Sunday

Today the kids were really wanting to go to the beach, which would have been great except for the fact at there was a cool breeze outside that we were sure would be worse coming off the water. Eventually though we decided to go. So we all packed sweaters and told the kids it wouldn't be a day to get wet, but we'd try to play at the parks and the sand. To our surprise the beach turned out to be beautiful. We couldn't believe how warm it was and that the wind infact was coming from a different direction. We had kids that very much wanted to tell us "told you so, we should have worn bathing suits!" I had to admit to them that yes mommy was wrong, and how good it was that we did come and they were right.!
Here's some pics of our day.

The boys had fun digging under the play centre and making big holes to sit in.
The girls being silly.

My two monkeys!

Travis in his hole.

At the water....and yes even without bathing suits they got wet!

On our way for icecream we walked past the flower beds. Every year there are these plants that the kids think look like giant asparagus!

The kids and me!

A lucky day!

For the last 13 years, we have always looked forward to picking, freezing and making strawberry jam. Once Canada day comes I always know if I haven't got our berries yet, then I better soon or they will be gone. This year we've been so busy and with a late/short berry season I just hadn't gotten around to getting any extra strawberries for the freezer and jam. When my friend Tammy thought she'd go picking this past week we quickly learned that we were too late....most patches were done. All that is except Te-em farms near Bayfield. When we phoned, we were told the berries were almost done, but if we didn't mind walking and looking we'd find some. So off we went with 11 kids to go on a strawberry hunt not sure how many we would find....but we did! Lots in fact! Yes we did have to walk and search a bit, but we both ended up with way more berries then we expected to find. We were so glad it wasn't a wasted trip, and when we went to pay and found out they were only 50 cents a lb we were thrilled to say the least. If it weren't for the fact that we had 11 hungry and hot kids we would have continued to pick more, but we took what we had and went home to make some yummy jam with what we had. It turned out to be a surprisingly great day!

Here's Brianna, Chloe, Avery and Kaitlin with some of their pickings.
Of course everyone had to try afew while picking.

Dawson who only would pick the big ones!

Tanner and Brady.

Me......a picture taken by Dawson.

While sitting on my porch

At last the little blue eggs in the cedar tree in the front flowerbed hatched! We had been checking on them and were happy to see that all 4 had hatched. The mom and dad have been busily bringing little green worms to the babies for days. Tonight I sat with my camera a got afew pics of these shy little birds!

Here's Travis feeding the babies water with a little tube. They liked it!
The mom watching me and waiting to fly to the nest with another worm.

Here is a pic of the mom in the tree looking out at me. It's hard to see on my computer although it's brighter on my camera window. Hopefully you can see it.

Babies and mysteries!

Even though it was a little late in the season we did manage to get some baby chicks this year. Kortney was the only one I managed to get a picture with them though. Maybe because she was always holding them while their box was in the kitchen!

Here is our mystery....last weekend while the kids were outside when Dawson said he saw a baby duck running around. The kids didn't believe him since all we have left of our ducks are two males. One female died this spring and we haven't see the other one since at least May. Dawson went on looking for the ghost duck he thought he saw. Well he found it! All by itself with no siblings or mom to be found! It was with some eggs between some hay and the shed wall. We have absolutely no idea where this little one came from and are shocked that we found him alive this little. At first we put him in a box with some hay, sheep's wool and a light. He kept jumping out so the only other place I could think of was with the chicks. So that's where he is now, living with baby chicks! Dan and I are interested to see what kind of duck this little one grows into. Until then we're hoping it doesn't get a complex living with chickens!

Birthdays

Three of the kids have celebrated birthdays so far this year. Travis this year didn't have anything he wanted. I asked several times, but never got any ideas from him. Dan suggested something 10 years ago I would have been dead set against....a pellet gun. I've always been against guns. Dan has shown me how hunting can be done in a humane and responsible way. I trust Dan completely with the boys if he takes them out with him. He always instills respect for weapons and respect for nature. So while I'm against toy guns we decided a real pellet would be ok as long as Travis was taught how to use it and used it for target practise which he has done before and really likes it. I also have to add that Travis has always been a responsible child and understands about privileges and how they can be lost if we can't trust him to follow the rules.
Here he looking proud of how good of a shot he has!
Here's his board that he's been balancing duck eggs on with shooshkabob sticks in two holes. He loves using them for targets!

Dawson also celebrated his birthday this spring. It took a while trying to decide what to do for his birthday. Of course this year he only wanted to invite girls. Don't get him wrong....he loves playing with the older boys, but in his class there is him, Sara and Chloe who are best friends and who he sticks with. Since Chloe's birthday is only a week before Dawson's Jenn, Chloe's mom and I decided to celebrate their birthdays together with of course Sara. Sara's family along with Chloe's and us got together to go bowling, play at the park and finally eat at McDonalds. Dawson loved the day and was thrilled to share his party with Chloe!

Kaitlin was so excited about her birthday this year. The morning of she wanted my famous "chocolate chip letter pancakes". We spelled out Happy Birthday K and she was thrilled!

Last night we had her party back at the pond. We had a grill-a-dogs (our well known camping hotdogs), decorated shirts and had a campfire complete with sparklers and glow sticks. Everyone had lots of fun and camped out in the living room that night. Here's Kaitlin with her 5 closest friends and Dawson and Kortney making their shirts.

My garden problems this year!

As many of you will remember, last year I had a gardening issue with a duck and Lou Lou the turkey. (fighting over a nest in my flower garden) This year my pet problem is the (my) sheep!

The moms and babies are fenced in along the side and back part of our backyard. Well no matter how much voltage is in the electric fence afew of the same sheep keep getting out. At first this was cute. I'd look out the windows at any given time and there would be the odd sheep eating the grass. No big deal...even my friend/neighbours started to get used to seeing afew wondering sheep and knew it was no big deal. One day a friend came to the door and asked if I knew if I had a sheep on the porch! I didn't!!
So all this was funny and put a smile on my face daily...that is until my flowerbeds started blooming....yes the sheep found my flowers! Until now Dan had been daily cursing my sheep and had even put metal chains on afew that were always getting out. The collars should have made the shock worse, but they still didn't seem to care. But now they were eating my flowers, which are mostly perennials. My daily smiles turned to chasing sheep back under the fence! It was no longer cute as I would walk around and survey the damage and saw which plants were their favourites!

Here the sheep really liked the lilacs on my mini bush and the clover in my herb garden!

They liked to wonder around the grass and check everything out.

I'm happy to report the sheep are now back at the pond with a higher voltage of fence around them and no flowers to lure them out!

Just another adventure on the Hoggart farm!