How to not be bored in a hospital bed

Well I think we found the solution to not being bored in a hospital bed!! Have a friend over! Maelie and I visited Naomie every day since her hospitalization and when they are together, time flies!

They've been playing with their i-pods, facetiming each other while they are face to face..!

They had big plans when they started making mandalas! They wanted to cover the whole room with these mandalas!

By day 4, there is only one on the walls! LOL They are just too busy!

The lady who handed out crafts to them on Friday will probably be surprised to see that they didn't even get to making any yet!

By Saturday, Naomie was FINALLY out of isolation! this means that we don't have to wear the robes when we are in her room, and she is actually allowed out of her room.

Here they are for supper on Saturday night:

Since she could get out and about, we walked around and toured the hospital. Here is the library area with a very energetic girl!

Stay strong Naomie! We are all rooting for you!

Friends don't let friends stay in hospital beds alone!

This picture is surely not the most flattering for our girls! But it IS flattering for the heart :)

As soon as Maelie heard that Naomie was in the hospital for a while, she insisted that we needed to go by her side immediately. She certainly did not want to leave her side to come home to get some sleep! She wants to sleep over the whole time she is there! Since the hospital is not the perfect place for slumber parties, we came home.

If you have any prayer room inside your hearts, please pray for our friend! Naomie has a life long battle going on with cystic fibrosis.

As much as I am so grateful for the wonderful services families get at the children's hospital... there should not be a need for them. Serious diseases and illnesses should not exist in children! Children should get chicken pox and colds... not cystic fibrosis or any other serious illnesses. 

But in the meantime... we will continue to be there for our friends :)

Annual apple picking

 Maelie and I decided to go apple picking at Verger Croque Pommes today. We go at least once a year and always enjoy it! I especially like taking pictures :) and listening to Maelie complain that it's too hot.

She always loves to climb the ladders.

and surprisingly eat some apples!

We got a 25 lb box of delicious apples today! Some people are going to be happy to eat some apple brownies soon!

On our way back, we decided to stop by La Lichette for the last visit of the year. They always close for the fall/winter on labour day weekend.

Maelie got a strawberry sundae and she says it was the absolute best ever !

Labour Day Sunday

Sunday was an extremely spontaneous and busy day!! We had no clue what was in store but one thing was for sure, Maelie wanted to get out of the house. The hot air balloons didn't lift in the morning due to the lack of wind. We decided to head over to where they were and just look at the ones that were blown up. We had a great view of these three:

We drove off with no plans in sight... and ended up visiting Bate Island in the middle of the Champlain Bridge.

We were impressed with the amount of friendly wild life there!! We decided to rush over to the grocery store and get a huge bag of peanuts for the squirrels and  bread for the ducks and geese.

This squirrel had us laughing!! I am not sure what caised his problem, but anytime he started eating a peanut, he kinda fell over to his side and looked like he was dead. Once done he would just stand up as if nothing happened. It was so adorable!

What a beauty!

We also saw this little chickadee up close!

A few of the groundhogs were friendly as well! One was actually almost sitting on my croc!

We headed on to the side of the river where we fed the geese and the ducks.

This one was a bit overly friendly!

Maelie is truly in her element when she is surrounded by animals and wildlife!

Three gorgeous swans!

"Hey, how ya doin'?" Love the look on Maelie's face!!

She built a rock sculpture on one of the big flat rocks by the side of the river.

"Hi Mom!"

After our almost all day adventure, we headed out to see the hot air balloons! Thankfully there was just enough wind for them to go! We found an awesome place in Gatineau Park area.

We had a PERFECT view! They all had to fly right on top of us to go towards Aylmer.

Here is Maelie at the top of her rocks watching the balloons fly by. a bunch of them waved at her and she was SO excited!

We chased them to Hull near the Plateau. It was neat to see some land! I love watching the little hot air balloon chasing cars drive around looking for the spot where their balloon will land!

We had a wonderful day together! Maelie thanked me repeatedly for such a nice day. I just LOVE that she is so appreciative and loving when it comes to spending time with other little living creatures :) I love that she cherishes simplicity and is able to appreciate everything that is around us. I also cherish that she still finds it enjoyable to spend time with her mom!! :) Let's hope this stays forever!!

Beautiful Hot Air Balloons

As usual, I was up first this morning. Peluche stayed with us overnight last night so I managed to get him to stay up too - sometimes after I get up, he can't take being up so early so he returns to bed. But this morning, I dragged him out bright and early.

We headed to Remic Rapids as that was the closest, most open and easily accessible place to watch the hot air balloons that were headed out to Ottawa!

I had never been there so it was nice to see all the stone sculptures. It was really amazing!

The main reason we were there was to get a good look at these guys!

The cutest little elephant - Funnyphant from Brasil!

Clawd the Crazy Crab from Connecticut!

The Cake from Pennsylvania!

Today was just the first take off for these guys, so I am very hopeful to see them again since Mother Nature seems to be cooperating! Then again, we never know how the wind is in the sky! We might have to drop in for a closer view today :)

Happy 1st day of Grade 5!!

That's it!! I offically am the mom of a little sweetheart in Grade 5!! I can actually start seeing if I am smarter than a 5th grader. :) Maelie was forced to pose that morning :) She doesn't quite realise yet how important these pictures are to me right now, and how they will be important to HER in the future!!

She was ECSTATIC to go to school!!

Maelie ended up with a wonderful teacher, a good class, she is Bus Patrol which means she has to help everyone get on the bus and then make sure they behave while on it. She takes pride in her new responsibility !! I am extremely proud that she is such a mature, responsible and involved kid. She is always ready to lend a helping hand and she is very caring towards her younger peers as well.

I lvoe you sweetheart! Let's hope this is the best year yet!!

Little Ray's , last outing of the summer

Jacinthe had bought a Groupon deal for Little Ray's but she is really afraid of reptiles so I offered to go with her so the kids wouldn't freak out. In my house, when we talk about going to little Ray's Reptile Zoo, Maelie and I are all excited! In Jacinthe's house, the kids begged not to have to go. LOL 

This summer, there was a new enclosed place that we could enter to feed the turtles. It's amazing how fast they move when they want lettuce!! Maelie and Amelie were feeding them in the pic below.

Chomp chomp chomp!

Modern day pic: Maelie crouching down petting the turtle AND taking a picture of herself doing it (with her I pod)

Here is Myriam... she was the most nervous that day.

Martin was so proud for touching the scorpion! He made sure I had the picture so he could prove he did it!

Amelie touching the little baby caiman. He was so tiny!!

When we held the scorpion, the picture I took of Jacinthe had her looking terrified and grossed out... so for this picture she was telling me to take a pic while she had a freaked out SMILE on her face... LOL like "hurry up!! get this picture done and over with!!"

We got to see some feedings as well. It's always amazing the first time you see them feed the snake a rat!!

As a treat for Myriam for having been so brave, we stopped at Michaels on the way home... now THAT was they highlight of HER day :) This was officially out last outing before school started!!