A small feathered friend

While playing outside with the kids yesterday afternoon, a little blue feather friend decided to stop by and visit. He wasn't too afraid of the kids and hoped around the yard a bit. He later sat under our round picnic table. I guess he got thirsty, as he landed beside the pond to get a drink and then fell in. Madison rescued him from the water but didn't know what to do with the poor shivering baby. I picked him up, wrapped him in a towel and tried to dry him off. Later we placed him in the sun where he could warm up a bit more and his mother could see him.
Norm came by to get his mail and we moved the baby to a branch in a bush and took some pictures of him. The little guy was so calm with the kids looking at him etc. He really liked sitting on my hand.
It was a wonderful learning experience for all the kids! They were able to see and appreciate nature and creatures from nature. They saw us save, dry off, feed and release the little guy back into his home!

A bit of an update

I will start off with some pictures from today and work backwards a bit. I don't get much time lately to edit and post, but here are a few of my favourites in the last couple of weeks.
Happy CANADA DAY to one and all :) This was our 5 minutes of decorating today with the kids. We went to the parade and had a blast. It was the first parade for our little 2 year old in care! His facial expressions were priceless!
The planes flew overhead again this year in formation. It was hard to get a decent picture of them against such a harsh sky. But you get the point :) This "asian" band was very good. I especially liked the Canada flags on all the bass drums!

Here is the whole crew at the parade, except me of course...I am behind the camera!!!

Sue and Angus were having a bit of fun together before the parade started.

Not sure if many of you know, but Sue, Liz and I have taken up rowing this summer. We joined a program called Row for Heart. We learn to row for 9 weeks then take part in a Regatta in August! We are fundraising for the Heart and Stroke foundation of Ontario. Its very much like the jump rope for heart that the kids do. This is our shell we have had 2 weeks in a row now. Its called the Don Brown. It is the heaviest shell in the fleet. We are a 5 man crew, but only 4 row at a time. I think we are all loving it and learning a great deal.

If you are able to help us out with pledges, please visit https://secure.heartandstroke.ca/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=310332&lis=1&kntae310332=5A86CB069F4747BE8E0155889B69A5AA&supId=259403870

This a shot of us in the shell rowing past Eric and the kids on the dock. I am in the front, Sue behind me and Liz is the back seat.Liz carrying her oar back to the bomb shelter (converted into the KW rowing club)
Quinlan at a family function in May

And finally an actual picture of me! This is the newest edition to Eric's family. Baby Phoenix was born April 22, 2009. He is the sweetest little thing. I just had too have my baby fix.

Happy Anniversary!!!

Saturday June 6th was our Eleventh wedding anniversary. Eric and I don't do a lot for things like valentines day and anniversaries....we just enjoy our time spent together.

That being said, we had the chance to go to Stratford with Norm and see the swans sitting on their nests. Norm likes on swan in particular, her name is Margaret.

Her nest is right near the water's edge but very close to the road as well. The parks have fenced off her nest so people and animals can't get to her.

When we came up to her we noticed that it looked like she had three cygnets (baby swans)! She would lift her wing up a bit and let us have a peak at her new little ones. She was very calm and relaxed with us there.

Slowly she started to get off the nest to find herself some food and water...this was a huge treat for us. We were able to see that 4 of 7 eggs had hatched. There were three gray cygnets and one white one. These are the pictures that I printed out for my mum so she could see them while still in hospital.

The rest of the day we spent just hanging out with the kids and watching TV. The old married couple that we are! Here's to many more years together, just the way we like it :)

more random type pictures

I was having fun taking pictures outside after a long rainfall. This is another leaf that I thought looked really nice with the droplets on it.

The girls found a baby bird on the side of our driveway a few days ago. We managed to locate the morning dove nest it must have come from. I placed it back in, but the parents were already gone. The poor thing passed away the next day :( We have a lot of cowbirds in our yard this year and they are known for pusing eggs out of other birds' nests to lay their own. We have seen the scare away about 6 dove pairs from their nests. The doves won't come back to them and rebuild elsewhere.
I am hoping to take some nice shots tomorrow of swans with Eric's father. I will post them tomorrow evening. (weather permitting that is ! )

its been a very long time...

...sorry for such a long time in my posts. Its been a very very busy couple of weeks. We had Bekah's 5th birthday party. It was a blast! We had so many family and friends come over for a visit and some good cake and Ice Cream! Bekah loved seeing all of her family here, especially her great Nanny and Nana from British Columbia. Here are a few pictures from her special day! (the first picture is from her actual birthday on May 20th as she was going out the door for school. She is wearing one of her new outfits!)

On May 23 the family met at Cagney's in Guelph for a celebration of Eric's Aunt Ann's wedding on May 1st in Northern Ontario. I can't post any pictures of the couple on here but I do have one of Bekah and her cousin Abby. Abby became very attached to me and wanted to come and play at our house after. Her brother Noah and sister Ann-Marie came over for about an hour. It was so great to see cousins find each other and become instant friends. Tammy and Carlos you guys are always welcome here we need to keep in touch :)!

The rest are random pictures taken the last weeks of May.

Raven our younger dog playing fetch with Snicker's bone. Raven is sneaky she takes it and then plays keep away instead of fetch!! Water droplets on a buffet leave for caterpillars. I love the big drop at the end.

Its time for me to send the kids off to school. I will be making a few more posts a bit later today.

As well as an update on my mum.

Mothers Day

With the cooler temperatures rolling in today, it was the perfect day for us to get some much needed yard work done. The kids, Eric and I rolled outside about 3 pm this afternoon and got started. Our wonderful neighbour lent us her "claw" gardening tool and it was put to great use! Bekah tried really hard to make it work. I love these three shots of her making it work. The best is her face as she really gets it going!
Bekah then graduated to using the shovel to dig out the weeds. Wyatt and Quinn were there ready to grab them and stuff them into a bucket. They worked together like this all afternoon! Bekahs foot on the shovel is a really neat shot and my favourite of the whole day.

I also took some more shots of Quinlan's peach tree in bloom. I am very fascinated with it and taking macro shots of them. I managed to get a nice photo of the Lily of the valley growing in our flower bed. It is May's flower and its very pretty.

After much snipping and hacking, down came the raspberry canes that were very overgrown. Now we are able to get to our composters and actually use them. Eric was showing the kids what goes in them and how they work. All the weeds and yard materials we had today went into them!

Hope everyone had a great mother's day. I know I did. I slept in, made some awesome pancakes and bacon, rested on the couch with lots of snuggles and watched a movie and then worked outside with my whole family!

Spring is finally here

....and I was out taking pictures today. All the following pictures were taken in my backyard this morning!