Hiking in the Woods

Hiking in the woods with my kids...
That's one thing I love about apartment living, heh. Well, we happen to have one of the Don Rivers flowing nearby and the area is full of exciting hiking and walking trails. It's quite rugged and lots of fun. Today it was easy to forget that we've moved out of the suburbs to the city.

What else?

Gorgeous sunsets...our apartment faces west and today we saw the sky set on fire...clouds ablaze in every shade of red and orange, even sandy yellow. Then we watched as the darkness crept into the night sky and the clouds turned a deep purple which contrasted beautifully with the fading crimson. We get a light show like this almost every day!

Almost every day we climb the stairs to our 11th floor apartment. We want to climb a mountain someday...I never imagined we would start our training in an apartment! :-)

Photos? None yet. Pray for our camera to get fixed or that we can find a replacement.

Fun in the Hay

More Photos...

Apple Picking

I suppose apple picking is just one of those things that is a tradition up north. I remember doing it often as a kid...but my kids had never experienced it. Having grown up in Africa and Brazil, such activities were only read about in books. So when Steve and I met up with some other families in the area to pick apples, I was excited for them!!

Here are some pics from that fun day. I have to warn you that they might make you hungry. ;-)



Notice that Steve just can't seem to stop eating apples! He wasn't the only one, ha! The apples were so delicious! There is something magical about eating a fruit right off the tree. It's just ALIVE with flavour!

Autumn...

We are well into Autumn now, though I have to admit it seems the change-over happened quickly! Time has gone by so fast it seems that summer was only a few weeks ago. And now, the cold weather is creeping up on us.

It snowed today, not the nice fluffy "white Christmas" kind of snow, but the cold, wet stuff. The kids ended up practicing dancing for their Christmas singing instead of braving the elements.






Anyhoo...I thought I would make blogging easy for myself by posting a bunch of photos! ;-)


Here's Brandon relaxing in the pumpkin patch. He seems to fit in quite well doesn't he? Brandon's favourite season is Autumn because of the colors that erupt all over the place. He just loves it!

And he also loves apples...which is what his tummy was full of when I snapped this photo!

Canada Day

The kids ready for action:

On stage:

A sampling of the fireworks we watched:

Botanical Gardens

A Day in Our Lives...

I’ve never been good at keeping a diary and my journals were limited to two or three entries a year. But I really would like to try to say a little something about our family antics at least a few days each week. Hopefully that “little something” could be useful to someone!

With all that said, I will start with the highlight of today:

Making whole wheat biscuits for breakfast with my kids. YES, I’m quite sure that along with many other small miracles throughout the day, our science class, math class, and home economics class cleverly disguised as a baking project, was tops. I was filled with such a sense of fulfillment and joy as I baked with my kids early this morning.

First of all, I prayed for direction and got that I shouldn’t worry too much about the schedule. I knew that getting involved in a family baking project first thing in the morning would push our schedule back a bit. But, the kids do really learn best by doing things so enhancing their school time with a hands-on activity like baking was well worth the time! Of course, it took us twice as long to finish cooking than if I had done it all by myself. As we measured, sifted, poured, stirred, kneaded, and molded, I discussed measurements, fractions, ratios, multiplying, chemical changes, digestion, etc. I also discussed health and hygiene a bit after catching the kids sneaking bites of the raw dough! The biscuits turned out great and we had a nice bonding experience that got us off to a good start for the day!

High Park

Masquerade Ball

Our most recent area kids activity was a Masquerade Ball which included lots of dancing games and other fun stuff. This doubled up as a birthday party for Laura, 8 (of Reuben and Sarai).

Before starting the party, the kids had a word class focused on fighting the good fight (John Paul Jones), and taking time with Jesus.

Indian Girls: My daughter Anika (7) with Mellow

Recently, we had a cowboy/Indian fair for all the kids in the area ages 6 - 11, planned by our area Kids Club committee. Stalls were set up with a variety of challenging games and we also had a food booth. The kids were given a certain amount of tickets at the entrance which they used to pay for the games and buy food. Each time they won a game they were given tickets. We also had a few fun contests. It turned out to be loads of fun for all of us and well worth the effort!