Well, honestly we just plain got busy! We have 2 different weekends of Canadian guests in October, Ken had a last minute flight out for a 3 day event, Trinity and Emanuel tested for yellow belts in karate and Ken had to go to a benefit and receive an award! But more on that at a later date… here are the last 2 days of Honest Photo Month. I hope you enjoyed the experience. I know I did!
Day 29
We are almost at the end… Honest truth… crochet and crafting keeps me sane. This has been a long week and a new project was started to sooth the soul… and with every baby blanket the kids give me the “No babies here? RIGHT?” look. Darlings we took good careful care to ensure that 5 is the magic number… All my babies are fur or borrowed…
Day 30
…and the last of Honest Photo month. I wish I had something deep and introspective. Instead I have 2 cranky teens in my hammock reading books. Thank you for joining me on my experiment. A month of honest images. True to form we were wild, weird, silly, even boring. I know I won’t commit to another month of daily pictures just yet, but promise to share any good honest images as they pop up in my life with the bold words HONEST PHOTO. So keep an eye peeled and feel free to share your own with me.
Well, the obvious comes to mind right off – Canada Day and Independence Day. We celebrate both, of course. Canada Day (HERE) always makes me a wee bit homesick. July 4th (HERE) was fun as well. July is also Grandma’s birthday up in Canada. And full blown summer fun here in Minnesota.
We lucked out and managed to make Home Depot where the kids made little bowling alleys. Which were PERFECT for the 18 inch dolls, I am told.
I managed to finish a prayer shawl for the Catholic church down the road, along with a pocket prayer shawl.
We spent TONS of time at the YMCA.
Emanuel got over his fear of the slide
Walked back and forth for ClubY.
We hung out in the hammock.
Played outside whenever we could.
Had movie nights.
Ken made the girls a reading corner in the sunroom out of fabric and a hula hoop!
Hung out with our homeschool friends at the park as often as we could.
Made sure to document all the pretty flowers.
Visited our godson Anthony after emergency appendix surgery.
Met a brand new baby! Congrats Cory and Karen!
We even snuck in time for homeschooling.
Echo even went to Evan’s birthday party SOLO with dad!
149 years young our home country was on the 1st of July of this year. Next year is a big one, who knows we may even find our way back up north to celebrate? But no promises. But displaced Canadians or not, we celebrated as best we could a weekday that meant nothing so spectacular as being the birthday of a nation. It was hard to make a Friday more than a Friday here in Minnesota. Poor Echo wished strangers a Happy Canada on our walk back from a park date and got no response. But she had a blast sharing her celebration with the world so it was a win!
Anyway. We skipped Cluby that morning as I demanded a day where we DIDN’T walk 2 miles two ways and instead filled our mosquito tent with festive red balloons and colouring pages and GLITTER GLUE! Win win right?
We decorated the front yard a little… I am always hoping to add to our Canada stash but it is rough going when you live in the middle of the States. Thankfully Karyn is always keeping an eye peeled for some Dollarama wares.
Of course we did our usual pictures… which are always a lot of fun. Karyn brought us all brand new shirts on her visit this summer. Talk about a well dressed group! Though I have to say, Gavin’s eh? shirt was my favourite.
Even our hammock was the appropriate colour.
We did our favourite fireworks activity.
And had a red and white lunch with Canadian snacks straight from CANADA!
I even had my own Canada in a cup thanks to Karyn and Lauralee at the suggestion of fellow Canadian abroad Caroline.
We snuck in a playdate at the park with our American homeschool buddies who got a kick out of our duds and helped us put a huge smile on our day of Canada-centric joy. Sadly no pictures but Echo did wish random strangers a HAPPY CANADA on our walk and was a little put out that they did not respond in kind. This was corrected on Sunday when Wes our favourite lifeguard called Echo over to wish her a BELATED happy Canada Day after he and I sat and chatted and he realized the event had passed. She had a huge smile and gave him a Happy Canada Day right back! Man do I love the people at the YMCA. Enjoy a favourite rant/commercial.
We also played the national anthem and sang along and of course enjoyed a rendition of the Log Driver’s Waltz… I still know all the words and found a subtitled version for the kids to sing along! Check it out. Well worth the listen.. the tune is so catchy.
I made sure to have a family picture taken – well the natural born CANADIAN family picture. Ken said no to being included as he felt that he was better suited to TAKE this photo than to be in it. Silly man. Of course the kids told him he is just as Canadian as they are since he married me and is such a nice man (ok so maybe they are a wee bit delusional but they really love their dad).
So since it was a week day it wasn’t a fancy celebration. We had fun, ate out, celebrated loudly and plan to make it even more exuberant next year when our special day falls on a weekend. Now, sit back and enjoy the red, white and no blue images that we took to top off our day of all things Canadian…. eh.
Day 30
