A Fun Family Weekend (Canadian Style :)

We had such a great weekend this weekend past (it was a long weekend where we are) and I just had to share some of it with all of you who are still checking in on me here ;) 

On Saturday it was gorgeous and sunny and my hubby had the great idea to check out a local park on the lake where we heard it freezes when there is a long cold spell (which there has been!) I decided to bring the good camera to play around with ;)

This girls life...

Just a quick photo dump of life around here lately :)

A Busy Weekend

Hi everyone, did you have a good weekend? We did, albeit a busy one! On Saturday, all three kids had soccer games, my hubby had to work, and I had to do some volunteer time for Cadence's gymnastics club for a competition that was being hosted there. Thank goodness my mom was willing to help out! (Thanks mom!) My mom and sister took the kids to their soccer games in the morning, and then the kids and I went over to her house to help out with a greenhouse they are building. Since we (hubby and I) aren't sure yet where we will be living come July (hmmm gotta get on that!) my mom and her partner Al generously offered us some of their garden and greenhouse space to use since we don't know if we will have a garden space and by the time we move it'll be too late to plant some things. Whew, so that was Saturday, then on Sunday, Cadence had her part of the competition to go to. 

Here she is receiving a medal (all the participants of this age group got a medal of participation) and certificate.   

(so sorry the pictures are really blurry, it is really hard to take pictures in their gym and I am definitely no expert photographer!)

Cady did really really well and the judges and her coaches all commented that she had excellent form. She especially excelled at her vault and her beam routines :)

Here she is mid-dismount :)

 All in all it was a good weekend, busy, but good. I better get used to the busy as the next couple of months are insane. We are moving, the kids all have soccer, Cady has her gymnastics, Nyla is doing a writing course, we are going to an extra special birthday party 8 hours drive away (more on that to come), rebuilding a deck, and Mine and Pats anniversary is in 8 days. Whew! I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but as you can see we're going to be busy!

How about you, did you have a good weekend? Is this spring promising to be a busy one? Any extra special birthdays coming up?

Have a good week!

Fun, Fantastic Fall!

Are you amazed that I'm actually back again this week? I am! So far no more computer problems, yay! So today I'm going to do a little wrap up of our fall, pretty appropriate since today we had our first snowfall! And apparently I like exclamation marks today.

Moving on....

The girls had the last few of their soccer games and received a medal for their efforts (all the kids got one). They were pretty excited, especially Cady :)

Of course little brother had to get in on the picture taking action too...

They are all so cute :)

Fall also brings lots of gardening chores, so the kids helped by collecting snails. Snails kind of give me the heeby jeebys, but for some reason, my kids love them!

I love Gabe's expression in the next one :)

My kids have been getting their hands on my camera a lot lately and sometimes it's quite interesting to see what they come up with. I nearly peed myself laughing so hard at the next picture, so I knew I had to share it with you! Poor Stella...

We have the best dog, she has so much patience with the kids :)

Nyla and Cadence did some cross country running with their school and both enjoyed it ( unfortunately, it was usually on a day that Cady had both school and 2hrs of gymnastics so she tried it once but was too tired) Here's Nyla at the regional meet, she did fairly well, 15th (I think) out of 25.

What would fall be without a visit to a pumpkin patch? We were generously invited to some family friends' house to pick some pumpkins out of their patch, and the kids had a grand time. Gabe, of course, picked the biggest, Nyla the smallest and Cady, almost as big as Gabe's )

Nyla named hers Seedy :)

The kids also helped Laura pick some monster carrots. These things were huge! I've never seen carrots so big and fat (and tasty too!)

As you can see it was a gorgeous day, weather wise, and we all had a lovely time. Oh, what were Pat and I doing? Why sitting around the bonfire of course! Thank you so much Laura for the wonderful day!

And last but not least, what would fall be without a pumpkin pie? Cady and I had a great time making one together for Thanksgiving. It was delicious!

Oh and no pumpkin patch pumpkins were harmed in the making of the pie , I used canned for that, but we did use them for something more fun, our Jack O'Lanterns! You can check them out in the last post I wrote :) Hope you had a wonderful fall,

now on to winter....

A beautiful, busy, fun weekend part 2

Finally!! Part 2 of our fun pre-long weekend weekend. In part 1 I showed a bunch of pictures of the hike we did on the Saturday, well that was only part of Saturday. The rest of the day was spent on the beach playing in the water and cooling down (it was 34 degrees that day) as well as doing some fun water sports including tubing (this is Cady and Pat)

and my brother wakeboarding. Pat and Matt (my bro) also did a bit of waterskiing and normally I would join in but one of my feet is really hurting and bothering me. But I did go for a tube ride with Nyla and we had a blast!

Gabe asked uncle Matt if he would go with him. Gabe loved it so much and wanted to go again and again! He was also quite upset when we told him (Gabe, not Matt :-) that he was a little too young yet to do waterskiing and wakeboarding.

On the Sunday we packed up and headed home because Pats fire department was having a fun softball game and bbq. The guys set up the port-a-tank for the kids to cool off in and they spent most of the afternoon playing in it :)

Cady and Gabe replenishing their energy with hotdogs :-)

After the game everyone had a chance to cool of in the tank, whether by choice or not as I think everyone was tossed in at one point or another. It was a blast! We all had such a wonderful weekend.

Hope you all enjoyed the rest of summer. We certainly did! Actually we are still enjoying beautiful hot sunny weather, thank goodness, as our July was just yucky. Have a good weekend!

p.s I'm working on a house tour for next week, so if you like that sort of thing like I do, be sure to check back and see our "Kozy Kabin"

I am a Triathlete!

Yesterday, July 31st, I completed a triathlon! And it feels fantastic to be able to say that!

500 metre swim, 22 km bike and 5 km run in 2 hrs 8 min. Not bad eh?

We were blessed with a gorgeous perfect day, sunny clear blue sky, no wind, nice and warm it was lovely.

My sister completed it as well, in 1 hr and 43 min, she's a speedy gal!

This was the first part of the race, the swim, and it was cold even with a wet suit!

My kids and hubby and mom came and watched us :)

Me and my sister after the race. Yay!!

Outtakes from Canada day...

Lest you think that my impromptu photo shoot was easy and perfect I thought I would share some of the outtakes of that day :)

The girls decided they wanted to make all the shots silly pictures despite my begging to just have one nice one...

and when they cooperated finally, their brother decided to kibosh the whole endeavor :)

The kids were ecstatic when daddy decided to jump with them (I usually can't watch this as it freaks me out like the photo above) and believe it or not, no one was seriously injured!

Gabe asked me to take a picture of him and this is how he posed (we all got a good giggle out of that one!)

Oooooh and here is the yummy somewhat patriotic breakfast I made, waffles with maple syrup, strawberries(red) and whip cream (white) and an egg on the side since we didn't have any bacon.

Needless to say, we had a great day hanging out as a family and going to watch the fireworks that night in town.

A Busy Busy Week!

I have to warn you that this post has a LOT of pictures :) So maybe grab a cup of tea, or a snack and come along for the ride that was my week.

Starting out last Sunday (Father's Day) the kids and I made breakfast in bed for their daddy. Bacon, eggs, toast with peanut butter, orange slices and coffee, yum :)

I was amazed at the beautiful artwork the girls made at school for their daddy, Nyla's is the top one, it's a card for her dad and Cady's is the bottom one, she painted a picture for him (it is so cute, a daddy and kid dog with chicken pox :)

Below is a picture of the cute bird feeder Nyla made for her dad :)

   Tuesday, Nyla had her class field trip to a wonderful park in town and I got to go with them on the bus and Nyla asked me to sit with her :)

Her class got to spend some time at the beach as well as learned how to make pine needle baskets and play on the playground. We even got Dilly bars from Dairy Queen, yum!

Working together to make sand castles :)

Wednesday, the girls school had a day of fun for their principal who is leaving. The whole school did different stations of their principals favorite subjects and activities to do. Gabe had fun helping Nyla build with marshmallows and toothpicks :)

Cadence had fun with the building foams and squirting them down :)

And Gabe helped Nyla again:) Aren't they cute?

Today, Cadence worked on her monkey bar skills before soccer :)

Nyla's team kicked butt, winning 13-4! She improving so much this year and doing so well! (She's the one looking to the right )

And my silly Cadence who scored a goal today! Woohooo!

Between all that, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Cadence had her end of year gymnastics show (2 1/2hrs each night) I couldn't get any good pictures there because the building it is in has terrible lighting. Tuesday and Thursday night I worked as well as had my triathlon training. Thursday Nyla had soccer practice and Thursday and Friday, Nyla and Cady had their last swimming lessons. Then this morning the girls had their last soccer games for the summer. Whew! what a week, thankfully all the extra activities are finished and they only have 2 1/2 more days of school (they're done on Wednesday!??)