summer 2013 continued

All of these pictures make me smile and long for the return of summer holidays.  I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but at least there are a few good ones to invoke the memories of summer 2013 in all its "fun-ness!

boys and their non-functioning cap guns = fun anyway!

inventing games like "king of the slide"

sitting in the shade?

wicked wipe-out

first time on a wakeboard - and born to love it!!!

bleached blond boater

giggling girlfriends

goofy girls

cute company

terrific tubers

adults showing how it is done; photographer kept missing the jumps and flips!!

marina madness

3 boys and a photo bomber

1 boy who is a conscientious photo objector

3 pretty posers

hotdogs and cool kids and a very cool mom

strange hotdog .. or hotdog cooker

campfire #15

hot chocolate

beach volley ball ... kind of!

mermaids

sand dude

The Steele Narrows historical site is only 10kms from the cabin and we've been in the area for 10 years and this is the first time we stopped there!  Keithan had left with Phil the night before because he was "tired of lake life".  Can you believe it?!  He can't be related to me!   Getting back to history, we enjoyed walking the trails and climbing to the top of the hill where there is a monument marking the area of a battle between the Cree and the North west Mounted Police in June 1885.  Frog Lake and Fort Pitt are connected to this battle.  I need to read up on it!  The sign with pictures telling some of the story (not shown) has a bullet hole in it ... and Rhett and Grady were sure it was from the battle :) 

a piece of history

I still have to download the pictures from last weekend with mom, dad, Carla and Gavin.  Maybe I'll get to that after I find my couch under all the laundry ...

and it goes on and on and on .... back to school 2013/14

Day 2 of school ...

Grady is home with me until the week of September 9th.  Seems hard to believe he'll be a big school kid so soon.  Makes me tear up thinking of it, and I thought I was the kind of mom who didn't do that!!  

I even teared up inside yesterday when I left Rhett in his new class for Grade 2.  He was in French Immersion for Kindergarten and Grade 1 but my gut feeling was that it wasn't working well for him.  He struggles with reading and phonics - compounded complications in 2 languages.  I felt so sad leaving him there in the English class when all his friends were on the other side of the hallway.  

He came home wanting to go back to French :(  Hope I made the right decision.  I told him once Grady starts going to school in a couple weeks I can come and help in his classroom because I will be able to understand everything the teacher says!!!  Bonus! 

Another  challenge this school year is lunches.  Well, they are always challenging for me, but this year is different.  It is kind of a long story, but at the end of the school year Rhett developed a skin infection that presented like boils.  Antibiotics seemed to make it worse and they kept giving him stronger and stronger antibiotics.  He had 3 kinds of antibiotics over 5-6 weeks.  It was awful and very stressful.  I was worried about superbugs (MRSA), infection spreading in the family and possibly others ...  He was tested for MRSA 4 different times but it was always negative.  Eventually I took him to Saskatoon for a live blood analysis and the results showed his blood to be extremely acidic.  We started taking a bunch of natural stuff and making diet changes - trying to limit gluten, sugar, processed meat and no dairy.  Seems impossible, and it kind of is!  But, to make a long story short, he does not have any infection now, just scars.  I will spare you the pictures!!

Any school lunch ideas?!!!

funtastic summer 2013

8 more days until school starts. 

I am still not sure if I'm glad about that or sad about that.  Two days ago I was sad. Today, at this moment, I am ready for it.  We have been home since Saturday night and I find being at home makes the days drag because it seems I can't get anything done, and the kids are asking me every 5 minutes to call their friends over to play.  Sigh.

Getting back to summer:  We have had a great summer even though we didn't stray too far from home.  We went as far east as Saskatoon (on a day trip) and as far west as Edmonton and and far south as Brooks.  Samara and Keithan ventured a little further with some relatives and were at Koocanusa for 10 days.  They had a fabulous time camping in the mountains.  It seemed a little strange around here for those 10 days, but it was a whole lot quieter!  Notice I didn't say we got as far north as __________?!   I have no real desire to go farther north :)

Cabin life:  The weather was almost perfect this year ... nice hot days for the most part and then maybe some thundershowers in the later evening.  My weather report might be a bit deceiving, since we really only go to the cabin if the forecast was good!  Works for us :)   

This year the three older kids learned to knee board, Keithan learned to ski, and Grady found some courage to go on the easy skier and the tube.  Rhett also gave wake boarding a valiant onetime attempt. 

We had a few friends join us again this year so that always increases the fun factor!  Julie and the kids came for a day, Janelle and her kids came for a few day trips, our friend Liane and her kids came for a few days and some school friends came along a few times as well.    And coming up soon are mom, dad, Carla and Gavin.  Looking forward to that ... just a bit!!!!!

  
If you look closely on the left side of the picture above you can see an island.  This year there were a few floating islands around the lake - from the muskeg breaking away at one end of the lake.  Was neat to see, but we were glad they didn't drift our way.

He was eventually all smiles

New lake entertainment

 

 

 

 

The above water trampoline is dual purpose ... it provides hours of fun, but also blocks boats from pulling up to our beach area!  Obviously boats aren't a problem when we aren't there, but it is annoying when they pull in between our docks where our swimming area is and just beach the boat there for who knows how long.  

Joanne shared some pictures from their B.C trip.  Samara took her new I pod with her for the purpose of taking pictures.  She came back with about 25 pictures of scenery and wildlife ... and no people shots! Made me laugh :) 

Games, Goofiness and Getting Along

.... to be continued.

school's out

Unbelievable.  We are more than half way through the summer holidays and it feels like it is just beginning.  Maybe I should rethink the whole homeschooling thing. 

 *thinking for 9 seconds* 

Okay,  I thought about it again and decided (again) that it isn't for me!

Here are a few end of the school year photos before I add a few summer ones at Christmas time (hopefully joking):

GRADY

Grady was overjoyed that he was old enough to play soccer this year.  Mom wasn't so overjoyed about helping with the coaching.

Reason # 1: the six and under age group is more like crowd control than soccer, and I know very little about soccer and a little bit about 5 year old behavior.
Reason #2:  Rhett played U8 soccer at the same time on a different, but kind of near by field that he could bike to.  As a result, I made it to only one of his practices.
Reason #3:  Samara's soccer started before the younger kids finished (not the original schedule)

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad!  It just wasn't easy juggling all of that while Phil was farming and that took some of the fun out of it.  I always felt like a survivor every Tuesday and Thursday night :)

 RHETT

Rhett loves soccer more every year, but still does not like getting his picture taken so I have to be sneaky. When he was in U6 he was more concerned if his soccer shorts matched with his jersey than running for the ball!  That might be a tiny exaggeration, but it was for sure more about the social outing when he was younger.  This year he just wanted to get going and not be late ... all for the love of the game.  And you can't tell from the picture, but his shirt is purple and his shorts are blue :)

KEITHAN

This kid still LOVES soccer.  I think I have posted about that before ... but here it is again!  He plays hard and his face turns beet red every time.  He's a pretty good little player, if I say so myself :) 

SAMARA

This girl realized that she enjoys other things more than soccer, and that is ok!  She REALLY wanted to play this year, so we made it work (for the most part).  Then half way through the short season it was more of a "sticking to what you committed to" and "don't let your team down by not showing up for the tournament" kind of thing.  As funny as it sounds, 10 years old is "late" for starting to play soccer, especially when it isn't your skill.  Some other kids and their parents take it a little too seriously.  Oh well, one less thing to schedule next year and it was a good learning experience.  I must say, her coach was wonderful and she enjoyed having Samara on her team and told me more than once what a lovely girl she was.  True enough, she is a pretty amazing kid when she wants to be! 

Samara went to Fort Edmonton Park and the Legislature for her school trip.  She took about 112 photos but this one was too cute not to share!  I hope she doesn't want to be a politician, but she enjoyed her moment in the local MLA's office.