Painted Lady Butterfly

We ordered caterpillars once again this year and the fascination remains.

The Painted Ladies have emerged.

Happy Victoria Day weekend to all my Canadian friends!

sunsets

As you might have guessed by the lack of action on my wee blog these days, I've been super busy. 

Truthfully, with less time on my hands, I've chosen to spend it sewing rather than blogging. So I do have some projects to share, and I hope to very soon!

But for now I want to share a picture from our family vacation late last year.

We traveled to Barbados to celebrate Christmas. 

Each night we would walk down to the beach to watch the sun set. 
And every night it was so magical.

Barbados is breathtaking.

 

our summer vacation

As you may have noticed, I've been away for a few days. My hubby and I packed up the kids and headed to beautiful Montreal. I don't know what it is about that city but it is so easy to fall in love with, every time we go.

We spent a bit of time in Montreal and then we drove down to Parc Safari, just south of the city. For those of you not familiar, the main feature there is a 4 to 5 km park that you drive your car through and feed 'wild' animals. It's super cool and something that I'd always wanted to do myself. I may have used my kids as an excuse to do it. Just maybe.

So we drove through the park, stopping along the way to feed the animals, having wonderful 'family bonding' moments. 

And then it happened: Evan announces that he has to pee. 
And when a 4 year old says he has to pee, it means it's already just about coming out and you need to get to that bathroom 5 minutes ago.

Did I mention that at Parc Safari, you're not allowed to get out of your car?! We had only driven about a kilometer of the 5 kilometer trail so at this point, I had think fast. 

I contemplated speeding through the rest of the trail at the risk of plowing down some poor innocent hungry animal. 

My husband suggested opening the door a crack and letting him pee out the door.  
Umm. Have you seen the aim of a 4-year old boy?! 

At this point we were desperate. 
But there were other carloads of people nearby so THAT was not an option.

Then I had an idea. 

We had no other choice.

"Do we have some kind of cup that he can pee into?"

We scanned the back seat and there it was. The gloriously empty MacDonald's cup from the the day before.

I was in disbelief that this was actually happening. I sat there holding the cup while Evan stood in front of me peeing into it. 

I prayed he wouldn't pee on me.

And man that kid had to pee. He filled half the cup!

Once he was done, I put the plastic lid back on so it wouldn't spill. I looked down at it, still with the straw sticking out and then realized I should have taken it out before putting the lid back on. Now one of the kids was going to forget and drink the pee.

I put the pee cup in the cupholder in front of me so I could keep an eye on it. 

It felt so wrong to put it there but I was NOT going to hold a cup of pee for the next hour.

We continued on, feeding the animals, acting like nothing had happened.

The kids were hanging out in the front of the van so they could reach the animals and the whole time I just KNEW the cup was going to get spilled and there would be pee in my van.
 

The pee cup with a straw was stressing me out!

ONE OF MY CHILDREN WERE GOING TO EITHER DRINK OR SPILL PEE IN MY VAN!

My hubby pulled ahead a bit faster, grabbed the cup and dumped it out the window when there was no one around to see. My hero!

We still had a yucky cup to deal with but at least it wasn't going to get spilled. In my van.

We drove about another kilometer up the trail and discovered a bathroom with snack bar. 

Would have been good to know before!!

All I can say is, thank God for little boys. 

Oh, and next time I'm packing pull ups :)

two wheels

Today marked another proud mommy moment...

And a proud Evan moment. 

Today he learned how to ride on two wheels! 

He is so proud of himself. 

And I'm sure it won't be long before he wants to put an engine on that thing....

I may have married the best Dad in the world - he ran along with Evan tirelessly until he got the hang of it (on a pretty hot day).

Oh, and happy Canada Day friends!

rainy days

It looks like we're in for another few days of rain.

But that won't stop Evan from riding his bike. 

He LOVES his bike. And his basket.

Yup it's the only one I could find that wasn't pink.

passing of time

I've been kinda MIA lately. I have SO much on the go and so little time to do it all.

That's not to say we haven't been out having fun though (which might be part of my problem?!).

Like when we took Evan and his friends to the farm this week.

I love this little guy.

I can hardly believe he's turning 4 years old soon. And he seems to have grown up all of a sudden. It has been 4 wonderful years of fun, silliness, laughter and gentle embraces.
And I'm thankful for every moment.

our very fashion-forward son

my grandpa

This weekend we celebrated my grandfather's birthday. 

I'm not sure he'd appreciate me telling the world how old he is so let's just say it ends in zero.

What do you give someone who has everything?! 

That's what I struggle with every year. 

But this time, when I was wandering around my favourite quilt store, I came across the perfect fabric.

Grandpa makes his own wine so I made him an apron with images of vintage corks and corkscrews. 
You can't really tell from the picture, but this apron has extra long ties and a big pocket on the front. I love that the dark colours will hide any spills.

While we were there, I managed to snap a couple of pictures for this week's 'glimpse into motherhood' project. I know they're nothing spectacular but it's so rare to be able capture Evan with an authentic smile and I had to take advantage.

Awe. Makes me want a puppy.

riley cat

Introducing: Riley Cat.  
That's his full name according to my youngest son, Evan.

He's our family pet, and I think of him like cat 'eye candy'. He's so soft and pretty.

But most importantly, he puts up with a lot from Evan - who is not the most gentle child at times. But secretly I think Riley really loves him anyway because he always comes back for cuddles.

Oh and the backround colour?! 
Well, with that beautiful weather we're experiencing today, I was able to send the boys out to play in the backyard... which gave me a chance to paint the dining room. Lovin' that new smokey blue.

glimpses of motherhood

Tiffany at simplymodernmom has set out to capture little glimpses of motherhood, all while perfecting her photography skills. And she's invited us all to join along! I love everything about this idea. And I've been thinking that I need to get back into photography... seems like a perfect opportunity, right?!

But first, back up a bit. 

Before we were married, my husband and I were really into taking photos. We took pictures almost daily and I'm so thankful for the wealth of reminders we have today from that special time. We each had an assortment of cool lenses and manual SLR cameras. SLR film cameras that is. We took photography and darkroom courses together and managed to get a few prints published in the local paper I worked for at the time. We didn't have a lot of money then but what little we had was spent on camera equipment. Good times.

Then it happened.
Our huge investments became obsolete. Digital photography replaced film and our favourite photolab closed down. It was the end of an era. And pretty much the end of 'manual' photography for me.

Just over a year ago we saved up and bought a digital SLR camera. We chose a Nikon so that we could still use some of our old school lenses (and they wouldn't be a total waste). My husband is a much faster learner than I am so he's been able to use the new camera much more to its potential than I have. I've just felt like I don't have the time, or the energy to relearn this again - especially when this new camera takes such wonderful pictures on the Auto setting. I've basically been using the camera as an expensive point-and-shoot. But I miss the photography. I miss taking really great photos.

So when I came across simplymodernmom's project 52, I decided to join in on the fun.

A weekly photo seems doable and by simply making it a goal, I'll likely be digging out that new SLR more often, and learning how to use it over several months.

So here it is, this week's submission:

boogaloo 2010

Observant readers will notice it's not a new photo - it was taken this past fall of my two boys. I'm submitting it to Project 52 because it's where I learned how to do fill flash with the new fancy shmancy camera. I love the effect that fill flash brings to so many pictures but don't remember to use it often enough.

Hey, my boys clean up pretty nice, eh!