Today I am writing because I am proud of my son. I was beginning to doubt whether he could be excited about more than just computer games. He likes to draw and build lego, but nothing really takes over his thoughts like his latest game. Even his drawings and lego creations are about computer characters. He has finally admitted that basketball and swimming lessons are fun, but he complains whenever he has to go to them. Today he came home from school asking if he could be part of the writer’s club, because he likes and is good at writing. To be part of writer’s club you need to be prepared, respectful, thoughtful, reflective and have a positive attitude, according to him he is all those things. The best part is that he was actually worried we might say no!
International Day of Happiness
“After all,” Anne had said to Marilla once, “I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.” Life at Green Gables was full of just such days, for Anne’s adventures and misadventures, like those of other people, did not all happen at once, but were sprinkled over the year, with long stretches of harmless, happy days between, filled with work and dreams and laughter and lessons.” Anne of Avonlea
According to the radio, yesterday was the International Day of Happiness. One interviewee dared to say that walking with the kids to school increases our physical well-being and therefore our happiness. L vehemently opposed this suggestion “walking will never make me happy”, complete with a frown and a stomp of his foot. His unfeeling mother replied “maybe we will have to walk longer then?”
I have been thinking of happiness this week and how to teach it to our children. There are have been tears over having to ride boyish bikes and not having new things. It seems that the person named “Others” always has new things.
Was it intentional that LM Montgomery used a broken treasure (that simple string of pearls) as an illustration of happiness?
Weekend with Grandma & Grandpa
Last weekend we invited Grandma and Grandpa F to spend 2 days and a night with us at Ingersoll Elms B&B. We met Friday afternoon for a tour at the Mint.
Although we didn’t see any pennies being made, there were many other different shapes, sizes and colours of coins to admire. The guide let L & K hold the largest coin the mint gift shop carries. It was pure silver with a diameter of 7.5cm(?), it was surprisingly heavy.
We also looked at “waffle coins” or the rejected coins that have been defaced, usually because of an imprinting error.
Afterwards we got some exercise trudging through the snow at the St Norbert Ruins. D&K had their family photos taken in the ruins this summer which brought up questions like where and what, since only L had been there before we checked it out.
The rest of the time was spent enjoying each other at the B&B, playing games and talking. We did indulge in some silliness and watched “The Gods must be Crazy”. We had hoped to watch it with L & K too but we ran out of time before bedtime. We will have to watch it some other time during family movie night.
Christmas 2014
The new year has arrived and, with it, the close of another holiday season. It’s always sad to say goodbye to the fun and parties that the holidays bring.
Christmas started for us at Grandma and Grandpa F’s house. Some of us—we won’t mention any names—put in a few hours to insulate and finish their car garage. We took advantage of the new space and spent much of the family day there. Here Grandpa, L, and K are initiating the garage with a pillow fight.
Grandma F outdid herself and knitted cute dresses for her three youngest granddaughters.
Next came L’s birthday. He wanted Lego so badly that it took him quite a while to reconcile himself to the chapter books his Mom and Dad so inconsiderately got for him. (He got lots of Lego for Christmas.)
L’s piano teacher made him perform some of the pieces he had been working on. Good thing his teacher was there to play along with him.
K got into the Christmas spirit and made a little hat (out of wrapping paper and decorative duct tape) for cousin M.
We took advantage of the last Friday before the start of classes to do some sliding on the hill by Omand’s Creek.
Autumn
It feels a little like fall today (in that the temperatures are plus something), so I will use that as an excuse to blog some of our fall events. After too much Thanksgiving feasting in Riding Mountain we went for a drive. It is all well and good to go down a shale slide,
but then you have to make your way up again.
Weekly events this year have included basketball practices and games for L. He is on a team of 8 years olds and they have come a long way from their first game. Most members of the team have a concept of playing defense now, L is a very good defensive player.
K is enjoying ballet/tap at the RWB. It is Saturday mornings so no sleep in days. In K’s grumbling words, she “only likes ballet once she is there not before”. We had our first class where the family could sit in and watch. K seems to have a good combination of physical mobility and sense of rhythm.
Halloween happened, K was feverish. but Mary Ingalls (with the golden locks) and an Enderman (monster from Minecraft) got their quota of candy.
Thanks to Aunty D there were pumpkins to carve.
A new nephew arrived to join the Loeppky clan, and I made a blanket for him.
His dark hair sure is a contrast against the platinum blonde of his parents’.
Now it is Advent. So far we are not behind in our Jesse tree ornaments, we are prepping for the church pageant, Christmas Eve services and the miracle of Christmas.
K’s Birthday
She’s 5, I can hardly believe it! She goes to school,
she rides her bike without training wheels,
she has tea parties,
and today, her birthday, she spent putting together her new lego set. Secretly I wasn’t sure how she would do. She was a natural and basically put it together herself. Of course there was an occasional “I can’t find a piece” or “I can’t get this tiny piece on this other tiny piece”, but her big brother still does that.
She’s not as big as she thinks she is, but she is a big girl.
Celebration Day
We’ve had some birthdays lately, but no time to really celebrate. On the 2nd we took the last day of summer vacation to have some fun and celebrate. We went to the zoo in the morning to see the new changes, apparently that is the time to visit the zoo. Tho polar bears were being fed,
afterwards they went for a swim in their new pool. This feature is actually pretty neat.
The cats were active, the tigers were moving around, not just pacing and the lions were roaring at each other. Nothing is quite the same as feeling the roar of a lion.
Last year’s lobster meal was such a hit that we thought we would try something new again: crab legs. It was a sealed deal when I found them on sale.
Don’t they look good, we quite enjoyed them. They only thing that L and K would have changed was the quantity available to them.
Visting in Westman
September is flying by in blur of activity. A person doesn’t even have enough time to enjoy it never mind blog about it. So jumping back to August and some end of vacation fun, we headed out to Riding Mountain for one last visit. L caught his first fish a freshwater drum or silver bass. He didn’t want to touch it to pose for his photo, Uncle B came to his rescue.
The next day was Saturday of the long weekend and we planned a day out. Grandpa called in a favour and got his hands on a “party bus”. The kids particularly liked that there were no seatbelts, and got a kick out of calling Grandpa “Corny, the driver of the day”.
We headed to Shiloh to visit the reptile gardens. Interesting, creepy but interesting. I think L was the only one who actually had a good time, but I am glad we went. I have never seen alligators or maybe they were crocodiles (they had both) that are as big as I am. The albino constrictors were particularly creepy, but I was tempted to buy a baby turtle.
Next we visited the Shiloh Artillery Museum, everyone tried out the big guns,
K was especially pleased to find one that was operated by women. “Girls can do this too!”
Just the four of us
We went camping last week to Hecla Island. Why, because we haven’t been there before.
We enjoyed the wildlife. L kept a list: a muskrat, frogs, snails, bald eagles, pelicans, cormorants, sea gulls
and even a white tailed deer.
Hecla Island in in Lake Winnipeg, I didn’t realize that it could feel so much like the ocean. We had lunch beside the crashing waves,
after lunch we played on the rocks and we all got splashed!
Lowell showed L and K how much fun it is to play with rocks. He taught L how to skip stones and how to build a cairn. Lowell provides the structural support, L the architectural details and K the beauty.
The water was beautiful,
and the hiking a unique adventure.
Otter Falls
Unlike the last long weekend when we tried to go camping, this long weekend was beautiful. Of course there was some rain Saturday morning. Kira woke to the sound of rain on the tent, with eyes that could barely stay open she groaned “It’s raining!” and then she fell back to sleep. What else do you do when it is raining and you have had your fill of camping in the rain?
This was the view from our campsite. It was really nice to sit around a campfire beside the water and listen to the Loons.
We fished, but didn’t catch anything worth keeping.
We got wet in the water (it was cold!) and then played at the beach.
The kids had a great time playing at the playground. Turns out that when they weren’t talking about Minecraft they were building their empires in the sand.
We hiked the Pine Point Rapids trail again this year. It works well for our family and the rapids are a nice place to rest half way through. Here we all are with our tired feet. Poor L hardly made it, I didn’t realize that his shoes were so small already.
Monday on the way home we stopped at Old Pinawa Dam to enjoy the sites and to have our picnic lunch. We hadn’t been there before, but I am glad that we went.
We climbed places we weren’t supposed to climb and influenced our children to do the same.
Actually one was more than willing and the other one we pushed up the wall. In his defense he was impatient to find the geocache.
