More summer...

Went to visit Grandpa several times at the hospital... he patiently let them play "bed goes up, bed goes down" a few times:



...visited the new lion at the zoo... he was sitting up like this until just after I took the pic, and then back asleep... so I was lucky!



... last week's pics are seeing the effects of the wind on the pier:



and the boys making Japanese oriented art for their new room at the beach:

Little one's cherry blossoms that he put on the ink branches I made... I love those blossoms! Good job!



And then our big boy made a dragon using a silk painting technique he learned at school... the technique he did I believe is from India, using gutta as the resist on the silk, but there is a similar technique in Japan called "Yuzen" (click here to read about it) so it still connects to the idea of a Japanese room theme even though we didn't use rice paste for the resist.
He wanted it to look like flames around the dragon... it looked like red and orange, but then when I hung it upside down (or up-smie-down as the little one likes to say) to dry, the red and orange ran, and actually fell into a flame look... very cool:

Some more summer

Click HERE for a link to the beautiful poetry/art book: "If You're Not From the Prairie" by David Bouchard... I was mentioning this book to some recently as we talked about the beautiful prairie skies we were watching this weekend, all at once raining, thundering, sunny with a rainbow... Lovely book.

We've discovered a better way to have ice cream in the car... Dibs:

Before Dibs:



After Dibs:


Funny commercial for the above product:



Climbing trees:





Finding frogs:



Enjoying rainbows:

Some summer stuff...

We went out to the cottage on June 30th, as soon as we could after school ended.

We celebrated Bop's birthday:



Went to the beach events:



Built sandcastles:



Came home in time for a Fringe show:



Went to a family gathering and had some excellent rollkuchen:



and went fishing and our big boy caught his first fish:



and discovered some new friends:

My Grandma...

My Gramma passed away on Monday. She was 99 years old, and a strong woman who loved her husband (she always called him Gorgeous, which was her nickname for him as his name was George... and he called her "Kewp" which was short for Kewpie doll, my mom says). They were active, outdoorsy people with 3 boys. She (and he) went camping with me, knit me mitts and an afghan, and gave me my favourite teddy bear (that is in my room right now). They were always there for me during the special events in my life, and I also loved visiting them in their beautiful home in stunning Cranbrook. Bless you, Gramma and Grampa... Gramma, you are finally with your gorgeous George again... Here is her 99th birthday at the end of May:

How you spell it, UPDATE!

So, I've updated the "How you spell it" video, because as I wrote last time, I was sick with almost no voice, so I redid the vocal track, and added echo, and changed the voice sound to a sort of old radio sound, and fixed some of the scratches that the hubby suggested... plus found new dancey dances that the little one does ALL THE TIME:

More updates!

This is what the dino fossil art looks like after he painted it, and then I wiped some of the brown off of the actual "fossil" so it really looked like a fossil found in earth and put a sealer on it:



I went with the little one to a Sundays With the Family concert put on by The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, which is SOOO cute and very entertaining for children AND adults! Fun crafts and activities before the concert starts, and then a very child oriented concert! He just LOVED it! We're buying season tickets for all 4 of us this coming season!



Mother's Day at the Zoo... with my boys:



Then Mother's Day the NEXT weekend with Nana and Bop at the lake... they made paintings:



....that were shrunk, printed and look like this as necklaces:



... and the boys wanted to give them in person.

At the end of May, there was a piano recital:


...and a beautiful concert of movement, singing and art... his whole class did the hanging banner, and he did the painting... unbelievable art experiences at that school!



The boys still love wearing the costumes people have given them:



... or from rummage sales:



Moving in to the new digs at the cottage... wait for pics of how the boys and I want to decorate their room:



Loving using this: It's great to laze around on the beach, but it's also nice to get the blood pumping!

Winter to summer! AKA haven't been here for a while!

Okay! Wishing everyone Merry Christmas was the last time here!

The boys in their Christmas pajamas:

A holiday skate

We went to the Chinese New Year celebration in mid February:

Turning 7 on February 24th:

Fun in Glenboro (as usual) - this time our little one stayed more awake... although it was warm enough to nap this time as well!

Went to Fargo during Spring Break... Our boy is happy eating food only he could eat!

April:

Winter...

...and spring in the same weekend: In spring, hanging out outside begins:

but the art and art projects never stop...
Thanks to this blog: Art Projects for Kids for that great idea!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Happy birthday, Kurt!!

Little something we were working up today while we were making our Christmas album...hehe!

That's how you spell it....

So, because our little one will be going to nursery school at the ripe and mature age of 3 this fall, I wrote him a little ditty to help him remember it this past summer... then every once in while we sing it with him. I wanted it to be short, and catchy - you know - like "By Mennen" or "What would you do - o -o - oooo" for a Klondike bar??" so not to win any composition awards for originality and eeriness, but to be catchy and short and fun to sing if you're 2 (which he was until quite recently)... Last fall I was at home sick one day, and pumped it up a bit by adding some beats to make it more fun to sing (as he likes catchy songs from Yo Gabba Gabba, or They Might Be Giants). I could hardly speak that week, so I'll have to redo the voice part one day now that I have my mic at home... Tonight I made him a little video to really connect the letters. You'd think that this might not be helpful, but actually he REALLY gets letters and can recognize any of them by having them pointed at randomly on posters, signs, books etc. I'm not even sure if he knows the alphabet song to realize how much of an incredible grasp he has of the letters out of the alphabet song context. Anyway, I give credit to his own interest in asking which letters are which with alphabet pretzels, or books, and I give HUGE credit to how he LOVES to play with the letters at starfall.com which is an INCREDIBLE website that a grade 1 teacher told me about a few years ago!

So, here is his video to help him learn to spell his name (or anyone for that matter... there are so many different spellings). Kurt liked it but told me to add lots of record scratches, so it's been added to even more just today:

Charles M. Schulz philosophy

Click HERE for some good advice from the creator of Charlie Brown!

Nativity craft!

I found this great nativity craft a year or two ago on a website called Mormonchic.com and thought it was so cute! So, he finally started making it this year! A week ago, he painted the pots:



and then today we reviewed the beautiful stars in my favourite Christmas book, "The Christmas Lamb" by Sekiya Miyoshi that my mom gave me when I was little... I wish I could find a link with the pictures... but I don't have to because Kieran just looked at it for a second, then quickly set himself to understanding the chalk medium and made his own interpretation of the book's stars - and created his own beautiful shining Christmas night for his set:



Next, we're going to find sticks outside and stick them into some plasticene to create a stable (his idea - taking the original craft up a few notches and making it his own) and then stick some raffia all over the top to be like straw... anyway, as you can see it's working out a LOT better than the gingerbread house - but at least the gingerbread house is yummy!

Merry stuff!

Hangin' with Santa and Mrs.Claus at the Festival of Trees and Lights! These are sweaters that the boys spontaneously picked for themselves while I was shopping for something else... I went with it and they just love their matching sweaters! So great!

Whew! He sure looks happier this year with his little Rudolf set! Last year he wanted to wear it but wasn't smiling for some reason, so he looked like when someone dresses up a pomeranian in a ball gown... but this year he is super smiley!

Yay! Helping mommy make muffins with Aunt Barb's special chef set!

Starting to make our gingerbread house!


Playing with the Christmas decorations... notice the shirt that Nana bought him that says "Naughty is the new 'nice'"... apt.




Putting the gingerbread house together... Kurt will NEVER let me caulk anything in our house after watching my misadventures yesterday!


But hey... they had fun!!!!

Nope... no good...



I saw an amazing picture of a beautiful English cathedral done in gingerbread on Google images this morning... and I said "Wow... they win" to which my big boy shouted "No they don't because ours has WAY more candy!! So - as long as the boys are happy! Next year we're making an a-frame one like the vintage Fisher Price cottage! Just a triangle! How hard can it be to lean 2 slabs together?? Stay tuned!