Raph's telephone conversation with Gabe

This is part of a conversation Gabe had with his Dad when Raph called to say he was on his way home from his hunting trip (the last one of the season) at the end of November:

Gabe - "Hi Daddy, did you get a deer?"
Raph - long pause "No, no deer."
Gabe - incredulously "Did you bring your gun?"

Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we went to a local Christmas tree farm to get our tree. Gabe and I had been the day before with his class for a fieldtrip to get a tree for his classroom which his teacher will donate to a family in need next week. That night at dinner he was telling his Dad about the lookout in the middle of the farm where he had seen a "weawwy big twee". So our mission was to chop down that tree when we got there. This is Declan, Daddy and Faith looking far and wide for the "weawwy big twee" and this is Gabe pointing to the tree right in front of the lookout!

This is us looking all through the trees for the perfect one because Gabe's tree really was big and we have a small house.

Here is the perfect tree that smells really good! If you look really closely you'll notice Gabe testing the tree saw blade to see how sharp it really was. This was not noticed by his parents at the time. Hopefully no one reports us to Social Services.

Here's Raph posing with his "kill"! They also had 2 ponies, chickens, a rabbit, 2 donkeys and free hot chocolate. All in all it was a really fun time!

Faith's "Best Day Ever!"

Well, it is hard not to "blog" about hunting only because it has become such a huge part of our life. Raph starts planning hunting trips early Spring, then spends the summer thinking and making sure he has all the equipment he needs and then the "season" starts in September until the end of November. I have a very small window of opportunity for any renos around the house or even just talking to him about anything other than hunting! It is more than just getting the game for Raph, he loves the opportunity to travel to the Interior and just get out in the woods. I myself prefer to just listen to the stories of his travels in the woods rather than joining him. The kids on the other hand absolutely love going out with him. This was the first year that any camping trips with the kids involved Raph taking them on excursions on the quad and in the Fall they each had a chance to see animals. This particular trip with Faith they saw a buck and Faith insisted that Raph shoot it (he was holding out for a big buck but decided to make a memory for Faith instead). As you can see by the smile on her face she had a great time with her Dad! Needless to say, after all the learning she does with her Dad out in the woods she got an "A" in Science on her report card!

Gabe's first loose tooth

Well, it does seem a little early but he finally got a loose tooth! Gabe had been waiting for quite a while for his teeth to get loose. Unfortunately for mommy, it happened when daddy was away. I do not like pulling teeth - I consider it not one of my jobs but I had to step in and suck it up. We put the tooth in a little bag to show daddy when he got home which was about 8 days away so needless to say the tooth is now completely missing. We are planning on writing a note to the tooth fairy so we can still get some money.

Kindergarten!!!

Well, I finally made it ... 3 kids in school! Gabe started Kindergarten this year and is loving it! He is usually a little apprehensive to go in the classroom and I am told to stay by the door for a few minutes but once he's in and indoor shoes on he is good to go. They go to the gym right away so basically life could not be any better! The gym is his second favourite place at school, the first being the playground. He is almost as tall as his teacher, Ms. Woo, a very petite lady. She tells me that he is doing great and everytime she needs to leave the room he politely says "I'll be in charge!". He has a tendency to gravitate towards the most haywire kids around him and his new friend in class is a little boy with a mohawk - to which his father's response was "of course he is". He loves telling us about his day at dinner time when Daddy is there - I am not allowed to hear about it until then. It's a good start which makes my life so much easier!

Faith's Dance Recital

Here are some pictures of Faith in her dance costumes this year. The first one is her acro and the second was her ballet. She had awesome performances this year and nailed all her limbers (hand stands into back bends and then back up again). I love her ballet teacher (I danced with her when I was younger) and she choreographs beautiful ballet routines and of course I thought Faith was the brightest star (could be a bit biased though!).

Frogging in Hammond

The favourite past time of this summer has been hunting for frogs in the ditches on our street. As well, they head out in the back field to catch snakes and for the first time a vole (kinda like a mouse). Raph picked up a fish tank he had at his parent's house and brought it home for them to put all their wonderful catches in. They are only allowed to keep the frogs or various other creatures overnight and then let them go the next day. Currently, there are 7 frogs in the tank. They have actually become quite good at catching frogs, hence the large amount at the moment.

Raph is actually the biggest kid out of all of them. He had scratched up legs all summer from all the blackberry bushes he "had to" forage through to get the frogs. He's a pretty cool Dad in their eyes!

Kettle River Trip, July, 2009

Our big camping trip this year was again to the Kettle River, although this time we found the best spot EVER. It was free and right beside the river. No packing up beach stuff and hiking from camp to the river. Also, it was close to where Raph hunts every year in November so he was able to do some scouting and take the kids on quad rides - which is one of their most favourite activities. Here are some pics from the trip ... Faith was practicing her quad driving skills.

This is the main reason I love camping at the Kettle River - hot sun and lounging in the water. Next year I will purchase a better floaty that has a drink holder!

It was Declan's 7th Birthday while we were away so I packed cupcakes for everyone. He waited for a long time to turn 7. All his friends' birthdays are at least 4 months earlier and so it becomes a long wait for his turn!

Our Maggie. Her and Buck (didn't get a picture of him this time) had a whole bunch of kids to throw the buoy for them in the water - hours of fun!

We bagged Gabe's cast for about the first 2 days and then I couldn't stand the smell anymore so I just let him get it wet. Needless to say when we got home to get the cast off there was a bunch of sand in it!

In Declan's hand is a little lizard I found floating in the water. They made a home for it in a bin for about a day and then let it go. Notice Blake making arm farts - this is apparently a right of passage for 7 year olds and a noise that we heard from Declan all the way up to Rock Creek (yes, it is a 6 hour drive). And when he wasn't making the noise his hand was in his armpit ready to make the noise at any given time!

I am standing in camp taking a picture of the beach. It was the best spot EVER. There was also a back eddy in the river at this spot so you would just float around in circles for hours.

This is our trailer and the men playing horseshoes. The only downside was the amount of horseflies, wasps and mosquitos - but then it just gave Raph something to do - the death count was quite high!

This is Amanda Deakin, Gabe's future wife possibly ... or at least it seemed to be heading in that direction ...

Our beautiful Faith.

It got a little hot in the trailer.

The bed that Faith and Declan are in was made by Raph to accommodate all 3 kids but the Gaber can be a bit of a wild card so after 2 nights he got his own bed.

The Gaber with his ladies - Kate and Amanda.

Tomorrow wasn't any better

So, the 5 year old decided to ride his bike into the ditch - he claims it was an accident - the jury is still out on that one. It's a greenstick fracture and should heal in 2 to 3 weeks. Notice the happy face ... that will quickly disappear when the realization of what "no swimming" actually means. On a side note, he was not actually in my care, I was at the orthodontist with Faith. Note to self, do not leave evil kaneeval with the neighbours.

Well, tomorrow will hopefully be a better day.

Taking away all their fun

Last night the 7 year decided it would be fun to take a hockey stick and lacrosse ball (these types of balls are very hard) and put the 5 year in net without any protection and take shots at him. It was the 5th shot that hit the 5 year old's belly resulting in absolute mayhem ... needless to say that is no longer an acceptable sport around here.

Today, the 7 year old and 5 year old decided it would be fun to play hockey on the trampoline. The 4 year old neighbour came over and joined in the fun. It lasted all of about 3 minutes when the 4 year old neighbour got a stick in the nose resulting in absolute mayhem ... needless to say that is no longer an acceptable sport around here.

I can't wait for tomorrow!

A Conversation with a 5 year old (he's getting smarter!)

Mommy: Gabe, were you the one that made a huge mess of my nicely made bed?!?!
Gabe: No
Mommy: Are you sure? Who did then?
Gabe: It was bad guys that sneaked into the house and messed up your bed.
Mommy: Ummm, I didn't see any bad guys today.
Gabe: There were tiny bad guys.
Mommy: Really?
Gabe: And invisible.
Mommy: So, tiny invisible bad guys sneaked into the house and messed up my bed?
Gabe: Yes, Mommy.

Our Poet

Faith's last Language Arts unit in school was Poetry. She worked really hard on her poems and they turned out amazing. Her teachers were so impressed with them that they wrote a comment about it in her report card (if you see report cards these days the teachers pretty much just fill in the letter grade blank and that's it!) It said "Faith's passion in poetry was evident as her poems were written with eloquence and creativity." That's our Faith - creative to her very core - could care less about time management or organization! Her teacher also organized a Poetry Cafe where the entire class read 2 of their poems and parents were invited to attend. It thought I would type out the 2 poems Faith read aloud:

Spring is here let's go and play, let's have some fun outside today.
Plants and flowers are sprouting out of the ground look at the trees from town to town.
Roses, daisies, tulips and more, I look at the garden and see more and more.
I run, jump, swing and play and have fun outside all day.
Nature is beautiful take a look around, don't you see it sprouting out of the ground?
Gardens are growing in my front yard and down my street you can see them from far.
By Faith

Nature is all around us we see it all the time trees grass flowers animals
If you sit in a meadow or a field you will see all the things Nature can do
Bumblebees suck the sweet golden honey out of the beautiful colourful flowers
Butterflies flutter in the bright blue sky
On a mountain you see beautiful sights and that's a part of Nature
Fish, oh the colourful fish, swim in the ocean blue
Sitting here thinking seeing birds flowers trees and more is a wonderful thing
The peaceful wonderful Nature grows among us, it's a wonderful thing
Without it the world would be hard to live in, the world would not be the same!
By Faith

The Willow Tree

It's kinda funny that Gabe took this picture the other day of the willow tree in our backyard that was chopped down yesterday. I thought I should preserve some memory of it for Faith by writing about it here. She has a hard time with change (possibly a McLeod trait?!?) and when we cut half the branches off last summer it took days for her to recover. We decided that we would get rid of it because it had grown quite large and VERY messy for our small backyard. We warned Faith in advance and she seems to be okay so far. I was a little sad too because it was one of the reasons we bought the house, although it was half the size back then. We will miss the shade it provided but definitely not the mess!

Crabbing on the North Shore

So a couple of Sundays ago we went with our friends to Cate's Park on the Northshore to do some crabbing. It was a beautiful day and the tide was out for most of the afternoon and it is a really big park with a huge playground. The kids had a great day at the beach and we caught 32 crabs. I got a lot of exercise walking kids back and forth from our spot on the beach to the dock to get in the boat. Next time I think we will pick a closer spot to the wharf!

That's a 100 quart cooler Declan (or as his father refers to him lately "hippy dude" - he won't let us cut his hair) is standing next too with all 32 crabs.

This is the crab feast at the end of the day. Yummy!

Our Track Star

Faith was at her very first track meet today and it was very exciting. Her events were the 4x100 relay and long jump. Her relay team came in 10th overall and she was 2nd for all the Grade 4 girls ( I don't have an exact number but there had to be at least 40 girls). I'm pretty sure she has wings! We are so proud of her for even participating because if you knew how much she hates running ... Her relay team did awesome - because they are only grade 4's they didn't get alot of attention from the teachers but they practiced themselves after school for the event. It's a good introduction for them for the next intermediate years.

Guess who discovered my camera???

He figured out how to turn it on and take pictures.

The little red car

So on Monday Raph brought home a little red car and asked me who had been the best kid that day and he was going to given that kid the car. Of course it was Faith who was not the least bit interested. The boys were then told that if they were really good (cuz I was about to adopt them out on Monday) that one would get the red car. WOW, what a change in a couple of boys! Declan was even sitting at the table making up his own math questions and answering them for "extra homework". I just have to mention the car and Gabe stops whatever bad behaviour he is currently involved in (please take note that this happens frequently throughout a day). So far I have not given out the car because that would ruin all my fun!

Easter Weekend

So, I realize that I have now been "blogging" for more than a year now because I think I started with Easter pics last year. I have not been as consistent as I had planned but I don't seem to be carrying my camera around as much as I normally do.

These are pics from what seems to be becoming our annual Easter camping weekend. We are pretty much guaranteed that it will be a little bit sunny but mostly rainy. We go with our neighbours and the French's and play bocci ball and walk down to the lake. It is never really warm but that does not slow down the boys from taking a dip in the lake. This lake is very large and usually pretty cold in the summer time so you can imagine how cold it was. The sun was out so Gabe figured he would dry out on a rock because it did not even cross my mind to pack beach towels! Easter Sunday was an absolute downpour so the kids got pretty wet hunting eggs and Raph and I were soaked from packing up. At least we have the trailer and not a tent!

A 3 hour tour

We had a Pro-D day today so the kids and I decided to go for a bike ride from our house along the dikes to the Pitt Meadows Airport. Faith packed us water and a snack (and bandaides just in case) and off we went. We left at 11:00 am and arrived back home at 2:00 pm. Now, normally this particular bike ride would take a normal person 45 minutes but you add 3 kids - one of which might as well be walking his bike - and you can double your time easily. There is waaay to much to see along the way - a new bridge, an Indian reserve, 2 wharfs on the Fraser River, many forest "dirt bike" trails, the actual Fraser River to throw rocks in, not to mention all the rocks you can fit in your pockets, planes and helicopters, float planes doing touch and go's, ships being built ... it's exhausting!! I'm just glad it was February and all the bugs and critters were hybernating otherwise it would have taken 4 hours. I should also take this time to mention that the Gaber rides Faith's old bike as a hand me down from Faith to Declan to Gabe. This bike is 7 years old and he rides it with great gusto albeit slow. I have been constantly telling him to "hurry up Gabe!!" until Faith tried the bike for fun the other day and said, "this bike is hard to ride!". On closer inspection the back brake has been stuck to the rear wheel. Poor Gabe has been pedalling as fast as he could and getting yelled at for being too slow and it wasn't even his fault. After work today Raph fixed the bike and Gabe tried it and was so excited about how fast he can go now!

Joan's issues with a breast cancer ad

This is my mom passionately talking about a breast cancer ad that really "irks" her. The one that says "cancer is hard, walking is easy". As you can see Dad is completely enthralled in her ranting.




As well, Johnny was on the edge of his seat.

Great Gran's Birthday

Here is Great Gran with her mob of Great Grandkids - minus 2 (Taylor and Jazlyn). It is definitely not easy trying to get them all to look the same way at the same time. Not even a 10 year old can do it! Notice that brassy 3 year old blowing out the candles :) It was the second fun afternoon for Shaylah and her "other cousins" at Great Gran's in a month.

Faith's 10th Birthday party

Well, Faith turned 10 this year. Hard to believe it ... although not that hard when I look in the mirror and see all my wrinkles :) She invited 9 friends and they went swimming and came back for pizza, presents and ice cream sundaes. Unfortunately she started getting a fever about 3/4 of the way through the party but had fun nevertheless.

Declan's VIP visit

So, because Declan is a summer baby we got to choose a week in the school year for his special VIP week. This is a week where he is the VIP all week and has someone from his family come in and visit his classroom. He asked his Papa to come and talk about what he did in the Navy and how he builds submarines now. The kids in the class loved the visit and are looking forward to the fieldtrip to Papa's work to see a real submarine!