Schedule

It's not only children who thrive on schedules. Me too. Schedule and routine.

To that end, I've not only made all our lunches, laid out our clothes for tomorrow, and planned the other meals. Now that TV is back on, I've also planned out our entire week's viewing schedule...I can finally get caught up on laundry ;)

Crazy Hair Day and the Great Outdoors

Once I persuade the kids to change out of their costumes, we went for a walk. In the spirit of dressing up though, I gave them crazier than normal hair dos. Here's davey with his mini faux hawk.

And El with her pippi longstocking pig tails.

I got her dressed this morning then while I was making the beds, she took off all her clothes and brought me different ones to put on. I guess she didn't like my choices...





To the east of our complex are some new single family houses. There are a couple of paths in and around them. None of them are connected or really go anywhere, but they're interesting to get us off the road.

It's a lot different from Switzerland where they meticulously groom their paths and keep them looking so nice. This particular one was all right, but I need to get my clippers and a bag and go cut down the brambles that block the other two and pull some of the weeds that are threatening to take over the actual walk ways.

But in other news, they're almost done the park next to our complex and it has a few 'trails' (I'm not sure if they go anywhere other than towards the playground from a few different angles) I'm looking forward to trying. There's also a wild bit of field with some lovely trees (of the deciduous variety) so I'm looking forward to taking some pictures there. As soon as the city crew is done working with their big machinery!!


And I hope it doesn't sound like I'm whining. We love our walks and they're always very interesting! Lately we like to walk to the building sites and watch the new houses go up. But it's nice to know there are other things to look at (like this pond) when all the houses are done!

I've seen that look before...Little scallywag!


This is my favorite look. Very impish but still very cute!

Here I asked him to look tough. He looked confused, so I said, "roar!" and did he ever...

I'm so glad he's still got his baby curves. I'm not eager for them to grow up to fast!

And my other little imp. She was much too quick on her feet today. I had a hard time catching her in focus...

Spidey and the Princess

This morning when it was time to get dressed, Elisabeth wanted to be a princess. Which of course meant Davey did too. I reminded him that he had a Spiderman cosstume now, so he happily put that on:

Ellie was in awe of her hero.

And Davey got straight down to posing.

I think he was pretty happy to have a costume just for him (after a summer of sharing princess dresses with his cousins!!)


And here's a shot of the princess...she was pretty happy too!

Cutest. Kids. EVER!

Totally spontaneous expression of love. All I did was say, now don't move until I grab the camera. Almost makes up for the sounds of yelling I can hear as I'm typing this...

She's My Kid Alright!

I just went to check on the kids.

I've been saying for a while that Davey is almost too big for his toddler bed. We have to start saving up for that twin bed!! He was lying with both legs hanging out of the bed, but when I shifted him back into his bed there isn't much room on either end of him!!

But that's not what I came on here to talk about.

I finished tucking Davey in and went into Tinker's room. She's got the light on and is barely clinging to the edge of her bed. Why you ask? She had SO many books (and her toy camera) in that bed, there was barely room for her. Makes a mom proud, let me tell you :)

An Afternoon Stroll at Minter Gardens

Today Davey kept insisting that we had to go to Minter Gardens. At first I thought he wanted to go to the garden store; we'd been there a few times in the spring for coffee/ice cream and a look through the gift stores. But no, he insisted he wanted to go to the place with the 'flowers and the side walks'. So we went to the gardens.

They already had some fall scenes set up with pumpkins and leaves. Davey posed for me:

We had sandwiches in the cafe. While we waited for them, I showed Andrew some techniques I've been learning from ANTM. Find the light...
Very good Andrew. Well done!

The flowers there were lovely today. I think these are some type of hydrangea, but I've never seen them before.

Davey took charge of the map right away and planned out the route we would take around the gardens.


This is one of my favorite places - the little chalet at the top of the hill.

Davey stopped at the peacock to check that he was following the correct route.

In the rose garden. I really like the orangey roses.



And the clematis. I really, really want clematis somewhere at our new house!

We love the new kids' section at Minter Gardens. We always have to stop and play there for a while. If it only had a gate across the entrance I could sit there with a book and be quite content while the kids play.




Looking for loonies in the pond.

While Davey chilled in the stroller!


Okay, so there's this local photo contest I'm thinking of entering. Here's my first picture...


Or, this one. (the category I'm most interested in is close ups, and it's gardening photos).

Then I'm having a hard time choosing between this one,

...and this one.
Opinions?

I know I probably don't stand a chance. Every time I go to Minter Gardens there's Bazillions of old dudes there with their fancy cameras and tripods and equipment. And tons of photography classes seem to take place there. But I got a couple good pictures today so I thought I'd give it a shot. Maybe no one will enter since the prize is only $100 and a calendar?! I can hope!!

PS if you want to enter, you just need some gardening shots (Jane!) and head over to here. The deadline is tomorrow!!

When we got home I planted some fall flowers with plants I'd bought at Little Mountain Nursery earlier in the day. Davey and our neighbor Dryden kept shooting me with their water guns. So I chased Davey with my dirty hands.

Guess who had to have a bath tonight!! muah hah hah hah hah