COVID 19- 2 weeks in

This will probably go down in text books that kids will learn about in a hundred years. The world has it formerly existed shut down.

• There is no going to school {there is homeschool but we will get into that later} 😳
• There are no stores {besides grocery stores and feed and supply stores}
• There are no public gatherings. No funerals, no weddings, no conferences, no nothing 
• All parks and recreation facilities shut down
• No church
• No 4-H 
• No sports

It’s officially been 2 weeks. (Maybe just over for a few things). There has been a lot of adjusting in our home- as with everyone’s.

My girls were so disappointed about missing out on 4-H regional communications {for reals}. They both thought they had an excellent shot at winning. This week brought further 4-H disappointments when the exhibition cancelled the show and sale in June.

There have been lots of amazing things to be grateful for.

Spring is coming. The kids have all been enjoying the warmer weather, planting seeds, and playing with the animals. 

Home centered- School Supported education has been.... interesting 🧐 

The older girls are organized and seem to be handling the online assignments and instructions well!

Penny wishes that she only had to do her teacher assigned tasks BUT I bought a few books and some flash cards and have really upped the anti around here!

Andy is having a blast  and he is ruling the roost!

He gets at least 1 hour every day with one of his sisters to build all the awesomeness! 

Here’s to another week of living the dream 🍻 

2019 Regional Communications

The girls had such great speeches this year and they have done so awesomely me and have been so composed through clubs, districts, and regional competitions. 

Lucy placed 1st at clubs back in January.

Then in February she placed 1st at Districts and then this past weekend she placed 3rd at Regionals. She’s out of junior and onto intermediate next year - but she is totally ready!

Ellie placed 1st at clubs, 1st at districts, and had a solid performance at regionals! She has improved so much this past year with her impromptus. 

Can Summer last Forever?

Summer is really a perpetual state of bliss. You care a little less about the budget and a little more on adventures and memories. I care a little less about the schedule and a little more in just doing what we want. Looking through our summer so far is satisfying that we actually made an effort to just spend a little more time together and got some great memories packed in.

Second week of July we got to go on 4-H horse camp. It was seriously amazing. 

Ellie left for 4-H camp so the other kids and I took off for the creek with Cherlyn and her kiddos.

A little Wallys beach

I was actually at all these places but I think this might be the rare photo of me! 

Dusty and Ellie got some cow chasing in with our friends Tara and Ally {and Austin and Mike}

More moving cows.

My happy place. We tried to put in an effort to get to "the lake" as much as we could. I am hoping to find another few days down there but it was heaven while it lasted.

Playing at the beach at the lake. Andy may love the lake as much as I do.

Annual fort Steele trip!


So much cards this summer! The girls are all finally old enough to really start playing cards. They learned how to play rook and bugger your neighbour and hearts. Andy tries to get in a few rounds of go fish in between.

BC is on fire this summer and the smoke has been an issue we've had to contend with at the lake and at home but it has made for some amazing sun shots. 

All the kiddos tubed this year. Ellie is hands down the champ. She has really stepped out of her shell and put fear aside. It's helped all the other kids too. 

Our cousins from Manitoba came and visited and wanted a rural farm experience. It was an awesome visit and the kids loved hanging out. Ellie, Kyle, and Penny were the only ones that managed to sleep outside all night!!

We did put them to work! We got the chicken coop partially painted and a loaf of hay stacked!!

We also are one kitten short in the barn. Miko the cat will be living the high life in Manitoba!! 

It was an awesome visit and we have to do it more! Thanks Aunt Jean for the snow Bobs!

This might be one of the biggest highlights for Lucy. She struggles with nervousness while we ride. She has come leaps and bounds this year on her pony but sadly she was outgrowing her. The universe smiled on us and the stars aligned and we found her her unicorn. Meet Reese. She wakes up every morning and begs Ellie and dusty to go riding. 

This has been Ellie's highlight. Kneeboarding. Hopefully we can get back to the lake because she is determined to ski this year!

We have 2 more weeks left of bliss! Fingers crossed we have a few more adventures!

A Short Sweet Month to remember

We really have been having the best February.

We have been very busy 

but

I have been trying especially hard to slow down and do some extras with the kids

(and having a friend to encourage that is a huge bonus)

We wrapped up basketball and Ellie did great 

and 

I had a great time hanging out with moms that I don't normally get a chance to visit with.

We went to a trampoline park and the kiddos had the best time.

 Dusty took the girls to 4-H foods and they learnt about cake decorating 

AND

seriously we may have discovered ANOTHER hidden talent that Penny has!!

You can expect a bakery to open any day now....

 OH FOR THE LOVE OF HOCKEY

AND BOYS

ESPECIALLY THESE BOYS

Oh man! Dusty gets a gold star because he took ALL the kids to the hockey game SOLO 

and it was with school

SO

ALL of their friends were there.

It was CHAOS

and these two were Captain Chaos and Lieutenant Loud

It's been a great month and we are ending it by playing play-off hockey against a great team and it's been a blast ending our month this way!!

basket ball and trampolines

Oh man! what an awesome weekend!!
Jam-packed as usual but there was some great highlights!

Penny and her little hockey team got to go watch the university team play. They got to be in the dressing room for the pep talk and go out on the bench and watch the team warm up. She hung out with her hockey bestie and came home buzzing. The next day their team won their game and solidified their spot in playoffs.

Lucy was the sheep queen this weekend. She stayed home and hung out with Gramma and Andy and made sure all the new born lambs were up and doing their thing. She also took charge of bottle feeding the bottle lamb and got to have a friend over to play on Saturday.

Ellie was in a basketball tournament and they ended up winning!!! She had a great time hanging out with all her friends and I had a great time watching them play ball.

Andy.... well, his Gramma came and saved him from being toted around all weekend. He had the best time reading books and watching movies.

This week we had a PD day so I took Lucy, Penny, and Andy to the trampoline park and we met Stacey and her mom and the kiddos there and it was an awesome hour and everyone was PLAYED out.
Came home and headed to hockey practise with Penny and she had a surprise pizza party after. It's so much fun to be apart of such a great little team. Her coaches and other players and parents are really great!

This next weekend should be filled with awesomeness too..... 4-H, more basketball, AND the Superbowl!!!!!

Horses and Hockey

That title might be my version of heaven (along with chocolate cake... But that's for another post).

Our fall has been consumed with both these two things. We have had clinics and rodeos and shows and then lessons and recreational riding. Plus we have been at the rink at least 3 times a week. Penny usually has her hockey stuff on with her cowboy boots headed to the rink! It's a zoo!

On Halloween the girls got to get all decked out with the horses. They had a great time and are already scheming up new costumes for next year! 

And as November rolled in- Penny actually got to play in her first game!

Life has been very hectic but it's been filled with some of the things our family loves a lot. I actually can't wait for more!

Double Digits

Ellie is 10.

She is a great kid and always so easy to please. She is always the one who "caves" and does whatever anyone else wants to do. So we wanted to give her a surprise. We asked her what she wanted to do- have a party with friends or family or go somewhere. She picked go somewhere (which we knew she would since she really doesn't like birthday parties- especially hers)

We ALWAYS take her to the zoo. So that's what we did.

She had a great time. She loves the penguin and flamingos but the highlight was the black bears. We got to watch them feed the bears!

She thought this was funny!! After the zoo we took her to bass pro shop. My sister then phoned us for dinner. (Which was totally pre-planned but unknown to Ellie). As we pulled in the whole outside of the house was covered in balloons and poofies. As we got inside it was just as decorated. She was totally surprised. She had an awesome cake and ate pizza until she almost popped! 

The next morning we surprised her with tickets to calaway park. They had the best time. It was halloweenie and they got to do a scavenger hunt. We did tons of rides and ate tons of bad food!

Ellie on the bumper cars.

The log ride was a huge hit. (penny's favorite)

Lucy loved the rollercoaster and Ellie loved this other ride that was really high and then would swoop down. The first time she went on it- I couldn't breath because I was laughing so hard at her.

It was a great and memorable 10th!

July

It's hard to believe that it is already the END of July!!!

We have filled July with lots of memories.

We had our last lamb of the year....

Check out our farm blog for that exciting story!

www.cattailcoulee.blogspot.ca

and we did summer games

(see below post)

and we ACTUALLY FINALLY made it out to our favorite spot

(besides our home)

And mixed into this was a family reunion 

and 

our regular duties.

I can't wait to see what August brings....