Summer Joys

This summer has had many 'at home' joy-filled days and moments. Josh wasn't very busy with work until this past month, which, while having some stressful aspects, meant he was around a lot more than he has been in previous summers. Which was most delightful. :-D

Canada Day we received the sad news that my Grammie had passed away after a long battle with cancer. It was, and still is, very hard to lose her, but I am also glad her battle with pain and questions is over. 

Because of that I wasn't feeling up to going to the Trochu events as previously planned. However, after spending most of the day out in my garden, thanks to the sensitivity of my sweetheart, I was ready to do something else, and we headed into Olds for their festivities. 

Here Josh is introducing both sons to the delights of cotton candy: 

'See this son? If you want to see your mother jump through hoops, just wave this stuff around...'

Free popcorn... nothing like free food to make an event exciting...

Going "fishing" 

Isn't this the greatest picture? My intense-but-happy-go-lucky son.

Friends of ours -three of the Wiens girls - were out doing face painting and balloon animals. Peter got an elephant, and was very pleased with it. 

Peter also quite enjoyed the balls. The funniest part, though, was when he saw all the balls outside, and started cleaning them up (see below). When other little kids started throwing them out again and he was beginning to show signs of the first stages of stress, I intervened and we moved on to new and greener pastures.

They also had a huge blow up slide - big enough I wasn't sure he'd actually want to go down it, but he asked to, so I told him to go for it. Peter didn't bat an eye - climbed all the way up, slid down, and asked to go again. 

Josh has been playing a lot of 'football' and 'soccer' with the boys this summer - both of them love the ball aspect to both games. :-D

Peter loves any type of bug - thankfully I do as well, so we have great fun making discoveries together. 

Cool dude

What is a summer without a picnic? We've had a couple this year - in our yard, and a couple km away at Kraft Pond. This one was in our yard. 

Reuben sandwiches, watermelon, carrots, home-made lemonade, and Kettle chips - oh yeah!

"Oh that bluuuuue Alberta sky..." 

Gotta love the faces this kid can make... 

And then, we got sick. And my poor boys were more languid than I've ever seen them... 

Of course, even sickness has its perks, like falling asleep together on the couch

One of the exciting parts of this summer was purchasing a dollar store Popsicle tray and finding a recipe for HEALTHY and DELICIOUS Popsicles!! :-D Yogurt, strawberries... you can find the recipe here...

I ran out of popsicle holes and used my baby food freezer containers - they worked great too! Just cut up some straws and taped them together on the one end, and voila!! :-) 

And, yup!, they were deeelicious as well! 

Josh and Peter tackled our highly overgrown lilac bushes. They were in serious need of some pruning, and I was VERY impressed with the amazing job Josh did! :-D 

Peter was less than impressed to discover that his toy saw did not cut the branches. He ended up ditching it for the pruning shears... 

And, of course, what is a summer without a few hikes? Peter regularly asks to go 'hiking', and is always ecstatic when we do. 

Me 'n' my baby 

Peter obligingly sitting in the field of pretty flowers so I can snap a picture

One of my favorite flowers - the Wild Rose

On a few of the back roads we let Peter stand in the back and watch out the window (we were going around 20km/hr) - he was pretty tickled about that!

We hit a dragonfly going pretty slow, so Josh got out to see how far gone it was. It seemed to be ok, but it wouldn't fly, so Josh put it in a yogurt container for Peter to inspect. 

He spent most of the trip home reaching in to touch it and then pulling back with a great laugh/giggle and this look on his face. :-D

Another enjoyable part of this summer was having two of Josh's brother's visit for a couple of days. Peter really enjoyed playing with them! :-) 

Isn't he a doll?? 

Feeding the chickens one morning I pulled back the bag of chicken feed, and a colony ants had built a nest complete with eggs under there! It was pretty fascinating, and Peter and I enjoyed watching them for a bit before returning the bag to its place. 

One of Timothy's favorite things to do is watch the chickens... 

I love this grin on his face! "Hi mommy!" 

Peter recently decided that while driving he and Timothy should hold hands. It is most cute to see, although I do have to remind Peter that when Timothy doesn't want to hold hands, that's ok too.. :-) 

And, what is summer without some water fun? Timothy has a propensity to tip into this bucket of water head first, so I make sure I'm always close when he's near it... 

He has the greatest faces, this kid... 

Pics of our glorious sky

And, finally, first harvest. Food for the body, and food for the soul....