Fun times

Dominique's soccer was canceled this morning because of possible rain, which meant we didn't have to head out of the house early, which meant that I could try out my new waffle iron. I got it free with our mastercard points and it works fabulous. My old one works too, but now that I am making tripple batches it was taking forever to cook them all. With two grills going, I am hopping, but it doesn't take all morning.


However Ivan's soccer was not canceled. It barely sprinkled on us and our team did great. It was very fun to watch except when Ivan let in 2 goals. One time he was re-velcroing his shoe and we were all yelling at him to pay attention, he still claims he never let a goal in then, but he totally did! Then he was not in a good position and they scored in the open net. But he is not traumatized by it and did stop several other shots on net. He is also getting in there and making some good kicks and having a total blast at it. The shoe episode was not entirely his fault. His shoes suck and are falling apart. I'm not too happy about it because it's hard to find shoes in town for him and I just bought this pair 1 month ago precisely for soccer. After today's game, we went to the 2 stores in town with shoes and only found one pair that fit him and it was another velcro pair, so I told him to bring his indoor school shoes home for soccer. We only have 2 games left and it's not worth trying to coordinate a trip into the city with him.


Dominique has been banned from the computer 2 days in a row due to excessive requesting of computer uses. So instead of watching a video last night, we had a total blast with Nana and Papa playing the game of life.



Hope you are having a wonderful weekend, filled with great aromas, delicious eats and most of all poignant moments capsulated in love.

Wearing them out?

Yesterday we had a monsterously huge day. Thankfully school was out! We took Brian to the airport, got lunch, Walmart, Superstore, videos at the library and swimming before coming home for supper, going to soccer practice and crashing at home! Brian arrived safely in Vancouver and was waiting on a ferry last I talked to him.

Today is rainy and calmer, I think we are in recovery mode!

Here is a funny scenario I overheard last week. Dominique, Fiorella and Ivan decided to play charades. Did you know that guessing what kids are in charades is actually extremely hard, maybe even impossible? They are just much too creative and imaginative for adult minds!

Dominique was rolling on the floor.
Ivan-- "Are you a tire?"
Dominique (while laughing hilariously) "No, I'm a person being rolled up" (she had to repeat this twice because no one could understand her through her raucous laughter)
Ivan-- "oh, like a person being rolled up in a rug?" Ivan asks in all seriousness, like this happens everyday.
Dominique-- "yeah!"

The Texans have landed.

The Texans have landed, but I haven't uploaded any pictures yet, so here are some goldie oldies for you to gaze upon.

Emora likes to try to write her name. I can hold the pen to steady her and she gets it somewhat. She makes pretty good Es, but they have 6 lines across instead of 3.

The kids decided we needed a walking and driving tour of Fort Qu'Appelle today, then they added a hike to it by running down a long hill that was not anywhere near our van.





Tomorrow Brian heads out for his stick seminar in Vancouver, so we are taking him into the city and as a bonus we get to go grocery shopping (blah) and SWIMMING!!!! YIPEE! I'm so thankful to all you teachers for being on strike and giving us a couple of days off from school. If you should feel so inclined to cancel another day, Monday would be great!

planting season is here!!!

We planted trees today, so that was quite exciting. Brian loves trees and although we moved to one of the most beautiful places I've been, our street has very few trees and our yard only one crooked pine tree. We were given a couple of pine trees when we paid our bills last month- weird, I know, but Brian really wanted leaf trees so we got three today... a mountain ash (we planted in the front yard), a weeping birch and a white birch. It was a little tricky because in the front yard, I didn't want anything to obscure our view of the hills and we have a HUGE driveway where nothing can be planted obviously. In the back yard, we are leaving room for a play structure and garden, another possible spot had power lines going over it, but we planted the two leaf trees in front of the garage and the pine trees along the fence. They are just little twigs and some day they may try to be in the space for the play structure, but by then I'm pretty sure the kids will have grown out of swings and slides! We also planted some herbs in pots (I hope to bring them in and keep them alive in the winter) and some flower seeds. I'm really hoping we can get a bit of a garden in this year too, both for the fun of growing and also because produce here is insanely expensive!


Some weeks back the kids and I got to visit the science center in Regina with a friend. This display made me the happiest because it affirmed to me that all the work and money that went into our basement renos were worth it. You could feel the difference in heat and cold with a poorly insulated and well insulated wall and it was a big difference!




Dominique showed us she knows how to build too.










This dinosaur dig reminded us of seeing the real dinosaur tracks in Texas. That is one of my favorite memories of our time there. There was something very eerie and connecting to walk on land you know without a doubt was walked on by dinosaurs!


Nana and Papa are on the road now to come visit and as a bonus, Ivan's teacher (along with all those in the province) are on strike 2 days this week- which means we will get more days "off" with them. Unfortunately Brian's stick seminar corresponds with their stay. He is off this coming weekend to Vancouver, so they won't get to see him as much as the rest of us.

Special guest and Performances

We had our first guest to stay in the newly remodeled guest room! David is a friend of Brian's from his college days. He now lives in Austin, TX, but had some business in "nearby" Detroit, so he swung on over for a day to say "howdy".

We've been having a fair amount of fun being able to catch some shows performed by our very talented cousins.
We've seen a play Moira was in directed by her dad, Mike Koops, as well as a couple of other plays that were on that night for the drama festival. We watched Arwen and Victoria during their dance performances, Moira play piano in a piano recital and I got to tag along with this ragtag crew to the city to watch Victoria in a play she helped create and perform in through the Globe theater young actors program (I don't know the actual name for it).






Of course we have plenty of in house theatrics as well and our very own


GLAMOUR STAR! She did not dress up specifically for this picture, this is actually how she likes to dress regularly.


On the artistic front, a book Brian and I are reading along with the Koops called the Artist's Way is also stirring up art in our lives. Brian has been creating a most hillarious cartoon based on his experiences here in Saskatchewan. If you are not his facebook friend, look him up and read along there. He is also about to go to a Stick seminar in Vancouver, so he is really looking forward to that and getting creative ideas for his music. This was his huge 40 birthday present from a lot of loving friends and family so thanks to all!

Tis the season

Ivan and Dominique are both in soccer and really enjoying it. It is way more intense than last year. Last year, there were no goalies, barely any of the kids had a clue about how to play and they picked who went on field by picking the kids NOT crying on the side. Here, most of the kids know what they are doing and it's pretty aggressive. At Ivan's level they also play with goalies. They switch sides half way through too. It's pretty exciting and we are all meeting new people, so that is half the benefit for us.



Another added bonus is to sometimes have a ready excuse to sit out in the sun half the day. This weekend, our game was here and the day was beautiful. Ivan and Dominique play one after the other and it so happened that their cousin played next, so we stayed and watched her game and visited with my cousin for another hour.




















Emora seems to enjoy it too. The girl just loves to get out.








Other times, like practices are not so fun. Somehow it is always cold, windy and miserable. Every time I get out there I wish I'd pulled out my winter coat instead of just layered.

This weekend, I got to see a play that my cousin's daughter helped write and was in. She was in a theater group for young people this year. That was lots of fun, especially since I got to go without my kids!! Yep, I even ate out without cutting up anyone's meal or having to entertain until the food arrived.

Curtains in the basement.

In order to make up for the boring material in this post, I added videos, (already posted on facebook) in case you don't do facebook.

These are the curtains I made. These ones are in the guest room.




I kind of messed up in that they didn't wrap around the sides, so I put a couple of long straps to come from the side and tie it back. Unconventional for sure, but that's nothing new for me!!















This is in Ivan's room.







The living room.







Dominique's room. I think hers turned out the nicest. I had plenty of material bought, but then decided to double it to make them a little better at keeping light out. Then it was just barely too small for the window. And I realized that it was pink on pink, so I found some purple remnant at the dollar store and used it for trim and straps.


Ivan playing goal in soccer.

Dominique reading a book about animals using the potty.

Egg hunt.


"Be nice bad guys"

rainy day and mother's day

I guess it has been a while since we were here checking out the first days of flooding. This was taken just inside the gates of the "in town" beach that I like to go to.









Here are the gates now-- and the cabins for rent--



These cabins are quite literally lake front with a great view of the lake, can't get any closer with it being right outside the door!

These are the houses higher up in the B-say-tah (spelling??) area, they are at the entrance. To go to the beach from here, you normally drive in for a minute or so past whole neighborhoods to the semi private beach. I feel for them. There is no insurance and lots of damage. We drove around the lake and there are a lot of houses like these surrounded by water. We also saw a muscrat and a beaver swimming in the full ditches.








It's raining today, so that won't help any either.

Thankfully we are dry. The city did a really great job of sandbagging and building up a retaining wall so that our neighborhood was safe from water. You can tell that it may not have been the case without all their work. They did what they could too with these other houses, but in some locations there is just not much that can be done to stop the water from flooding in. I haven't talked to anyone with tons of water and those I do know with just a few inches in their basement or a yard destroyed seem thankful that they did not have it worse.


The kids have been enjoying playing with friends, bike riding and playing soccer.









This is from the day Ivan learned to ride.





Dominique learned that day too, when we took off her training wheels. Always the fashionista. From which planet, I'm not sure!!

I had a great mother's day. I've been looking forward to school made mother's day gifts for 6 years and Ivan was so excited to give me the card he'd made and a gift of a box cake as well as breakfast in bed (cereal and toast). Dominique bought me a wind chime with her own money. She is already plotting for Father's day. I also got some wine from the daddy and binoculars with mother's day money for my artist walks- so fun!

I'm tired, so I'll wind this up. I've been staying up late reading a novel ;)