A Day at the Fair

Summer doesn't seem complete without a trip to the country fair. We spent 5 hours in the 34 degree weather yesterday at the Agrifair, and here are a few of the highlights...

We got there in time for the worship service. The Youth Band was playing and a couple local pastors gave the message. A neat experience to be in the middle of the fair having a worship time.

Our friend, Sarah, was playing the keyboard with the band.



Next we went indoors for a beekeeping demonstration. This was so cool, and something that I would love to try one day. This man was covered in hundreds of bees. I've seen this done on TV before, but never live. The man in white just stood perfectly still, and the man in yellow said that the chances of him getting stung were slim to none because he was not doing anything that would make the bees feel threatened. It was the announcer that said that he, himself, was more at risk for getting stung, but that didn't happen.




After the bees we had some pizza for lunch and sat to watch the guys on skateboards. I was so impressed with what these guys could do on their skateboards. There were two 16 year old guys, and then a man that didn't say his age, but did say that he's been skateboarding for 36 years... and he still had it! He was doing spins and tricks that had "broken hip" written all over them!

16 year old, Andy, jumping over 6 skateboards and his buddy, Ryan! That's a trusting friend :)



Here are some pictures from the Lord Strathcona Mounted Troop show. These horses were beautiful, and they performed perfectly in the heat. We stayed for more than half the show, but the kids started wilting so I said we had to get in some shade for a bit.





At the end of the school year, the gym teacher organized for a portable rock climbing wall to visit the school. Only kids in grades 2 - 5 were allowed to participate for various reasons. Elise was totally ripped off that she didn't get to try it because she was only in Kindergarten. Well, at the fair, she spotted this climbing wall and she was more than determined to try this out! We headed over to the wall and she was the first to sign up!


Steve and Scott had a race...


Steve won :)


This is the only picture I got of Todd on the wall... oops! But when they were at the school with the wall, I took about 100 of him then, so it's all good!!


Still climbing! She tried all 3 sides, several times each.




The firemen are always so good with kids at these fairs. There was a fireman relay, and the first round Todd and Elise were against each other. Then the 2nd race was Scott vs. the fireman on the ground. At the end, the one in the white shirt (sorry I cut your head off in the picture) said, "ok, now drop and do 10 pushups both of you!" Scott got down beside the fireman and started his pushups, then the one in white picked Scott up and put him on the other guy's back. The one on the ground kept going!! Scott loved it!!


Sunflower picture - the mama made them do this, but they seem to have it figured out that if they cooperate with the pictures I ask of them, then it only takes one or 2 shots, not 25!!


The kids and Steve saw these trampoline acrobats last year, but I was in Norway during the Agrifair, so this was my first time seeing these people perform. WOW! I couldn't believe the tricks these 3 could do with a trampoline and a wall.


A good day at the fair, despite the heat. Even ran into some old friends that we haven't seen in quite awhile. Good place to catch up... at a country fair!

It was 4 against 1

A couple weeks ago we borrowed the movie "We Bought a Zoo" from our local library. It is a true story, and it turned out to be a great family movie. We all love animals, so I thought we would bring it home and give it a shot. There is a "family friendly" sound track option, and if you have young kids, I recommend this because it covers a bunch of words you might not want your kids to hear :) More movies should have that option because there are some that I would love to show my kids, but because of the language in them, I won't let my kids see them.

After watching this movie, the score was 4 to 1... 4 of us really wanted to buy a zoo, but Steve was a solid NO! But, Steve did enjoy the movie!! Well, I couldn't get the zoo out of my head, and if I wasn't allowed to buy a zoo, then I thought zoo passes would be the next best thing! One day last week, while everyone else was busy, I went with my son, Scott, and we bought family passes to the zoo for the year. Then I texted Steve and said, "We bought a zoo!!!" He didn't believe me :)

We've already visited the zoo twice and I think you only need to go 2 1/2 times to have you membership paid for.

♥ Happy Valentine's Day!! ♥

Some people absolutely LOVE Valentine's Day, others might not be such big fans... Personally, I like any excuse for a celebration, but I also think we should show love all year long, and I am super glad that my husband doesn't only wait for Valentine's to take me on a date :)

This year, we made Valentine's Day about the love of our whole family. We spent the afternoon doing all kinds of fun things. Last week, Elise and I went on a date to White Spot and planned our family Valentine party. Here are a few of the things we discussed over french fries and a Pirate Pak:

♥ We should buy paper plates and napkins (which we did in colourful Valentine patterns!)
♥ We should decorate cookies (we ended up decorating 3 mini cakes because I didn't get sugar cookies made and little cakes were just a whole lot less work!!)
♥ We should make Valentines (the boys each assembled 20 treat boxes for their school friends, and Elise chose a random smattering of people she could think of to give treat boxes to, including the girls next door and the Senior Pastor at our church. She is enthralled by him because he remembers her name and visited her Sunday School class in his 2nd week at church!! That makes a pretty big impression on a 4 year old!)
♥ We should watch a family movie. (We watched Evan Almighty, and then I read the real story of Noah's Ark, straight from the Bible so we could straighten out the facts about how it all really went down!!)
♥ We should go on a hike so we could be ♥ Heart Healthy! (We didn't get to the hike, even though the rain held off, the kids ended up playing in the backyard instead. We will hike another day)

It was a day to remember, and Elise said it was the best day of her life! She has said that a lot lately, so I guess 4 is a good age for her :)


Lunch... fun plates and napkins. Pizza, some other goodies and iced tea.


Pencils to attach to the treat boxes for school friends... reminds me of the line from "You've Got Mail" where Meg Ryan's character talks about "bouquets of sharpened pencils in the Spring." I suddenly have the urge to watch that movie (for about the 45th time!) Might just have to do that right after I post this :)

Each treat box has 2 pieces of gum inside and a pencil taped to the outside. The comics are really lame in these, but the gum is yum (for about 2 minutes - then it loses its flavour... but kids don't care!)

Let the decorating begin. They had so much fun doing this, and it was really a treat to watch... but I am not even tempted to share this cake with them after watching them decorate it!!!



At one point, Elise took a HUGE mouthful of cinnamon hearts and there was an instant fire in her mouth. I've never seen her look so panicked! She quickly got rid of them and soothed her mouth with some chocolate chips.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13


A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 13:34-35

Rainy Day Fun

Today it is pouring rain... what better time than this to have a family craft day?! Steve and the kids drew on blocks of wood and then painted them to look like cars. In March, the boys will be in a wooden car race with cars they make at Pioneer Clubs. So, for fun today, they were working on designs for that.




I was getting things ready for my club on Monday night (there's still room if you want to join!! Just a $25 product purchase per month, and the class is free!). I'll post those cards on Monday. The kids and Steve were at the island, and I had my stuff spread out on the kitchen table. Amazingly, it was all cleaned up before we had lunch. The cars are drying and my projects are complete!

My Family

We took this today on a family walk at Othello Tunnels. Some other ones are going to be potential Christmas card photos... this one was just so-so, though, so I don't think it will make the cut. But still thought we did ok to get everyone looking at the camera and smiling at the same time!

Dress-up Fun!

Last night for Halloween, we went out to our old neighbourhood to visit a bunch of old friends. We found about 10 people at home and caught up on the happenings of our old turf. We never trick-or-treat at strangers' houses, or even in our current subdivision... first off, the kids don't need that much candy, and we've never done it, so the kids don't know any different... and there are...

too. many. people!!!

It's also become tradition for us to visit Steve's parents after we've been to a few houses. His brother and fam were there, too, so we got to see their little tricksters, too!

In our family, we had a Sheriff, a Nun, a Pirate, a Hockey Player and one Tigger :)

Caramel Apples

My boys are part of a Pioneer Club in town. Later this month there will be a Fall Funfair, and I was asked to bring some caramel apples. So.... since I've never made caramel apples, I quickly checked out the process on YouTube and realized it is a piece of cake!

As a family, we decided that we needed a practice run. After all that.... I find out that we will be using a different kind of caramel, so you just drape a big sheet of caramel over the apples and melt it on there. Oh well, this old-fashioned process was a pretty fun family activity, and may just have me hooked on caramel apples for the season!!!

Do you make caramel apples? What is your favourite kind of apple to use? The Granny Smith in this picture is Steve's. The rest of these are Gala apples that I picked up at the Apple barn last week :)





We melted the caramel in the microwave... next time I would do it over the stove. The first couple apples covered fine, but then the caramel cooled really quickly.

After they were set a bit the first night, we cut into them like we saw the guy on the Home Shopping network do! Everyone got one taste, and the rest of the apple had to wait until morning.

Science World

Do you ever start something, think you finished it, and then come back later (and in this case... days later!) only to find out you didn't even come close to finishing it? Well, I was SURE I finished this post.... nope! I just found it in drafts. Oops!

So.... our trip to Science World.

The kids had fun, but it is a bit of a schmoz at SW right now because they are doing major renovations, and a lot of the space that had exhibits is blocked off. But we were there on a great deal of a Family pass, so I wasn't going to complain!

And.... for what we saw, we enjoyed. Here are a few pics to highlight our day.... The live shows were excellent - we caught the last three of them.


Todd volunteered during the Electricity show. He held a light bulb as it lit up.


So, then Elise volunteered. She didn't know it, but she had volunteered to be the grounding rod for a big static electric shock!

Then, later in the day... Todd volunteered again. This time during the "Science Surprises" show.

So... Elise volunteered again, too. (you saw that coming, right?!!!) She got to sling-shot a chicken to the 2nd floor, and this pretty much made her year!

Todd loved this oversized piece of "plastic cheese."

Scott found a frog statue to pose on...



Outside (I think this area is called False Creek, but I am not for sure on that) there was a playground that the kids got their sillies out on before our ride back home.

Then there was some more posing and photos... It was a great Family Fun Day.

Just like the sign...

My Gems.