Canada Day in our new home… what a GREAT day it was for us all! Lots of company, good food, adventure and sunshine. Add to that a whole bunch of lovely pictures to share (yup the camera made it through it… pretty much ok, YAY) and I am one happy lady.

So let’s start with the very earliest… well late Thursday night Sean came over on his way to his folks (we now live in-between them and him) to spend some of the long weekend with us. He got here around the time Echo has her late night nursing so got in some baby cuddle time before we all headed off to bed.

In the morning the kids woke up to DOUBLE the excitement –  Canada Day breakfast AND Uncle Sean. Well we woke up and sent Daddy and Sean off to the grocery store as even though there is a 24 hour grocery here in town Ken opted to wait til the morning to get the items we were short for breakfast. So I took our 5 mini Canadians out to the PICTURE TREE for their first group picture there. As well as some inside the house. Luckily the morning was chill enough that Echo’s ensemble worked just fine, well for the photos!

We went somewhat Canadian with pancakes and SYRUP (maple of course) and bacon and tater tots. While I am not sure how CANADIAN tater tots are I have many a fond memory regarding them and family meals growing up. MMMM yum!

After a more brunch of a breakfast due to the time the guys got back from the store, I sent the kids willing outside. This did double duty – it got some of the wiggles out AND gave Echo time to nap. While they played outside I got in some of the mowing.

Ken built the last of their playset.

Around 1 we coordinated with the den Otter family and met up at the Historical Fort Normandeau. It is a bit of a drive with a weird windy road at the end to get there but the kids LOVED it. Definitely not as extensive as Heritage Park (Calgary) or Fort Edmonton Park (Edmonton of course) but more than enough for our kids coupled with the excitement of seeing Isabella and Alexander again after a month+ absence. There was lots of running…

Some teepee enjoyment…

And all keeping FAR FROM the river which is high right now and rushing quickly by!

This was all BEFORE entering the interpretive centre and model fort. So I took a moment with Trinity (and Echo in the stroller out of sight under her netting) and took a picture by a wagon.

The interpretive centre was rather small but there was enough to bore the kids (not a HUGE surprise), and allow Ken and Sean some reading time. Of course the children pushed right on out the door to the mini fort.

There wasn’t too much to examine, some guard turrets…

A room set up to mimic the fort conditions…

AND CHICKENS!

After all that excitement it was time to bundle everyone back up and head to the house. Ken then left to get Fydo (and pay rent of course) while the kids played outside. Once fun was had outside we brought them in for watermelon and chocolate cookies! On the floor to save on cleaning, and then it was back to playing.

We had the den Otters, Sean, Fydo AND Kristen all here for a potluck bbq supper! It was so much fun! And a great way to top our day.

One of the choice food items – bacon covered perogies. They were… bacony!

We even got some pictures of the babies together. Izaac is the top percentile and Echo the bottom so they are extremes on either end for their individual ages (he is 4 months) and too cute! Echo was so interested in him. She just keep trying to touch him and “talk” to him. (note the change in outfits – she was too warm in her Canadian outfit so we moved her onto an American theme)

After the den Otter family headed home things started to slow down and bedtime came around for the kids, that left the remaining adults up to spend a LOOONG (too long in comparison to the amount of time the game is SUPPOSED to take!) game of Talisman together in lou of fireworks (and the over zealous mosquitoes). It was great fun even though it went on and on and on and on…

Poor Trinity woke up with morning with some swollen bug bites I am keeping a close eye on. We sprayed her all over with bug spray but she always seems to get bitten and those bites always swell and go red a little. The one on her ankle especially is swollen. So we had her sit quietly and have a nice soak in the tub and by tonight it was less swollen but WOW. Poor thing. So we are going to hunt down a lotion that my sister-in-law uses on my nephew!

We had a special visitor today! Karyn is (temporarily) back in the country! She got home LATE last night from New Orleans (with an adventure of a flight path back!!!). So this morning she came over to bring special gifts…

To visit… and to get in some baby snuggle time.

We went out, with Echo, to the nearest mall for our traditional poutine (something that we can share with Echo no less!) and stopped in at Payless and Walmart to check out shoes for the August wedding. I may have found a pair that will work and be REusable AND under 20.00 but I have to take Ken and get his final opinion. He tends to be pretty good at sussing out shoes that won’t kill my feet after Karyn and I narrow down the asthetic portion! YAY!

So with that we spent some time at Karyn’s apartment where I got my birthday present – a new cartridge for the Cricut – one to make ROBOTS! I forgot it at her house but since I don’t have MY Cricut yet anyway it is no biggy. Once she gets back from Alaska I will have to go over and make a few robots. But in the meantime I got to see all the goodies she brought back from her trip while Echo explored the apartment and then made a direct route right over to the one thing that facinated her the most – Ludere!! He was a little perterbed that his minor hiss and backing up a little did not imediately stop her. But we managed without incident. I even snuck in a quick pet but he caught on and hissed without even looking that it was ME!

A worn out Karyn headed back home soon after the kids went to their beds which left me and Ken to enjoy a relatively quiet evening. More XXXholic as Ken found me the Kei series and Ken work – since he has US and Canadian contracts which means no totally free day off over the weekend on either side regardless.

Tomorrow the plan is to meet up with Kristen and Fydo again and go out and find some sort of park to play in and then in the evening out with Karyn and Lauralee (but that should be just me and maybe Echo).

I just love the matching looks on their faces in this one!

Tiny Sheep and Trinity - don't worry Karyn is with Echo in the back. You can check out Tiny Sheep's adventure's on Fat Sheep's blog...link below.

Further Adventures of Fat Sheep

Thursday has come and gone… always a busy day we managed to amp it up even more. First with a family trip to the local stitching store… the children had a blast in the playhouse and Ken and I have come to the realization that by Trinity’s 2nd birthday at least we MUST acquire one. My suggestion was that Ken speak to my step-father and see if he could help Ken make one (he recently finished a dog house for Harley). We had to drag her out of there kicking and screaming literally!

I  can’t disclose EVERYTHING I bought as the majority of it was for my advent exchange but we did get a great deal on 3 bags of tri cornered beads in Halloween colours – 99 cents a bag! So tomorrow guess what we will be doing? Yup, stringing beads. The boys LOVE making bracelets and necklaces!

For school today Ken went over insects and I took pumpkins! We worked on the life cycle of a pumpkin from seed to pie and I figure since they had so much fun putting the images in the right order instead of stapling it into a book I will put them in a pocket. Tomorrow we will discuss pie. One of the final activities to do is make a wheel with each of the spices in the pie glued on.

It took a bit of research but Ken found out the specific type of pumpkin you need to make pie from absolute scratch (apparently a lot of the mixes you buy in the can are actually SQUASH! Ken was aghast!) and then to make things even more complicated he up and FINDS ONE! So much for my simple pie recipe! So tonight I make up my grocery list and do as much prep work as possible. And of course look into the requested apple pie recipe.

Our afternoon consisted mainly of the twins working on beading projects of their choice. Gavin decided on a spider for his insect lapbook and Zander did another side on his box. They both did an amazing job with Ken only needing to do minor alterations to Zanders to make it perfect and Gavin’s to make sure one of the legs ironed correctly.

The coup piece of beading actually is an original creation Ken made last night of Emanuel’s beloved Pocoyo!!! I am so impressed as was all 4 kids! Now I need to make a matching one up to send to the friend that sent Trinity her wee Pocoyo doll! Oh, and send an image to Perler.

I did up two pieces of furniture for a little girl who lives in California. I changed the colours a bit from the Perler pattern but am excited to package it up and send it off to her. That just leaves the lion and figuring out a few more for other kids. Tonight I plan on making some ornaments as well as a couple of tops the boys wish to give out as gifts.

So I posted my completed stitch on DeviantArt … since it has a swear in it you DO need to have an account to see the image, but I plan on posting it on here as soon as Ken gets my paypal sorted so that the pattern will be up for purchase! Apparently there was a little glitch last night so my free patterns won’t be up until tomorrow but I am cracking the whip to get everything going ASAP!!! My newest project is a personal one and a first time – a perforated paper ornament! I am loving it!

Oh, let’s not forget about Ken – he over cooked his sugar this time but he is still working on making candy! Look how proud he is!

A Sheet of Candy!

So tonight, as I mentioned, is Ken’s gaming night, game of choice – Talisman borrowed from Chris and Chris. Added bonus – my Cousin David is now a part of those! So we have a bunch of friends over and they play games while I do other things. Tonight – baking, beading and sewing. Tomorrow baking, beading and babysitting the guys as they drink and play computer games!!! Birthday party!

Thank You For Letting Me Share With You!