Summer vacation - Day 10

One thing Maelie does FOR ME every year is come pick strawberries. She doesn't enjoy it much but she knows how much I enjoy it. We kept it short and sweet this year.

She is extremely selective and comments on every single strawberry she picks.

She always pretends to taste one! Maelie just doesn't like strawberries...!! She does enjoy them in smoothies though.

Ta-Da! One basket to take home this year!

After the strwaberry picking, we went to the Ottawa's Farmers' Market. This is the first time we went since it has been across from the University. It's quite big and full of people!

Here we are just walking in.

Tons of fresh produce! Yum yum yum!!

Take time to stop and smell the stinky flowers... Maelie didn't think these smelled good at all.

These smelled much better!

Since we did 2 activities on MY list, I let Maelie choose an activity. She decided to go to Clip N Climb!

She loves to climb to the top of these green poles!!

I think her goal today was to go to the top of all of the walls she tried!

She was pretty good at it too!

Even on this wiggly ladder!

These ones were quite hard until she got the hang of it.

This one has been hard ever time she tried it! She has yet to make it to the top!!

Phew! That's one sweaty little girl! Only after the climbing did she start to feel her sore foot again! She is pushing hard to ignore it and retrain it to understand that all these activities are NOT painful. Her nerves will catch on one day!

A refreshing strawberry smoothie one we got home!! Yum yum yum!!

After supper, Maelie worked on her nails, prepping them for Canada Day tomorrow!!

Summer vacation - Day 9

Today was a nice stay home kinda day for Maelie. Myriam came over in the afternoon to play, and I didn't even take one picture!! Probably because when they were outside or on the main floor, I was out running errands and Bill stayed with them. When I came back they were back in the basement playing "school" together. :) Sadly, Myriam & family are moving away to the Quebec city area in a month and a half. We will miss them a lot.

For supper, I made a salad with our garden lettuce and added some of our chives as well! Maelie chopped some off for us to use.

These little herb scissors are really cute! They have 4 blades and so I can use them to chop my herbs quicker.

I got this book yesterday while at the mall with Maelie. It was pretty cheap and there are a lot of good idea in it! I am looking forward to trying some of the recipes!

Today, my mission was finding some skin colored bras for Maelie. Shopping for colorful bras is easier, but is still a challenge with cup sizes. Now really, if you look at the pic below... does that look like an A-cup? Not really! There is extra padding and really, it could pass for a C cup!

Now why would I want my child wearing something that makes the cups look bigger??? I am so fed up with society sexualizing everything.. we don't NEED to look like we have a big chest to be valuable in society. I feel bad for the young girls and women who are falling for these messages!! Our bodies are NOT what decides if you are worthy/acceptable/good etc...

Sorry - body image and self esteem/self worth are issues that get my blood boiling! :) But that can be another post for another day! Needless to say I am returning the bra today... !!

Summer vacation - Day 8

Today started off early for some, later for others! Maelie slept in til 10 am ! We went to the mall to return some shorts that she bought and regretted buying (too pricey!). After that, we had lunch and headed off to the physio. Here she is doing one of her exercises. Pushing down one side at a time of the stair stepper... it's a lot harder than it looks!

After working hard at the physio, we headed off to Splash Wave Pool.

I didn't bring my camera inside since I was swimming too... but we took a pic in front of the windows once we were done! We had a fun time :)

After the swim, I told Maelie we could go to Aeropostale if she wanted.... like she would EVER say no....!!! Lots of sales there this weekend, so she bought herself some shorts and shirts. We then went to a few other stores in the mall, and she found more clothing, of course. This kid LOVES clothes.

Showing off all of her purchases to her daddy :)

Such a relaxing Mother-Daughter day! I love that she still enjoys spending time with me :) (and it's not cuz I bought her clothes either because she paid for it with her own money LOL)

Have I mentioned that I love my baby girl???

Summer vacation - Day 7

My day started off quite relaxed! I was able to sleep in a bit in the morning. Nothing beats a morning with a delicious smoothie!! Lots of greens hidden in there!

We took the kids to Skyzone today for the first time. It's a new indoor trampoline park in Ottawa. This picture is of them at the end when no one wanted to stand close to anyone because they were all sweaty!

The kids had access to the foam pit, the open jump area, the basketball and the dodgeball court.

The girls had a hard time getting out of there!!

Here is Maelie on the open court. She was jumping like crazy. She naturally jumps more on her right foot that on her left due to her CRPS. She is getting MUCH better though and is tolerating a lot more of the pain.

Wooo hooooo!!

Here is Naomie throwing herself on the wall and bouncing off!

 Wilyam was pretty good at it too! He jumped like crazy for the whole hour!

Maelie bounced off the wall and ended up pulling a muscle! Poor little thing!

The basketball court was fun too :) Maelie, even with her pulled muscle, is looking forward to going back there over and over again! She LOVED it!!

Once we got home, Maelie went to Naomie's for a swim and then I joined them for dinner.

After dinner, we got a free dance show!

First up we had Maelie and Naomie performing Jailhouse Rock.

Love the moves! 

The next performance was the chicken dance! The two older girls joined in with Maelie and Naomie.

Quite the show!! Everyone was pooped at the end of the evening!!

I love how relaxed our summers are! I also love when I have a day off :)

Summer vacation - Day 6

Maelie decided it was time for a pedicure! She spread out all of her nailpolishes and made us guess how many she had. Well she had way over 80!! Who needs that many?? Bill still refuses to get a pedicure!! Maelie says she will try to sneak in his bedroom at night and paint a few toes...

Well, every day, I like to check out my garden. I haven't had to water it much this summer that's for sure. We have sun and rain and 100% humidity every day!! My garden actually looks like it will have no more room soon!! Who knew I had part of a green thumb! I am still grossed out by the things that like to hang out on my plants... such as slugs and ants and other creatures. I do have to spray them more with soap, water and garlic!!

My tomatoes have lots of flowers on them! To me, all this growth is miraculous! I am constantly amazed at how nature works and how we can grow the things we love! It is giving me even more motivation to encourage local farmers this year and I can't wait to go visit Juniper farm for some organic tasty veggies this year.

I was surprised to see that the little cucumber plant that I thought was surely dying just 3 weeks ago is now flowering! ooooh la la!

The little carrots are making their way out too! Maelie LOVES garden carrots so she is hoping they will be ready soon.

This is a big pile of peas!! A few weeks back, Maelie and I planted little pea and bean seeds, as well as herbs. The peas have literally tangled themselves and are climbing all over! even hanging onto the orange pepper plant!!

Here is a new little pepper. This plant is an orange pepper plant... we can see about 10 of them growing in it! It's amazing!

I forgot to take a picture of Maelie eating the first green bean !! She loves green beans right from the garden. This is why I decided to plant one this year... since her face always lit up when we visited my friend Jacinthe's garden! Maelie loved eating up all of her green beans.... LOL so I figured why not plant some ourselves!! Actually, this weekend, I think we will start more from seed so that we can reap the bounty for longer! I am just not sure where I will put them yet!! Perhaps just a regular planter. I will ask Bill to build it for me!