Stuff happens

You know you have a pretty cool, joy-striving relationship with your kiddo when the challenging-to-find-of-late joy jumps out and finds you. Tonight, listening to music turned into an impromtu drumming session which turned into a fashion shoot... and never a word was exchanged.

I bet Neil Peart started out with a hammer (pardon me... a croquet mallet) and pirate flag too:

Blackberries

Apparently there was some sort of lunar eclipse recently. Nobody tells us these sorts of things. It must have happened yesterday when, due to some strange alignment of earth, sun and moon, we didn't receive our daily paper and no one checked the internet.

Here we are, none the wiser, eating blackberries in our little cut-off part of the world...

Never too late

Homebodies

We're currently in pre-cross-continent travel, stay-at-home mode. Lately we have...

Had dump-truck races


Posed


Performed bath tricks


Recreated some show-tunes


Bounced


Some of us found it cold going to the mailbox


Some of us now LOVE to talk to Grandad on the phone


Served the (soon-to-be deserting us) neighbours some pink icing


Q and F did some landscaping


Some of us practiced for the cyber olympics


it's not easy


Some of us practiced noodle yoga


And for others... it all ended in tears

Thursday roundup

That darn wonderful thing is happening again (a new venture)...


One and a half weeks to go and the kids are not only packed but practicing key airport maneuvering skills:


And finally, our friend and fellow homeschooler Belle left us these words to live by:

"I can suck juice up my nose and squirt it out my eyes but they still won't let me in the gifted class"

Bouncy Tunnels and More Fergus Witticisms

I think I may ruin the image of Chuck's ultra cute photo slightly by imagining that the two of them are standing there weighing the benefits of sheer blow-up tunnel joy vs. running around in layers of postprandial upchucking courtesy of every single birthday party its been rented out to in the past!




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Fergus: Mommy, are you going to a meeting?
Mama: Not tonight, I just have to go to some stores.
Fergus: What are meetings?
Mama: Its where people get together and talk.
Fergus: Do people get married at meetings.
Mama: Not always.

Did you know...

that one CD will fit the same BRATZ song 25 times? And apparently your stereo will not self-destruct after as many runs through!?!



VIDEO Bein who we are by BRATZ

The media is not always wrong

This picture of one of our gates, and its astute caption, was in the paper over the weekend...


And then a series of yarn webs appeared in the house the same day...

A Conversation With the Goose

Scene: Blackberry Picking

We have a blackberry patch that is about a 45 second walk from the house, up the hill and through the forest. The kiddos have been stretching their play distances from the house lately and blackberries are really popular at the moment. But still, we guide them up there and then leave them, as requested, with their blackberry pails (dump truck for Ferg) and whistles for emergencies (cause bears like berries too). Tonight they went picking and five minutes later Fergus returned alone.

Fergus: Hi Dad.
Dad: Hey.
Fergus: I don't know what happened to my blackberries.
Dad: Huh?
Fergus: I picked them and put them in my truck but now my truck is empty.
Dad: Oh. Did you maybe eat them on your way back to the house?
Fergus: I picked them and put them in my truck but now my truck is empty. I didn't eat them.
Dad: So maybe you dropped them between the patch and here?
Fergus: I put them in my truck but now my truck is empty.
Dad: Well...
Fergus: (singing) What happened to my blackberries. What happened to my blackberries.
Dad: Well, that's funny.
Fergus: Dad?
Dad: Yup.
Fergus: Dad, Effie is stuck to the blackberries and needs your help.
Dad: What What?
Fergus: Effie is stuck and needs help. Its not an emergency.
(run run run)
Dad: (approaching patch) Effie? Effie?
(no answer)
Dad: (upon seeing Effie's hair firmly entangled in a bramble bush) What's up?
Effie: I'm stuck.

Too bad I rushed out of the house too fast to remember the camera!

Island hopping

We did a day trip on the little ferry to Saltspring Island to check things out today. The normally well-prepared Gillian was quite out of sorts as the spur-of-the-moment trip caught her off-guard, with only a wee brochure from 1982 to guide her.

Saltspring is the definition of arty, liberal, organic, wholesome west coast living. So we had chicken strips, onion rings, hamburgers, poutine, corn dogs and ice cream for lunch. And then some of that thick pink drink when we got home.

On the ferry to Saltspring


Could life get any simpler and funner than placing stuff on a pin frog!?!

Organic bubblegum ice cream!?!

Phew! Good thing they had that sign there...

St. Mary's Lake

Downtown Ganges

Meteor Shower Season

It has been fascinating watching the sky this long weekend. We've been hanging out on the trampoline and had our first family-sleep under the stars last night (This was a big hit with the kiddos... a bit of a knock to the sore-back-therapy of the adultos). Usually a minute doesn't go by without either a plane, a satellite (or space station) or a shooting star lighting up overhead. Ferg was on the lookout for the "space shovel". Pretty darn cool. Perhaps more fascinating... determining which trees need to be sacrificed to increase our sky views!

Happy Birthday - We Went To Great Heights

Well, the birthday patio lounger was too short and the balloons we (me) tied to them cut loose and floated into a tree (those colourful things in the picture at right) before she even made it out to the big let-down of a surprise but at least all this occurred on the day before the big day. So now that its actually into the early hours of her birthday things gotta be lookin up... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIKI-GILLIAN... I love you! I'll get you a longer lounge chair for your suddenly lengthy torso.

I won't be climbing the tree for your balloons.

Hey (wo)man! Now You're Really Livin:

B'day Movie