Zoo

On this rainy, cold Saturday, it's hard to believe that only yesterday we were basking in the sun on a glorious spring day at the zoo, with some of our favourite people. I love how they are all such good friends and how even Anna was in on the action a lot of the time. Here's a little glimpse of our day:
Hatching Typical Sammy eyes in this one.

The crew!

A glimpse at some precious eggs. We were hanging around this one area, watching a peacock strut its stuff for a couple of peahens, right near this momma Canada Goose. I think she got sick of us because she started hissing and flapping her wings a little, and after Sammy's close encounter with a Canada Goose at Fort Whyte last week, I was more than ready to get out of there. The Fort Whyte story is worth mentioning. It was finally a nice enough day to get out so after Anna's nap the kids and I went to Fort Whyte. Within the first 5 minutes we wandered over to the sod house where a couple of Canada geese were hanging out, and Sammy thought it'd be fun to check out the house and chase the geese around, which seemed harmless enough to me. Never again. One of them came up to him, hissed, freaked him out so he stood paralyzed and then whacked him across the face! I have never seen such an agressive bird before and it freaked me out too. We got out of there and wandered away from the water and birds, only to encounter a couple of beautiful deer in the bush, but after our goose fun, I called Sam back to me as he was a little ahead on the trail, and all of a sudden those deer darted across the trail, in full force, right where Sam had been standing. I felt a little shaky the rest of the time, but we bravely continued walking, the boys with sticks in hand ready to attack any wildlife that might come near. The closest we found after that were some goofy teenagers, to my great relief. Spring sure does weird things to creatures, great and small!

Emeth, appropriately dressed for the day. That boy makes me laugh.

Just hangin' around.

pacing leopard. Poor guy has such a small cage, it's just not right.

Hey mom, did you see this monkey??

Happy Luke.

Smiley Anna.

More staring.

It was a good day, with the wind in our faces, good friends, and sunshine. After a long winter, I appreciate the spring all the more and love that this is just the beginning of 2011 outside fun.

Easter

I've been reflecting a bit more on establishing traditions around here, and while our traditions are few and still developing, it was nice to see our kids remember the things they did last year and anticipate doing them again. One of those things was our 2nd annual Good Friday egg dyeing party with Nannie. I'm always impressed with my mother-in-law's creative side and love for beautiful things, and how she always seems to have an easy and simple way of making something turn out quite special. I think she and I both were looking forward to our egg dyeing party as we had both purchased new supplies so we're good for several years now!

Equally as exciting, and yet not captured on camera, was the "fishing for Easter treats" time at my parents' place on Easter Sunday. Luke was counting down the days until this special day, and it did not disappoint.

Of course, we did spend a lot of time talking about the real meaning of Easter, even if it does look like it was all an eggs and chocolate affair. Although, to be honest, every year, despite giving something up for lent, spending time in reflection and trying to grasp this eternal mystery, it still eludes me. I am ever so thankful for our God who would do what He did to save us, and I am glad that my love and passion for Him is growing. I just often wish that the mystery of it would rock my soul to a deeper level and cause me to grasp more profoundly how Christ dying on the cross really makes a difference for me today. I know it all in my head and tell it to my children, but my heart still finds it a tough one...

But this I can say, in full assurance of faith: Hallelujah, Christ is risen.

Elkhorn (and a cheesecake)

This cheesecake has nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the post, it was just fun to make and photograph. It was a mocha cheesecake, but despite the amazing amount of strong coffee I put in, it mostly just tasted like a chocolate cheesecake. It was my friend, Jaimee's 30th birthday and we had a party for her here with a few of her friends, complete with wine, cheese and crackers, lattes, cheesecake and pavlova. A fun night, celebrate an amazing woman. We decided to go to Elkhorn Resort again this year for a week, having had such a good time last year and needing a break after Julio's relentless course load. He wrote his stats exam Wednesday and Friday we headed out on the snowy, treacherous highway down to Elkhorn. That was one of the longest rides of my life, the roads were so terrible we could hardly see in front of us, but Julio kept calm and we made it there, slowly but surely. The wind was coming perfectly horizontally at us and the snow was blowing in drifts and then suddenly, in the blur of white a car or semi would appear in the opposite direction and blur on by. Truly we were amazed and relieved when we eventually arrived! When I checked in, the lady at the front desk told me I better call my dad as he was worried about us. It's awesome when you're 33 and your dad still looks out for you. I mean that too.
After a phone call to pops, we settled into our "home" for the next week. It was a quaint little two-storey chalet with a fireplace and enough space for our vanload of stuff. Our first priority was to go swimming, so we had a quick supper and headed out to the pool, which we swam in nearly every day of our trip. Our skin was all chapped and dry by the end of the week from all our swimming but we really enjoyed the pool. Luke's favorite part was the outdoor hot tub but somehow Julio and I weren't as enamored with the cold trek out there. Anna loved the pool too and even got pretty obsessed with "jumping" in, over and over again. She may not talk a lot but she gets her point made. We would let her jump in, and she would come up and immediate point to the edge of the pool again to do it over and over. Sam loved the pool too, blowing bubbles and floating and doing canonballs which were just about the cutest things I've ever seen. He barely jumps but just sort of flops in holding his knees and makes the teeniest splash.
Other highlights included a 2 day visit from Papa Ron and Gramma Anne, tobogganing, seeing the horses (Anna went up to one of the horses and said "tickle tickle tickle"), skating, a spa morning with a massage and a good soak in the mineral pools for me, exercising on the treadmills, a bit of ping pong, walks in the snow and playing games and reading in the chalet.
A ponytail!!!! I've only waited 15 months to do this!

My beautiful mother

Luke, reading to the sibs

A trek in the bush

Snow fort!

Our chalet from the back

Our fiesty little outdoorsy girl. She LOVES being outside, and always wanted to walk everywhere on her own.

Skating!

Dancing trio

An everyday occurence around here. I love my little dancers. It doesn't quite compare to the little Brazilian dancing baby, (anyone see that one?) but I'll take what I can get.

Yummy noises

I went out for coffee with my homeschooling group moms, and we got to talking about some of our funny kid drama. I mentioned Sam and his persistent yummy noises at the table, which truly last for an entire meal, three times a day, and they thought it was pretty funny so I thought I'd video it for them. Other side notes of interest, which have been pointed out by dear friends, is the background Julio feeding Anna regurgitated chicken sideshow. Never a dull moment around here folks!

Soccer fun?

Disclaimer: no children were seriously injured in the making of this video.

I'm an Ellen wannabe

This is for you and Steve, my photo of the day.

Angry birds

This is how we spent our afternoon...the making of and the playing with...

pictures to go with the last post - Steve assisted

Thanks to Steve, there are now pictures to go with the last post. Most are pretty self explanatory, but I'll add the odd comment here and there. Thanks Steve!

Outdoor Math.

Bird's Hill

Fort Whyte Alive

Homemade marble run

Ziplining! (I think I already posted these in another post...is that true? Does anyone even read this?)

Women's Retreat at Cedarwood

First snow with friends over

button math (turn head sidesways to skip count by 5s and 10s)

Lilypad and friends fall open house. Fun day!

Late night cake decorating

She's 1!

and lovin' it!

Walnut face.