We have had a couple of fun weeks keeping our eyes peeled more than usual for fun and interesting bits of nature for our nature exchange. Two wonderful places we went were Lawrencetown Beach and Point Pleasant Park, and also a gravel road to find pyrite!
We had a great time and can’t wait to send our package off and see what we receive in return!
We went to the beach in search of fun things to exchange but spent most of the time enjoying the water – I planned well with the rain boots! What a glorious time we had and the boys can’t wait to do it again.
Waiting for the water to fill up their boots!
Out comes the water!Which makes for very wet socks!Spotted some wildlife on the way home. Some fun flyers!Point Pleasant Park Sumac tree berries? Perhaps some of you remember the Asian Longhorn Beetle passing through the park and destroying many a tree after Hurrican Juan had already thinned out the forest. It is still a beautiful place to go walking but where you couldn’t see from one trail to the next, at times you now can as the forest is much less dense. (sad face)
A short visit to the Prince of Wales Tower to see the canons and the canon balls. Permanent resident.Some of the left over stumps from trees that had to be cut down. I could not go without finding at least one mushroom!This was the coolest trunk! Look at those amazing swirls! Learning how to skip rocks.
I am a few weeks behind with our Homeschool Adventures posts – those will come next, pinky promise! đ
This is my first time joining in on the Make&Listen Along for I am finally starting a new project! I recently knitted a hat for myself, although easy as it was I kept making mistakes. Now onto some fingerless gloves and a hat for the boys which I hope to have done before this wonderful fall season is over (fingers crossed!). Not too long ago we were walking through a forest on a search for some goodies to add to the Nature Exchange of which we are very excited to participate in, and I realized that although I had the convenience and comfort of fingerless gloves for this work, the boys did not. It was due time to make something similar for the boys and after much searching they unanimously decided on this pattern.
There is a pile of books waiting for my attention as I try to finally-with-no-excuses get back into art making and make those dreams a reality! Etsy maybe and art gallery store!
These boys had waited patiently (not!) for their birthdays and on Thursday it was Xman’s turn to be super excited. He already knew what his present was as he is the one who found it but now he got to use it! Super fun!
I have been falling in love with the moon. I have always found it so beautiful but lately I find it mesmerizing. I started to read more about the moon and it’s relation to our planet and the sun and doing so has made me feel more a part of the circle of life, and the energy to which we are all connected.
Naturally I became curious as to what phase of the moon I was born under and found this:
You were born during a Full moon
– what it says about you –
You’ve spent your life in the middle of things, whether it’s between people who oppose each other, ideas that oppose each other, or places that are very different. You’re very aware of perspectives outside the norm and good at anticipating how different people will see a situation. You value second opinions, because they give you a feeling of balance. You don’t have a single group of friends and the people you spend time with may not have a lot in common with each other.
Tonight is a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse, meaning it will be a full moon but the earth’s orbit will block some of the rays of the sun from the moon. I will miss seeing this glowing friend of ours tomorrow but it is nice to know that it was there to say ‘hello!’ when I came into this lovely world.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, on a day like today it’s best to be outside! Off went to our favourite park â we were there yesterday finding mushrooms and chickadees and more, oh my!
Today was another search for mushrooms, not for picking, just identifying. And with mushrooms we always find moss and lichen, so many wonderful kinds for which we love making up names.
Before we left I found that Annie and Dawn were putting together a nature exchange and decided that we would start a collection for this as well which we will show once we have collected.
The sky was perfect as the sky always is with wispy clouds and the scent of ocean and pine in the air. A beautiful day to be thankful on this day of Thanksgiving and a perfect way to celebrate!
It was a busy day at the park so we decided to venture off the paths and into the forest to find what we could find, treasures that have always existed but tucked safely away. Nature never disappoints!
L found a walking stick! đ
Stick balancing which is always fun and worth the time.
We found a path through the trees.
A wonderful day indeed then off to home to prepare our Tofurky dinner but not without some newfound treasures and some oldies but goodies as well.
I know! I did it again and went and changed the theme to our blog. This one is really fun and we all like it – go ahead and scroll down and see what happens.
X ended up catching a cold again this week so there was a lot of low energy going around. I brought L to sports class this week while X stayed home with Daddy and played Yahtzee. I really didn’t want him running around being all snot-filled and feeling like he just wanted to lay down and rest. That being said, L scored a goal during their soccer game!
This week was filled with little projects and board games, me second shooting a wedding on Thursday (weird I know!), reading and resting, and Xman really wanting to clean the floors!
Floor washing attracts a curious Gypsy girl!
L got the Lego Play Book for his birthday and he has been building a miniature town complete with a museum, beach and hover trucks.
The days were beautiful so we took advantage by spending our time outside playing chess, strategizing, snacking and planning more creations.
X won chess pretty much fair and square I gotta say.
âŠall while the house siding is being torn down around us to make way for new siding!
L and I played scrabble and I showed him how to incorporate one word into another while utilizing the ‘triple word score’ making him beat me by a long shot. See bottom left where he added ‘go’ to ‘car’ then next turn ‘soy’ to ‘cargo’. Great game!
We read a FABULOUS book by Neil Gaiman which had the boys and I roaring with laughter and enjoying the notion that time travel can make someone be in two places at one time, while flying in a Floaty-Ball-Person-Carrier with a dinosaur. Dinosaurs aren’t really extinct, did you know that?
I just finished reading a wonderful book filled with myth and magic which has left images in my head and set my mind to wonderingâŠand wandering…
We have a cousin arriving today for a week of visiting! I am glad and thankful that Xman was so keen to clean the floors!
Hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend – we bought two Tofurkey’s this time around because last year we found they were so good that one just wasn’t enough! đ
I have been doing a massive editing of hundreds of hundreds of images dating back to 2009 to either add to the blog or just for archiving.
I came across these two pics last night and seeing as how winter seems just around the corner, seeing these faces amidst the big flakes gave me warm fuzzes.
From there were went for some lunch and then to the library. In the parking lot we found many a fire truck so, naturally, we went to visit some trucks and the boys got to go inside of them and try out the firehose too!
I found it interesting to learn that this particular truck is no longer used to carry more than two firefighters. The seats in the back (sorry I didn’t take a pic!) would have been facing sideways facing each other which wouldn’t be safe if they were t-boned. They changed the truck seating about 6 or 7 years ago. This truck is still used as a support vehicle for extra equipment, communications (they have a fax), and other supplies.
The boys loved aiming the hose (a smaller hose than the firefighters would have used!) at the target. Xman wanted to use the hose twice.
Lucas only wanted to use it once but he hit the target so quickly I only managed to catch the end of it with Stephen untangling the hose.
I managed to get a video of X the second time around!
This truck is used at the interpretation centre to help the public become more aware of fires and fire safety.
Off to the library for a bit of readingâŠand relaxingâŠwe came home with many a comic books and then some!
On the way home we stopped at the market for eggs and some fun chalk drawing by L. Have you seen a crockasoraus before? If not, it looks a little something like this.
L loves to make long squiggly arrows…
When we left the market the sky outside reflected in this building looked pink in the windows’ reflection. I had to take a pic. Lovely.
Sunday:
Lucas: “I slept off and on like an elephant last night I was so excited!”.
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Apparently, he explains, it’s true, elephants only sleep four hours at night and not all at the same time. đ
L was so exited in the morning and he brought his favourite stuffy, Milkshake, that has been with him since birth to partake.
“No pictures, please!” L was specific about the few things for which he asked. This is his first model to build.
I had no idea L already had a hot wheels type Blue Angel which is one reason why he wanted this model. I think there will be more of these!
Lego? Is that Lego? đ
This set came with cool transparent stickers!
A new scorpion character.
Lego Galaxy Squad Star Slicer. Pretty cool, I have to admit. Nice mantid!
Our most awesome friend, Sharon, came by for the big day as she has known the boys since they were in my belly. She is totally in love and we love her too! She helped decorate the cupcakes to be Koopa Troopa shells. Xman helped add the white icing too. L placed them aside. A good system going to keep things moving! Oh yes, and these were little mushrooms with eyes! Cute Koopas! Happy Birthday, L! Of course we had to make room on the table for his Lego and winged friends!Xman decided to run over to the piano and play a song for a sing-along. So fun!
After the sweet celebration we went out to the book store and came home with the Lego Playbook that L has wanted for like, foreverrr.
It’s very cool…
We always take a family photo at the end of each birthday. Some nice ones and some fun ones. Happy birthday, sweet boy! We love you!
What a week! We spend A LOT of time outside this week making the most of the amazing fall weather. Between sports class, the art gallery program and swim lessons, plus a lot of outdoor learning and fun we managed to squeeze in some fun indoor learning as well.
I LOVE collages (and apparently using all caps right about now) and L’s Millipede Fair is so fun! Every art gallery program which happens once a month gives the boys a chance to create something similar to that of an artist at the gallery or from a group exhibition. I think this collage had some inspiration from out time outside and our visit to the fair earlier in the week.
L explained that the bottom left image shows a millipede playing a water shooter game to try and win the stuffed ‘Milkshake” cow hanging above. His water needs to fill up the tube first to win. Yes, we played this at the county fair this summer and they loved it (oops – just realized that I haven’t blogged about that one yet!). The millipede on the other side is going down a waterslide  and loving it! Aaahh!!!
This is Xman’s piece entitled Deep Forest. I have to say I love his use of positive/negative space to illustrate how deep this forrest is. Love it.
This collage is X’s as well. I see a tree theme here. We are big fans of the moon especially in it’s full phase. It’s mesmerizing and so beautiful! He made a point of letting me know that the craters on the moon were made with a silver colour pencil – very important. Love again.
It’s definitely okay to love your own child’s work I believe! I find it to be a window into their minds and what a wonderful land they may share!
As you may recall in the last HA post we were exploring the number three. Well, I found a fun poem about threes in our Waldorf notes and L had a great time with it. Below is a 30 leaf clover which is really ten clovers placed together because that is so much better for luck than one four leaf clover! Obviously!
X went a different direction or a tangent you could say. He started drawing out Margot Multiply gnome we had made for this year in an attempt to continue illustrating multiples of three. He went on to draw Plusil Plus, Minihat Minus and Daisy Divide in a nature walk. Well, what could be better?
This next week is all about fours in so many ways! I have never had so much fun with numbers, have you?
Waiting for the water to fill up their boots!
Which makes for very wet socks!
Spotted some wildlife on the way home.
Some fun flyers!
Point Pleasant Park
Sumac tree berries?
Perhaps some of you remember the Asian Longhorn Beetle passing through the park and destroying many a tree after Hurrican Juan had already thinned out the forest. It is still a beautiful place to go walking but where you couldn’t see from one trail to the next, at times you now can as the forest is much less dense. (sad face)
A short visit to the Prince of Wales Tower to see the canons and the canon balls.
Permanent resident.
Some of the left over stumps from trees that had to be cut down.
I could not go without finding at least one mushroom!
This was the coolest trunk! Look at those amazing swirls!
Learning how to skip rocks.
