Varmint!

Look what this rascally rodent:

did to my pumpkin:

I caught him in the act!!!

Poor guy, must be hungry :(

Guess we don't need to carve that one....

Geocaching!

Right! For all those who asked (ahem...Stu....) here's the promised explanation. Geocaching is:

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure," usually toys or trinkets of little value. Today, well over 440,000 geocaches are registered on various websites devoted to the sport. Geocaches are currently placed in 222 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica. (Thank you, Wikipedia)

I had seen this on another blog, and thought it looked like a cool hobby to get into, family friendly too! We found a good deal on a GPS unit (Art's been wanting one for months anyway, for when he drives up North) and today the kids and I tried it out.

It was a lot of fun! We went into the Westminster Ponds with Shelleen Blokker and Cody and Brett, and hunted down our first Geocache.

There is a website (geochaching.com) where you can search for geocaches near you. You then download the coordinates to your GPS and go treasure hunting! The site also tells you what is in the caches, so you can bring along appropriate items to trade. Some are so small there is only a log to sign, but this one had a bunch of kid-friendly items.

It was a lot of fun, but next time I will definitely leave Natalie behind, she did not enjoy it. We had to go about 100meters off the path through dense brush, which Tim and Cody thought was GREAT! Natalie....not so much. Anyway, it was a great hiking day, we found the cache, and got some nice fall photo shots of the kids in the woods.

Starting out!

Cody found the Geocache!

And some neat shots of the kids:

Field Trip

Today I drove/chaperoned for Grade 3/4 Pioneer Village Field Trip. I was a little worried after all that rain yesterday, but today was a gorgeous fall day. Sunny and warm-ish (if you were out of the wind). Anyway, we had a great day. There were 13 students and 3 chaperones (including the teacher), and we had 3 tour guides, so we split off into nice small groups. I had 5 girls in my group (the boys are largely outnumbered in this class!). I'll let the pictures tell the story....

Getting our pre-tour instructions and introductions:

Miss Vanderdeen's group behind us:

My girls at the printing press and the Orange Lodge (giving their feet a rest):

Checking out the chickens: The rooster had to show off for all of us "chicks":

Letting off some steam in the Hedge Maze after the tour:

What was your favorite part? THE HEDGE MAZE!!!

Now the kids have 2 days off as the staff attends the annual Teachers Convention. Tim is gone on a sleepover, and Art won't be home til late tonight, so it's Girls Night In! We plan to rent a movie and pick up pizza for supper, or make chicken nuggets and french fries - we'll see.
I had put on a crock pot of chili this morning, but there's no sense serving that, I'll save it for tomorrow. The house smells great, though...
Tomorrow we plan to do some geocaching, I'll explain later..

Tim's Turn

Tim's been getting short shrift in the blog lately, so I thought I would feature him this time. This weekend there is a Scarecrow Festival in Hyde Park (where Art's parents live). As part of this event there is a pumpkin carving contest, with first prize being a cool $25.00 cash! Tim wanted to enter a pumpkin , so I got him some pumpkins and a cool pumpkin carving kit with stencils. Way better than the triangle-featured faces we used to carve! Here's his entry:



With flash



Without flash


You can kind of see where he carved his initials into the side. I think he did a great job! I'll let you know how he does in the contest.

Twins' Party Pictures

The Birthday Girls:


Opening presents at breakfast


The Party!!







All the guests helping open presents. The dress-up shoes and crowns were popular!

Playing outside and doing some crafts. Notice Natalie right in there with the "big girls"

On this day....

Six years ago, a miracle occurred! Two miracles actually, and we named them Allison and Amanda. And today they are six, and in Grade One, and growing up much much too quickly! They are having a party after school, I'll post pictures later. But for now, here's some to remember.... six years ago today.

Piets and Pots at the Park!!

Today was such a beautiful day, I took the kids to the park after school. We had two extras along (Pot children, hence the title). I love Saturn Playgrounds!

Natalie on the slide, and the twins on the giant steps.

Isn't this a great shot of Natalie?


The kids call this contraption "The Train", or "the Bridge". Deanna and Kara are turning the rod to give the twins a ride to the other side. Takes muscles!



Tossing the football, Deanna and Kara on the cool teeter-totter, having a snack break.




This spinning chair makes me dizzy just watching them!


Natalie in the bubble.


One of our motorcycle gang had a wipeout!



We met one of the twins' good friends from kindergarten, Luc. That's his big sister behind him.