Making earrings :)

Maelie and I had a date yesterday. An earring making date! We had a bunch of supplies at home, but we wanted to go and get a few *special* beads.. so we headed off to Sassy Bead Co. Maelie chose a bunch of cute beads and off we went.

Maelie had set up her desk in her room with all her bracelet making stuff, and now her beads and tools for earrings. Here she is hard at work!

Here is her first earring!

 We had quite a fun mother daughter time creating :) It felt weird to practice a different non-paper craft! Summer vacation has been pretty fun for little Maelie so far!

More fingerprints, pancakes and bowling!

On Sunday, Maelie worked on another one of her fingerprint pictures. She decided to make the animals you will likely find at grand-maman's house!

I made myself some delicious banana coconut creme pancakes!

In the afternoon, we went bowling! Maelie was SOOOO happy to be back in her element :)

Juniper Farm

I've been looking for a local farm where I could get some fresh organic produce. Just a drop by place, not at a Market, where I could stop by and pick up stuff whenever I need to. That's when I found Juniper Farm online.

So yesterday, Maelie and I headed out there to see what we could find. Of course, Maelie's wish is always that there are animals on site to make the trip worthwhile! She doesn't really care about going to a farm that is sans animals! Well we got lucky this time! It was a little drive to get there, but the scenery on the way is nice. We also passed by the Great Canadian Bungee on the way there which is apparently on Maelie to-do list in her lifetime! (who knew!?)

I insisted Maelie stand by the sign of course!! I am THAT mother! This was the little shack where they have all their veggies and some local products such as honey and maple syrup. They also have a fridge and freezer. In the freezer are a few choices of local meats. The prices were very reasonable. I actually bought the ground beef for Bill's supper and there was less fat in it that in extra lean meats at the grocery store. The pan was literally dry.

Just past the little shack were a whole bunch of chickens. These are the chickens that make the eggs that they sell. They have a huge pen, house and even and area in the forest! You could see some chicken on tree branches... They were not crowded at all, which is wonderful. This particular chicken that is outside the pen apparently goes crazy when she is inside the pen and much prefers to be outside of it. So they just let her :)

Maelie feeding the little ladies

We met one of the workers who kindly answered all of our questions. Mary was feeding all the animals while we were there. Maeie commented on how kind and nice she was. Her personality gave us a wonderful impression of this farm.

Here are 100 baby chicks. They are brand new - 1 1/2 week old.

SOOOOOOO cute!

We also met a pig family! 4 brothers. They really like when Mary sprays them.

A few of the free chickens were snacking on the pig food while it was soaking....

 As you can see, the pigs were really hoping that the chickens would hand over the food!

I thought they were so adorable all lined up ready for their mushy food!

All these pics of animals and I didn't even take a pic of the food!! We bought some lettuce, onions, green onions, mushrooms, garlic, beets & beet greens, zucchinis, CARROTS of course... MMMMmmmmm, Garden carrots are amazing!! They even had some purple and whitish ones which are surely as tasty! I will know today :)

I can't wait to go back and see what other bounty we can get! :)

Where have we been this summer?

One day last week, I ended up really, REALLY *needing* to get away from daily life. So spontaneously, I booked a mini vacation for Maelie and I. We packed up our bags and headed off to Grand-maman's to sleep over for the night. Thankfully she was happy to have us for the night!! and of course, we were happy to be there.

The next morning, we headed off to Quebec City for 2 nights. We started our little visit with a trip to Village Vacances Valcartier. Strange that living so close to Calypso, we headed out to a smaller park, but for us, it worked out well! Maelie doesn't like the huge slides, and the point of our vacay was to get away! :) I didn't get many pictures as most of the day my camera was locked in our locker. I took it out briefly after lunch so I could at least remember we went! I spent most of the day in the water with Maelie.

Lots to do!

This pool was really nice, though not deep. It was a gorgeous hot day so getting in the water was really easy :)

Maelie enjoyed trying to cross on these ropes!

This is the pirate ship when the bucket tips! Maelie made it on time to get splashed

Only one injury was had that day! Maelie slowly slipped on the side of one of the pools and the little grainy spots on the ground drew lines all over her leg... and 2 cuts on her toes, and a cut on her hand! All this was in slow motion too!

 

After 6 hours of intense swimming, we decided to go to the hotel to check in before supper. On the way there, we crossed a strange car... it had cameras all over it's top... I turned around to go see it closer, but once we got there it had left! Turns out... it was the Google Maps car!! I was so excited to see that as we don't see it very often... if ever! So we just drove a tad bit faster and caught up to it in traffic.

See the white car with the black antenna and funny looking thing? Those are the cameras all wrapped up.

I gave Maelie my camera and told her to try and get a pic... I should have reminded her to zoom up! At least I can check off my list that I've seen the Goole Maps car in my lifetime! ahahahaha

Our hotel was not super fancy but it had a water slide. There's Maelie at the bottom!

Next time though I may opt for a hotel with just a pool... they didn't mention the pool was not big at all. I guess that's why there are close ups of the slide and of this umbrella in their ads! They don't want us to know that that's it! no room to swim laps for adults!

The next morning, we headed off to the Aquarium.

As we waited in line to pay, this is what we had right in front of us. It's a real bird on the sign.

Why of course.... Aa is for bird.

If you look at the big picture though, this is what it is.

We made it in on time for a seal show. It was really hot sitting in the sun... so Maelie was getting a bit fed up of the heat and wanted air conditioning!

Thankfully the show was 20 minutes. It was really cute!!

 Lots of greenery at the aquarium! It was really pretty! We didn't visit much of the outdoors like the tree activities or the water games. Maelie just wanted to go inside. She was exhausted!

Of course, everyone HAS to take a picture here! LOL



We had the opportunity to touch some Starfish. Maelie was using her left hand here as her injury from the water park was on her right hand. The salt water made it sting pretty bad!

We were both in awe of the jellyfish! They had a whole breeding laboratory for them!

Maelie was going crazy with her I-pod touch taking pictures... interesting positions too!

Here is the tunnel where we are surrounded by fish, it's really neat :) (and air conditioned! yay!)

All around the pavillion, they have jellyfish with some lights at the bottom of the aquarium. Being see-through, they take up the color of the light. Some of them had changing lights so every few seconds the jellyfish changed color!

They also had an area with stingrays that you could touch. We had seen some last year at the Granby Zoo as well. Stingrays are actually quite soft!

The lady supervising the area kept talking loud on her microphone reminding people to touch them with only two fingers. Maelie was disappointed as in Granby she could use her whole hand. 

 At this point she just had her hand in the water and they ran right into her. Thankfully they don't bite!

We walked a tiny bit outdoors before we left and saw the really big walruses...! I can't say they are very attractive.. .but they are cute in their own way!

Since we were done by about noon, we decided to go to the Galeries de la Capitale for lunch, rides and shopping.

Maelie did a bunch of rides and then had enough so we walked around in various clothing stores. Our big purchase? Blue swimming trunks for Maelie that were on sale for 2$! Can't go wrong with that!

The next morning, Maelie woke up a bit feverish. We figured we would have breakfast, stop at a couple stores and then head back to grand-maman's house. It was extremely hot. On our way, Maelie was intrigued when I told her that there was a jail in Donnaconna so she really wanted to go see it! We drove to the jail and checked it out from the parking lot. So while some friends choose to spontaneously visit old Windmills and lighthouses with lots of flowers all around, we choose to visit a jail. LOL I never said we were normal!

We drove back to grand-maman's house and it wasn't long before we all ended up in the beautiful river.

 Is this not the perfect way to relax? Bring your lawn chairs into the river!

Grand-maman always has a TON of visitors at her house. They just all happen to have fur. The cat and the racoon shared their turns eating the cat food.

Then the cat family had some snacks on the porch.

Then the racoon family also had snacks on the porch.

This one came solo.... a cute little skunk also decided she wanted food. I was actually about 1.5 meters away from her at this moment. She didn't seem to mind me, but I was a little bit nervous and wasn't sure I wanted to get closer!

We made a campfire in the evening

and of course roasted marshmallows... Maelie likes making them but she doesn't really like to eat them.

.....exhausted! All this vacationing is really draining!

The next morning we drove to town to pick up Naomie who just happened to have slept over with her grandma and family at a hotel in my home town. We were going to drive her back home that evening but first we took her to grand-maman's house to spend the day.

Maelie had to show her what we could find in grand-maman's yard!

The went for a little ride in the woods and sand pit.

Here they are at the top of the rock mountain.

It's a LONG way up!

Is this not just a beautiful place?

After another day of playing, we headed home and arrived just in time for bed! Back to reality the next morning. We enjoyed our mini vacay... and love the simplicity! :)

So many people I know need to go down south every year... but for us, true relaxing time and vacations are spontaneous little visits here and there and everywhere! :)

Summer is not over yet....!! More adventures to come!