Wesleys favorite things

Here are some pics of Wesleys favorite things this winter :)

Lego

more lego

snow forts

even more lego

snow and lego together

skating

Isobels favorite things

Here are some pictures of Isobels favorite things this winter :)

Birthday Cake

cars and painting

dolls and strollers

Gymnastics

Kenny

november december catch up :)

November was a busy month, with Isobel's 3rd birthday and Christmas preparations. She had a great time and was very excited to turn three. Her favourite present was her double stroller from granny and her new baby Stella doll 'Sit' and extra baby Stella clothes.

 

December was a bit of blurry (kinda like our attempt at family Christmas pictures:) The kids had a great time over the break, we all played Lot's of trains, cars and Lego. Wesley was busy working on star wars ships and we all worked together on making an ATAT walker. Isobel was busy with the Thomas trains, painting and her dolls and strollers. We got outside tons, and made it for a few walks in Lemoine Point to feed the birds.

 

 

 

waiting for Halloween

Things have settled into a fall routine at our house. Isobel and I are busy baking, playing with her babies and shuttling kiddies back and forth to school. Wesley seems to have settled in to school and shares some small bits of his day when he's in the mood ;) The weather has been great but this week took a turn and we've had the fireplace going all weekend...reading our library books, drawing pictures and making starwars lego ships.
The Halloween costumes are ready to go and the kids are starting to get the pre Halloween crazed look. Wesley is a ninja Turtle and Isobel is "NOT A PRINCESS! I'm a Dog for Halloween". So be warned if you meet her in the grocery store or chat with her on the phone don't sugjest a princess costume, you will get a death look :)

Summer ...we miss you already!

   We've had a lovely summer and I'm finally feeling like I can come up for air after a very busy September :) so much to catch up on...but I'll post some few pictures of our summer filled with lots of biking, exploring, science experiments, nature watching and swimming.  Enjoy!

we grew some sunflowers...

found some black swallowtail chrysalis in the garden

about an hour after hatch :)

We also found a monarch caterpillar!



making a J



magical!

getting ready to emerge

voila...a beautiful butterfly

We did lots of relaxing

Wesley turned 5 and wanted a "science experiment" party...tons of messy fun for all!

Isobel learnt to drive her tricycle!

butterfly magic

   We've been lucky enough over the past few years to see some amazing butterfly transformations and this year has been no exception :) We found two Black Swallowtail caterpillars in our yard a month back munching on the dill in the back yard.

 

 

Then we found two chrysalis  and after doing some reading about their hatch times (about 10 days early in the summer) we decided to bring them inside to keep watch. We did a monarch last year, but found tons of information on line about others doing them. The swallowtails made me a little more nervous because later in the summer they 'overwinter' and that kind of sounds technical :)

 

 

 

so we waited and watched...

 

First hatch in the kitchen

 

We carried him outside and watched him fly after a few hours

 

second hatch the next day just a few seconds after he came out of the chrysalis
 

two hours later he was still working on pumping up his wings



We're now watching a tinny swallowtail caterpillar that hatched from a pin sizes egg on some dill we have on the kitchen counter. The egg was so small I had a hard time getting a photo of it, but we were lucky to catch that hatch too for the first time. That caterpillar will overwinter so we'll keep him inside for a while, and then let him find some digs to overwinter in...from what I've read a sturdy stick under some cover. Nature sure is fascinating!

 

smaller then a grain of rice!

 

HOLD ON A SECOND!

Before 

Wesley has been working on his bottom front tooth for a few weeks now. A few nights ago while brushing his teeth got a horrified look on his face, put his finger in his mouth and pulled out a tooth. The only words he could muster were "Hold on a second, that's my tooth!" There was no way he was putting it under his pillow for the tooth fairy, he has in a silver box on his bureau :)

After