GRRRR

Saturday was such a glorious day we spent most of the day outside working on clearing out the flower beds and uncovering the fish pond.  I bought a wrought iron fence to put around the pond to keep the grand daughters from tumbling in with the fish.  Brock and Talia helped me get it set up.  I need to get a few more pieces to complete the fence but it will at least slow them down.

my little fence

We also spent time planning where to plant our 300 white cedar trees that will be coming next week.  We have the huge field on the north/west side of the house and the wind can really blow across there in the winter.  We are building a shelterbelt to protect our road way and our fruit trees behind the garden.  It will take a few years before the trees are big enough to do much good but you have to start somewhere.

The other planning session we had was where to build paddock fences.  We would like to have the fences in by early May since the big horse auction at Carson's is mid May.  I hope we can find something suitable and affordable.  We would eventually like two horses and a pony. 

some of the junk in the back field

Rod's poor stuck tractor

Rod and Zach were busy clearing out the back field on Saturday.  They took the tractor down there and were hauling out all the old rusty scrap metal, barbed wire, etc so that it can be hauled to the scrap yard.  When he headed back in for another load the front tire of the tractor got caught in a rut and because the ground is still wet from the spring thaw the tractor is now stuck in the mud down in the back field.  We will now need to find someone with a bigger tractor to come and pull our tractor out of the mud or wait until the ground has dried out.  The problem comes in the fact that the back field is in the lowland and it stays wet a lot longer than we would like.

With a bunch of family members over we decided to have our first BBQ of the season. Hamburgers and sausages for everyone.  It was delicious!!!

After supper Brock and Gracie were playing Hide-n-Seek.  Gracie did the hiding and Brock did the seeking.  When Brock disappeared Gracie figured it was her turn to seek.  She enlisted Gma's help and we went all around the main floor looking for Uncle Brock.  He was no where to be found.  We decided to check down stairs.  Sure enough, there he was in the "man cave" playing ping pong with the big kids.  Gracie's response when she found Uncle Brock was "GRRRRRR, you were supposed to be hiding!"

2 year olds are so cute!!!!!

If you have to do it

If you have to turn 50 the best people to do it with is your family.

Saturday marked my 50th birthday.  It was about as regular as Saturday's go - get up later, make bacon & eggs for breakfast, head off to my primary meeting, stop for groceries, come home and clean the house.  Most everything was normal except for the Eatable Bouquet sitting on my counter when I got home from the store and the phone calls from family members and messages from facebook friends throughout the day.  It was great to hear from my sister Sheila and from my son Cody.  Cody and I talked for 1 1/2 hrs.  I think that is a record for us.  I truly enjoyed it. 

But the best phone call of all was from my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter Gracie. I answered the phone and heard her sweet voice say "Happy Birthday Gramma" and then she sang the first line of Happy Birthday.  We had a wonderful conversation.  She told me that she was having a birthday this year too and she would be 3.  Then she talked about her sister "Dinny" (Sydney) and a few other things that I'm not quite sure about.  Gracie then asked me what I was doing  and I told her I was cleaning the house so it would be all clean for her visit the next day.  Gracie's response was "On your Birthday?".  I asked her if Gramma didn't clean it who would.  With hardly a pause Gracie answered "GRAMPA!"

So on Sunday afternoon the family showed up to help celebrate my birthday.  Starla and Ryan cooked up a great enchilada type meal. Jenna and Brock brought a wonderful rice salad.  Amber and Josh supplied the tortillas and Rod provided my favourite Black Forest Cake.  We all enjoyed the wonderful Eatable Bouquet sent from Sheila and her family.  It was all so nice - I didn't have to do anything, not even the dishes! 

BEFORE

AFTER

Toad house and frogs on a log

from Gracie

Then came presents.  We have started a new tradition in the family that everyone just brings different small gifts and then we fill a basket with those treats so the gift is from the whole family.  This year I received some yummy candy, earrings, a Toad House and a ceramic frog on a log to put out beside my pond, and flowers from Gracie. 

Audrey

Then Rod brought out my big gift.  My very own John Deere tractor.  I think Gpa might need new glasses. On the box it says ages 2-4 but he must have thought it said 24.  Anyway, it was the thought that counted right?  Actually it was a wonderful gift.  It was so much fun seeing the big boys put it together and then the little girls riding on the tractor and in the trailer.  It will be fun for them to take it outside for the summer.

Sydney and Gracie

Rod did actually get me a present that was age appropriate.  A rocking chair for the back deck!  Believe me, I am going to use it! I will rock in my chair and watch the grand-kids ride my tractor.

How to become the COOL mom

I didn't wake up that morning planning to be the cool mom, it just happened that way.

Zach's class at school has been studying cells and their assignment was to create an eatable cell.  They needed to be as creative as possible.  Zach decided to use a cake as his cell with different kinds of candy to represent the different parts of the cell.

So it became Mom's job to bake a round cake for the base of his eatable cell.  Now most cake mixes are for a large rectangular cake, two small cakes or 24 cupcakes so once I  had made a round cake I had left over batter and so of course I made 12 cupcakes for eating later.

He then spent the evening decorating the cake for school.  He used 1/2 a kinder surprise for the nucleus, 2 different kinds of blue licorice for endoplasmic reticulum, twizzlers for the Golgi apparatus, skittles for the lysosomes, a flattened starburst for the vacuole and green jelly bellies for chloroplast and a fruit by the foot around the outside for the cell wall. I then found a cake tray from a store bought cake Rod had fed to his Priest's quorum and we put the finished cell on the tray with the clear lid over top.  It looked like this:

Eatable Cell for Science

Now here's the part where I became the cool mom. While Zach was getting ready for school I took one of the cupcakes and decorated it to match his cell for class.  When Zach opened his snack at school all the kids noticed he had a eatable cell for his snack.  His friends told him he had a cool mom who would make him such a cool treat for school.

cupcake made by the Cool Mom

I'm sure by the next day they had all forgotten about Zach's snack but for one day at least, I was the COOL mom. 

Things your Mother says

How many times have you said something and realized that it is exactly what your mother used to say?  Or what crazy phrases do you repeat on a daily basis and not even realized?  I'm sure there are lots of examples.  

I know of a few that I have used with my kids and it is so fun when they find a way to use them back at me.  For Mother's Day Cody and Mimi gave me some Word Signs to put on my walls.  It has taken me a while but I finally got around to putting them on plaques. Now I just need to find the best place to hang them up.


What do you think?   Ever used this phrase before?  

 

And how many times have you wanted to tell your family this?

So now you know some of my well used sayings what are some of yours?

Bullseye

Another Sunday and another day full of family time.  Sunday afternoon the kids showed up again to hang out at the farm.  It had snowed over night so I quickly went out before anyone showed up to snow blow the driveway.  Normally this would be Rod's job but he had some minor surgery on Friday so he wasn't able to wrestle the snow blower.  I finished just in time for the cars to start arriving. 

Ryan came prepared for a ping pong tournament. He even brought his own paddles.  I didn't actually get to watch much of the games as I was busy making cinnamon buns for my family.  Mmmm, they were a big hit, along with my puffed wheat squares.  Audrey took the opportunity to show Gma her new words, PLEASE and THANK YOU, as she got Gma to share her yummy cinnamon bun.

When the ping pong tournament was over it was time to try out the new Dart Board.  Brock and Jenna had a game against each other.  Jenna kicked butt with this wonderful shot:

Jenna's Bulls-Eye

Honestly, she threw this shot. I was standing there and saw it with my own eyes.  When we pulled the dart out the hole was almost exactly dead center in the red dot.  I wonder how long it will take before that happens again. 

The girls got a chance to check out the bouquets for Amber's wedding

Bride's bouquet

Bridesmaid bouquet

and then a sneak peak at the bride in her wedding dress too.  Sorry, won't be posting pictures of that one until after July 2.

 Cody and Mimi, get your butts back to Ontario! We need you at our family gatherings.

FAMILY IS THE BESTEST THING IN THE WORLD

I have a wonderful family.  Now that they are growing up and moving away it is harder to keep track of what they are doing.  It is hard having Cody and Mimi and Ginamarie and her family living so far away in Edmonton (at least they are close to each other). We miss out on so much of what they are doing and they miss out on spending time with us.

With the size of our family we have a birthday in every month of the year. This has made it easy for us to find an excuse to get together at least once a month for a family activity. 

Now that my kids are almost grown it is fun watching the grandchildren grow.  We have 3 beautiful granddaughters who live close to us and we get to see often.  They are a real joy to our lives. They are close in age so they have great fun together.

This past Sunday, Feb 27,  we celebrated Talia's 19th birthday.  While Gracie was napping I caught Audrey and Sydney playing together.  Even though they are 6 months apart they have similar interests and are almost the same size. 

Audrey and Sydney. Aren't they cute?

This was a milestone day for Audrey.  At almost 16 months she has been teasing us with the thought that she might walk.  She can move all around the house as long as there is something to hold on to.  Well, on Sunday she surprised us all by taking her first steps.  With the cheering of the crowd she turned around and did it again.  There will be no stopping her now. 

Over the past few months Rod had been working hard on building his "man cave" in the basement.  He has put up walls and run power and lights to what was once a laundry room.  We also put down a carpet to keep the floor warm.  We now have a room where the family can go and play games.  We had a new ping pong table that needed to be tested out so it was time for a family tournament.  I think Jenna and I were the champions!!!!  Even Gracie got into the action.

Video coming

I am so thankful for the wonderful family that I have.  We have a great time together.  Now if I could only move the rest of them closer to home.  What fun times we would have then.  

Learning to enjoy the winter

As a kid I remember winters of building snow men, snowball fights, and tobogganing.  We would spend time outside getting fresh air and playing with our friends.  When my children were smaller I would take the time to help them build snow men (even a snow missionary) and go tobogganing. As they got older and didn’t need my help anymore I found I spent a lot of time inside trying to stay away from winter.

My 15 year newspaper job gave me about as much winter as I could handle, outside in the cold from 4-7 am every day was not always fun.  I did see some beautiful night skies though.  The most beautiful one involved a full circle of light around the moon.  The problem with night beauty is there is no one to share it with.

Since moving to the country I have tried to find joy in the winter.  We have had cross country skis around for years, collected at garage sales, but never really used them.  So this year I decided it was time to put them to use.  I have been out about 6 times this winter.  The first time I created a few trails to take around the field.  As I continued to use them they became quite nice to travel on.  I even got Rod out there with me and he helped make new trails in the front yard.  Then the snow fell and I had to go out and make new trails.  Last week I had a friend over and we went out skiing.  The trails were completely gone and so I was breaking ground with snow up to my knees.  It was hard work but we had fun. Once again it has snowed and covered up my trails.  So I will be out again this weekend making new trails thru the deep snow.

My next goal is to get a pair of snow shoes so I can get around without sinking so deep.  We have some snowdrifts that are up to my hips so it would be nice to stay on top.  Maybe next year we can get a ski-do and really have some fun.

Gracie and Mr. Snowman

On Sunday Gracie and I went out and built my first snowman in many years. He wasn’t very fancy but we had fun building him.  Gracie was so cute because when our little friend was built she knew exactly what he needed “A Carrot, A Carrot. We need a carrot!”

So I have found that winter doesn’t seem so bad or long when you take the time to get out and enjoy it.