New Playground Stuff

Last year the Kinsmen donated a new preschool-sized addition to the park by our house.

We have been anxiously waiting for the day when they would actually set it up.

Last month they dug the hole.

A couple of weeks ago they set it up, but still had it barricaded with a fence surrounding it as the hole wasn't filled yet.

Yesterday the park was ready!!

Instead of sand, there are small pieces of rubber. It's very squishy and soft and will take a little getting used to walking in.

Everyone has been there to check it out. I would say about 8 preteen guys were there yesterday checking it all out, including the monkey bars that are WAY too low for them.

I guess this is what you get in a small town where there isn't much to do!!

Anyways, here's some pictures of our trips last night and this morning.

Did you like them?!?

Apparently blogger is having picture "issues" today. I'll try again later.

Agh!

It's working again: here's the pictures.

Cooking Ideas

I am so tired of cooking the same recipes over and over and over and over.

I am so tired of coming up with creative ideas for lunches and suppers every day.

I wish someone else would do it all for me somedays.

Since that probably isn't going to happen, I would at least settle for some new ideas.

5 Minutes For Mom is giving away 5 copies of Rachel Ray's cookbook "Yum-O: The Family Cookbook".

These look like healthy affordable options, and there are great ideas to get the girls involved too.

Maybe I don't want Ella cracking eggs all over the floor, but she loves to help so this would be a fun way to test it out.

5 Minutes For Mom is hosting other giveaways until June 18th if you want to check it out.

Prizes and Packing

I thought I would share a couple picks of some of my blogging wins. I find that blogging contests are MUCH easier to win than any other contests out there. You should give it a try too!

Here's the Dora the Explorer Music Collection from Props & Pans. There are reusable stickers and a fun game inside, as well as a CD of the favorite songs from Dora. The girls haven't even seen it yet (it's been hiding for a few months) but I want to pull it out on Sunday when we begin our little holiday.

Here's the books I just won from Tree Swing Reading. She has lots of Christian fiction giveaways each week. Definitely a site that I check out almost daily. I started reading the 1st book last night and I am already on page 218. It looks like I will definitely enjoy the other Smart Chick books! Thanks Tami!

And lastly, here is my Saskatchewan Tourism win. There's a golf shirt, 2 books and a sticker/post card. It's really not anything special (shouldn't that be John in the Mountie uniform?!?) but at least it gets me into the grand prize draw. Since my sister Roxanne has won a grand prize from them before, I'm hoping that our family blood is going to be lucky for me too!!

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I've been busy these last days trying to get stuff done before we leave on Sunday.

Last week, John's parents came up for an overnight visit. John's dad helped put up some baseboards and window trims and it is looking quite lovely! Now to sand the ugly mahogany doors and door frames so the white trim doesn't stand out so much. We only have 6 doors, including the large closet doors that have been off for a couple of years now. Thanks dear for helping it to look nicer!

I've been doing some more sewing (gasp!) on Brie's quilt. I have all the squares sewn together in rows. Now I need to sew the rows together, pick out some border fabrics and a fleece back and finish it up. I'm hoping that Christmas is a reasonable time frame to finish it well.

I have also been learning how to make baby quilts with my friend Kristi. She made one for Ella when she was born, and it is so beautiful. So right now we are making one together while she "teaches" me. Good thing she is so patient! I will take pictures of the finished product once we are done.

There is only 5 days left until we leave for Alberta. We are all getting very excited!! I have been trying to put together lots of movies, music, books, games, etc. for the drive as there will be some awfully long days in the van. We have never gone this far with the girls before, but since the 2-hour Saskatoon trip is usually a breeze we are hoping that I they survive. I don't make a very good traveller, just ask John, so we REALLY hope the girls do better than me!

Actually our summer is looking quite busy. Every week in July has something up and we are already looking to plan a camping holiday in August too. I just absolutely love summer. I love the warm/hot sun, I love the beautiful colors, I love the camping, I love the hikes, I love the food, the family memories. It's all good. Well, except for the yucky bugs, the buzzing, the numerous scraped knees and tears, and the weeds.

Tonight we are having yummy burgers and fruit salad. Mmm, it's almost time to heat up the BBQ!

KitchenAid Mixer Giveaway

My Wooden Spoon is hosting a bunch of giveaways every week until July 31. The best part is these giveaways are open to Canadians!!

One of the best giveaways, or maybe THE BEST giveaway, is for a KitchenAid mixer. Entries are open until June 17 for the mixer. Check it out!!

Spring Pictures

I haven't done a lot of posts lately.

Mainly because we have been spending a LOT of time outside.

I just love being outside when the weather is warm!

All of our activities like preschool and Music Pups are now done for the year so it gives us much more time to play outdoors.



This is Brie (front row, holding the "B"). The entire class read out "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" which was their favorite. The poor little guy holding "C" freaked out when the kids yelled out "Boom Boom!!" I guess it was a little too loud for him, especially this is 3 classes put together for grad night.



The garden is coming up nicely; some potatoes, corn, peas, tomatoes, cucumbers and green peppers. I am also trying some sunflowers this year, to see if the birds enjoy feasting on it or not.




A lot of the flowers I buy are centered around bringing more wildlife to our yard. I bought more butterfly and hummingbird favorites, and even a second hummingbird feeder. Hopefully we get lots of activity this year.

Of course with all the flowers, there are lots of bees and wasps. I try my best to tolerate/ignore them altogether. Not an easy task, since my initial instinct is always to freeze and then run away quickly at the first sound of a buzz.

We are thinking of killing our entire front lawn with Roundup this fall since it is one of the ugliest lawns around. Actually it's not, but there is no real grass in the lawn, only dandylions and quack grass by the millions. Unfortunately that is not much of an exageration.

The girls got their big hair cuts a couple of weeks ago. It is so great to not have to wrestle them down for 10 minutes while trying to brush their hair. They would literally scream bloody murder and try their hardest to get away. This was never a fun job! Fortunately now that their hair is short, it doesn't tangle so easily and is much more pleasant to brush out. YAY!

This is the "before" picture. Why is it that one kids' eyes are always closed?!? Very frustrating!


Here is the "after" picture.

The girls are "cooking themselves" in their kitchen. Don't ask!



Here's Ella with one of her favorite foods: soup. She actually does a really cute happy dance when she gets a favorite food. I could never properly explain the happy dance but we absolutely love it when she does it!!

So there is a few pictures that are long overdue! Have a wonderful day everyone.

Winnings!

Today I found out that I won a $80 gift basket from Tourism Saskatchewan.

Each month 5 winners are chosen and their names will get put into the grand prize draw for a Saskatchewan vacation worth up to $6000.

I could do lots with a $6000 vacation. Now we would just need John to get some REAL vacation days. Agh. The joys of only having 3 members right now.

Anyways, there are still 5 months to enter. You have to be a Sask Secrets subscriber (newsletter), but they only send out 1 email a month. Not annoying like some subscriptions can be.

If you want to try and win too, click here. Good luck! The grand prize draw is the end of October.