Christmas at The Salvation Army

This past Saturday we went to the Corps Christmas Dinner at the Salvation Army Church.  We all had a good meal and the kids got to visit with Santa Claus.

Happy Halloween

Two ghouls, one skeleton and a little cow!

Ryan took them out while I was passing out candy to the 135 kids that came to our door.  Syd gave up first, so she helped me hand out candy too.  Ethan finished next...then finally Cody, Mia and Lewis came home for the night.  Everyone had fun and we have enough candy to last us until Easter!

Cody was thinking that this is his last year for Trick or Treating...but I guess we'll have to see what the next year brings.  If he's taller then me by next year, I think he'll have to be done...if not, I don't see what another year would hurt!

Kite Flying!

You know the saying "They don't make 'em like they used to!" ? I guess it's true!  My grandpa brought a kite today for my kids to play with.  I didn't pay much attention to it until Ryan asked me to tape it up a little cause it was falling apart in a couple places.  That's when I looked at it.  Then I looked at it again...strangely familiar.  Then it came to me...this is my kite...from when I was in kindergarten...a good 25 years ago!!

I had no idea this kite was still around...I haven't flown a kite in YEARS, many many YEARS! Haven't even ever thought about it that I can remember...but with it sitting there on the table, I started remembering.  Me and my grandpa flying the kite...it was so much fun.  The perfect picture of childhood...

So I headed to the school field with Ryan and the kids...and we flew the kite!  I had fun pretending to be a kid again, and my kids had fun flying a kite for the first time!

My Turn

Ryan's turn

Cody's turn

The other kids had turns too, I just didn't have the camera handy unfortunately!

Oh...just one more picture....Sydney riding her bicycle, she's really getting good at it.  I remember when she couldn't pedal at all!

First Day of School

First day of school today!  My babies are in grades 1, 2, and 3...all French Immersion.  Kinda bitter sweet, all three of them are gone all day, every day.  It was so quiet in the house, kind of nice!

Jump On In!!!

Last week, when it was roughly a million degrees outside, we went over to my friend Cindy's house!  She's got this amazing thing...it's called a pool.  It's full of nice clean water and it's nice and cool on a hot summer day.  I'm not cleared to go swimming yet, but the kids loved it.  Here they are:

Sydney and Brock

Sydney

Cole, Sydney and Brock

Cody and Sydney

Ethan relaxing

Emma, Branden and Cole

Brock looking cool

Mia hanging out in the deep end

Everyone had a great time...I hope Cindy invites us over again once I can actually go in (hint hint Cindy).  And yes, I'll actually put a swim suit on and get my legs wet!!! I'm promise!

Weekend Away

For the July long weekend, Ryan and the Kids went up to Caledon for Mike's birthday party.  (For those of you out of the loop, Mike is Ryan's step-brother).  They had a blast and we plan on going up again as soon as I'm cleared to have fun again.

The cottage was built by Lisa's (Mike's wife) grandfather many many years ago.  Apparently it's really cute!

Blowing bubbles with Aunt Danielle and Hayley

(Hayley and Sydney are just a few weeks apart in age)

My children eat SO much.  Really, we DO feed them, I guess that other people's food just tastes better then ours.

They were fascinated with the outdoor shower!

Ethan and Sydney going for a boat ride with a little help from dad

Playing with Uncle Mike, and then time for some cake!

Lisa braided the Girls' hair....it looked really cute! (I just wish I could do it myself)

The kids had such a good time that they were all asleep before they even got off the drive way.  (Ethan IS there, he's just slumped over in his seat)

Ernie's Story

There's always something interesting going on in Baden!

About two weeks ago, Ryan and the kids went for a bike ride with Lewis and we ended up with a new hamster!!

I was sitting on the front porch knitting, when all of a sudden I could hear Ethan screaming "We have a new hamster!  We have a new hamster!"  Seriously, I could hear them before I could see them.  I could tell that they were coming home a different way then they normally do, so I knew something was up.  Sure enough, the pull up to the driveway and there is a hamster cage, complete with hamster, sitting in the bike trailer with Sydney.

So here's what happen:  We usually do the same path every time we go biking with the dog, and it takes us through parts of Baden where there are no houses yet, just big dirt fields.  Anyway, on the second loop of our route, Ryan noticed a family (mom, dad and little girl) looking at something in a field, a bit back off the road.  Being the little bit nosy that he is, Ryan stopped to see what they were looking at.  The man said "It's a hamster, someone left it here."  Sure enough there was a hamster in a cage with no food and water.  The man told Ryan that they have two big dogs so can't take it home, and asked if we wanted a new pet.  Ryan replied that in fact we didn't want a new pet, but he couldn't just leave it there to die.  So the hamster came to live with us.

The cage was FILTHY!  There was hardly any bedding, no wheel, no where for the dude to hide.  Hamster was FAT and his teeth were really over-grown.  You could just tell that he wasn't being taken care of.  He was really nippy too...straight off he bit Ethan, then later he got Cody and Mia too.  (Side note: We're not actually sure he's a he, we're just assuming)  Anyway, the critter must have been terrified.  We have no idea how long he was sitting out there like that...you'd be scared too.

Luckily, we still had a cage, bedding, and food from our last hamster, so I got it all set up and transferred hamster over there.  This is when we finally thought that maybe we should give him a name.  I asked the kids what they thought was a good name, and I suggested Spindle, but the boys said that was too girly.  Ethan suggested Ernie and that because hamster's name.  We later found out that Ethan picked "Ernie" because he wanted to name the hamster after the big yellow bird from Sesame Street.  Even after finally convincing Ethan that the big yellow bird's name was Big Bird and not Ernie (which took me googling a picture of Bert and Ernie to show him) the name still stuck.

So two weeks after his ordeal, Ernie is doing good and he's not as nippy anymore, but I'm still using garden gloves when I pick him up just to be sure.  He's super friendly and comes down out of the loft when you talk to him.  He LOVES running on his wheel and does it pretty much all night.  He also loves his chew treats and his teeth have visibly shrunken.  We bought him one of those balls that he can go in and run around the house and he really digs that too.

All in all, I'm glad to have him and I'm proud to have a husband that is that decent that he would bring a stray home to help it out!

Hamburg Hill Races

Ryan and the kids ran in the Hamburg Hill Races again this year in New Hamburg. 

Ryan entered in the category of Wilmot Township Resident and came in 4th!

Cody, Ethan and Mia ran in the 1km race.  It was sooo cold and the kids had to run the second half of the race (500m) right into the wind.  They don't get "places", it's just for fun, but I was standing at the finish line counting the kids as the crossed.  Cody was 10th, Ethan was 13th and Mia was dead last...but I couldn't have been prouder of them.  It was way too cold for them to be dressed the way they were and they still did it!

Getting ready for the race!

My Runners

Baby Goats

This past weekend, there was an open house at Wellington Fibres in Elora. We got to go on a tour of the processing area and see just how fibre and yarn is prepared there.  That was quite exciting since they have a huge bag of my fleece that will be processed into roving by them.

We also go to go see all the next baby goats...it was really neat!

The older Kids with their moms

We were there on Saturday and these little guys were born on the Thursday before

Close up of two day of goat

These are the boys!

Miss T

Look at those horns!

Getting some lunch

Petting the babies

Easter Egg Painting

Ryan and the kids went to visit Opa and Oma Marg and got some nifty little egg painting things.

I know it's a little late, but the kids had a great time painting their eggs.