I'm Such a Goof!

Here's what I did, I am knitting a pair of socks for a friend who renacts the War of 1812. And I put the toe on sideways!! I know it is hard to see from the picture, but if you picture the foot of the sock coming out from the heel, the toe is sideways! I took it out, and both socks are finished now (and straight) but when I first noticed what I did (after I had grafted the toe!!!) I felt like such a goof!

Keys to the Highway!

Pip has been a very determined little boy this spring and summer, and he has now mastered... two wheels! He still has a little trouble with stopping, so I won't say he's mastered bicycling!!


Uncle Chris came to visit recently and leant a hand in Pip's learning:





But now he can start by himself:

And keep going!

Check out the lean on the corner!

Cherries

Last week we had a field trip to a local orchard to pick some cherries. The sweet cherries are in, but it will still be at least a week for the sour cherries (the ones you make a pie with!). The fun thing about picking cherries is that you need to climb a ladder to get to them! Some of the ladders were quite low, so that even Pip could climb them easily.

And others went quite high!

There was a propane air-gun in the orchard that let out a loud banging sound (like a gunshot) periodically to scare the birds away. The children were very interested in this, and after our basket was full, we had to investigate and find where it was. Living in Niagara is a treat, when it is a short drive to all these farms and orchards!

Strawberries

June is strawberry season in Niagara. We try to get out to a pick-your-own farm every year, the goal is always to pick enough berries to make jam. One year (one year with a new infant around), we weren't able to pick even a litre, and I had to buy berries from the farm's stand. But since that time (to date, our minimum), we have been picking more and more berries each year. This year, we picked 6 litres in about a half hour!

Tim's basket is filling up!

Pip sampling a berry:




Some hard working berry pickers:



We have been enjoying berries on French Toast, with hot cereal, with cream, just plain, and there are 8 jars of jam on the pantry shelf to delight us through the winter!

Sparks Camp-A-Rama

David took Tim and two of his friends to Sparks Camp-a-Rama last weekend. This is a day-long event that is for children who have completed three books with AWANA in Sparks (which typically means they've been in Sparks for 3 years). Emmi got to go a couple of years ago, and was able to tell Tim how much fun it would be. She was right!


Here is Tim rounding the corner in one of the games:

How was the day? Thumbs up all round!

Party Fun!

We had another birthday in the family recently - Ben turned six! As part of his birthday present, Emmi made him a pinata (not sure how to get the ~ on top of the n!). It worked out really well, and all the children at the party seemed to have fun smashing it open! The only trouble was that the last whack at it, that burst it open, made all the little treats land in a flower bed, so getting them all out of the flower bed was tricky. In fact, there's still a little blue car AWOL among the siberian irises!

First Canoe of the Season

Ah.... spring, and a young man's thoughts turn to.... canoeing!! We actually got our first outing in May, it's just taken me a while to get the pictures on to the computer.

We enjoyed a picnic and day-trip with two other families up Sixteen Mile Creek. The creek comes down from somewhere (??) to Lake Ontario. As the day was windy, we were fortunate to have a breakwater between us and the lake because there were white caps on Lake Ontario! Here is the group getting organized and setting off:



First, you paddle under the QEW, and into a large, lake-like area. As we headed south, the creek became narrower, and part-way down we stopped to explore an island, where we found goose eggs!!



Carrying on, we approached a railway bridge:



After the bridge, the creek becomes very narrow and windy - in one spot we had to scrunch down to get under a fallen tree.



We reluctantly turned back around Fourth Ave. On our way back, we saw an eagle near "Goose Egg Island" - very impressive! We also noticed herons, swallows, red-winged blackbirds, and I'm sure there were other birds that real birders would have spotted. Tim was pleased to see a number of turtles basking in the sun on logs. Here is a shot of the back of our canoe - everyone is pretty happy, except for Pip who sucumbed to sleepiness on the way back. Warm sun, gentle rocking motions, full tummy, pleasant wind whispering sounds..... zzzzzzz