Friendship Festival....some Firsts

This was a Festival of Firsts for us.....again, thanks to some ailing camera batteries I missed some of the really cool ones...Sebastian touching a REALLY BIG snake (he didn't much care for it) and both kids playing some bongo drums in accompaniment with two wonderful young people who were sharing their art with the children....but I did manage to capture a couple of the moments...

B and Savannah on the Ferris Wheel....having a paralyzing fear of heights myself, I was more than happy to watch from the ground. We managed to traumatize ourselves horrifically last year with an ill-advised hike to Mount Nemo (imagine narrow trails close to a steep precipice..apparently the view is spectacular -- we didn't see much of them.) so this was a big step for Savannah...and it was all her idea! Needless to say, she was pretty jazzed with herself!!

*gulp*...Mommy clutches backpack nervously as beloved husband and firstborn reach the top of the circle...

Savannah wanted to try cotton candy....and so we bought some! I remember liking it as a kid but found it waaaaaay too sweet for me now....Sebastian didn't like it (too sticky - he hates sticky) and B said his teeth hurt just looking at it but Savannah enjoyed a little nibble and then saved the rest to give to her friends on returning home....

A last gasp from the camera....preparing the campfire in Grandma's beautiful back yard. Why a campfire? To roast marshmallows of course! General consensus was that no-one really likes eating roasted marshamallows but we all LOVE roasting them!!

A Retrospective: These are pics from last year's Festival....the rides were pretty much the same this time and these were favourites yet again...so even if the camera hadn't died, the photos would have been fairly similar!

Friendship Festival...the carnival

Okay...so I'm desperately behind in my posts. We seem to be so very busy these days...just LOVING the summer and filling ourselves with such Joy-full adventures that I can't seem to sit down at the computer for any great length of time. It also doesn't help that when I do sit down at the computer, I usually get booted off by the kids...;} And my laptop doesn't support my camera software (insert raspberry to Vista here) so......




Anyway...here's the backlog and I pledge to be more diligent with my entries....believe me, once the winter comes I'll have more posts than we'll know what to do with.





So here's the first batch from our trip to Fort Erie and the Friendship Festival. This was our second time and we stayed overnight with Grandma Leavey which is always an adventure...



B and Savannah at one of the carnival games....between the pair of them, they won a lovely Hello Kitty toy for Savannah...most of the winning involved throwing a ball at a target, the rest had to do with some haggling on B's part with the carnie-in-charge...;}

B's turn to throw....

Savannah tosses the *winning* ball and 'clunks Curious George in the head'!

It was about this time that the batteries started to die on the camera...

Freedom...

After a couple of days of watching and enjoying our minnow friends, Savannah deemed it time to return them to their home. And so we did....


Now it's time to look for frogs and tadpoles on the boardwalk at Kerncliff...
Sebastian finds frog-hunting very tiring....
Gypsy moth caterpillars....unfortunately they are decimating our woodlands and although the municipality decided to spray for them, the weather wasn't co-operating so it looks like they're back...and with a vengeance.

Lowville Adventure...Part 1 & 2

Another one of our favourite haunts...Lowville Park....a great spot for picnic-ers, dog walkers and nature-lovers - it has a great playground and a simple trail system through woods and alongside a creek.

Sebastian scales a giant caterpillar before we set out...

Wild strawberries...

Oops..this is actually from a different trail on a different day...Savannah - 'cat-like' on a log..Sebastian more beetle-ish..
A favourite spot to play in the creek...Tyler doing what gives him *Joy*....swimming after rocks
Oscar doing what gives him *Joy*...rolling in something stinky

Fishing with a water bottle...we had no success this day on our quest for minnows so we had to come back....

Back again with a net and a purpose....

Success! Some minnow-y friends...

Just 'cos I love taking pictures of really COOL tree roots...

Puddles and mud...

We've had some torrential rains lately, along with a couple of hailstorms. Each time we were fortunate to be able to shelter in a doorway and watch it all from the outside. The sight of hailstones hopping up and down on the grass like popcorn was wonderful to see. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me to capture those sights, but I was able to document the aftermath.

A river of rain left a good-sized puddle and what are puddles for but.....wading!

Then of course, the next logical step is to put on a bathing suit and wallow in the mud!
Savannah was thrilled with the reaction she got from some other kids who exclaimed in scandalized horror that she was 'all muddy!'. Yeah, so? What's your point? *SHINE* on baby girl, *SHINE* on...

Mud cake...

No mud cake is complete without pebble topping...

A sandwich by any other name...

'Tis our belief that heart-shaped honey sandwiches taste oh so much better than any other shape...

Feeding the ants....

Savannah is monitoring the ant activity on our patio...we try to carefully sweep around their hill but even if it does get disturbed, they show a remarkable resilience and just keep on re-building. Of course, it helps when you give them a few grains of raw sugar....for a little energy boost!

A Vision realized...

Often, while wandering the aisles in PetSmart, we have salivated over the lovely and intricate 'kitty condos' they have for sale....at rather too high a price for our current budget....but our feline companions would just loooooooove to play on one. So, we placed it on our Vision (wishing star) list and surrendered it to the Universe.

Well.....a client came into my place of work to admit her cat for surgery and didn't she just say "Oh, I have a climber in the car, it's brand new. I've had it for four years and Ollie won't go near it. Do you know of someone who'd like it?"

Ta-da!....

And yes, Malcolm and Snowbell are really enjoying their new 'kitty condo'....

A morning adventure...

Leaving Daddy at home with his newspaper on his quiet Father's Day morning, we headed out to one of our favourite hiking trails....it's a section of the Bruce Trail that we discovered last summer and visit often, during all four seasons. Part of it is a re-naturalized quarry and offers a boardwalked tour of a wetland area that usually displays some beautiful birdlife as well as painted turtles and some frogs -- but this time, Sebastian's Flow led us back to the starting point for juice and snacks rather than a final tour of the boardwalk -- so sorry, no pics of that! This was our first trip of the year in full 'greenery' and we soaked up every wonderful molecule....


Savannah and I attempt a self-portrait at the top of our 'view'...


Sebastian poking in a tiny stream with a big stick...

Trail management....the remnants of a lovely old tree...look at the work the insects have done!
A most slimy trail companion...Savannah touched it (gently) and pronounced it 'slithery'...it's a big yellow slug in case you can't see...

At the base of the 'rocky steps'....

Climbing the rocky steps...a naturally occuring staircase of rock in the side of the quarry...
Up out of the forest and onto the path that leads us to our 'view'....
Our 'view'...named by Savannah last year, it's where we sit and have our picnic and just revel in the beauty of it all....
I have heaps more pictures of this trip but the site it slow and I'm ready to hit the snoozer....;}

Friday at the park...

My first Friday with reduced work hours..we spent a gloriously shiny day at the park with my sister and her little one.

Sebastian showing a natural tendency toward horsemanship...a genetic predisposition perhaps?


Savannah and her cousin in the long, long grass...
Tree climbing...Savannah sporting her cat costume

Malcolm..a photographic study By: Savannah

Savannah experimented with her camera technique on the ever-patient and always-benevolent Sir Malcolm of Leavey...

Title: Malcolm, Old Crocs and Snowbell's tail...

Title: A printer is as fine a perch as any...

Title: Whiskers - up close...

Title: Ears...

Title: An eye for detail...

Title: A most noble profile...

Title: We're done here...

Some views from our yard...

Savannah's - our glorious maple tree (it actually resides outside our fence but we've adopted it and as such talk to it, hug it and celebrate it's presence daily)

Sebastian's - the beginnings of an ant hill in our patio stones. All insects are either 'ladybugs' or 'beetlebugs' to Sebastian but he is quite fond of ants and will gaze at them for ages. We watched this busy crew transported crumbs of dirt from the inside-out so left them some grains of sugar as a treat for their hard labour...
Mine - the joyous blooms of our rhododendron. This plant was salvaged from my Mom's garden where it was in dire need of some TLC....we gave it it's own pot, some coffee grounds in the soil and a cool, shady spot underneath our maple tree and were rewarded with some glorious blossoms and new leaf growth...In the background are some bleeding hearts (also rescued) and some chives given by a friend...yummy!
Savannah took this one of our dear Malcolm watching us from the window...