Zoo Lessons

We had an amazing trip to the Edmonton Valley Zoo last week.

It was extra special because our amazing friend Diana is working there for the summer.

She stayed after her tours to walk through with us.

Now, we always have a good time at the zoo but this was amazing.

We learnt so much about the animals that we wouldn't have otherwise known.

{Including their names which Fiona has added to her repertoire of stuffed/imaginary animal handles.}

I also learnt that Fiona has beaten her fear of Carousels.
{Well, close, she still didn't want me to let go of her arm.}

Which is fabulous since this Mama has a love on for their nostalgic feel.

 Cedric, being the guy that stands at the top of the full size slide and jumps, was all "what's the big deal you guys?"

Lastly, I learnt that as pathetic as the mini-train may look to us, the kids, they love it.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is a work day so I can't stay long.

I just wanted to make sure that I wish this gorgeous woman a Happy Birthday!

My Aunt Elizabeth recently gave me a stack of old photos and I was really taken with this one.

I just think my Mom looks radiant.

And she would probably also have a pretty young baby here judging by how old I look.

She's just amazing and always has been.

Love you Mom.

Urgent: Action Required

I was doing a quick blog browse this afternoon and caught the most recent post over at In The Fun Lane.

I completely forgot that the Google Blog Reader is going away and had no idea that this was happening July 1st.

So if you follow this blog with the Google reader and can't stand the thought of missing a post then I have another option for you.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I have used Bloglovin for a while for Facebook posting but you can also sign up for your own account {or get the app} to follow your favourite blogs.

I have imported all mine in so I can continue my mad and sporadic blog catch up sessions between the babes needs.

Father's Day {Finally}

I wanted to post about our Father's Day on Monday.

Then I started a new job and all my plans seemed to just fade away.

I'm catching up though and we will quickly adapt to our new routine like we always do.

I already told you that we were starting our Sunday with the Father's Day Run/Walk in support of Prostate Cancer Canada.

It was a great event with endless food, drinks and entertainment.

Not only were we equipped with t-shirts, but also got capes.

Seriously you guys, capes!

The kids were {of course} the cutest but Jay and Ethan also rocked this superhero garb.

We had 6 Dads on team Track and Shield.

Happy Father's Day again to Jeff, Jay, Bruce {aka Dad}, Brian {aka The Old Man}, Brian and Gabe.

Thanks Julie and Jacques for joining us with your Father.

 I almost managed to keep up with Dad this time.

Here we are waiting to get going in our Father/Daughter matching shoes {not intentional}.

The route was beautiful, being mostly along the river.

We just popped up to the Whitemud once and Dad remarked how fitting it was that we should run by the infamous silver "balls" given the cause. 

  Before and after love for my Dad who is one of my greatest inspirations.

Love you Dad.

 And who wouldn't love greeting this at the finish line?

 To complete our celebration we had a family BBQ {indoor on account of the rain}.

Then we made Daddy's favourite cookies while he did something really rare.

Had an uninterrupted nap.

Jeff, you have always been a great husband but nothing has made me love you more than seeing the amazing Father you've become.

One of my favourite parts of the day is watching Fiona and Cedric's faces light up as you walk in the door.

We love you.

Hot Chase

I have been following Vintage Edmonton for a while now.

I love reading the old clippings and browsing the ads {a dress for $0.98, what?}.

Unfortunately I don't have as much time to catch up on my blogs as I would like but just happened to catch this one this morning and had to share.

I love that the Constable commandeered "a passing taxi" to catch the "city youths".

Remember the days when your address was included when you were in the news?

How different it is now.

We share much more but some pieces of information {like your address} seem so guarded.

I only know a few people who have theirs even listed in the phone directory.

Skills Canada 2013

I am so excited to share this today.

We have always known that our painter Cecile was a dedicated and valuable employee.

Recently though, she got the chance to prove her skill to the auto body world.

First, the provincials for car painting were at the NAIT Patricia Campus a week before the skills competition at the expo centre.

 "In the provincial competition, there were four of us competitng..me being the only girl...we had to prepare a fender with a scratch in it to be painted (featheredge, prime and sand) and  prepare a new bumper, seal and paint it." 

She won gold, as well as the safety award for her field. 

Not to mention the opportunity to represent Alberta at the national event at BC place in Vancouver.

"There were seven of us competing in post secondary (only girl again!). On the first day, I had to make a turquoise color without a formula, tint a blue color to match with a formula, polish half a hood(removing all the defects) and mask up a car door without removing any trim panels, handle or mirror. On the second day, we did a tri-stage spot repair on a fender(it was laser red) following the tech sheet and we had to prepare a new bumper for sealer and paint. The judges were concerned with the process and safety..and of course final product."  

Again, it was gold for our girl in Post Secondary Car Painting.

Her trip was completed with a little down time.

"In Vancouver, Team Alberta was treated to a boat ride up False Creek and into the English Bay. We got to see the Southwest Coast, downtown Vancouver, the Lions gate bridge, Lighthouse Park and Snug Cove."

 "It was a great experience, meeting people from across the country and winning gold was just the cherry on top!"

We are so proud of you Cecile.

Track and Shield in June

I almost forgot to mention this one.

We have decided to do the Father's Day Run and Walk on, you guessed it, Father's Day.

This is an important one to us since proceeds go towards Prostate Cancer Canada.
 If you don't already know, Prostate Cancer hits close to home over here.

As far as I know it's not too late to register and we would love to add more to our team.

If you can't make it down then please consider donating to the cause by clicking the link below.

Father’s Day Walk/Run

Thank you.

Weekend in the City: Why Hello Again Playgrounds

Our neighbourhood friends and I have commented many times how little we see each other in the winter.

Once we can get outdoors it's like we come back to life.

The playground especially is a hub of activity.

You're almost guaranteed to run into a friend or two.

If not, you usually make a new one.

We're a little behind on playground season since we had those 2 glorious weeks away.

This weekend, though, we got back to it.

The playground by our community hall is a true gem.

Not only does it contain our local spray park but it has the greatest vintage equipment.

It also has a couple chess tables which make me reminiscent of the parks in Paris.

Not to mention it's blocks away from our Farmer's Market, also a gem.

One of these community friends I speak of happened to be on route to her dance recital when we bumped into her {at the park of course}.

We took a chance and ended up with the last 2 seats in the house.

Fiona didn't stop talking about it for the rest of the day and is now enrolled for September.

Daddy was absent due to some necessary catching up at the shop on Saturday.

 We made up for it with a trip to our other playground on Sunday and brunch at our favourite diner.

We missed you playgrounds, good to be back.

Lakeation Projects #s 2-5

We're still in catch up mode so I haven't had as much share time as I'd hoped for this week.

I feel like there's so much to talk about so naturally I can't think of anything to say.

I will however finish showing our little projects at the lake.

Do you have a place where work doesn't feel like work?

At the cabin menial tasks such as baking bread, sweeping the floor, even doing the dishes feel more relaxing than taxing.

So even though we kept ourselves fairly busy I promise it didn't feel that way.

Project #2

Clean up this catch all kitchen shelf.

We have a tiny kitchen with only enough storage for our dishes.

I bought this shelf on the cheap as a pantry of sorts years ago.

And it has been annoying me ever since.

I spent $35 on one butter box and one wine box from Rocky Mountain again.

They cleaned it up just enough to give me peace.

Project #2

Living Room wall art.

This really ended up being a non project.

I found this print of the plan for the development of our lake community rolled up on a shelf.

 I loved it immediately.

It reminded me of these arial shots that my Gram and Grandad have displayed at their cottage.

It's a little worse for wear but that almost adds to the charm.

I had great plans to construct or buy a frame but wanted to make sure it would look right in that spot.

So I nailed it to the wall.

And you know what? I love it.

It feels right this way and I feel like a frame would take something away.

Plus, it was the easiest project all week.

Project #4

Firewood.

This is Jeff's department.

For some reason {I'm sure I've said this before} the acquiring and burning of wood is an obsession of his.

We hauled some harder wood out for indoor burning but wouldn't want to use that for firepit fires.

Luckily we had 2 downed trees {mostly lucky that they fell without hitting a power line}.

Jeff spent hours with the chainsaw cutting them up and bringing them down the hill.

Project #5 {in progress}

The boat.

Oh the poor boat.

This thing is older than us and deserves much more respect than we give it.

When we finally inspected it this year we found it filled with water.

As I said, we had the boat on dry land then the water came up.

And we thought we were being so smart leaving the plug out so that any rain that got past the cover would just drain out.

Well, Jeff fired up the old '72 shortbox and drug it right up to safety.

We now have a dry boat with a motor desperately in need of maintenance.

Hence the in progress.

As far as we're concerned, in progress keeps it interesting.

Lakeation Project #1: Big Girl Bed

We scored big time when we bought our cabin in our previous life{style}.

The previous owners took such amazing care of their property and belongings and left every last one for us.

We, on the other hand, are still learning how to be good lake property owners.

I wouldn't say we're irresponsible but we do things like leave the boat out for the winter without a trailer or proper cover.

Ok, that's pretty irresponsible but I promise we're working on it and getting much better.

{I'm happy to report that we got the boat to safety and have a plan in place for it.}

That wasn't my big project though.

Fiona has finally graduated to a big girl bed at the cabin.

Up until now she's been sleeping with me since the bed we had in mind for her is pretty high.

These built in bunks were in the guest/kids room when we took ownership and I love them.

I just wasn't a big fan of how dark it felt.

The blue and flower decals were a pretty scheme but I wanted something a little more fresh.

I also hated looking at the vacuum and bassinet under the bed.

So I armed myself with a can of soft white paint and the perfect piece of fabric and went to work.

{I still haven't told you about the amazing fabric samples I scored from a friend of mine.}

A piece of beautiful pleated white linen made a bed skirt {which I staple-gunned right to the underside of the edge of the bed} and curtains.

For the curtains I just finished the edge with a zigzag stitch since I was without serger and I actually loved the raw looking edge.

I moved a rug that was previously hanging in the living room to above the dresser.

The finishing touches were a couple of Rocky Mountain Antique Mall finds.

I especially loved this "farm basket" to hold Fiona's books and such.

The floral comforter was a hand me down and the blue comforter and sheets were all ours already.

The paint was even a leftover can from the house.

The final cost for this project was $23 for the metal bucket and farm basket.

Now it feels perfect for the princess.

We're back!

Did you miss us?

I sure missed blogging but our family was in desperate need of a break.

We did something we've been meaning to do for years.

We took a 2 week lakeation.

{Just you wait, that word I just made up will stick.}

{Update: Turns out I didn't make up that word, I googled it and the urban dictionary has it already.  And here I thought I was so clever.}

We checked a bunch off the to-do list at the cabin but the most importantly we fed the collective soul of our family.

In Jeff's words, it was the best vacation we've ever taken.

Sure, it didn't have any new sights or exotic foods {we did, however, eat French Toast 7 out of 10 mornings we were there by Fiona's request} but we had so much fun and were so relaxed.

As per usual I'm paying for it now with some built up house and shop work.

Totally worth it.

Lots of outdoor fun including boathouse outdoor movie night, fireworks bonfires, smores and of course mosquitos.

The sweetest kids relishing the ample play time and treats as well as the basin baths.

We enjoyed many walks and bike rides and some great visitors.

Happy birthday to beautiful Auntie Brie, our kids couldn't ask for a better Aunt.
A very happy birthday also to Fiona's princess of a friend Rebecca.
Last but certainly not least, happy birthday to Fiona's soul mate Charlie.
We wouldn't have missed any of these celebrations for anything.

Some flowers from Jeff and the kids and some from our backyard.

Too many treasures at the cabin to show.
 A handed down "made in Canada" bread tin and some Pelicans that call our lake home.