I may just have watched the movie Home a few too many times (referencing the convenience store scene). Anyway…

This was a pretty big deal – a year after Grandpa Mike’s last visit when he buzzed through on the bike and TWO years since Grandma had visited we welcomed them down for a little over 4 days of fun, sun and conversation. It was a GREAT visit. We had out and about things… at home things… AND they brought us CANADIAN things! Which is always a hoot for the whole family (this fall I totally need to model my brand new windbreaker from the college Ken and I attended – thanks again Mike!!!).

We had to cut out YMCA visits since we decided to focus on family while they were here. We did still manage to go Monday and Tuesday to morning club (and Emanuel to his Young Scientists class) and Zander went to BOTH of his track sessions. After all the THURSDAY was his first MEET! Actually, we left the grandparents in charge that night and headed out just the 3 of us to watch him go.

But first things first – Tuesday. As soon as they got here there was a truck to unload. And boy did they pack in the stuff… the biggest surprise for the kids was the dollhouse mom had kept at her house since the boys were wee things. Along with boxes of accessories. So much fun has already been had with the house and will be had for a long time in the future I do believe.

The other hot item was a brand new Monopoly game. Honestly we are cursed when it comes to that game… a board rarely lasts long for one reason or another. This one uses CARDS instead of cash… and the machine makes a very satisfactory series of beeps.

We ate out that night as Ken and Zander had to head off to Track and Field. McDonald’s for the win – a super treat for our family who rarely go out to eat.

Wednesday we had to do our yearly testing for school. So we had an at home hang out and catch up day followed up with an evening visit to our very favourite beach!!!

Thursday I booted the family out to the Como Zoo while I hung out, cleaned, crafted and generally did things one does at home without kids while they slowly went stir crazy! I am told great amounts of fun were had by all!

Friday was one last at home day with a lovely walk to the park for a nice visit full of sunshine and playing.

So we had an amazing balance of out and about with home and comfortable. There was laughter and catching up and hugs and GRANDMA HAIR!

A trim too!

I know we talked about this visit for a while after with great fondness already. I am so glad we were able to show Grandma and Grandpa Mike around out little neck of the woods some and share with them some of our favourite places. Definitely a visit full of memories.

I am sure everyone has seen this on the news, on social media, maybe are living through it right now, but I just wanted to bring it to everyone’s attention! We are originally from Alberta (born and raised this girl), Not as far north as Fort McMurray (though Ken did go up there for work a few times). We are VERY lucky that our friends and family are all situated further south… however what is going on up in Alberta is devastating. An entire city has been evacuated due to out of control forest fires in a province that is basically a tinder box. Alberta has been declared to be in a state of emergency and people from nearby and far afield are running to the rescue. 

I am very grateful to all the people who have talked to me about this, checked in to see if I knew where everyone was and if they were ok. They are! And are already mobilizing to help out. 88’000 people are displaced, land and property destroyed… but there have been no fire related injuries beyond a sprained ankle… I would link tons and tons here but what I feel is really said well by Rex Murphy on the National and the video below.

If home is where the heart is mine is firmly in Wild Rose Country right now. If you want to help donations of money are best. You can read all about that HERE thanks to a multiple time shared post from Edward Mcintyre. If you want to donate financially I am linking the Canadian Red Cross link HERE. Just click on ALBERTA FIRES APPEAL when you do so. They are already doing so much for everyone up there. 

It is times like these that I feel the furthest away from my loved ones. So hug each other close for me. I love you all and am with you in spirit. Please keep us up to date on how you are doing and know we are here as best we can be. 

Well, that snuck up on me! Quite the number! And here I am, starting the next thousand posts with crafting and creativity. Appropriate, no?

This week is a rainbow week (well, week plus a few days), but with a difference. I decided, being the multi tasker I am, to have my secondary activity vary along with my colour changes. So I started with Monday and that beautiful bright red. What better to pair with that then catching up on some excellent murder mysteries in ANIME form. I had two full mysteries to enjoy with one being two double length episodes from the new year. Case Closed is one of my favourites (though I am still confused as to the reasoning behind the de-aging of the main character’s body as a long term plot twist). It is on its 20th year! And while I have only watched what has been posted on Crunchyroll (seriously worth the monthly subscription for an anime addict like me) I would love to get my hands on the beginning of this series… or the manga it was based on (in English of course) and dig in!

Tuesday brought on orange, with it being the focal colour of this piece I figured I would sit back and enjoy some music while I did my three rows. Spotify is an app I newly loaded to the iPad when I wanted to listen to music while I read in the tub. I use the free portion of the app and go with Evening Chill. Suitably relaxing which seemed to go well with the brightness of the orange.

For yellow I paired it up with a newer family favourite movie – Home, and my very best cuddly movie watcher Miss Echo. We can’t help but smile our way through this movie. Echo has her favourite parts when she simply cannot help but narrate along. Sitting together on the bed while I added this bright colour was so lovely.

Green is, of course, a special colour. In honour of the Kelly our Kelly green represents I went with a hefty dose of nostalgia with a continuation of my Murder She Wrote marathon. Something familiar and comforting with a bit of excitement and humour. Perfect…

And then… we got hit with the plague! For goodness sake, we homeschool so are not constantly surrounded by kids, but apparently the combination of basically living at the YMCA on three different occasions a week and Sunday School was enough to put us over. And I refuse to work on such a special project when I am under the weather… that is when mistakes are made! So instead I puttered… recuperated and lost a prep week for schooling. Oh, well! So I figure, it has been too long between posts and I need to share some colour now that our snow seems to be FINALLY melting… so I am going to post this as it is. Red through Green!

I promise a colourful rest of March. I need to kick it up a notch as I certainly do not want to be working away on this way into June if I plan to make the fair! I hope enjoyed my 2001 post! In the meantime here are some of the completions from the past couple weeks! 

A no roll flower I tested out! So awesome, Sick Lil Monkeys!

Awesome how the back works out.

Double Ruffle Blanket!

Baby booties from a book sent by a friend

Cupcake blanket!!! My first new classroom only completion!