olympic party 2012

We had a great afternoon celebrating the Olympics with a few friends!

 This big guy and I painted the rings and talked about what they represent.  There is a song he sings at school about continents I must learn!  We all made our own flags. I used a bunch of scrap material that was nice and heavy.  Cups worked perfectly as ring stamps.  This was a great activity-one of our Olympians was only 2 and he LOVED making a his own flag with Mommy!

 My girlfriend who arrived helped me put the medals together.  A little hot glue, ribbons, chocolate coins and a paper circle for a medal.  All supplies I had in my stash! The kids really loved these and they were so easy to make.  Big brother didn't take his off even when we went out for supper a few hours later. He ate his medal for dessert.

 Thank you Playmobil!  These Olympic figures are wonderful for all ages and great deal at less than five bucks.  Bonus-the swimmers really float!  I picked up 2 swimmers and 2 bikers so we could have races.  We have used the pool, a baking dish and the hot tub.  We watched diving before bed tonight so I assume the figures will be diving tomorrow...guess I will be making a diving board after I post this!  I look forward to pulling these out again each year for the Olympics.

 Everyone made a necklace with Olympic ring coloured beads.  Great fine motor skills Olympians!

 Olympic floating!

 Olympic surfing!

 Olympic cute guy!

 Olympic funny guy!

 Easy to make Olympic rings.

Olympic fun! 

My favorite little Olympian!

Go Canada!

(......and everybody else! We cheer for everyone!)

mint tea

I love tea. 

Coffee makes me feel funny.

I do like a little coffee as a dessert sometimes but at home, all winter for sure, I drink tea.

My Dads garden is wonderful.

My favorite area is the mint garden.

Mint can be a little invasive so my Dad (expert gardener) has a special area for mint.  The springs are long and bushy, leaves beautiful greens and so fragrant.

Every time my son walk by he picks a leaf and smells it and or eats it. "Smell Mommy, it is mint!"

I love it.

 So tonight I brewed a few cups of fresh mint tea for myself.

I made chocolate mint, regular mint and minty lime.

MMM. They were so nice hot.

But right now they are in the refrigerator cooling for tomorrow.

I plan to add a splash of simple syrup and serve them over ice, maybe a slice of citrus on the side.

I will enjoy the fresh mint as long as our day stay warm but my next idea is to dry the leaves so I can enjoy mint tea all winter long. Let me know if you have any tips!

summer fun

Today was great.

This sweet little thing played himself out so I could practice shooting in manual....I had so much fun chasing this big brother around our favorite water park.

 I really want one of these for our pool.......shipping from the states is the price of a small car.  I wonder if there are fiberglass pelican how to videos on YouTube....

Ah, a summer snooze in the sun on a bed of towels.

I love summer!

little brother

 Little brother you are 1 year and 1 month old.

The month posts will stop......but not quite yet.  You are changing so much I just had to do one more.

You say Mumumum as clear as day-it melts my heart.  You also say dad--dad and your Dad beams every time you do.  You crawl all over.  You find things your brother never saw. 

You pull yourself up on the toy trunk, legs, chairs, the toilet, drawers and anything else. 

You swim like a fish. Swimming lessons are later this month and you proudly put your face in the water and blow bubbles on demand.  You jump in off the edge of the pool fearlessly.  You giggle and swim like a dolphin with anyone that will hold you.  You LOVE the hot tub.  You squeal until you are asked if you want to go in and then you smile. We are working on nodding yes.  You nod no to questions and when you are full or do not want something.  You are communicating better each day.  You nap in the mornings for about an hour and the odd afternoon.  You are still up twice a night and as soon as we get the all clear from our Dr about your ears Daddy will work his baby sleeping magic so Mommy can get some sleep.

You LOVE watermelon. You LOVE strawberries. You LOVE your big brother and ANYTHING he does.  You two could laugh all day at nothing at all.

Little boy you are so loved.

same

same shoes

 same shorts

same shirts

two watches

2 of my favorite guys!

My little boy loves his Grandpa so much he wants to be EXACTLY like him.

They are always getting into trouble together....

 He calls his grandpa his best friend.

How sweet. I could hold onto this moment forever.

summer love

Our summer is so fun and we are so busy!

This was our annual Pike Lake visit. 

Little Brother could have stayed in the lake all day!

Big Brother loved having his buddies to play with. 

The weather is too nice to blog, gotta run!

lego jewelry

 We had a few year end gifts to make.

I drilled the holes and he designed the jewelry.

 We used lego playing cards as display tags.

They worked perfectly!

 This was a quick and easy project, perfect for a four year old.

A handmade gift from the heart!

little cabin in the woods

 My husband took a vacation.  Yup, we packed our bags and headed North. This was our little cabin in the woods.  It was tiny. It was spotless. It had hot water. It was perfect. 

We ate most of our meals outside on the picnic table but this one morning it was very wet outside so we picnic-ed inside.

The clear Tupperware bins may not be pretty but wow, they are practical!  My professional camping gal pal said they were a must when I asked her what to pack.  My favorite bin was the dirty laundry bin, dirty clothes always had a place to go and when I got home all the laundry went from the tub to the washer SO EASY!

We were in the water everyday.

 The beach was quite close.  Canoes and kayaks-little brother fell asleep sitting up in his life jacket the first trip.  He loved the canoe!

 Playing with the self timer.  Look closely for the hippy playing guitar in the trees :)

 The interpretive centre was fun to check out-so much time has gone into planning educational activities I was really impressed.

 This little boy LOVES the water!

Oh the squirrels!  I could watch and feed those sweeties all day long.  Little Brother wanted one so badly-he was close to catching himself one too but Big Brother stopped him!  Our last night this little boy fell asleep at his window after watching a deer eat leaves and the squirrels playing in the trees.

A great trip!