Today was a relatively cool day so outside play was a little more limited. The very first thing we did was gather together the family, Gavin’s camera and the new jogging stroller and head out on a photo walk.

Checking Out the New Jogging Stroller

The theme for our walk was SUMMER so we walked along and took pictures of everything the boys figured were related to summer. Each took turns using Gavin’s camera so we could take the images and make a little book out of them. The only thing summery they found that was too hard to get a good picture of was ants… every one we found was zipping around, so I found ant STICKERS to decorate our pages with which seemed to please everyone.

Picture of the Sun (Gavin red hat)

Let’s see there was – a bush, flowers, leaves on the tree, the sun, grass, a bike, a bird statue (we weren’t fast enough to get a picture of a bird), berries on our bushes, a camper, and a van from a flower shop that had pictures of flowers all over it. I used the cardstock from a package a stitching friend sent us cut in half and put two holes in the top of each page. Ken took the pictures we chose off the camera and shrunk them down to 3×3 inches and printed them off on our printer on regular paper. We glued each one on a page and I printed the name of each thing underneath. We went over each letter as I wrote it and talked about the sound it makes. After the glue dried and I pressed the pages nice and flat we put our ant and ladybug stickers on the pages. I wrote the title and their names on the cover and The End on the final page along with the year. Nothing overly fancy but the boys are happy with it. We have a couple of these type of books made up. The boys are so proud of them.

Putting Together the Book (Zander blue)

One of the Finished Pages

Finished Book

Before our walk the boys headed to the back yard to play. When I came out they were making letters with sticks from the weeds and such Ken had cleaned out of yard. Mainly the letters with straight lines of course and a square or two but how creative!

Spontaneous Learning 🙂

Zander found 3 sticks of about the same height and decided he wanted to make a “big tent” like he saw at  the Heritage Festival – there was a teepee there that they got to go into (which I did NOT get a picture of sadly) and apparently it REALLY impressed them. So before lunch all 3 boys and Ken headed into the back yard to collect the appropriate sticks to make teepees. After quiet time Ken made up each of them a paper to decorate to later be cut out and made to cover the sticks. The plan is to to put it all together tomorrow. Who would have thought some simple lawn work would bring so much inagination and excitement out of my 4 boys?

Gathering of the Sticks (Gavin far left)

Emanuel, Zander and Gavin's Teepee Coverings

The Heritage Festival has been a bit of a blessing for our family, ideas are running freely even in our meals. After enjoying the potato pancakes so much at the park I figured I would find a recipe for us to try ourselves. The one I found actually utilized only what we had around home! I had one egg left luckily, and of course our staple – potatoes… We will probably tweak the recipe a bit or try another one next time but they were very yummy! Trinity ate more than anyone!

Nothing Fancy – Old Fashioned Potato Pancake

Peel 4 or 5 potatoes, cut up and put in a blender and grate (remove the skin to)… Add 1 egg, salt and pepper to taste and add enough flour to thicken to a good pancake batter (some recipes call to remove all liquids I guess from the potatoes). Cook on well buttered hot pan, turning over once.

Finished Potato Pancakes - YUM

Ken tried his with syrup, I tried ketchup… Trinity opted for eating them by hand and plain. They were very yummy though! Add to that our pita pizzas for supper and we had a very tastey day mealwise!

Stitching today has been full of small grouping of a colour. Back to work on the stocking I am seeing some small areas completed BUT it is slow going, or at least FEELS slow going. I have started in on the sections where you have to mix threads of two different colours or shades together. I am not overly fond of this as I always find that I have shorter lengths of one or the other pre cut from previous sections or even projects. Love the look, HATE the combining! It is paying off though. When I step back and look at it the stocking is really starting to take shape, though I think tomorrow I will get started on the gift for Fydo and have Ken design one for my friend Bree’s fiancée (another one I will post the pattern of later). I do love the smaller projects where I really feel like I get something done quickly. Kind of balances everything out!

Stocking to Date!

Our plan for tomorrow is to head over to Muttart conservatory and see all the flowers, I figure we can take pictures and then make a flower book. I am not sure what captions we will use but I am sure it will get the boys excited! Even Ken is looking forward to it, we just need to take a peek at our umbrella stroller, it doesn’t turn too well but I want the smaller stroller to take into the conservatory. Thank goodness for free passes (more like THANK YOU Christine!). All this will cost us is  the gas to get there and back! YAY

So maybe not a huge day compared to our weekend but considering I even snuck in a little nap… not to shabby! Lots to be thankful for and lots to look forward to and that is definitely how I like it!