Winnipeg & Family

A few weeks ago we hit the road to 'One Great City' to take in the Canadian National Women's Soccer game against USA, and to have some family time.  Here are a few favourite shots.

So exciting.  Loved the sunset view, too!  It was a great game - we scored in the first half and the US didn't answer the goal until near the end of the game, making it a 1-1 tie.  US is ranked #1 in the world and we are ranked #7, so it was pretty impressive. 

My fam!!  We are the 3 in the first row, the 5 behind them & the 4 behind them.  My other 2 are off walking.

At the {brand new} park the next day.  We adults had slide races, and M got this shot of me and Mom - I see where I get my slide style from! Matchy matchy!! Ha ha.

 Follow the leader...

Apparently my brother has spent more time training his kids in this fine art than I have... I really did laugh out loud at this one, all by myself here.

 At Levi's rugby game.  Nolan had a great time exploring in the woods.

 Just loved this shot.

This is the boy who made me an aunt, way back almost 17 years ago.

Love this.

Go Pipers!  Back in the day I also played Piper rugby at John Taylor. (And we were Provincial winners, too!)  I'm sure he's not really scowling at me...

 My beauty.  She and the rugby player above are 3-months-apart twinsies.

So this was one of the funniest things ever.  Here is K, my lovely niece in her dance recital costume after the dress rehearsal.

Madeline posing with K...

 

And Z wanted to get in on the posing, too, of course.

Enter Nolan, with the instructions to "Put your hands on your hips!"  So he walks over and puts his hands on Z's.  I'm still laughing.  So funny.

 Almost...

Got it!

Scrapbook Pages Part II

After I got caught up on the camping laundry I took a few minutes to shoot the rest of these layouts for you. A bunch of us spent the day at the church on National Scrapbooker's Day a few weeks ago, and while I didn't do anything new, I did get all the ones finished that I started or prepped at the retreat.  (The first bunch are in this post if you wanted to see them, too.)

These first four I had all the photos ready and then forgot all the pocket pages at home...  So here are two pages of last July and two pages of last August.  The rest are from last summer and fall.

Thanks for looking!

Camping Highlights

The Victoria Day holiday in the middle of May marks the first weekend of the camping season - "May Long"  if you live in Saskatchewan. We went up to Greenwater Lake and met up with friends from Saskatoon, and there were plenty of highlights:

* Packing the first aid kit and finding a 'what to pack list in it that I had cut out of a magazine.  So helpful!

* The views on the drive up: the soft new spring green of the valley, the dark storm skies over glowing bright yellow fields, the sun rays streaming down through the clouds...

* Madeline reading Nolan a story on the way up "...mooses, meeces, moosi... What is the plural of moose?"

* Nolan having so much fun playing outside, in the trees, in the dirt, free to run.

* Using the 'Night Sky' ap to check out the constellations.

* Watching Haley do 'poi' and teaching M who caught on pretty quick to the basics.

* Sunday morning:  Me: Nolan, you make us happy.  Nolan: Yes, I do.

* "This is the best feeling in the world!" -M, after learning to chop wood.

* "I need to golf." -N, picking up a ball and club.

* Seeing Sean and M coming back from dumping the waste and seeing M at the wheel of the truck!!

* The shimmery tinkling of the ice on the water - yes, there was still ice on the lake, and at the one beach where it was right up to shore, there was a nasty cold wind coming off it, but the sound was enchanting.

* We went 'treasure hunting' and found two geocaches - that brings us up to 24 finds for TeamLinz.

* Seeing so many deer and rabbits.  We saw lots of gophers and squirrels, too, but they were more pests.

* M enjoyed spending time with the other girls and riding her bike; Nolan liked biking and going to the parks and the dogs our friends brought along.

* Having a borrowed trailer and not a tent.  :)

* Driving through Kelvington on the way back and seeing the places Sean used to live & work.

May Long is a cold camping weekend, and I need to add long johns to my packing list, but we will definitely do it again.  We are already looking forward to the next trip coming up (and at the surprise that these same friends will be at the same campground for part of it!)  I love that we are a camping family.

Thinking

What have you been thinking lately?

I've been thinking about thinking.  Specifically, paying attention to what I am thinking and stopping myself from thinking things that are not helpful, things that are negative and should not be allowed space in my brain; choosing instead to think about solutions to those problems, or on any number of positive thoughts.  I'm choosing thoughts that remind me who I am and of all the great qualities of the people around me.

I've mentioned this before, but it's still what I'm thinking, so it's worth mentioning again.  :)

I'm thinking of which way I can drive so we pass machines on our travels.  I'm a mom with a boy.  We were thrilled to get home this morning in time to see the grader work on our alley.

My brother used to tease me about being in love with a little blond boy.  I'm thinking he was seeing into the future!

(*This one's for Girls Only!*) I'm thinking about what a great product the Diva Cup is and recommending it to all my friends.  Look it up and let me know if you have any questions!!

I'm thinking about how much I am looking forward to seeing my family soon and taking in the Canadian women's soccer game there.

I'm thinking about drinking my coffee black.  We are almost out of the vanilla syrup we use a lot, and Sean thought maybe we should take a break from it for a while.  He often drinks his black, but I think I will join him and try it for the rest of May...  Cutting out sugar is never a bad idea.  Yesterday's was not bad after the first few sips, but today's was nasty all the way to the bottom.  I will confess that I had to have an Oreo after...

I'm thinking about all of you who read this and I'm grateful that you care!  XO

Pages from the Retreat - Pt I

I finally took some shots of the pages I made at the retreat. There are still a bunch that I have to finish titles for; I'll show you those after I get around to that.

Not thrilled with this one.  I tried to use some of the 'goodies' we got at the retreat, but I should know that if I don't love them, I should leave them.  I didn't love those big letters, but stained them and thought they'd do.  Oh, well.

This is where Nolan decided he wanted to use the camera, too... and when it got put away.

And today I finished the rest while he was sleeping:

Get Out and Play!

Just a little proof that I am trying to get outside with the little man, even when it's still chilly!

Today

I've just returned from a weekend away at a scrapbooking retreat where I managed to get done most of what I'd hoped to - 3 double page layouts, 10 single pages, and a mini album of last Christmas.  I forgot my page protectors (doh! as well as my hair dryer and straightener... where was my head?) so I have the snapshot pages that I wanted to do in the pocket style page protectors still to finish, and some titles to do on my Cricut, but I am happy with what I got done and happy with the getaway, and happy that my family does so well without me.  They all said they missed me, but no one cried.  :) 

I'll share the layouts one of these days, but thought I'd just show a few recent pictures.  That first one is of my big boy who can reach the library return slot all on his own.  He's getting so tall.  This one is of Madeline's apron that she made in sewing at school.  Nolan wanted to try it on.  They are both awesome.

This one's from this morning.  We were out and got home just in time to see the recycling truck come - watching these trucks is one of Nolan's favourite things, and I am so glad it's warm enough now to stay outside for it!  Walking (jumping) in puddles is one of his other favourite things, so seeing our next door neighbour's massive driveway puddle made him one happy boy.

Oh, and this morning?  I went for a haircut and left Nolan with a friend who has a little guy N's age.  They are in our small group, so Nolan is familiar with them, and we've been to their house to play once, but he wasn't too thrilled with the idea of being left there.  He clung a little bit, but when I explained again that there was no where to play where I got my hair cut, so he could play at his friend's house instead and I'd come back as soon as I was done, he went to my friend without a fuss and was fine the whole time.  So pleased that he is getting more comfortable in more places.  Next project: the 2 year old Sunday School class...

PS The next scrapbook retreat is October 24-26 if anyone wants to join me!!

Coasting to Spring...

We're generally a pretty healthy bunch around here, but M had an ear infection last week and Nolan has a pretty ugly cough today. (Wrote this a few days ago - took me a while to get pics added... Turns out it was croup!  It was pretty quick, though, and he's all better now.)  Thankfully there's not much on the calendar this week so we are taking it easy and laying low.

This morning Nolan played with the cloud dough that we made the other day while I did the dishes and then we made apple cheddar muffins - we did sit and watch a lot of TV, but at least there was some play and some productivity, too!

The cloud dough was a recipe I found when I was starting to get cabin fever last month - I searched for a bunch of activities to do with toddlers and finally got around to trying this on this weekend.  With only two ingredients (eight cups of flour and one cup of oil -we used baby oil), it was a super simple one to make and Nolan was entertained for a long time.  I'm not sure how long it keeps, but we've got it in a pail on the counter ready to play with until it all ends up swept into the garbage.  It does make a bit of a mess...

Another activity I tried from that same website was painting in the bathtub with shaving cream colored with food coloring.  N had fun painting the walls around the tub, and clean up was just a matter of taking off the diaper and running the water!  Both fun and easy.  He is really looking forward to being able to get outside more, though. 

Inside, his toys of choice are Daddy's screwdrivers and a "working TV 'mote."  He has toy tools, and even some old remotes, but he knows there is a big difference.  Especially since he's been helping Dad change light fixtures.  He wants the real tools all the time now.

Madeline is done basketball and soccer, so we are pretty free these days.  She's looking for something else to get busy with - we're helping her stay occupied by having her watch Nolan while we get out on our own every now and then.  Her basketball wind up introduced us to an awesome place that N and I have been back to a couple of times already - Boomers Air Park.  Do you have one of these where you live?  It's a trampoline park - a warehouse that's wall to wall trampolines (including up the walls!)  They have toddler time during the day a few times a week, so we've been out there having a blast.

I hope you are healthy, not too busy, and are enjoying your loved ones!