Weekend catchup

We bought this house and all of the bedrooms had carpet. Ugly carpet. The only one who likes the carpet is Snickers and she likes it a lot. Ughh. We decided to replace it with laminate flooring and started on the smelliest one of all which was in Gaelle's room. We finally got around to Peter's room. 

Robin had a brilliant idea to let the kids earn money by getting rid of all the staples after he pulled up the carpet. They were thrilled and earned a fortune in Gaelle's room. 

So they were both eager to earn more money.

They removed the staples and Peter swept the floor. Now Peter and Robin have to choose a new paint colour. I love the green but it's not Peter's choice. He thinks he wants a blue. I find blues difficult. They are too cold or too dark or bright, which is why the paint has not been purchased yet. Maybe today they will make the final choice.

Weekends are for laundry. Ugh. Emily came over to use the free washing machines. All of the teen kids have done their own laundry for a long time which is so nice because let's face it, the laundry does add up.

Robin was following along with the jump from space and I've got to say we were all a bit mesmerized on Sunday when it finally happened. We don't have cable but were able to watch it online. Gaelle and Robin were the most fascinated with it.

Peter had a friend over and we called them up for the final minutes when the jump actually occurred. I can't even imagine the courage it would take to stand on the ledge so high in space and then jump. But it was fun to watch.

When I was a girl we had coffee cake every other Sunday morning for breakfast. I've made it occasionally for the kids and Gaelle would like to make it a tradition. Every Saturday and Sunday morning. But I think I'll keep it an occasional breakfast treat. It is a nice memory though. My favorite and easiest recipe comes from a couple from the church we attended when I was a teen. My mom collected recipes for me when I got married and this was one of the ones Florence and John Fink contributed. So there you go, connections all around.

Fall brings...

Fall brings pumpkin spice lattes. Why oh why will spend $5 on a coffee drink? But in the fall, I do.

Fall brings Thanksgiving and the first visit home of Kaylin. Yeah!!! But do you see this pose? This is where she was camped out most of the weekend. Studying. 

Fall brings headaches. Unfortunately Kaylin has been suffering from  headaches this fall. Hopefully she'll get in a good routine and her system will settle down. She had her anatomy midterm this week and thinks she aced it. Wahoo.

Kaylin was reunited with Snickers. I was curious to see her reaction to Kaylin and she didn't disappoint. Snickers could not contain herself. She would not leave Kaylin alone. It was too cute. 

25 and counting

We had a real treat on Saturday when our 5 kids forced us out of the house and proceeded to make a meal for us. They did it in honour of our 25th wedding anniversary. It was yummy and just another great time to be together as a family.

Emily put together photos of our lives in the past 25 years. She found it difficult to get photos of just Robin and myself. So we will do better to get in front of the camera. The above is a collection from just the past 3 months. Not bad. 

Now is the part where I wax eloquent about the past 25 years. I really don't know what to say. We are blessed beyond measure. We share a strong love, a strong friendship, and a beautiful family. Words could never adequately express the joy we share. There has been heartache, misunderstanding, and pain. But I know it is minor in the scheme of things. So blessed.

Thanksgiving

I don't have photoshop so I tried to create a collage in powerpoint, which I have recently discovered for all kinds of reading printables to help Gaelle with her reading. I don't know why this is blurry but it's ok for my first attempt.

Today we had our thanksgiving meal and we went around the table with our popcorn prayers. We did that a few weeks ago with the younger kids when they were focusing on prayer in Sunday School. Gaelle was reluctant to try it but now she LOVES that way of praying; just one line at a time as we go around the table.

I'm so thankful for family, both near and far away. I am truly blessed with one of God's greatest gifts.

A great week

Robin and I are getting ready to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We've already had one surprise party this summer at my parents. Last weekend Emily stayed with the younger kids so that Robin and I could have a weekend away. We went up to the eastern shore of Nova Scotia which is a place neither one of us had been. We had great weather for most of it and had a nice relaxing time.

The area has several walking paths and so we chose one and set off. It was along the shore and we found some treasures along the way. Dumpster diving in Torbay. 

The wind was blowing but we had a great walk and saw some really interesting geologic features including a stretch of beach with smooth egg shaped rocks. 

On Monday my dad showed up for the night. He along with my aunt and cousin were in Cape Breton going around the Cabot Trail. So he spent the night with us before heading home. That was a nice treat. My mom sent up some books. Peter has been devouring the "Chicken Soup" books and was thrilled to get some more. He also enjoyed the paper airplane folding sheets and has tried quite a few of them.

Gaelle kind of monopolized Grampy and had him read to her.

Emily and Josh came over for supper so we had a nice time together.

Emily and Robin had some puppets sent to my parents so dad brought those up. So that brought some excitement and fun for all. Stay tuned to see how Robin, Peter and Emily will be using the puppets. There are big plans afoot!

Celebration time

It's kind of interesting to see how different the experience is for Peter and Gaelle compared to the older kids in so many areas. One of those areas with huge differences is Robin's work. The older kids know their dad is a police officer. They saw him patrol, drive police cars, work all hours of the day and night, wear a uniform, interact with other officers, work in a police detachment, etc. Peter and Gaelle never see Robin wear a uniform, drive a police car, interact with uniformed officers, etc. Now Robin is still a police officer, however his work environment is completely different. His police car is unmarked. His uniform is business casual, sometimes formal. 

So it's always nice when they can see Robin in his element. Robin, along with others in the province, received a medal for their volunteer contributions to the community.  It was a ceremonial occasion so all those receiving awards wore their red serge uniform. I signed Peter out of school, took off the afternoon from work and went to see the big celebration. Peter was so proud of his dad. So was I. 

Another highlight of the celebration for me was seeing a female officer in the province as the master of ceremonies. Peter has been talking about culture in school which has brought up some interesting stories at home. We have talked about the differences in culture between Haiti and Canada. One of the negative differences is his opinion of women in policing positions. So, to see a women "run the show" was a nice bonus. Always good to let him see that women can be police officers. 

Tourist traps

We have passed by the mastodon on Highway 102 many many times. And tho we have stopped at the exit often for gas and snacks, we have never taken the time to get out and visit the mastodon. Until this fall. We just did it. Aren't you jealous?

Peter and Gaelle didn't have 2 clues about The Flinstones but we still enjoyed the little house and concrete table and chairs. 

Modern day smiles.

So, is this half way to the equator? I've seen the sign and so I looked it up. Well, technically it's not exactly on the 45th parallel. However, because of the earth's bulge, it can be considered half way between the north pole and the equator.

I hope this is the closest we ever come to a polar bear. A great photo op anyway.

 but

BIO Open House

It's always great when our free time coincides with a great event. Lasts weekend the Bedford Institute of Oceanography had their 50th anniversary open house. They did an amazing job. I can't even imagine how much work that must have been. I think every employee was there. It was great. They do large surveys of the sea life and they obviously saved samples of every species they found. The variety was impressive.

The sharks were some of the cool things the kids saw and touched. But they also had some of the ugliest most amazing fish I have ever seen. I think my favorite was the deep sea angler just like you see on the Finding Nemo chase seen. The scientist were there to tell us all about them and I was surprised to see how small they are.

An open house wouldn't be complete without live touch tanks. This was complete with sea cucumbers, star fish, crabs, lobsters, fish, mussels, oysters, scallops, and on and on.

Gaelle would not touch the live sea creatures at first, but eventually she gave it a shot.

We also got to tour The Hudson which is one of the research Coast Guard vessels. It is old but it was still interesting to walk around and see how they live and work for months on end.

Meet your farmer

Sunday, September 16 was Meet Your Farmer day. There were 60 farms in NS with open houses. This is such a great opportunity to see working farms in our communities. 

I looked at the list and chose one close to Truro. The kids were in heaven because they had all of their big equipment on display for the kids to sit in. 

Doesn't she look tiny? But she was in heaven touching everything.

I chose this farm because they have a dairy operation. Unfortunately we didn't get to see that part. But we did see cows.

We went on a little tractor ride through the fields of corn.

More tractor fun.

This farm also has a grape/wine component. They organized a grape stomping competition. Peter and Gaelle were amused by the hilarity of that. It was a big sticky mess by the end of it. All the teams were trying to see how much juice they could produce.

It was a beautiful day enjoyed by all.

Birthday party conclusion

When our older kids were younger we never bought a cake from the store. It was all home made. And for some reason, once the cake was made, Robin became the cake decorator. We have some great stories throughout the years of real cake flops and cake successes. But they are shared stories. Any one of us can say, remember the Winnie the Pooh cake and we can all laugh and remember. That was a flop but one of Kaylin's 6 year old friends was so gracious and said she didn't recognize it because the shirt was the wrong color. Oh yes, if only the shirt was red we all would have known it was Pooh. 

Emily was my birthday party helper for Gaelle and when she arrived Saturday morning she was adamant that dad decorate the cake. The movie was "Finding Nemo 3D" so the cake was of course, Nemo. As anybody can tell. Robin was game and was ready for another generation of kids to laugh or oohh and aahh at his cake decorating abilities. More shared stories and now all 5 kids can say remember when dad made the cake, and all 5 kids can share in the laugh.

This time it was a success. Gaelle was pleased and Emily and I oohhed and aahhed.

We had the party at the movie theatre and only had the party room for one hour. I bought a craft kit that was supposed to be for 6 years and up. I couldn't figure it out. Robin couldn't figure it out. Emily to the rescue. She figured it out and got all the bracelets started for the girls. Once they got going they did really well. And they enjoyed it.

Gaelle had 6 guests which is pretty small for most parties around here but it was good for us.

She was pleased with the cake. Go Robin. 

All the girls wanted a piece of NEMO. 

This part cracked me up. All the girls sitting in a line with their 3D glasses on. I always like to see Gaelle's interaction with her peers. The dynamics of a group make a huge difference for her. She doesn't always use the best discernment in her choice of "friends". It was nice to see that she chose girls for this party that she really likes and who like her. I've seen her gravitate towards girls that just don't like her. It's heartbreaking to see her excluded when she tries so hard. She often gets it wrong and definitely plays a part in her exclusion because of her negative social interactions. But for this day and this event, she had a positive experience and I'm so glad.