Here's a walk I did with the kids last week. We'd done the one north of our house a few times and I really wanted David to get a chance to see the local bike track. It's cool. I'm hoping to go back one day when there's no one there and walk around it. I'm sure he'd love pretending to be a bike!

This felt like a high fashion photoshoot. Maybe I watch to much ANTM!?


What on earth is happening to this tree?

After we left the bike track, we wandered through some trails. They ran under the power lines through a sort of swampy woods (not quite a forest). The houses that back on to the power lines have the most amazingly huge back yards. They must be 2 acre lots that are much deeper than they are wide. I guess living under the power lines would be the drawback, but how cool to have a wild, woodsy backyard like that!

Eventually the trail led to our usual playground (the old one, not the one behind us). We stopped to play for a bit.

I seem to remember that we were playing Star Wars. Of course David and Elisabeth were Luke and Leia. At first I wanted to be Darth Vader, but we only had one ship so I had to be Chewy.


I hate watching them climb up this. But neither of them has ever stumbled, let alone fallen so I guess it's good I let them do their own thing? Another reason we never frequented the park behind us was that the ladder to the slide was kind of a rock wall and I was way too scared to let my toddlers climb it! Better to go to this tamer park.



Eventually we left. Darth Vader had destroyed our planet and we were in search of a new one. It took us past this gorgeous tree. I don't know what kind of fruits, but obviously at least two kinds growing on here judging by the flowers. I love the spring blossoms!

Of course our walk led us through to the other playground. We stopped for a swing.


And who should we see, tearing up the hill towards us? Darth Vadar Daddy! yay!!


David's been asking for a skateboard for ages, and I was kind of planning to get him one for his sixth birthday. We found this part of a skateboard the other day though and both kids are getting a ton of enjoyment out of practicing for the real board.

Our yard backs on to a park/playground which we haven't been visiting much. When we lived in my mum's suite we installed a bike lock to stop people using her yard as a short cut to the park (they kept leaving the gate open which was dangerous considering we had a two year old running around - not to mention it was dangerous to have strangers in our backyard!) Well the key for the lock got lost so instead of walking the long way to the park behind us, we would walk up the hill to the other playground or over to David's school.

Last weekend, Andrew cut the lock off (we still need to get a new one since the kids now can let themselves out of the yard and make off for the park!) and we've been visiting the park a lot more frequently. The funny thing is, now that we can head through there, we've been walking home the very long way almost every day. I haven't really enjoyed walking in our immediate neighborhood because there are no sidewalks anywhere and the road our cul de sac is off is a short cut road from Langley to Surrey. Turns out though that if you just cross over and walk north, it's all beautiful subdivisions WITH SIDEWALKS! We walk there now!

Anyway, back to the playground. Elisabeth LOVES the swings!



Right across the road from our park are some really beautiful yards. Two of them seem to have landscapers that come quite frequently. Curiousity overcame me last week and I had to go look closer. This is what I can see from the park:

I LOVE what these people have done with their hill. We have a very hilly back yard and I would love to have something like this somewhere.

And of course, I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the blossoms everywhere.

I've decided I MUST have a lilac tree in my backyard. I think I'm going to plant it near the property line and beside the playhouse.



We wandered up towards the forest at the end of our road and both of my children decided they needed to use the 'facilities'. Being the big tree. I don't know what the fascination is with peeing outside. But, afterwards I insisted on taking their pictures so we could pretend that's what we'd been doing there the whole time.

There's a lane at the edge of the forest with a culvert that empties onto the side of the road then runs along to a stream. The kids thought that was the coolest thing ever ("I wish OUR road had water running along it!") and ask to go back every day!



Then we walked home on our sidewalkless street. There sure were some pretty blossoms though. I love the rich reds and pinks so much more than the light pinks and whites. Wish I knew which trees were what, I'd fill my backyard!




David insisted he was too hot (it wasn't that warm!) so this is how he walked home!

Backyard Photoshoot

David, Elisabeth and Jade were playing in the backyard one day, so I decided to bring out the camera and take some pictures of them. The dandelions are taking over our lawn, so it made for some pretty pictures.

The kids are fascinated with the seeded flowers (hmn, maybe that's why our backyard is pretty much yellow?) I told them Daddy would be so excited to hear they've been planting dandelion seeds everywhere.


David and Jade. I hope they're never too cool to hang out together.

Libby blowing mummy kisses.

Three little monkeys in a row. I was trying for some pretty pictures of them, but this was about the best I could get.


Jade alternated between running around like a mad hatter and rolling down the hill.

Elisabeth picked and kissed almost every dandelion on the hill.

Almost the picture I was looking for...

Spring is here!

You might argue that spring has been here for a while, but this past few days it really does seem like spring. The weather is too warm for (BC style) winter clothes, but too cold for shorts, everyone's craving popsicles and the stuff in my garden is (mostly) growing!

Speaking of...here's the new garden patch. We need to get some netting to go around the perimeter. Home Depot doesn't seem to have the one we want in stock yet. The north wall (with the really tall posts) is where we're going to put some raspberry canes. They need five feet to grow, so the fence will be higher on that side. And the a-frame ladder thing is for an experiment I'm going to try - growing squash on a trellis!

We went to the playground on Wednesday morning. David was in the ball field for ages and wouldn't come out so we went to see what had him so mesmerized. Someone had made this map out of pinecones! Wow.


The kids are obsessed with babies lately. They keep praying for God to give us one. They even argue about the right way to pray. "You have to say 'In Jesus' Name' for it to work!" "Don't forget the please!" etc. etc. I've been trying to tell them that God might still say no, but they're not listening. ACK!


Probably the last time David uses the baby swing. They ONLY have baby swings at the playground behind us, but David says this was too squishy.