Lots of play and exploration in the forest and creek behind our house. Soon this will be too high to really be able to play at safely so we’ve been trying to get down here whenever we can.

Riding bikes (I hope I fixed that helmet before she took off! I likely did, as I’m a tad paranoid safety conscious about that kind of thing)

Playing at playgrounds

Playing in the mud in the rain

We were supposed to try out mini golf, and the recording said it was open, but when we got there we were disappointed to find out it was only open on the weekends. However, the driving range was available so we bought a bucket of balls for the girls to try hitting. We only had Kris’ left-handed clubs available for them to use though, which were also too big. Fiona found it boring. Meredith wants to come back when she can try mini golf and use a club the right size and hand.

We did a small square study and discussed living and non-living things. This also tied in nicely with a unit in BFSU.

And of course, lots of playing in our backyard, in the sand box, on the swing set, and on the trampoline.

And a bonus image of Guinevere rolling over. How is she already semi-mobile?

Last week, when it was still sunny, we headed to the Discovery Centre. I didn’t get a ton of pictures, but the girls were super excited to see the octopus. They had been talking about it since they heard we were going.

They spent some time colouring and playing with puzzles, looking at the microscopes, creating a mosaic whale, and listening to a talk about how whales eat. We saw a baleen that was taller than Fiona! We learned that generally you don’t feel it when a clear jellyfish sting, unlike colourful ones. (Though I discovered later that is simplistic, and there are some very dangerous clear jellyfish. I now want to find out if it is just that the clear ones in our area aren’t dangerous/painful.) They played in the touch tank, then with some puppets. Then we headed outside. We were waiting for Kris to be done something he needed to get done and come pick us up, so we decided to head to the beach.

On the way, we passed through a park with live music playing, and both girls spontaneously started whirling around and dancing.

It’s hard to get a clear picture of two little girls whirling around, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

We headed to the beach, where I sat with Guinevere enjoying the sunshine and watching the older two play.

Then they headed down to the water and Meredith came racing back up to tell me there were jellyfish. I had never seen jellyfish in this water before, so I was curious what she was seeing and went down to the water to see for myself. Sure enough, tons and tons of jellyfish, all along the shoreline.

Pictures really don’t do them justice. At least, not the pictures I got. Meredith pointed out that they were pink, so must sting. While we were playing at the beach, an elderly lady made her way to near us and came over to talk to me and chat about Guinevere. She mentioned she was from Saskatchewan and had never seen the ocean before. Hard to imagine! Meredith overheard her and came over to join in, and the lady was pretty awesome. Her and Meredith got to chatting, and then she asked Meredith if she would show her the ocean. Down they went, and at first the lady couldn’t see the jellyfish, but Meredith pointed them out to her and told her all about what we had learned about them earlier.

When the girls were done with the beach, we wandered along the coast a bit, walking out on the docks and checking out the fish market. Back to the park for more dancing, and then we were outside the Discovery Centre again, where one of the workers was feeding the creatures in their outdoor pool (which has water directly from the ocean).

It was right around this time Kris showed up, and we headed home just in time for bed, tired, but happy.

A little later in the morning, we saw a baby deer outside. He was by himself, no older deer anywhere to be seen. Hard to tell from this picture but he was tiny.

Then we met up with a few friends at the beach. There, the kids found a fish backbone.

Later a baby bird, which they thought they were helping when they found it on the ground all alone and brought it to us. We could hear poor mama screeching away at us and it was pretty neat watching the reunion when we returned the baby. Lots of learning about baby animals and birds and what to do if we think an animal might be in trouble. Anyone know what type of bird this is? I thought maybe a mockingbird because they were on the ground, but the baby doesn’t really look it and the mother stayed too far away to get a good look at her.

Us and one other family stayed pretty late on the beach. Fiona napped in the sand.

While the other kids built themselves a fort using scraps they found around the beach.

Just as we were leaving a family showed up with a cool looking dragon kite and let the kids play with it for a while. Unfortunately I didn’t get a great picture of it.

Home again and I went out to the chicken coop and found two eggs waiting for me there! They weren’t in the nest boxes though, but in a corner on the ground which I only check every few days. It was really hot yesterday so I’m not sure if the eggs are actually good to eat, but now I will definitely be checking every day!

I took a picture with a toonie for comparison’s sake, but as I was uploading the pictures thought I should have taken a picture with a store-bought egg. These first ones are pretty tiny, which I expected, but the shells are definitely nice and hard. I can’t wait to crack them open!

And now, we’re all tuckered out and it’s time for bed. Good night!

Painting, yes her hands really are moving that fast. Somewhere under all that paint there is a piece of paper too.

Lots of outdoor play (the toque was her sun hat that day, I didn’t ask)

Enjoying our chicks

Eating sand (because what else are sand boxes for) and more fun in the sun

See more Wordless Wednesdays at Natural Parents Network

Which means trips to the playground with friends, new and old. Meredith has been loving her bike so far this year. We wanted to get her a run bike, or convert this one to one, but when we took the pedals off she was upset and wanted them right back on.

We may get one for Fiona with birthday money, but of course they can both use it.

More Wordless Wednesdays at Hobo Mama and Natural Parenting Network.

We had a good day. We had considered going out and doing something, like we did for Meredith’s first, but the weather wasn’t very nice and Fiona seemed very content to play outside, so we stayed home and did some gardening and worked on our future chicken coop. We didn’t end up getting back inside until almost 5pm, at which point I realized I hadn’t even started on the cake I was going to make for her. So I just went to Thrifty’s and bought one there, which none of us really ate. Funny how different those things taste now that we’re all so used to homemade! It did make for some good pictures though. Here are some highlights from our day.

An impromptu hug after Fiona unwrapped the ball Meredith picked out for her.

Swinging outside

A newt we found in the garden.

The chicks checking out their future coop.

Cake! Originally I was on the other side to take pictures, hence the backward candle.

Nom nom nom.

Homemade coconut milk vanilla bean ice cream

Puppet shows in our homemade puppet theatre

Organizing my spices using dollar store jars and a dry erase marker

Piano playing

Sleeping

Swinging in her Ikea swing

Trying chocolate beet cake. She saw the sprinkles in the store and really wanted to try them. She ended up not liking them on the cake much and picking most of them off later.

Tuesday seems to be library day, as the local library has a preschool story time. Afterwards, Meredith came up to me with this book and said: “Look Mama, it’s a book about me!” (She calls herself Mimi.) I hadn’t even realized she would recognize a lowercase “m”, let alone pick her name out of a bunch of books on a shelf.

We’ve finally started getting outside a lot more again too. The weather has been gorgeous! More about that later though.

More Wordless Wednesdays at Hobo Mama, Natural Parents Network, and Simple Whimsy.

With two days to go until possession, I can’t help but wonder how these two are going to take moving so far apart.

We hope to still see them often, but it will be so different. We’ll lose the spontaneity and almost every day contact we have now.

I hope they’ll be able to stay friends. I think we’ll be figuring Skype out pretty quick.

We didn’t really get snow last year, so she was thrilled to see it and wanted to go out in the backyard. I was surprised how long she was happy out there, considering that we don’t have a lot of snow gear for her. (It just doesn’t snow enough!) That will change now that we’re moving though.

Warming up with Sorcha afterwards. (She decided Sorcha needed a scarf on…)

More Wordless Wednesdays at Natural Parents Network and Hobo Mama.

…went out in the garden first thing and found huge strawberries waiting for us. Some were quite bug eaten, but most of them were salvageable and they were delicious. Who needs growth hormones? Meredith didn’t want her hand in the picture, but some of them were just about as big as her hand.

Then we met up with a sort of new friend and went for a walk with her and her kids and our good friend Kyrie and her kids. I say sort of new friend, because we met her the first time over two years ago through a local EC group. Then we met again about a year ago through a local natural mothering store. Now we’ve come into contact again through a homeschooling group. Deirdre posted a bit about it in the comments on a recent post, but it bears repeating: It’s interesting how our paths intertwine with those of people around us. I didn’t get pictures and the time we all spent together was relatively short, but I hope to meet up with her and her kids again and not lose contact for another year.

Back at home, we decided to go out in the garden again.

This squirrel sat nearby the entire time and chattered at us. We picked some tomatoes and carrots and zucchini.

There’s something really special about Fiona’s first foods being produce that we grew and picked directly in our backyard. She’s not actually showing much interest in food yet, at least no more than she does in anything else she wants to put in her mouth. Which is fine by me, since I believe in delaying solids. We’ve only really given her a few foods to play and experiment with, and likely won’t give her foods to actually eat for a while yet. We’ll see when she starts showing more of an interest in them.

Supper was potatoes and carrots from the garden, corn from a local farm, and orange curried chicken. Meredith takes great pleasure in helping us cook lately, and especially loves to help cut up vegetables.

Then today we were out in the garden again in the morning. Later we met up with some friends from our same co-op and went to the park and then the local deli together.

As we were walking, we startled a group of snakes basking in the sun by the sidewalk. The kids crouched down to watch them slither away. One snake stopped and sat for a while looking back at us.

Then someone noticed a snake skin sitting where the snakes had been.

Meredith’s been really into Curious George lately and one of the episodes shows a snake crawling out of his skin, so it was neat to see an actual snake skin. I’m not sure if she connected the two or not.

On the way to the deli, I got stung by a wasp, and on the way home one of the boys with us got stung on the finger. Fiona got stung last week. The wasps seem particularly aggressive to me this year, but maybe it’s just me. I haven’t been stung in years. We put raw cut onion on the stings, and it really does help with swelling and pain. I was sceptical, but when Fiona got stung last week the swelling and redness was gone soon after applying the onion and by the next morning there was no sign she’d even been stung.

It’s been a good week so far.