Beetles and butterfly eggs

The weather has been fantastic (well a little rain would be good for the garden) and we've been having a blast outside. Oh the weekend we went to the open house at the public works yard, third year in a row we've been and it gets better every year. Yesterday when at the park with friends the soccer field sprinklers can come...oh my what fun! The kids entertained themselves for what felt like forever, i guess there's nothing like running around the park in your underwear. We've also been taking our art outside and Isobel thinks its hilarious she can carry her paint brush around the yard. I think we might have a budding graffiti artist on our hands :)

We've been patiently waiting and watching for our swallow tail eggs for the last few weeks. And Wesley finally found one on the dill yesterday!! we were both pretty excited. So we'll be watching and waiting for our little caterpillars to hatch.

Someone forgot to put their banana in the compost last night (won't name any names). So this morning when i came downstairs and picked it up off the floor a little black beetle hopped off of it. While we were checking it out we discovered it was like the click beetle in the Eric Carle book. If we put him on his back he'd hop about two inches in the air and land on his feet. The kids thought it was hilarious. We later put him in a can, took him for a walk to playgroup and set him free on the 'thrumpcap' ( by a tree) on the walk home.

Cocktail hour

Just a little moment of fun yesterday in the back yard. And all we needed was water, ice cubes, paper umbrellas, and lemon slices. The kids thought it was the best thing EVER!

Long weekend fun!

     We packed a lot into the long weekend this year. We headed to Ottawa for a birthday party at Rays reptiles, a sleepover at Auntie Jenn's house, the experimental farm and then back home for some time at Lemoine point and Wesley's first night of soccer. The kids were great travellers even with the construction and hot weather. What's still getting talked about? Wesley's still talking about the party cupcakes, frogs, turtles, the rat snake, the pumps and milking barn and auntie Jenn's xylophone. Isobel is still talking about Auntie Jenn's kitty and the loud cow ( she was terrified of it and kept saying "NO COW" and waving her hands around. It was great to see everyone, time always goes to fast when you're visiting and having fun! Great to see all the ladies and their babes :)

Birthday boy Nate

Wesley and Mawi

"wing wing"

making music

pumping some water at the experimental farm

possibly the best shot of the weekend...gotta love those MacLean boys :)

Question mark butterflies

   Hope everyone had a happy Mothers Day. We took it easy here, we headed to Lamoine point for a walk and did some gardening. There were tons of butterflies around on Sunday as well, the lilacs were in bloom and full of what i thought were painted ladies but when i looked them up they appear to be Question mark butterflies. I think this year mothers day reminded me of all the mothers of every kind in our world. I even found a little black spider on the window protecting her little purple eggs and i had to leave it, i just didn't have the heart to squish all here work! Wesley and Ian made a Mothers day cake and now Wesley says he can't wait for Fathers day, he's gonna make another one :)

half moon

I just had to share this funny conversation I had with Wesley tonight before bed. He asked me "how can the moon only be half sometimes?" I then attempted, with the little solar system knowledge  remembered to explain. I thought I was doing pretty good, I made reference to the sun and shadows and it seemed reasonable and he was listening attentively. When I was done he looked at me and said " No I don't think so, I think when it's really windy big chunks of the moon fall off." Then he rolled over and went to sleep :)


we gave this fat momma squirrel a cracker at the park today

babies and chainsaws

   After almost a week of no naps my 'baby' she finally gave in and had a nap today. i must say i was getting a little worried that at 17 months we were saying good bye to nap time...not good! I guess she's been too busy putting her own babies to bed. She's definitely in love with her babies. She has a favourite one and gets very cranky when she can't find her. Isobel loves to push the stroller around, checking on them often to adjust blankets, or pitch them all together. When i cook supper she brings a chair (and a baby) and wants pieces of whatever I'm cutting which she shoves in the babies mouth. She may not be all that gentle, but she certainly has does think it's important that they get their veggies :)

   Wesley has been busy planning our future country home the last few days. In the last pack of flyer's there was a husqvarna magazine. He has been carrying it around looking at it telling Ian and i all the things he's going to need for when we move to the country. So there's going to be lots of land because he needs lot's of trees to cut down with his three chain saws. He says he also needs 'protective gear' and a wood chipper because " when you work in the woods it can be VERY dangerous, you and Isobel can't help".  I had a hard time no going into a feminist rant over that one :|

   So it would seem despite my best efforts so far at gender neutrality like all kids, they just like what they like...

can you spot the brown creeper? Wesley and i did in the front yard the other day!

red paint

I just had to share some pictures of our painting today. After a bit of a crazy crying/screaming week Wesley and Isobel seemed to be in a somewhat of a better mood today. Could be the warm weather or the bus trip to the library this morning, they do love the bus :) But there's one thing that always puts them in a good mood...paint!