The Backyard

I guess it's not really the back yard ... it's more like the side yard, altho part of the stuff is in the "back". Guess I should just say the Yard, but we never call it that either, we just say Outside, but that's a rather broad term.

To say we are enjoying our country living and abundance of space would be an understatement. When we moved to the city we gave up the trampoline we had because it would take up half of our backyard. Now we have a trampoline sitting outside along with lots of other stuff and room in abundance. Of course I'm not the one who has to mow all the lawn, but really, I know Rob likes doing it seeing as he can use a nice fast zero turn lawn mower.

As I was looking around the yard some time ago I was quite impressed with how it looked homey, but how we had done it for minimal cost. Have I ever said how much I love Freecycle???? Well Freecycle helped us greatly to put together a fun place for the kids to play. Next to Freecyle I love Kijiji ... always a handy place to do some "shopping".

We manage to scoop this swing set off Freecycle this spring. Rebecca is our swinger, she has always loved to hang out on the swing. Matthew mostly loves to hang out on his belly on one of the swings.

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The kids have been begging for a tire swing since we moved in. Well Rob managed to come up with a real good tire for them ... an "old" (actually relatively new, but damaged) truck tire.

Rob setting up the tire swing.

To be honest I don't know how this came about, but somewhere in the process of putting the tire on the rope I found them outside swinging on this "stick".

We did have a little mishap with the original design not being able to hold the weight of four larger persons and Rob had to go back to the drawing board to reinforce his hanging design. But it's back up and the girls can often be found hanging out on it. Matthew wants nothing to do with it.

Then there is the trampoline that we scooped off Kijiji last fall. Fall is a good time to get those summer things that people don't know where to pack away. It isn't the bounciest trampoline around, but it keeps the kids happy anyways.

The best thing out in the yard is the pool. Yup, you guessed it, another Freecycle find. We got the pool off freecycle last fall. It did not come with a pump so we posted a Wanted ad on Freecycle and received a response. We gained two pumps (and thanks to Muddy that was much needed), hosing, a box of pool supplies and water testing stuff. The only thing we had to buy was a ladder ... this we got off Kijiji ... but if I had been more patient in waiting for a response on my Wanted ad on Freecycle I could have gotten that free too.

The kids began begging to put up the pool on the Easter Weekend already when we had our first warm spell. We told them we would put it up when school was done. There was no point putting it up when they were gone most of the day, or too busy to swim, plus the weather wasn't really consistently warm. Actually it wasn't until the end of June that we even got consistently warmer weather, so after school let out was a perfect time.

The Saturday morning after school let out Rob got right to setting it up. We only filled it a foot or so that day. We emptied our cistern most of the way and then had to wait to have it cleaned out before we got water trucked in to fill the pool and the cistern.

But even with only a bit of water the kids had a hay-day playing it it. A certain black dog also thought it was lots of fun and had to be watched closely to be kept out.

Matthew warming up his feet.

All set up and having fun. The pool is only about 3 feet deep, which we find is a perfect depth for now. The girls can still have fun and swim around in it, and Matthew can stand and walk in it. The whole family can go in it and there's room if we have extras over to play. Not too big, not to small.

For the $10 we spent on the pool ... I'd say we've gotten more then our moneys worth out of it already!
(Take note of the lgreen garden shed behind the shop/garage. This also was a freecycle find from some years ago - comes in very handy!!)

I guess to give a fair perspective of the yard I have to add in Muddy's home. The dog house is a Kijiji find. Rob put up a fenced pen for Muddy a few weeks ago. He was on a chain before when we weren't around. Mostly he was loose if we were home, but had to be chained up if he got too excited when people were over or when we went away. We received the fencing from my parents after their dog died and it worked out to be a nice size pen where Muddy has enough room to still run around if he wants ... and he needs the room since his privileges of being loose most of the day have been lost. He is now only allowed loose when someone is outside to watch him. We have lost a few too many items to his chewing habits ... pool hoses and water, and then he still didn't learn and did it again along with the pool pump, jumping in the pool and chewing up the toys, my deep fryer (he nicely drank up all the liquid in it ... still hot ... and then proceeded to puk it back out all over the yard for the rest of the day), kids toys, corn stalks from my garden, really anything small enough that is left outside. And then he's always leaving "presents" for us on the front porch - old clothes, wood, chewed up newspapers, items off the compost pile, etc - we have no idea where he comes up with a lot of this stuff (our guess is the barn). The kids are learning to put things away right away and not leave anything laying around, but it's taken a few upset situations for them to really remember. For the time being he's going to have to spend a bit more time in the pen ... and we've learned ... next time we'll get an old dog, not a puppy!!

Yup, I love Freecycle and Kijiji.

All in all the open space is well loved and appreciated. The only downside is the worsened allergies that have come with being back out in the country ... can't win them all!

Trampoline

With the balmy weather the kids kept asking to have the trampoline set up ... and the pool but we draw the line there. So on Good Friday Rob set up the trampoline, that had been sitting in the garage since December with the kids name written on it.





















While Matthew may not like Fair rides, he most certainly enjoys the trampoline.

Surprise Birthday

Marietta’s birthday was on July 14th, when we were on holidays.  She had hoped to have a birthday sleepover/campover, but her friends seemed to be on holidays each time she hoped to have it.  So after some time she sort of gave up and decided she’d settle on going out for supper with the family instead.  I could see her disappointment, as well as her willingness to settle for the next best … so meanwhile mom was at work behind the scenes trying to organize a sleepover still.

We had set a date for going out for supper, except I sort of forgot as in my head I knew she was going to have a party … that date came and we made plans for the day and suddenly Marietta pointed out that I had said we were going out for supper that night … oooppppsss, I forget how I weaseled my way out of that one, but we reset the date … for the actual day of her surprise “party” (at this age it’s no longer a party but just having friends over).

Tuesday, August 23rd rolled around and the plan was to meet Steve and Cec’s for an afternoon at Binbrook Conservation and then go out for supper … at least that’s the plan Marietta knew.  Rob went off to school (dutch) that morning and after he was done school he ran some errands and then went to pick up Kelsie and Esther and met us at Binbrook Conservation.  Since Rob had school that day I drove separately to the park, we got there before Rob and set up and the kids went off to play.   Kelsie and Esther made there way to our spot at the park under our dingy boat … but they didn’t make it the whole way and Marietta noticed the extra legs under the boat.  She was quite thrilled.  We spent the afternoon at the beach and then headed home …. no going out for supper afterall!

Late night dessert …. I think it’s called Candies with a Little Bit of Ice Cream.

The girls slept out in the tent, doing as girls do … chattering until late.  I was awake in the middle of the night taking Matthew to the bathroom … I think it was around 3:30-4am and as I came down the stairs I heard talking outside in the tent.  Wow, how did they manage to stay awake that long????  But then I looked at the tent and I thought “ah, that doesn’t look right”.  The tent had collapsed in the wind, a pole broke, (it was pretty windy that night) and the girls had woken to a tent just above their faces.  I had heard them as they were attempting to gather up their stuff and come in the house.

Jessica came to join the girls the next morning and the plans for the day had been to spend the day playing in the pioneer fort in the barn … but the high winds ruined those plans.  After that extreme wind storm we had in the spring we discovered that the roof on the barn had shifted, leaving it somewhat unsafe in windy weather.  The kids are not allowed in the barn when it is windy … and it was definitely windy that day.  Windy enough that they also really could not play outside … altho they did try swimming and jumping on the trampoline, but it was too cold and windy.

But kids are kids and given some time and they can come up with other things to do ….

Present time

  

Tea Party

 

I forget what they called this game, but they worked in teams where they would blindfold each other and then put a small amount of food on a spoon and the person had to eat it and guess what it was.

 

Indoor picnic instead of outdoors.  Marietta and Rebecca are taking voice lessons and here they are practicing/performing their song “How much is that Doggie in the Window?” and the others are acting like the dogs.

 

While I usually do not encourage TV/Videos when having friends over we did end up watching a movie in the afternoon to pass some of the time away since swimming and playing outside wasn’t really an option … movies and birthdays sort of go together.

Marietta was certainly surprised and they had a good time together.  This is the last time that Marietta saw Jessica, who has now moved to Australia.

Tall Ships

Well here I am again ... still trying to catch up with blogging on our "cottage" time.

On the Saturday of the August long weekend we headed off to Canal Days in Port Colborne to check out the Tall Ships and various other free activities they had going on that day.

We were able to tour the deck of the US Brig Niagara. This is a replica of the ships used during the War of 1812. This replica was built in 1980 and currently used to travel from one location ot the next as a type of museum. This was a self guided tour with various sailors at different points throughout the ship to answer questions you might have. We did learn a few things, but it would have been much more valuable if it was a guided tour ... obviously not possibly given the number of people there.

Left: In case we fall overboard :)
Right: Checking out how heavy the ropes are

It was just amazing how many ropes there were for the masks

Captain and Co-Captain steering the ship

Eventually Matthew got a bit tired and decided he'd just crash out for his nap while we saundered along checking out the various vendors (it was a really big commercialized thing of course) and various displays.

The girls enjoyed trying out some rock climbing. There were three levels they could try so they each did easy. Rebecca didn't quite make it to the top, she was getting there, but then decided it was enough. Marietta did make it to the top. They both wanted to give it a try again later, but time didn't allow for us to get back there again.

Rebecca

Marietta

Next was some fun at the Children's Playground. While the girls got their faces painted Matthew placed in the young kid section with various toys and ride-on cars/bikes. After that they headed off to the "Jumping Castles". Matthew's been on a trampoline a couple times, but this was his first try in a jumping castles ... needless to say he was quite thrilled by it ... he just couldn't get the concept of having to wait in line for a turn :) There was a slide attached to the "castle" so he thought it would be great fun to ride the slide ... but riding the slide meant you came out of the castle and had to wait to go back in ... kinda hard to explain to a 2-year old that he was butting in line when he tried to climb back in the "castle" again.

While Matthew loved the jumping castle it did not compare to his glee and joy over getting a ride on a train. Look at those grins ... on the second picture you can see him signing train (it's suppose to be with two fingers but he always does it with one)

He was completely thrilled by the short few minute ride we got to go in. It wasn't even truly a train, just a train shaped tractor and wagons ... but no matter to him ... it was simply great and he was rather upset to have to get off so quickly.

It was a fun day ... a nice day out as family, especially since the kids didn't even notice the Midway Rides and Games so we didn't have to spend any money (or probably more like disappoint them because we refused to spend that much money on rides). The kids had a lot of fun and it was nice for us to just to get away as an entire family and do "nothing" for a day. We need more of those days ... but ya, I guess we wouldn't appreciate them as much if we had them too often, at the same time, a little more often wouldn't hurt :)

Matthew’s 5th Birthday

Our baby is five years old!  (Actually he’s pretty much five and half now!)

Usually when a birthday is celebrate it’s often a time to reflect on the past, especially when they were born.  Matthew especially brings some hard memories back as it was a difficult time in our lives, having just received the news that James was terminally ill a few weeks earlier (altho the reality of this had not yet set in), coming home for the hospital only two weeks before Matthew was due after being gone for 6 weeks.  I still had to unpack the summer clothes properly (the kids had just been digging through boxes), get the baby stuff out, figure out where to fit Matthew into the equation while also trying to fit all James’ new medical equipment into the house.  Those were crazy weeks!  And the next months were not any easier with little sleep and the reality of James’ illness sinking in.  Matthew was a disguised blessing at the time, an unhappy baby (like most of my kids), wanting lots of attention in a busy household with parents that were sleep deprived.  I remember very little of those first couple months of Matthew’s life, but we’ve made up for that since and now we watch as he gets bigger and bigger and we get further and further away from the baby stage of parenting.

I invited some friend’s over who have kids Matthew’s age for morning coffee and a swim. 

I totally shocked all those who know me, especially my children, by buying a cake for Matthew’s birthday.  It had been crazy busy and hot and time was limited and I had been debating what to make for a cake.  Matthew had requested the hamburgers and fries and I wasn’t in the mood to make a batch of regular “hamburgers” and gluten free ones.  I was totally excited when I happened to be walking through Wal-Mart and what did I see … a hamburger cake!  And on sale too … it was meant to be! 

Somewhere in there I got a burst of energy the night before Matthew’s birthday to make some GF ones as well altho I did debate just letting us eat wheat for the day, but I hate to do that when I know I am quite capable of providing a similiar GF option.  I did ended up staying up past midnight and regretting that moment where that burst of energy came, but when the next day arrived it was all good.

Lighting the candles and getting ready to sing

My big boy!

Opening cards and presents

The kids then proceeded to go swimming.  A bit of a challenge when the pool is not really that big and there are lots of kids, but after everyone cooled off a bit they rotated between the trampoline and the pool.

or playing with the birthday presents … this is a rocket bubble blower.  The kids jump on the blue square which pumps air to make the rocket go flying up and it’s a bubble wand so bubbles follow behind it.  Great fun for a bunch of boys who just want to see how far they can get that rocket to fly.

Matthew’s patience for dad to come home to open the remainder of the presents was a bit tried, he had oepned a couple presents in the morning when Jada was still there, he had presents from his friends, and then he opened another present at lunch time as he just couldn’t wait until after supper.  We had soccer that night, so it was an early supper and off to soccer.  When they got home he was able to open the remainder of his presents.

One of the best presents of the day was a watch.  He was told when he learned the basics of telling time he could have his own watch and he had accomplished this by being able to tell when it’s on the hour and half hour. 

He had also asked for an alarm clock for when school starts so he could be just like the girls and have an alarm wake him up (not that he needs that as he’s almost always up before the alarm).  We found him a rocket ship alarm clock that shines the time on the ceiling (a Zeller's store closing find)

The day ended with some more hamburger cake and off for a good night sleep.  Another year older, they grow up way too fast!