Four

Yesterday C-note celebrated his fourth birthday. When he woke up we told him it was his birthday and he said "Oh! I'm four! But....I'm not big now..."
We had some friends help us eat his birthday cake. Thanks for helping us celebrate, guys. We all had so much fun, and he loves his new cars and stickers! He played with them all day.
C-note is into the "why" stage. Why do we have arms? Why do we walk? Why are there windows/grass/rocks/clouds? Each answer is followed up with another why question. I love seeing him try figure out everything.
Happy Birthday to my sweet, sensitive, sometimes-shy, not-so-little-anymore boy.

Athabasca Falls

"Can I still see it?" He wanted to keep watching and watching.
My favorite part of the video? Hearing the amazement in C-note's voice while viewing this wonder!

Mount Edith Cavell

We had to go see the mountains before school started! So off we went on a two-day road trip. C-note likes telling everyone how we climbed a mountain and had a picnic at the top. Right near a freezing cold glacial pond!
Dog came too. He took a ride on C-note's hand.



Lunch on the mountain.

The ride home

Hailstorm

Sunday morning, 12:30 am. It was so loud I thought something was going to break. Like a window. Or the roof. Two sceaming boys ended up in our bed for a while.
Checking out the "ice rain."The backyard grass was flattened and covered with leaves shredded to bits as if they went through a food processor. Our hopeful apple crop is gouged and pitted by the hail. It also stripped off all remaining raspberries along with most of the leaves. There was a part of a burnt birch branch in our neighbour's yard. There aren't any birch trees around...
Amazing.Apples which are now wasp food.Raspberry bushesThe neighbour's bedraggled cat looked like it had gotten caught in the storm.

Birthday

a door in the treehouse at the library

the kid's corner at the library

A trip to the library, playground, and then supper (and cake!) with old and new friends. Happy Birthday to my dear Stu. :)

Blowing out the candles
Yum!

Haute Couture

Fashion. Style. The Look. Watch for this up-and coming designer on the runways this summer.

Blue Heron Parade and Fair

Last Saturday we were out the door pretty early for the Blue Heron Parade. Even though it was raining, we figured we could watch it from our friends' balcony, otherwise we were prepared with umbrellas and boots. Well, at least the boys were covered in that area. The rain let up just in time for the parade to begin. Alas, I forgot my camera that morning, so I don't have any photos of the firetrucks spraying each other, or the weird-looking cat float bank made by TD, or the horses trotting by. Oh, and the handfuls of candy thrown by the float passengers!

Later that afternoon C-note and I went to the fair. Mainly for the animals, as you can see. There was a petting zoo with a bunch of critters including a baby pig who screamed like a banshee when anyone tried to pick him up. I put a cute lil' bunny on C-note's lap and that was it. He was absolutely smitten. He didn't want to hold the duck or pet the pups. Or look at the sheep, goats, or the soft baby cow. Even the forlorn-looking donkey and colt didn't get a glance. He only had eyes for Bunny:

Then we found the bouncy garden, which had a slide, a tree, a turtle and some bushes. It's the only other thing C-note wanted to try at the fair as all the other things looked a little too scary for him. Except for the balloon artist but the line-up was too long. And he wasn't interested in getting his face painted. He almost went on a pony ride but then changed his mind. So the bouncy castle it was! And just before we left there wasn't a line-up so he went six times in a row, with a "One more time?" after each one.

A Wake-Up Story

Thunder Lake

Thunder Lake is a Provincial Park about 20 km from our town. It's free for day use at the beach (yay!) which was quite rocky. It took a while for C-note (our sensitive boy) to get used to the rockiness of the sand, but was very excited that we went to the beach. He keeps asking if we can go back. We made some gravelly sand castles and had a blanket lunch. We had to pull little leeches off our feet after wading in the water (yeah, gross) but the water was warm. Not really a swimming beach with all the algae and leeches.

More Jam

We've given them away, smoothied them, baked them in tarts, froze them and the bushes still keep giving us more berries! I can't let them go to waste. What else can I make? More jam.
I don't know what I'm going to do with all this sweet stuff.
Although it does make great gifts.

July

My raspberry bushes runneth over.
Yummy whipped cream from Mommy's new mixer.
Sunday afternoon catnap (or kitten-nap, since he's been prentending to be a kitten for since we got here.) (Because of all the neighbourhood cats who think they own our backyard.)We love our people-powered reel lawnmower.
The grass before our lawnmower pwned it.
Glowing glass.
Fresh-from-the-garden potatoes from church friends.
Brothers
$1 umbrella + $1 rainboots = 1 prepared boy for the upcoming storm.The rainbow that followed the storm.

Athabasca River/Fort Assiniboine

We packed a lunch and headed out to see the Athabasca River, and hopefully cross it on a ferry (if it wasn't still closed due to flooding.) Fort Assiniboine is home to the world's largest wagon wheel and pickaxe (due to its history as a fur trade post and a stopping point along the Klondike Trail.) The sleepy hamlet's museum wasn't open until eleven so we decided to drive on to the ferry and see what's on the other side.
The route to the ferry was winding and rugged. There were plenty of trails heading off the road into the forest. Someday we'll go back and do some hiking. With a lot of bug spray. Mosquitos are very much in abundance here. Even going for a walk to town or playing in the backyard bug spray is a must. C-note thought it was pretty neat that we were going across the river in our truck. When we got across we realized that we were running out of gas so we had to get some in order to go back to the museum! Well, there weren't any gas stations nearby so we headed home and had a picnic at a local park. The boys loved playing at the playground even though it was wet. All in all a good day despite the poor planning. We seem to be in canola country up here, so here's a glimpse of what we see whenever we leave town: