Spring Break Adventures

During Spring break this year we had lots of old friends come for a play... Jamie, Phoenix and Indirah, Amelia, Gabe and even Xander for a short time!

We truly enjoyed getting to reconnect with our big kid friends.

We also had lots of adventures... most when I forgot to take my camera!!!!

This year we did a few different hikes.

One was to Barnet Beach (Hazels favorite), one up to College Park, another the long way around to Westhill Park, To the Beach, To our local park and even to our Friend Evelyn's house

 (thanks Richard and Noami)

This is some of the view from our hike

While playing in the back yard one day the kids decided to put on a show... you had to have a ticket to see it...and boy oh boy... it was worth it! Singing, rapping, a little dance and of course lots of jokes!

Rosie and Kai are really hard to get a photo of in focus  when they are playing on the trampoline!!!

Mason could not get enough of her friend Rosie trying to do donkey kicks!!!

Love that laugh!!!

Thanks every one for making Spring Break a great two weeks!

Hope you all had a wonderful, fun filled Easter as well!

Happy Birthday Nate the Great!

Wow.... time does fly when your having fun!

Happy Birthday Nathan... I can't believe you are five!!!

Happy Leprechaun Day!

I'm not even Irish.... but St Patricks day is one of my favorite holidays. I'm not even sure why... I think it's because it's one of the celebrations that today is purely imagination. It' all about the stories. It's about believing!

For the last few weeks we have talked about spring coming and how the trees and plants are starting to wake up from their long winters sleep... that includes Leprechauns!

Our Quest to catch a Leprechaun started with the beginning of making our trap... you see, Leprechauns are drawn to shiny green things... and of course shamrocks.

So of course we needed to go on a shamrock hunt...

 Nathan spied the three leafed plant right away and spent about 20 minutes picking shamrocks (actually our park doesn't have clover... so really... it was a 3 leafed weed)

 Then came the setting up of the trap.... everyone had a chance to work on the trap, some people painted it, some stickered it, and others sparkled it!

 Everyone wanted a turn to try and get the trap set up just right... its a bit of a balancing act!

 We are ready! all we need, is for it to be quiet... leprechauns are afraid of noise.

 After lunch on Friday we sang our Leprechaun songs,  read our book about the story of where leprechauns get all their gold, and why they hide it at the end of rainbows. Thats when we decided to check our trap... Can you believe it...The lid was down!!!! WE HAD CAUGHT A LEPRECHAUN!!!

 This is the tricky part...  all at the same time, we need to place our hands on the box... and close our eyes...  wish with all our hearts.... and say out loud... "I set you free!"

 And because Leprechauns are magic... they will disappear, and in their place will be their gold! (and some pencils, balloons & tattoos.... just because)

 And of course... no celebration would be complete without cookies....

Yum!!!!

Party girl

For my friend Rosie.... everyday is a party dress kinda day!

I always wanted Chloe to wear dresses when she was little.... but that was about as easy as getting a root canal done!

So having Rosie going through this wanting to wear a 'party dress' everyday is great!

And the Party carries on....

This is my favorite Cinderella look...

And my favorite pose.... her ballerina move...

 

Child labour?

Is it considered child labour when they ask 502 times 'when can we go help'?

After watching the dump truck deliver our 7yards of engineered wood chips, the kids couldn't wait to start digging and dumping (almost as eager as I was to see an end to "mud land"). We waited until Nick could come help us so we had a big person up at the pile or down in the yard. Some kids actually used a "big bucket" and some used a tea cup to help move the pile into the back yard.

We got a LONG way to go.... two buckets at a time!

GETTIN WET

Even though we have had lots of fun with all the digging, sliding, splashing, quashing and mucking around in the mud as of late.... I can hardly wait to see an end of dirt days!

As many of you may know I have finally made the decision to end the battle with grass! Lets face it... it just doesn't work in my backyard. Between the dog, the sprinkler and the amount of traffic the grass tries to survive through it just cant seem to make it, no matter what kind of turf i have tried. So, while we are in "mud land" i have decided to embrace the dirt and learn to have fun with what we have got.... a lot of mud!