it's all fun and games: May 2009

morning view

the big trucks were out this morning. nate had a play date and after they left he was glued to the window watching...

nathaniel is not one for words, he is all about the noise. i love listening to him "tell" me a story, there is lots of banging, grunting, hand clapping etc...

nate adores being outside with chris. he helps chris, bangs on the wood, picks up nails and gets into everything. i went out for a quick walk last night, when i got back nathaniel was outside helping chris in the shop. i snuck up, stopped at the door and just watched my 2 boys.

my heart sings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-qTlOy09bE&feature=related

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Posted by mel at 1:54 PM

new table and chris

i finally broke down. i got a new table and chairs. why? ok, i know i am not a big girl. one day last week i went to sit in the old chair and i heard it crack and groan as i went to sit in it. yeah. time to get a new set. off we went on fri to look. we finally settled on this baby.

sat morning while i went out to breaky with friends, chris and nathaniel put it together for me.

what a huge helper nathaniel is.

there she is. pub style, 8 chairs. the middle leaf is a drop in style, which does just that......drops into the middle of the table that sits 6. the extra 2 chairs fit perfect at the counter. i got the fabric covered seat treated with a 5 yr stain resistant warranty.

practical? not really. cute and cosy? 2 thumbs up.

the best part is, i paid for it in cash with all my saved kijiji money. we also got it tax free and on sale.

so next time you come over, you can sit and know you won't break a chair. ha.

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Posted by mel at 9:22 AM

zoo day!

humm which way to go bears first? lions? cougars? off to see the bears it is!

nate ran right to the bear cage and roared at the bear. the bear was offended and promptly left.

ohh of to bug another animal. this time the poor deer who was resting.

nate has no fear. he put his hand right into the cage. he was amazed by the different textures that the deer had.

he waved to the deer, talked to the deer and barked at it.

the deer also got offended and left nate by himself

come back deer, i wasn't done poking you yet....

off to bug the chickens. or join them perhaps...

i guess this goat was hungry or something.

beside the play park is the fish pond. nate loves fish. he watched....

and watched

time to go and meet daddy for lunch. nate chose to take a souvenir. a pile of leafs, but no worries he traded the leafs for some rocks and brought them to lunch with daddy.

it was SO beautiful yesterday. it was the first real summer day and we enjoyed it immensely!

last night i went for a walk just before the sun went down. i went back to the trail i walked on tuesday. i learnt a few lessons:

-never again will i walk in that heat. NEVER. i was a sweating, red faced, tired looking gal

-when it's 36 it's WAY to hot to walk and enjoy it

-my 'record' on tues was wrong. i read the map wrong. i walked 15 kms in 1 hr 15 min. even better

-when it's stupid hot out, i can only walk like 1/4 of what i can normally do

-i was the only person out...

so yeah. never, ever again!

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Posted by mel at 11:18 AM

the. best. evah!

i did it! i created the perfect, yummie, healthy and wonderful-good home made granola bar! i hesitate to share the recipe, because i know chris reads the blog. once he knows whats in it, he won't eat it. he thinks anything healthy is gross.

so here it is!

2 cups of oats (i used 2 1/2)
1/2 cup of brown sugar ( i used 1/4)
1/4 of wheat germ
1/4 cup flax
1 tsp of cinnamon (next time i will use 2 and add some nutmeg)
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of raisins
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup of honey
1 egg beaten
1/2 cup of oil (i used 1/4 and added 1/2 cup of sugar free apple sauce)
2 tsp vanilla

* i also tossed in with out measuring
-cranberries
sesame seeds
poppy seeds
cut up dates
almonds

mix until nice and sticky
bake at 350 for 1/2 hr or so. this is where it gets fun. if you want the bars chewy, bake for 25ish mins. if you want a crunchy bar bake for 40ish mins

seriously. they are so good. there is no need to add choc chips, the fruit makes it sweet. i plan on adding bran flakes, apricots, strawberries, peanuts, walnuts etc... next time.

on a me note. i had a big piece of the above bar before my walk last night and i beat my record. i walked 10 kms in 1hr 15 mins. i give credit to the granola bar.

off to have yet another piece! 0 comments

Posted by mel at 2:33 PM

long weekend

nate and quinn ran off together sat afternoon at the park. i was wondering what they were doing..

what are they up to?

aww. nathaniel brought me my very first, hand picked by him, delivered with love...my first flower from him

and back he went to get more! nathaniel picked me 4 flowers, awww i love him too.

nate and quinn, happy in baskets..yes, they both climbed in themselves

the.best.picture.ever.

sunday afternoon, quinn helped me make muffins for chris and shawn....what a help he was

chris and shawn worked all weekend on the shop. it rained, it was cold, it was not enjoyable. they got almost all the shop shingled. chris will do the rest himself.

monday at the zoo. since the boys worked all weekend on the shop. we decided to take a family day yesterday. we took the boys to the zoo. i have never been there before, i was super impressed. nate had a BLAST. we did about 1/2 of the zoo before it started to rain, so we left. on the way out chris bought me a season pass! that way nate and i can spend many days watching the animals this summer. chris rocks. i only got 1 pic of nate before my batteries died. boo.

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Posted by mel at 9:54 AM

wed night

chris and i taught wed night. it was so beautiful out, so we went to the church early to play with nate outside ( playing with nate is picking up rocks and sticks) nate also discovered that pine trees have sharp needles that cause "boo boos" and "ouch"

for the last few weeks, nate has developed a super-duper attachment to me. he is fine in the nursery but he likes to be with us. so i told him that he could stay with mommy and daddy with the big kids, as long as he was quiet and sat like a big boy. he did great.

hope sat beside him and was a great help. doesn't he look cute sitting with the big kids

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Posted by mel at 2:37 PM

spurr of the moment play date

we spent the morning at carla's wonderful (amazingly perfectly clean all the time) house. she has this awesome play ground in her back yard. nate is playing in the play house, see his tiny face in the window :)

a quick shot off most of the kids and one mom. aimee is a part of our mom2mom group.

ally, carla's cutie. she is 6 wks older than nate and is almost potty trained. yep. she's the potty princess (love the watermelon juice on her face)

nate checking on the rocks and holding a watermelon in one hand. play and food goes together you know.

it was a fun morning. now with my wonderful-glorious new morning routine, our mornings are a late start. we were up at 8:30 this morning. i got a call at 8:45 to invite us to the play partay. i was showered, hair done, dressed and out the door at 9:30. we ate our breaky in the car and arrived at 9:45. yes, 1 hr. i am amazing. ha.
with this wonderful weather, dare i say spring is here?!

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Posted by mel at 2:42 PM

weekend pics

the whole point of the weekend was for shawn to come up and help chris build his shop. this is chris friday early evening. the starting point.

nate inspecting daddy's work (nate is wearing his "work overalls"

the end. this pic was taken sat night at quitting time. pretty good eh.
let's start back at the beginning.

jon and jess showed up fri night around 7 for some nate time. nate was delighted to have a new person read to him his fav book. i refuse to read it anymore. it's an adorable book but after the 20th time in an hour it gets a wee bit old.

yeahhh for aunty jess!

sat morning breaky. dad made his famous bacon (barf) eggs and toast. check the mess out in the back ground. yikes. it's only 9 am.

back to work boys. this was taken 10ish, i was on my way out the door to go to costco. we needed more food.

naps are done, the boys are working away. sat afternoon 2ish. while they slaved away we went

swimming! dad, mom, cry, moi and the boys went for a dip.

when we got back around 5ish the boys were still slaving away. please notice that the top of the roof of the shop is as tall as the neighbour's ROOF.

actually, i think it's taller. good work boys.

after supper, quinn went for a drive

then nate was pushed by poppy

awww that's my nate.

snuggles on the couch with uncle jon after everyone left

it was a fun, full weekend. sunday we invited jess's parents over to meet mom and dad...you know the big in-law parent meet. can i just say that we are so blessed to have wonderful in-laws. me with the eig's, cry with shawn's wonderful parents (i mean, hello i went on vacation with nanna rose) and now jon with jess's parents. they are so fun and so easy to talk with. me likes them mucho.