because he wanted to make sure the roof of the addition was covered.... so the boys and I joined him! We admired the new work done on the addition, and the boys stood in their new room (to be)...

Ate lunch outside (yes, it was that nice - high 13 Celsius, actually - great for November):

Then we played in the park all afternoon...


Walked on the beach and saw some animal tracks...



And were tired out!

I CAN READ THIS!

I almost got tears in my eyes just now. I was sitting in the living room with our boys, while our big boy was looking at a VHS tape cover of Star Wars. All of the sudden he exclaimed "I can read this!!" He said, very excitedly, that he just started figuring out the sounds of the letters and he realized it said "A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away...."

Now of course it would say that, but still that connection to the sounds and then the word recognition - very cool! What I was so happy about is that it made HIM so happy to realize he can figure out words if he wants to. Then he was excited to pick up the next box... it was a bit harder with a longer word but he figured it out... "The battle continues..." Indeed it does!

Thanksgiving

We were supposed to go to Boissevain for Thanksgiving, but weren't able to because of delays with doing the addition so everything got pushed back a week (and then 2 weeks... then 3 weeks) but all considered I was pretty sick that weekend so it was good we didn't have to do all that organizing, driving, organizing, driving when really I just needed rest... so I got to rest and then we had dinner on Monday which was a lot less hectic with driving and filling the van etc...

We had some pies for which I decided that I am NEVER putting lard or shortening in a pie crust again when you can just use BUTTER! I used Anna Olsen's idea (host of Fresh on Foodtv.ca) to grate the solid butter through a cheese grater and just fluff the flour instead of using the pastry cutter forever and it worked great! Our little one wanted apple (and so did Kurt as he says it's his favourite) and Big Boy wanted pumpkin... so I made both! I put toffee bits in both of them - mmmmm caramel is good for everyone... and Kurt thought the pumpkin was really good that way - he thought it would be too sweet but really it just kind of took the edge off the pumpkin and made it nice!

I can never get away with making a normal apple pie top - our big boy always wants the lattice top! Fun to do...




Kurt got the same thing I did so he's been home all week but he felt he should try to walk around a bit, so we used our free Boo at the Zoo tickets... Our Little One was shocked into silence for the whole hour... his eyes were wide open and he pretty much never cracked a smile, but every time we asked if he wanted to go on a ride, or touch a snail, or pat a cockroach, he nervously nodded yes... we think he was just fascinated but it was so new that he didn't even know how to react!

The new addition so far

Here's a slideshow of the new addition at the cottage so far:

Fallness, and Mom's birthday!

Fall SUDDENLY came yesterday... here you can see a tree working frantically to lose as many leaves as possible:



And I guess this was why, because later in the same day:



The kids loved it though... glad I'd already located jackets and boots:





Last week we had a party for mom! As usual, the kids ran around in all the cool costumes that everyone has given us and eating yummy Chinese food... and then the cake! I loved making this cake... it's not a cheese cake, it was more like chocolate mousse except it was filled with whipped cream - so not sure what that makes it... yummy though! The little guy is partially dressed as... King Arthur? It's too long on him and he kept slipping all over the place, which only made him realize the physical comedy aspect of falling:

Some early Halloween fun

For the record, Big Boy wishes he was the werewolf... but both boys love watching this anyway. The skull face (that sings) was drawn by our Big Boy for his daddy for Father's Day. On the bottom right of the screen is a symbol you can click on to make the video take up your whole screen. When you are done watching, press the escape (Esc) key on your keyboard!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

The summer that kept happening in September!

Sep 2nd - water fun:



Sep 4 - Our family isn't truly happy unless we are jumping off of something:


Sep 5 - the boys out for a talk... or a sail...



Our Big Boy's cool Castle Garden that we made:



Sep 7 Kurt's new sail:



Our boys first day of Grade 1/preschool:




Sep 18 - Out for dinner for our 10th anniversary:



Sep 19 - still beachin' it!





Sep 26th... cooling off but still nice enough for shorts! Other people were swimming while we were on the beach:



... and still nice enough to make a castle:

More summer

... playing on the beach...




... VB masquerade, Big Boy is a seamonster, Our Little One is Bam Bam (because really, he IS Bam Bam)...





... beach events...



...making crafts at the beach...



... naps at L.William..


...feeding the goats (or being a goat)...

LONG beach vacation! And, some Lake W. favourites!

Just got back from the beach yesterday! What a great time!

More on that in a bit! Had a great time at Lake William!

Some special buddies:



A new toy:



A favourite activity:



A Lake William moment:

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Home for what felt like 7 minutes - long enough to take a picture of lilies I won't get to enjoy:



Then on to the beach... picking blueberries:



and saskatoons:



Enjoying the new fireplace on a cool, rainy day:



Then going for a walk to get some fresh air and exercise... otherwise we're a bit squirrelly! Hmmmm.... thinking about jumping in...



A new "Brobie" doll for our Little One, from Nana who knows it's from his favourite show:



Click HERE for a Broby song...

It's okay if you are frightened... it took me a while to get used to it!

...then it started to get nicer out so off to watch a sunset:



Off on an adventure to Sandy Bay on our bikes! Takes a while to get there through the paths etc, but a fun day trip:




Found the "Lost Lake" lagoon with lots of exciting tadpoles, snails and leaches! I'd say "Ahhhh, boys", but I'm the only person in my family who willingly picks up toads and snakes, so there goes that theory!



Waiting for the "right" wave to jump:



Playing with a popular toy at Nana's:



A quiet moment:

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A canoe ride in Nana and Bop's canoe:



Dragonfly:

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The resident eagle:

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Our Little One likes props:

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Relaxing:

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