Bee Farmers

I had the priviledge of going to the bee farm with Leah and her classmates this gorgeous afternoon.
Honey makes me hungry for toast. Especially some of those yummy flavors we were allowed to sample this afternoon.

We stood for awhile at the Observation Hive. What an incredible creature a bee is! I just do not understand how anyone could believe these little creatures with all the immense diversity of "jobs" within a single hive somehow evolved into being. There cannot be any other explanation than a Divine Designer, an amazing God who spoke it all into being and proclaimed it good.

My Boy's Birthday!

Yep! This is Sam 6 birthdays ago.

Man, oh man, those 5 years just flew by. What a special treat it would be to go back and snuggle that brand new baby skin.

Even his sister was delighted with his arrival. Sorry about my appearance but her grin was more worth sharing with you than hiding my own glazey eyes.

Sam, king of red, has been asking for a red dresser for a very long time. Every trip to Walmart, Home Depot or Rona added to the collection of red paint chips he peered over.

So yesterday, while my mother-in-law presided over the cupcakes and kids in the kitchen (she's very much a dear lady!) I sanded and sprayed some furniture in the shop. Sam's dresser was not that pretty but he never complained, just dreamed of red. It was a bit of work as one of the drawers fell into three pieces and sanding is never much fun but...

the end result, while not perfect was very delightful to our boy.

And this nightstand...

much better now.

He was very excited and gave me three hugs, one for the dresser, one for the "special shelf" and one for the matching set of hooks.

Then he came upstairs where his eager sis helped him open his gift from his Sunday School teachers. (thanks Dyanne and Britt! That roll of candies even became subject of discussion at teh birthday party in the pm)

Nana had a special Lightening McQueen suitcase (but my batteries were dead and I couldn't get any pictures.) Cam was so excited for Sam!

After waiting a very long morning through we went to the gym where we met up with all 8 of his kg buddies, 1 cousin and 2 church buddies. What a hoot!

It's important to be sure not to breathe on your candles while you wait for the birthday song to finish.

There were games, running around and oohing and aahing over everything from incredible gifts to cool cards and even an awesome hockey gift bag!

Thanks, boys, for helping make Sammy's birthday a very special one. I hope none of you got sick from all those candies!

After supper we had some more birthday cupcakes but forgot the candles so maybe we'll do it all over again tomorrow night.

It's fun to stretch a birthday out, especially if it means more dessert :)

Thursday we drove through a mess left on the road by a busy farmer and the van reeked so badly of chicken manure it almost made one gag to stand beside it. This afternoon Cam and I washed the van. I really should do it more often.

I forgot the van was such a pretty color. :)

We were so wet by the end we could wring out our clothes. It's a dangerous thing to leave the boy in charge of the hose.

It's even more dangerous to tempt the mom by bringing fingers full of suds to be washed off when she's in charge of the hose.

It was fun.

And it was only one part of a busy but special Saturday.

A few Bits and Bites

When you have a fun set of twins like ours, sometimes you go outside and are greeted with something like this.

"Come, didder, come!"


"Hi Mom! Why are you frowning? We're practicing being King Yertles. Except we're not both kings. Nor are we turtles. And we're not even in the mud!
You're missing out on something kinda important if you don't have "Yertle the Turtle" by Dr. Suess memorized.

Here's a miscellaneous fact about the O house tonight. We're having potato soup for supper tonight. It's actually last night's scalloped potatoes from the crock pot remade.
Well, that's not true. I didn't have to do too much remaking to it to get soup. Last night we just scooped the potatoes, peas and ham out onto plates and slurped up the juice. The only reason we didn't eat it as soup last night was because the table was already set with plates :)

A secret? I taste tested it and it is really good no matter how strangely it came to be.

It's that time of year

Where our sunny mornings are so much fun as we make shadows on the little piece of kitchen wall.

Sammy was a kitty.
Cam was trying to see his tongue shadow. (so typical)

Ah, this is precious to me. It so shows the soft sweetness I know to be Sammy.

And those eyelashes...!?

Precious Gales of Laughter

Are you serious, Gramma?

That's funny!

Just great!

Hilarious!

I just can't contain myself.

This

Is the sunrise I caught yesterday morning. B E A UUUU tiful!

(I should be in bed. I just proofread that last statement and had to edit sunset.)

Before I go to bed I have just a little more for you.

This is my little girl. She had to put her nose in the corner yesterday. She bit her "Tody Michael." I asked her why and she gave me her increasingly common answer, "'cause." I gave her the never, ever again speech. She looked at me, "okay, Mommy" as matter of factly as could be and hightailed outside again. I hope they still love eachother 10 years from now. She's pushing her luck with him. :) (it's been a while since there was such a cute wiggly butt in the corner at our house.)

This is one of the darling puppies we got to go visit today. They were super duper adorable balls of fluffy fur. Most of the kids were tickled to run after them, pet them, watch them somersault over top of eachother and growl little puppy growls at the kids' empty juice cartons.

This darling girl of mine was beside herself with joy. She lugged them around, snuggled them, dreamt about calling one her own, convinced herself she was given the privilege of naming one the orginal name of "Cutie", and generally chased them all over the yard.

And you know, those puppies were so heart tuggingly cute I almost put her name on one right then and there.

But then I looked around the yard at the 5 puppies I already was taking back home to our house and was reminded I don't need another baby quite yet. No matter how cute! If you want to see more adorable pictures of these pups or are interested in more info about them you can read about them here. I think they'll be ready for new homes come middle of October.

And this is the cute little boy I took with me to do groceries tonight. I'm sure he was the most cheerful and sweetest helper Superstore saw that day. (I'm still glad I left him home from Ikea, no matter how cheerful!)