Maelie's 1st day of grade 4!

First day of grade 4 today, and OF COURSE Maelie wanted to take the bus. It is not cool at all for mom to come to school anymore (sadly enough!!).



"Mom will you please STOP taking pictures?????"



She came home very happy and content with her day. She thinks her teacher is cool and funny. What a relief for mom!!!

The new "back to school" do

Maelie has been really blonde for quite a while. I didn't mind bleaching her hair (because it grows back). However she didn't like how the bleach itch her scalp a little when we did it, so we decided to go back to her natural color!



She loved her hairdresser. That always helps! and her hairdresser complimented her look, so that did it for her.



I love it! but the important thing is that SHE loves it!!

Some family time

Random pics of the time spent together this past week:

We made fires, and the little ones Nathan and Brennan loved to throw wood in the fire!



Grand-maman took us to go see the turtles. Some people are actually studying the turtles near grand-maman's house and so we were able to see some that hatched overnight!



Here is a close up of how little they are...



Here are a bunch of them that were born that night.



The kids climbed the rock mountains and threw rocks at the imaginary monsters...



We celebrated Jo's 40th birthday having supper in the garage!



I picked up some Borax and taught the kids how to make goo, of course!



Who doesn't love goo ?



Actually, Lucas is not too fond of the texture. But Jo seems to be having fun!



Maelie loves it though.... she loves anything messy!



One day we went to Lac des Piles. That's the lake I spent a lot of my childhood at. It's clean and beautiful.



There is Maelie brave enough to just run and jump in!



Lucas followed closely!



We tried to get a pic of grand-papa and the grandkids but of course they didn't all look in the same direction at the same time.



The ids spent lots of time outdoors... even if the bazillion bugs!!!



Maelie was spoiled and bought herself an airhog airplane. The little ones LOVED watching it fly.



We had a few issues with it landing high in trees, on the roof of the garage and on the roof of the house... but all in all it didn't suffer too much damage!



Jo told me that i NEEDED to try out a new Smores version.... toast, PB and a marshmallow.... interesting....



Maelie preferred her grilled cheese on the fire... :)



The two older cousins enjoying snacking on the swing....



On day we had a pic nic at a local park. Here is Maelie posing in a tree:



That park had water games which were quite different from ours!



There was barely anyone there since it wasn't overly hot.



The kids had a blast for quite a while and I just shot a gazillion pics! A lot of them ended up blurry because of the running around. Sweet Nathan enjoyed himself SO MUCH! He laughed and didn't stop moving for more than 1 second!



This cutey pattotie Brennan enjoyed it a lot too!!



Sadly we had to say goodbye on Sunday morning to head back home. It's always bittersweet because we love being with family, but we are also happy to come back home. I love my nephews!

My neighbors sunflowers

I *heart* sunflowers. I love going outside in the yard and taking a peek at my neighbor's sunflowers....



This neighbor is two doors down, and the sunflowers are growing higher than the 6 foot fence that lies between them and my other neighbors! They must be at least 7 feet tall!

Might as well Jump!

4 AA batteries at the store: 2.99

A gazillion pictures taken of the children jumping and laughing: PRICELESS

The past week in pictures

I seem to have neglected blogging last week. Here is our week in pictures.

Maelie loves playing Monopoly with Bill and I, so we played a game and for the first time, i won!



We were dog sitting for about 9 days as Sonia was gone on a vacation. We love having Peluche over! He is full of unconditional love.... especially when you are having food. LOL



Sierra came for a sleepover! The girls played so nicely and had a great time! I love that Maelie has such a good group of friends. This will pay off later on as well!



Maelie also went to a sleepover at my friend Jacinthe's house. She has bonded more with her girls this week, and it is nice to see! I dropped off her suitcase at Amelie's soccer. Of course I had to take Peluche for the outing!



Amelie has grown so much in the past while! We had not seen her for a bit and she is blossoming into a beautiful young woman! It's funny for me to remember the first time I saw her, I was not even pregnant yet, and Amelie was just about a year and a half. I met her where I was volunteering. Who knew that this brief encounter would cause a friendship to last 10 years through many different cities and a few more kids. I like to remember these things. Just being in the right place at the right time.



On Friday, Maelie gave Bill and I an invitation. We each received the same one but with our name on it. Here is Bill's:



The information on the supper was inside:



Maelie, with minimum assistance, made us a nice supper of alfredo penne with bread and veggies. It tasted awesome!



It was presented very nicely too!



After supper, we played a new game that Maelie got at Christmas that we had not tried yet!



It was basically a mix of poker and 5 letter words. It was quite fun!



We sat at the table with 3 dictionaries and play for quite a while!



It was an awesome week, awesome family, awesome friends, awesome memories! :)

Our new pets

Maelie got a worm farm kit on her birthday last year. We just took it out and finally got it ready!



After reading the instructions, she set it all up with the stickers and parts.



Once it was all set up, we went worm hunting. Unfortunately it was a hot day so it was harder to find worms. On a rainy day, we will for sure get more.



We filled the ant farm with dirt and colored sand so we could see the worms paths.



Added a bit of water....



Here is our new companion:



Once settled, we put up the walls so he could remain in the dark. We can remove the cardboard walls easily to take a peek.



The two worms now have a spot in our home!