Hiking with Friends

Our small homeschooling group enjoyed a hike together on a trail in town. The long boardwalk over a lake, rocks to climb on and a beach to play at were all enticing. We tossed rocks, played in the sand, had a game of soccer, climbed trees, ran the board walk, enjoyed our company. It's a great group of friends.

Beach Days

If the summer looks anything like spring, I think you may get tired of my beach shots. Twice a month we head out to a neighbouring village. The community centre hosts a playgroup which is perfect for Shai and I. Downstairs is a beautiful library that Aria and a homeschooling friend enjoy playing together on the computers or looking at books in. Outside is a playground where Elias, Ben and some friends play capture the flag. We bring lunch, sometimes its potluck, and then we go swimming afterwards. Its a place and time that we all get our needs met in separate and perfect ways.

Another first for the season

Lots of beach days to be had, but this is the first swim in the lake. I am surprised with such a warm spring that no one has gone in yet, yesterday was the day. There are plans to return tomorrow.

The Hummingbird Moth

We were exploring the local garden centre when we came across an insect that caught our eye and total attention. It was a flying bug, but its wings moved so fast we couldn't really see them. It's body was orange and brown, and distinctly separate from the wings, rectangular in shape. There was antennae coming from its head and it was large, 4inches perhaps. There was a humming from it as it flew, but we could tell it wasn't a humming bird. The kids and I chased it around the garden centre fascinated (while others got out of it's way!). This is what we saw. One of the employees helped us out with identifying it; hummingbird hawk moth.

an award winning picture of this difficult to photograph moth

different types of hummingbird moths

moth viewing

Because....

He's my baby. My little one.

He has been asking all these grown up, thoughtful questions lately.

Mama, what is under the earth?

Mama, what is skin made of?

Why does the rainbow from the stone (crystal) have the same colours when it makes the rainbow?

How come the wind doesn't move the buildings Mama, and the trees move?

My baby. Growing.

Ahoy!

This past weekend the Cubs in the surrounding areas held a rain gutter boat race. The kids were given a small piece of wood (I believe 4x7x1) and they shaped it, decorated, painted and added sails to it in the weeks (or days/hours depending on what family you are from LOL) leading up to the race. Everyone brought their creations with them to sail them down a very long rain gutter. The boats are meant to operate by wind power- so the kids blew them down! What fun!

The boats were decorated with pirate sails, recycled coffee cups for sails with the hopes of gathering more wind, shiny paint, glitter, rainbow, multiple sails, the designs were unique and diverse. Elias opted for a more traditional look with two sales, a stain instead of paint, a railing with rope, anchors and life saving rings and a Lego guy captain. Ben has been sick and opted to rest his head instead of sail, pictures of his shark shaped boat to come.
While Kub Kars is partly about trophies, the Regatta is not. It's for pure fun. Everyone has a few turns sailing, giving everyone else a chance to see how your boat does. They also hiked, played games and met new people. He had a great day.

A Moose!

It is now tradition; one day in May we head out early in the morning to a nearby park with with breakfast in hand with one purpose. To see Moose! Before we even get into the park we saw two young female Moose finding refuge from the black flies in the muddy edge along the side of the road. The black flies have just started coming in force, the open spaces tend to have less bugs then in the woods providing some relief. Which means that the roads can be a little more dangerous to drive at night, but during the day the chances of seeing a moose are greatly increased.

We saw four on this visit; two bulls and two cows. They are incredible animals, with awkwardly long legs and gentle faces. It was exciting to catch a glimpse of them, we are thrilled that there wasn't snow this year!

Guess who has a new chore?

And couldn't be happier about it!

Grateful

I have a lot to be grateful for, my list is ever growing. This past week I was so incredibly sick with some sort of horrible virus. Intense headaches often becoming migraines, nausea, congestion, fever and dizziness that came and went throughout. Awful. But that was not part of my grateful list. There were days I could not get up out of bed for hours at a time. My kids were AMAZING! They made sure each other was fed, cared for, entertained and they brought me water, cool clothes and plenty of hugs and kisses. I am so grateful for having kids who care so deeply for me, for each other and that their desire to work together was so great that we pulled through me being down and out almost seamlessly.
Thank you. So. Much.

Weekending

We had a huge to-do list and no one who wanted to do it. So we decided to take a spur of a moment trip to the science centre while we were in the area for mother's day festivities. There was a Harry Potter special exhibit that drew us in. We are currently reading the 6th book, a series we have been enjoying together as a family. The costumes from the characters in the movies were on display, a few of the sets including Hagrid's Hut, Professor Umbridge's Office, the students sleeping quarters, etc. The kids each through a quaffle and pulled out a mandrake, Aria was sorted by the sorting hat and we quizzed each other on whose wand we thought belonged to who.

After the tour of the exhibition we head out to the rest of the science centre. We scooted around through the rain forest exhibit, Aria touched the electricity ball, we lay down to get a bird's eye view. Shai loved the vacuum which sucked up paper and blew it out the top. There were different area's everyone liked, but overall it isn't our favorite science place. The displays require a lengthy amount of time reading (which I don't have patience for), hands on often means pushing a button for a lit up response, the few creative centres are usually out of material making it impossible to try and there is very few staff around to ask questions too.

With friends to see not too far from the centre everyone was fine to hop in the car. We joined them for catching up, pizza, and play time. Despite the fact that we usually only see these friends twice a year, no one has any difficulty falling into the ease of chatting, catching up and playing.

To top off what was already a wonderful weekend, the main reason we were down was for Mother's Day. My sister was treating my mum and I to an afternoon theatre trip to see Mama Mia. Which was good fun. We also enjoyed a meal out and each other's company. Three mamas, celebrating each other. A great way to spend Mother's day.

Beach Time

It might be with sweaters, rubber boots, hats, wet clothes, and ever closer to swimsuits (to be honest I am surprised no one has gone in yet!), whatever our attire I think we can officially say beach season has begun. One of the perks of living where we do is being less than ten minutes away from close to twenty different lakes. Some have great beaches, others beautiful picnicking areas, docks to jump off of, slides to fly down, excellent fishing, spotting loons or mink, baby ducks or osprey, sandy beaches and rocky shores. I love the beach, being close to water, the chance to swim daily, playing for hours in the sand, being outside.

Welcome back beach season!

The OPP vs Perch

A fellow homeschooler organized a trip to the OPP Museum for the morning. It was a self guided tour, with many historic exhibits placed around the room. There was a small interactive area with beautiful puppets, forensic clues to decipher crimes, costumes and activity sheets. We found the mug shots from the early 1900's interesting, including crimes for being suspicious, loitering, pick pocketing and nuisance. There was a display about woman entering the provincial police force, at which we learned that they were originally given handbags to carry their guns instead of holsters. How crazy is that! Not surprisingly they didn't find this to be the most practical and in the following years they got rid of the handbags.
We enjoyed looking at the old police cars, trying on costumes and checking out the displays, but there was enough information to look through for about an hour. We took a look around the buildings which also house the school for the provincial branch of the police, the beautiful gardens and anniversary photos.

Joined by some friends we took our lunch down to the lake to eat in the sunshine. The kids loved exploring the shoreline, finding lots of crayfish shells, fish bones, large pond snails, beautiful rocks. The area holds a yearly Perch Festival, during which time participants catch perch, bring them in live to the office beside the lake in exchange for a ticket to enter a draw. We were there long enough to chat at length with the volunteer in charge of taking the live fish and putting them back into the water. The kids got to have a close look at them and then help release them. There are 100 fish released into the water that have tags, when caught the person receives a special price. As soon as we came home the kids put next year's date on the calendar!

While everyone enjoyed the OPP museum, hands down the Perch won out as the hit of the day!

The Count Down Begins

This summer we have big plans. Like really BIG plans. While these plans have been in the works for literally years, it hasn't really seem real until recently. We have begun to countdown to our adventure. With my parents, my sister and her family, we are travelling for four weeks to Wales, England, Spain and Morocco. It is so exciting, and it mounts as we start to prepare, plan, research and all round get ready.
The trip is to celebrate my parent's 40th wedding anniversary, an event worthy of such a grand celebration. We will be meeting up with family for a party during our time in Wales. There will some family I have never met, and many people my kids have never met. We have been working on a family tree, putting everyone in their right spot. There will be time by the ocean, discovering tide pools, sea side birds and marine life. We will go back in time to see glimpses into Welsh history, medieval time, the Romans, the Moors, the Celtic peoples, olive groves, Flamenco and Belly dancing, Cathedrals and Mosques, museums, art galleries, cafes, fountains and the unexpected.

There has been lots of web browsing and page turning trying to decide what is important to see and do. It is important to me that we record our time away. Perhaps it will take the form of a scrapbook or a journal, individual or family records. There are lots of choices. There is lots to do still. Our motivation is a tank full of excitement, so I know we will be ready.

Salamander Trail

We joined friends for a hike on a trail we have never been on. It follows along a winding river, with streams branching off to follow. One of the streams lead to a waterfall and a magical place to play. There were bridges of fallen logs, leaf covered hills to slide down, minnows and water striders to follow. While exploring we turned rocks and logs over and we found lots and LOTS of eastern redback salamanders. It was very exciting to find them.

The trail was also covered, completely with a trail of trilliums. Truly beautiful. We have renamed many trails because of the discoveries we've made or experiences we have had. This trail will now be known to us as Salamander Trail.

Technical Difficulties

I haven't been gone far away, I have been writing and planning lots of blog posts in my mind. Darn computer challenges, lost photos (but since found!!!), beautiful weather taking me by the hand to play outside and then the ominous catch up job have all been poking their head up, blocking my path to posting.
I have decided to post some things we have been up to below and just carry on from here. It's good to be 'back'.