Sprinkler!

After Missy's great success with her (almost) $2 slip 'n slide, I thought I'd check out Maxi and see if I could find something cool for DVBS. Sure enough, there was an inflatable sunflower that spins around and sprays water fopr $2.50. It worked great for DVBS. We brought it home and tried it out with Norah and Kaeden that night. Kaleb was great, trying to get the kids interested by running around shouting "It's fun! It's fun!" Norah bought into it and started running around in the water too. Kaeden was NOT being fooled. He chose to sit it out and have fun with Aunty Trisha instead!! Smart boy! That water was cold!

Home at Last!!

Camp season is DONE for us!! It was a wonderful summer. God used it to grow and stretch us as a family and as individuals. If you want to know more about that feel free to ask!! ;0)

For now I am happy to be back home, and slowly getting ready for the new school year, just a few weeks away. :0)

In memory of camp here are 2 of my favorite posters from this season. Enjoy!!

OUCH!

***WARNING!! GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD!!!***

Yesterday Kaleb was walking up the stairs and was tripped. It was an accident. One which Mom and Dad did NOT witness. Kaleb was a little worried. He had never seen a cut like this before. It was not bleeding and was all yellow and bumpy looking. Turns out it was his fat showing. Yup, he cut right through the skin.

At this point you may be wondering why I could possibly think this would make an interesting post. Well, I'll try and explain. On the way to the hospital to have the stitches put in I was explaining to Kaleb what it would be like. Including the fact that it would burn a little when they froze his arm so he would not feel the stitches. This made him a little nervous. Once at the hospital, the doctor told him not to worry , that they now have a blue numbing gel they use first. No burning when they inject the anesthetic!! Wonderful!! The stitches were put in, everything looked great. As we left the hospital, Kaleb said how cool it was that they now have new medications. Maybe he would like to be a doctor some day. Now that is wonderful. For once, something besides playing hockey is on the career radar. SO, I thought it would be important to record this story in case Kaleb ever becomes a doctor and we need to remember this day!

Here for the viewing pleasure of the medically minded are some pictures. The first is the best one I could get of the injury pre-stitches (the camera was non-cooperative) the second is obviously of the wound stitched up. Enjoy!!

By the way, after leaving the hospital we went to the old forum. We sat in the chairs that used to be for watching hockey games. We also found a little souvenir store where Kaleb got some Canadiens dog tags!! Definitely a day to remember!

Dr. Mike's Lab

Mike was kind enough to give us a tour of the lab where he works. It was really cool to see. Mike even prepared an experiment for the kids to do.

Here are the kids with Mike, of course labcoats were mandatory. Our friend Katelyn also came with us.

The kids each got to put a mouse on the plus maze. One direction of the "plus" had walls, where the mice could go and feel safe. The other direction of the "plus" was open. The computer measured how much time each mouse spent in each path. Here are Ethan and Josh observing and Kaleb holding "his" mouse.


Once all the data was collected, they had a meeting to determine the results. Mike graphed the results for the kids to visualize. They easily determined which mice were the most anxious and the least anxious.
The last thing to determine was how this could possibly be useful to people. The kids decided the least anxious mice should be trained to "fetch" things for us. The more anxious mice? Well, of course they could be trained to clean dark corners!! lol. I guess no matter what, they are still kids!!

Old Montreal

Last Saturday (July 26) we went to Old Montreal to watch the fireworks. It was a great time to hang out as a family. It had been a few years since we had been. Here are the boys just as we got out of the car:

Ethan was fascinated by a musical group that was playing there, the ukelele in particular:

Posing by the fountain:

We had Ethan's caricature drawn:

Then, FINALLY, the fireworks:

Going home, we took a break for donughts (you know, the SNACK food, hee hee). We were tired and ready to fall into bed!!

Field of Dreams

We went to the baseball field with great dreams of having a game of baseball. A hard task with only 5 players. We managed, every body being outfield with only one person batting. Thankfully we never had more than 2 players on the bases at once. It was all fun and games until:

Yes, mommy broke the bat! What was she thinking?

We went on to have a good time anyway. Here are some pics to prove it:

Long time no see!!

We're back!! For a week or two anyway! We had a great month at Camp Livingstone!! While I was busy running the kitchen the boys had a good time being...well, BOYS! They ran, played, hunted critters, and pulled practical jokes, all those wonderful things boys love to do. I didn't have lots of time for picture taking, so I present to you a real cross section of our month:

This is what motivated me to get out of bed in the morning to exercise and do devos:

These are the wonderful teens who helped demolish the backsplash so Gaetan could redo it:

Rebecah, her "sister" Cameron, Robert, Esther and Vanessa

Poor Olivier, he was initiated. The newbie is asked to count the sugar packets (1000) to make sure we were not ripped-off. Of course we only let him get to about 20 before letting him in on it...

The worst part about the kitchen? One oven kept going out. About 2 1/2 weeks in, it gave out completely. I heard rumours that the repairmen were in yesterday fixing it. I SO hope they are true! This is Jasmine holding the switch to relight the pilot light!

No camp time would be complete without a visit from Judi:

Keeping Mimi out of trouble was really tricky. Even wrapped in plastic wrap she managed to do salad:

I'll leave you with this one, all you need to know is that the frog-penguin war continues....