Camp Season Begins!!

We have all been excited around here now that the 2013 camp / camping season has officially begun.  The first event is the Cuboree, a 2 night camp out that William looks forward to with his local cub scout troupe.  Today, both William and Charlie spent the day at Camp Brebeuf, going canoeing (which seems to be a new love for both of them), archery, challenging themselves on the high ropes, doing outdoor adventure games, and playing field games. 

This is such a great time of year for all of us.  We don't officially take the summer off from 'lessons', but things definitely slow down a bit.  After all, who in their right mind would choose math over hiking, or geography pages over swimming?  Not that we do a whole lot of 'table time' these days, but still.  The camping season leads our learning in a whole new direction.  Identifying trees and animals, learning new skills on the water, building forts and practicing carving, telling stories around the fire, and staring up at the stars. What learning (and life) is all about, isn't it?

Now that the first 2 adventures are over, we are counting down to the weekend camping trip south of Tobermory with my sister and her friends,  and William's first week away at Wanakita residential camp while Charlie and I do some camping at McGreggor point just the two of us.

Let the season begin!!

Happy Halloween!!

 

Hope you all had a spooky Halloween!

 

I peer outside, there's something there
That makes me shiver, spikes my hair
It must be Halloween!
                         ~Eve Bunting

Fall Fair

Another wonderful Thanksgiving wekend spent at the Fall Fair with family and friends, then home to turkey and all of the trimmings. I hope that you all had a great long weekend, too!

Camping with my boys

This past week, William, Charlie and I went up to Cyprus Lake (the provincial campground just south of Tobermory, Ontario) to camp for a few nights. I would be kidding if I implied it was not a whole lot of work, but it was absolutely worth it.  The boys were (mostly) wonderful, and we spent 3 days exploring one of the most breathtaking places in the country. It was a beautiful thing to spend time with my kids doing something that we all genuinely love - hiking, lake swimming, sitting by the campfire, and sleeping all snuggled up together.

Here are a few pics...

The boys also thought that it was important for me to include notes on their most recent culinary creation, called simple "The Masterpiece"

Squish both sides of a pie iron / campfire cookers with refrigerator crescent roll dough (no need to grease the pie irons).  Top one side with marshmallows, chocolate chips, caramels, and crumbled graham crackers.  Put the two sides of the pie iron together and place in hot campfire coals for a few minutes, checking it frequently until it is golden brown.  Let it cool (else you burn your mouth on the hot gooey goodness) and enjoy!!!  Needless to say it took them a while to come down from the sugar high that night...

Family Cottage 2011

We spent most of this past week at a great cottage with Jim's side of the family. This has become a family tradition over the past 4-5 years, and it is something that we really look forward to. It is a great time to relax, and to enjoy each others company. Mostly it was about 3 generations of men (plus dogs) fishing, and tow wives who married into the family relaxing, reading, and watching our boys.

Happy Birthday Charlie!!

This weekend was devoted to celebrating my little one's 6th birthday (WOW!) For all the moms out there, you know how wonderful and agonizing these days are, all at the same time. We rented a bouncy castle at Charlie's request, invited a few friends over, filled ourselves with sugar, and had a great time.






As for Charlie, he is pretty proud of his new age of a mature 6 years. But he has promised to still cuddle with me...is it too much to get that in writing?
Happy Birthday Charlie!!

Sweet, sweet cookies!

I could give you all sorts of education-heavy reasons to bake with your kids - learning about temperatures, time, measurement and baking soda. But really, today it was all about the icing.


“Once in a young lifetime one should be allowed to have as much sweetness as one can possibly want and hold.”
~Judith Olney

Happy Easter!!

Wishing you all a happy Easter, filled with family and friends...



and maybe a little bit of chocolate!

Valentines Day

Our lives have been a little crazy around here lately, hence my Valentines Day post in March instead of February (I just love that you can back date these things!!). We didn't manage to get as much love-inspired fun happening as we would have liked, but the day wasn't a total wash.

We started off with heart pancakes...

Enjoyed our favorite heart cookies in the afternoon...

Heart-shaped LEGO (William's creation, as if you couldn't guess)...

And stained glass crayon hearts that absolutely didn't work!!

Ah well - It would be a shame if we only said 'I love you' on Valentines day, anyway.

Skating on the pond

This was, truly, one of the best birthday parties that we have ever been invited to. Playing on a huge snow pile in the yard of our friends farm, a hay wagon ride back to a beaver pond in the woods, hockey on the pond, s'mores by the camp fire, and then back to the house for cake and ice cream. Pardon me if this post is a little heavy on the pictures, but it was too beautiful to pass up....