Little J

He's such a booger. He wanted me to take a picture of his pool-slicked hair, but it rapidly became a giggle-fest.

Good thing he's cute :)

Chokecherry jelly

Making chokecherry jelly. Set up the big boiling water canner on the Coleman stove outside, which was good for not heating up the kitchen, but not so great for keeping the jelly hot while pouring it into the jars...

First batch turned out great. Next batch I think we'll do inside...

Vacation

Just a little getaway.


A Friday departure to the campground where my parents have their trailer.


A LOT of rain.

A day trip to Mississauga for Krispy Kreme doughnuts!


A quick visit with Princess Maya.

Some swimming fun.

A drive down the highway and a ferry ride to the cottage.

More swimming fun.

5 days in total, but wonderful days all.

Heat Wave!

We're really appreciating the pool right now in this heat wave, but at 85F it's almost bathwater-like. What a difference from last summer's weather!

Another summer camp adventure for the Princess

Using papa's gigantic canoe pack to haul her summer camp gear. Off to summer camp - week 1.

Today

I'm scrapbooking today, dappled sunshine through the windows, Manhattan Transfer blaring from Grooveshark. I'm a terribly messy scrapbooker, but there is such satisfaction in putting our stories to paper. I don't want to be as much a mystery to my grandchildren as my grandparents are to me.

July 2, Amazing Sky

Red sky at night, sailor's delight... wonder what orangey-purple means?

Our neighbour was outside photographing it too. The whole street was bathed in a strange orangey light. It was magical.

Happy Canada Day!

Fireworks at the community centre of our wee village, always an amazing show.

Happy Canada Day!

Kaboom kaboom!

Tomorrow is Canada Day - is there anything more patriotic than blowing up a bunch of cardboard tubes?

Katie style

Yellow t-shirt, purple and pink skirt, purple and pink hair pieces, pink striped sweat socks (pulled up to her knees of course) and white bejewelled crocs. And a red baseball cap. She's got a style all her own...

I don't see a future for him in FIFA...

The bits have enjoyed soccer this year but neither one really seems interested in *playing* the game. This one likes to spin around the goalposts. The other likes to shinny up the goalposts.

Perhaps there's a professional monkey bar league out there?

Spectacle 2010

The end of year spectacle (that's the French word, but it's so fitting in both languages :) ) at the kids' school. Adorable performances, hamburgers and hot dogs and even the in laws coming to watch. I really love this school, small and friendly, it's particularly a good match for little J (who is the one with the orange collar sticking out here, right between his two girlfriends. Heaven help me...)

Award Day

Today was the award ceremony for the Deputy Minister's awards for excellence. It was every bit as overblown as I imagined (feared!)

The recipients followed the marching band through Tunney's Pasture to the Banting Theatre. There was a loooong presentation, which was actually pretty good. We didn't receive our awards individually on stage, the presentation was to the team leader, afterwards we filed past the DM and associate DM and shook hands and took a group shot, then we were given our awards as we filed out to a banquet where I sipped non-alcoholic champagne (with raspberries, very swank ;) )

I got a nice certificate and a super heavy glass trophy.

Seven

My last baby is 7 today. Wow does time fly! He was a wee babe when I started blogging (on a different blog than this one), my earliest entries were about breastfeeding issues and sleep deprivation. How the times have changed! Now he's finishing first grade, reading, making friends. He has a very strong personality this little man of mine, he's opinionated and stubborn but oh so sensitive! He's loving and funny and quirky. He is a complete joy.

Happy birthday little J.

Another year older

and yet no wiser. Yes, my birthday has come around once again. It's not a year that ends with a 0 or a 5, so it's not 'a big one'.

My parents came up for a birthday dinner for me, along with my in-laws, a rare and special treat. They, and the kids, and especially C, spoiled me hugely!

My parents gave me fat quarters of fabric in orange and purple (neglected colours in my stash), cool metallic machine threads and special needles to use with them. Big J gave me a gorgeous fat glass apothecary jar and a Michaels gift card (he does know me well!), the little bits (with some help from papa) gave me a rainbow of summer shirts (much needed) and C gave me a gorgeous 8 gig ipod nano, in the most awesome cobalt-purple colour! I have been coveting one for ages!

On top of that, there was lemon cheesecake. Bliss I tell you, bliss!

Tooolips...

I love living in Ottawa :) Tulip Festival hasn't officially started yet, but everything is in full bloom.

Near the War Memorial

Lilacs 2010

I love lilacs. My parents bought me a pair of little lilacs for my birthday last year, a purple and a white. They're small, but they're thriving, and rewarding me with a handful of small fragrant blooms this year...

After the rain...

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. ~Dolly Parton

Don't like the weather?

Then just wait a minute...

Yup, it snowed last week. This week - it's 29C at 6:45pm. I think Mother Nature has Alzheimer's, she's forgotten what a day in early May should be like...

Go fly a kite

A perfect day for it, windy and balmy and overcast. We went to the big field beside the community centre (too many trees in our yard) and the bits had a blast. Yes, I had to untangle their strings more than once, but that's OK. I did manage to get quite sunburned though, through the clouds. I'll never learn...

Blooming

Our fruit trees are mostly in bloom (the pear isn't quite there yet, but is only a couple of days away from full flower). The smell in that part of the yard is intoxicating, particularly from the plum tree, those blossoms are amazingly fragrant.

Faux Karsh

Inspired by Karsh's iconic pictures of the tulips on Parliament Hill with Parliament looming in the background here are a couple of the tulips in my front yard with a castle of a different sort :)

PQS3

I joined my first quilting swap last year, the placemat quilt swap. It seemed so low pressure and friendly... and I had a blast :) Fast forward - it's now Placemat Quilt Swap 3. And while I haven't *quite* finished the one I'm sending out yet, I received this beauty from Laura in New Brunswick (along with matching pcnic bag and sandwich container full of ymmies!). I am a seriously happy camper :)

Mother Nature is a crazy &*(%&*

April friggin' 27th people! Mother Nature is a crazy bat!

Soccer!

A new season of soccer starts. J-man is loving it. Katie is having way too much fun playing with her little friends to be very involved in the game. And that's ok, this is a fun league, they're getting exercise and enjoying our community :)

A week in the life - day 7

Playing board games together

A week in the life - day 7

I've taken all of the pictures, now I have to work on making them into a story for my scrapbook. C asked me why anyone would want to see pictures of our ordinary life and I told him - I have no idea what my grandparents' day-to-day life was like outside of what I imagine based on Leave it to Beaver re-runs. This is a gift to the future, a glimpse of our very ordinary, but very blessed lives...

A week in the life - day 6

Welcome home!

A week in the life - day 6

Bowling queen

She won a trophy (a big one), best team in their age group. She was some pleased! :)