A special boy...

a special day!

Cake kudos to his favorite daddy! I love giving that task to him! When we asked Cam what kind of cake he wanted we just laughed. "A green digger cake!" same answer he gave last year. This year we got a little more creative. Thank you google!

the tug 'o war

Yesterday Leah and Sam had sports day at school. It was grand fun and although chilly, the rain held off.
Sam's class got called up for the tug of war and the boys were pitted against the girls. "thirteen girls against nine boys" Sam told me later. The boys lined up first and grabbed hold of that rope like they meant business. What they weren't counting on was the fact their being outnumbered gave the girls a bit of an advantage and those girls put up quite the fight. Back and forth they see sawed for at least 5 minutes. The boys' faces were desperate but none more than our boy Sam's. He pulled as though his very man hood depended on it. And it may well have.

Check out his face. (He's the one with his fist pumped up in the air.) I don't want to know how crushed he would have been if the girls had succeeded in dragging him and his team mates over the line!
So thanks kg boys for giving that tug of war your all.

Littles

One of the exciting things about being outside more has been watching the kids and their fascination for bugs. Cara is quite enamored and will squat (like only little kids can :) ) and watch a bug or snake (worm) for a long time. Occasionally she'll get brave and cup her hand on the ground and see if she can get an ant or beetle to crawl up.

But Cam? Much to my surprise he is VERY brave when it comes to the creepie crawlies. At least the little ones. The other day he came inside carrying this poor moth. I told him that when you touch the wings they get damaged so the moth probably couldn't fly anymore. He pondered that only a quick second before deciding that wasn't so bad because at least it couldn't fly away from him. It was his friend and entertainment for a good long while that morning.

Yesterday we found a pupa for what I would assume would be a moth while weeding at Gramps and Grammas. I showed it to Cam who promptly picked it up and put it on the curb. We talked about disecting it but I (who at one time thought butchering chickens with my brother in law was great fun) just couldn't bring myself to cut it apart with the trowel. I mean, when you pushed on one end the tail wiggled. The chickens were dead when I examined their insides, the worm/caterpillar thing not. Anyway Cam quickly assured me he would do it, gave it a good wack and proceeded to peel the outside layer in order to examine the squiggling creature inside. It was neat to see. I just didn't expect him to be so interested.

Just wait until he gets to butcher chickens with Uncle Les and finds out Uncle Les can do it quick enough so you can hold the heart still beating in your hand! Sorry if that grosses some of you out but there are certain privileges that come with being a country kid and getting your meat fresh, and I don't mean packaged at a plant and shipped to the store fresh.

Golden Moments Part II

A few weeks ago we were gifted with this ankle twister, head smasher, back putter outer, arm breaker, argument maker, tear bringer oner wonderful piece of back yard equipment.
Yes, I realize we have increased our chances of visiting the ER - good thing it's only a few blocks up the street, yes, I realize our neighbours may not appreciate the extra noise - but at least the kids are keeping an eye out for robbers in their back yards. Which brings me to the point, how do you convince kids trampolines are NOT made for spying on/ checking out the goings ons of everyone elses back yard!?

Anyway, despite the "they're not letting me on", "he's jumping too high" "they're not giving me a turn" etc. I've also had my heart warmed a time or two.

The other day I heard "ring around the rosie" from my kitchen window and snuck outside to get these.

As for today, we woke up to blue skies and wonderful, gorgeous sunshine and I think every single skin cell in our entire household sighed an audible sigh of awe. We hope to soak it in... 36 minutes and counting until I let the neighborhood disturbances begin. (I'm hoping keeping them inside till 9:00 will at least appease some annoyance!)

ps. backyard trampolines are great for exercise. It's been years since I've gotten the kind of exercise that superbouncing kids for hours on end brings! Thankfully the holes in the mat haven't protested and I keep telling myself that I'll attempt to stitch them up soon. (the idea makes me laugh in a mice- sewing-Cinderella's-gown kind of way. can you picture that little mouse ducking everytime the needle comes flying through to the inside of the dress? I'm going to have to have someone under the tramp to put the needle back up everytime 'cause otherwise I'm going to be hopping on and off for an awfully long time doing it by myself.)

pps. edited to add: 6 more minutes to 9:00 and Sam just asked me, "please can we go outside? we don't want to miss the beauty of this day!" can you tell it's been awhile since we've had a sunny day like this?

A Golden Moment

Today's was the reception I got after coming home from garage sale-ing with five new books.

They were oldies but they were new to them and when it got quiet I went looking and found all five in the same room. Cam showing pictures to Cody, Sam absorbed and in his own world, Leah doing Cara's hair while both of them made sure to catch Cam's pictures.

Garage saleing was tremendous today for me, even if it was pouring rain. So thankful for finding just the right thing for a fraction of the price!

It might be the middle of June...

but it feels like the middle of March. These three must have noticed that I refused to put the furnace on. Cody came to me first, "there's snowballs in dere!" and suspecting a big mess I followed him back to his room to find all three of them decked out in winter regalia throwing various items/snowballs at each other.

That kind of day

It's been busy here the last couple of weeks. Sometimes it feels like I'm whirling around in circles from the moment the day starts until I crash back in bed again at night.

Today, for example, I got up early, had a shower, glance through the Superstore flyer, gathered my buckets and bags and was out the door by 7:10. It's such a wonderfully quiet time to get groceries done.

And it was all wonderful and good until, truck parked in the parking lot, I reached for my purse to get a loonie for the buggy. I just couldn't do it.

My purse wasn't there.

It was sitting back at home where I had dropped it to get something else done on the way out the door.

Some people multitask in a most marvelous and effective way. Others of us just end up feeling frazzled.