Some Random Things

This is how my husband spent a good part of the Paxman Family Reunion in Waterton. We spent a good part of the afternoon cooped up in the camp kitchen because it was pouring rain. But the girls and I had fun.

I LOVE green beans. Nobody else in our house likes them, so I will be forced to eat these all by myself.

The girls and I made these yummy treats yesterday as part of our Cool Days of Summer project.

My newest creation that will be for sale in my facebook group and in my etsy shop soon. This set is for a giveaway that I have been invited to participate in over at the Dress Up Drawer.

Mohawk

Kathryn wanted to mow the lawn today, so I showed her what to do and let her go at it....

Our Trendy lawn sporting a Mohawk

You all should go too

Yesterday Daniel decided that we should all take a little drive to Etzikom. Where is Etzikom you ask? Good question. 

Does this sign help at all?...No? 

It is in the middle of nowhere or right here to be exact. It is a quaint little hamlet. All the yards were really well kept, the street signs were really cool looking made of iron, I would guess hand made by somebody in the community. So why go to Etzikom? Well Etzikom is the home to the Canadian National Historic Windpower Center.

Daniel thought it would be fun to go see some old windmills and really he is always up for taking a drive to somewhere, anywhere. So why not go where there might be something to actually look at? I wasn't really expecting very much, just a field with a bunch of windmills and such. But I was very pleasantly surprised. The Old school has been turned into a museum. The displays there were amazing. The museum features artifacts and antiques relating to the homesteading days of Southern Alberta. I love old things. I love looking at them, but even more I love being able to touch them. To look through an old ledger book, or school grammar. To put on an old hat or feel what that old quilt made from old socks feels like. To feel the weight of an old Iron or to run my fingers along the hem of an old arm uniform. To flip through the pages of a brand book to see if I could find some familiar names from 1916. This museum has so many fascinating things, even in the entrances to thebathrooms there were displays. I didn't take any pictures of the inside of the museum because I figure if you really want to see what is in it, you need to go see it for yourself. It is a gem.

Out side the museum we learned a bit about yucca moths and soapweed, and how very important they are to each other and the area....interesting. We then walked around the 1/4 mile self guided tour of the windmills. Here are some pictures.

The Windmill Museum

My Favorite one

Windmill

Kathryn and Tansley standing at the base of the windmill

Cool days of summer

I got this idea from this site. We've been having fun so far doing different kinds of activities for each day. Yesterday we did this....

Kathryn painting everything just right

artists at work

Kymberly likes pink

Tansley starting off careful

Looks like fun doesn't it? I bought these canvas camp backpacks at Makingfriends.com for a couple of bucks.

Here are our finished products...

Kathryn proud as can be

ummm...Tansley all done

Kymberly with more paint on her hands than on her bag

Today's project? we'll be making a pinata. We'll then bust if open for Kymberly's birthday at the end of the month.

better than my own creations

I love spending time in my yard in the summer. We were blessed to buy a house with a beautiful, established yard. When we bought the house in the dead of winter, we had no idea that we were going to be in for such a treat in the spring. This spring was even better than last year, and here is where maybe I can take a little credit, I took really good care of all the flower gardens last year, fed them and weeded them. This year, because I knew what we had and were, I was able to take better care of the gardens in the spring time. My work has paid off, our yard is even more incredible than last year.

This is my favorite flower in my whole garden

Sure I have other gorgeous flowers like these

or these

But this....

...this is my favorite. A simple yellow long stem rose with just a hint of orange on the edge of the petals. It is so perfect. It smells so sweet. It thrills me to see it bloom, and saddens me when the last petal falls.

Last year this rose "bush" only produced on incredibly gorgeous flower, this year looks to be the same. I am far from an expert on roses, I would love to have this rose make more flowers, so if anybody knows anything,
I would love to hear it.

I also look forward to these ripening!

Can anybody say raspberry jam?

Last year we only got enough to sample every other day. This year? Well, we may have more that I can keep up with! I am so excited! I'll let you know if I get tired of raspberries, though that is really very unlikely.
In other news....

What do you think my cats have been up to?Poor birdie!

She's taking matters into her own hands.

We had a great Canada Day. It started out not quite how I had planned, but ended up being just what I needed. It was relaxing and low key.  First of all we slept in, which is always nice. Then Daniel headed across the border with Brother Brown to pick up his truck and bring it back. While Daniel was gone, the girls and I thought we would try out the stuffie patterns I won for playing along in this post.
I don't have pictures yet of the finished projects, but I will post some later today
. If you go over to my other blog you can see pictures of the stuffies we made. I let the girls pick their own material so that it would really be special to them.
When Daniel got home we headed to Lethbridge to spend some time with family. We had a BBQ at my mom and dad's and then later headed over to his mom's place until it was time to go to the fireworks at Henderson Lake Park. I wasn't sure how well this was going to go. Last year Tansley curled up in a ball under the blanket, sucked her thumb and cried and Kymberly screamed. This year Tansley was determined to be brave, and she did a really good job and actually enjoyed them. Kymberly was a different story. When the first test one went off, she froze in my lap and stayed that way until the real display started, at which point she started to shake. I could feel her little heart racing. I tried to hold her close and whisper to her that she was OK, that I was right there, but she started to squirm. She kept saying "stroller, stroller" over and over and reaching for it. So finally I put her in it. Then she reached for dad and said "Daddy, push!" over and over in a terrified half crying voice. When that didn't work, she tried "momma, push!". So I once again picked her up and held her tight and tried to comfort her. But she would have none of that and squirmed her way off my lap and started running in the direction that we had come from. We had parked just off of South Parkside Drive and cut across the golf course and then just sat on the south side of the lake. So off she went into the complete darkness of the golf course, running holding her blanket and stuffed kitty, crying "van, van, van". It was so increadibly funny, that I just laughed as I went after her. If mom and dad weren't going to take her to safety, she would go on her own. You have to give her credit for knowing which direction to go, I thought that was pretty smart. She was really moving too, I had to run to catch up with her. I wonder how far she would have gone if I would have let her? She was still so mad when I caught up with her and picked her up. I told her we would go get the stroller and then go back to the van in a few minutes. I put her in the stroller and just paced back and forth until the fireworks were done. She sat there with her face turned away from the fireworks and her blanket pulled up to it like she was trying to pretend that it wasn't happening. The poor little girl. We may have scarred her for life.

Finally!

It's summer, and I don't know what to do first. So many things to do, places to see, friends and family to visit....where should we begin?
Canada Day is the first big thing to do(July 1st), and we don't even have that planned yet. When I ask my husband what he would like to do he just says "I don't know". So I guess we'll be flying by the seat of our pants tomorrow and see what kind of fun we run into.
As for the rest of the summer, we have some camping trips planned and at some point we'll head up to the Calgary Zoo, the rest we'll just fill in as we go.