Up the Hill

I took the kids up to Nose Hill a few nights ago. The three of us were going for completely different reasons. I wanted to take some pictures and fiddle with my camera. Madelyn wanted to fill her bug catcher full of grasshoppers, and Mason wanted to walk up to Turtle Rock. [I don't know if that's what it's actually called, but I've been going up there since I was a kid, and that's what we called it. Plus, it actually looks like a turtle...]

We all got what we wanted out of our adventure. I snapped away like a crazy lady, Madelyn chased and caught bugs, and Mason got up to Turtle Rock.


I don't know if I've mentioned it or not, but this has been the Best. Summer. Ever. Now, in my mind, fall has be slotted into that category too. It's been the best Summer and Fall EVER.  Since school started, they have worn shorts [or in Miss Madelyn's case, capri pants and dresses/skirts] nearly every day. I can't believe how nice it's been. The leaves are now in full changing mode. In a few weeks, [or days, depending on the wind] all the leaves will be gone, and we will officially know that winter is on it's way... Each day that we can enjoy this nice weather is a blessing. I got up to the hill too late to take nice leaf changing colour pictures. As you can see, the sun was just about to disappear over the hill.

I seem to have an obsession with sun flares... You might guess that yourself after looking at these photos. 
 

Of course, once we got up to the rock, Madelyn scurried up it, while mason seemed content to hang out below.

 

 Or, maybe lean against it a bit.

Kind of love these silhouette type pictures of the kids. Not totally black, but dark enough to see the outline of them.

 

 

 He eventually climbed up and found the perfect resting spot.

 

We had fun, we usually do. Even when Madelyn fell and skinned her knees on the way down, she was in good spirits. She had a bug catcher full of grasshoppers after all. [Though today at school she fell and re-skinned them. Only a little bit worse. It warranted a trip to the office to have bandages put on] She was feeling pretty sorry for herself when she got off the bus, but then remembered those darn grasshoppers that she had to feed, and all was okay...

Project Life Weeks 32 - 36

Don't mind me, but I feel a wee bit giddy. I'm caught up with my project life stuff. And by caught up, I mean, to yesterday... Teeheehee... Makes me feel good.

What doesn't make me feel good, the cold air blowing out of my furnace... That's right, I thought we'd got to the bottom of that problem last week, but it would seem that no. We didn't. We have a call in to the furnace company, so hopefully the weather will be decent enough for the next few days, so the trip doesn't have to be an emergency and cost us extra...

I hate it when you can't fix something yourself, you need to rely on someone else...

Back to my pages.  Here are weeks 32 to 36. Can you believe that there are only 16 weeks left in 2012? I hate to say that out loud, but it's true. Thought I'd share.

Still loving this project. Love it even more when I'm completely caught up.

First Day of School

Believe it or not, the first day of school came and went this week. It's so crazy, how at the end of June, the summer stretches out before you and seems absolutely endless... I still felt a bit saucy at the beginning of August,with another entire month before me...

And then... The days begin to get shorter as the sun disappears earlier and earlier... The mornings start to get darker too. The air begins to take a bit of a cooler edge to it. The furnace starts to come on in the morning... I said, your furnace starts to come on... Well, if you're lucky your furnace comes on. [If you're not so lucky you have to pay $200 to have someone come in, un-scheduled, to inform you that the electric ignitor on your furnace no longer works... But it immediately explains the cold air blowing in, so it's a relief all the same]

Within 4 days, you're back into the routine of making  lunches, washing all the re-usable containers that the lunches fit into, picking up kids at the bus stop, signing agenda books, nagging at kids to empty back packs when they come in the door, getting supper on the table before all our extracurricular activities began [this week we were back out the door 3 nights with Brownies, Hockey and Cub Registration] attempting to get kids snacked, bathed,  tooth-brushed and into bed at a reasonable hour..

Within 4 days summer is a distant memory... How sad is that? No wonder I love spring so much, there's just so much to look forward to!

I wanted to include a few first day of school pictures, but thought that rather than add pictures, I would just include the layout I did. I got the template for the layout here.

I can hardly get my head around the fact that these two kids are 7 and 10 years old. It seems like just yesterday they were wee. I'm hopeful this will be a terrific year for both of them!

Crammed it all in...

Our last week of summer, was a busy one. We managed to head out into the mountains on 3 separate occasions. I blogged about our trip to Kananaskis, sans kids already.

We decided to head out for a picnic to Elbow Falls on Sunday [the day after we'd returned from our little get away for two] The day could not have been nicer, nor could it have been any busier... Yowser, I was completely speechless as to the sheer volume of people trying to park their cars... I'm glad we'd gotten out there earlier in the day. Mental note to self, try to avoid a breath-taking Sunday next time.

This past week Mason was in a power skate camp. It was only an hour long, but it was 5 days long. I can't believe this guy is going to play hockey this year. Eeks.. He never complained about going once, and they worked these little 9 and 10 years olds really hard. Hockey Rule #1, you have to be able to cart your own equipment in and out of the arenas.

 

 

  On Monday we made a trip to the zoo, specifically to check out the Penguin Plunge. We got there first thing, and only had to wait about 20 minutes to check out the action. It was worth the wait... They are really neat to see.  We went to the Zoo with Ama [used our AMA card and saved 20% on admission] We were there for about 6 hours... We almost did it all. We didn't get to the Dinosaur park, which is the highlight for my kids. These kids have always loved the zoo. We spent so much time there when they were little, but now with them in school, it's hard to justify buying a seasons pass when we can only get there on weekends or the occasional day off.

 

Wednesday morning I got a phone call from the library, and Miss Madelyn's name had been drawn to win a book. She was so excited,  we went over that afternoon to pick up her prize. Out of all the books she got to skim through, she picked a book about spiders. She can now ramble off the most interesting spider facts, that might tend to make some people feel a little bit uncomfortable. [She's still mad she wasn't 19 when we visited the Bug Zoo in Victoria...]  She wanted to get her hands on that tarantula SO BADLY... She has informed us numerous times that she is going back, as soon as she turns 19... A part of me really wonders whether that's something she'll still be really interested in when she's 19... I guess we wait and see...

We took a trip on the C-Train and went up the Calgary Tower. That glass floor is freaky... I don't love it.

 

We decided to take the kids back out to Kananaskis, for one night. We couldn't believe that there was availability on the long weekend.  We hauled our bikes out once again, and did the paved biking trails. We went about 12 kms round trip, the kids were tired after that, for sure. But they both did great. It took us about an hour and a half one direction, and when we turned around to head back, it took us less than half an hour. We hardly had to peddle at all on the way back. It was awesome, and the scenery is absolutely spectacular.

  

Monday we headed to Cochrane for the annual Labour Day Parade. The kids are always so excited for this parade, because they throw out candy...

 

Which brings us current.... 

Today was the first day of school. The kids started to back in grades 5 and 2. I have to get the pictures off my camera. We had pancakes and bacon for breakfast, we got ready with time to spare. The morning went smoothly.