Butterfield Acres

I just got back from a 5 day visit with my sisters and mom in Calgary. We had a great time. I love the fact that they live in Calgary..it gives us an excuse to visit some of our favorite places there. One of our favorites is Butterfield Acres:


This year Blake decided to try to milk the goat. He did manage to get some milk to squirt out of there, which is better than I did. Avery would not try this at all! No one could beat Uncle Vern.... of course his family does own a dairy farm in North Dakota, so he had a little bit of an upper hand there.


We were NOT supposed to pick up the chicks...don`t tell anyone!


Avery and her horsies..I really do have to get her into an equestrian camp.


These baby goats were well-behaved and friendly...


These other goats in the other pen...were not. You could buy oat-filled ice cream cones to feed them and they were desperate for them! My sister Tavia was going into the pen with her daughter Sadie and Avery. The goats hoarded around them and poor little Sadie couldn`t move and the goats were escaping. I think 3 got out by the time we could help...not a big deal as they seemed to roam pretty freely around the farm , but we were NOT going to go in there again. So, Blake had fun feeding them over the fence, throwing the cone into the pen and watching the goats fight over it.



There are lots of little picnic areas around the farm with playgrounds. We found this little gem hidden away from most of the action. It`s called a `Whirlybird`...I so want one for my backyard!

Twinkle Toes

A couple of weekends ago, Kari and I decided to take the girls for their first pedicure..mother/daughter style. So off to Just For You Day Spa (a wonderful little spa just behind Beilly's). I was a little apprehensive about Avery...I wasn't sure if she would sit by herself letting someone else touch her feet. She was a touch shy to start with, but became quite talkative as the hour went by.


The girls loved it, and Avery is already talking about going back again. I better watch how often I take her...don't want her becoming a DIVA!

Avery, of course picked out 2 colors in her usual rainbow style:


Danica went with a lovely 2-shaded purple duo:


Kari decided on a cool SHREK green:



and I settled on a bright red (which is a big change for me as I usually stick with a light pink or brown!)



The funnest part was when we were trying to take pictures of our feet. Honestly, is there a good way to take these pictures. We couldn't stop laughing. Feet really do look UGLY in pictures--too long of toes, too bony..every imperfection seems to surface in the pictures. Seriously, sit down and take some pictures of your feet..you'll see what we mean.

Preschool graduation

A final field trip to Kinsmen park before Avery's preschool grad.




Avery may be shy at some things, but she's always participated in the class songs. Blake usually had a hard time with this. He'd mouth the words, but wasn't overly excited about it. Because Avery can be so shy, I figured she'd never, ever get up in front of the parents and do this. But she's a pro...she loves to sing...just like her mama!

A little catch-up

Avery finished preschool the end of May and just like regular school, there always seems to be a ton of field trips in the last month. This day was a walking trip to the zoo. Notice the sun. Looking back on these pics, I'm surprised we actually had some sunny days in May!


Gotta love when those peacocks spread their feathers--don't get to see that too often.




An impromptu game of "ring around the rosie" and a quick trip to the park to end the morning.
Three of these girls were inseparable all year (there were only 5 in the class)...Avery however, will be separated from the other 2 next year in Kindergarten. But, I learned with Blake that this isn't such a bad thing. Especially when all 3 of them can be so snotty at times. The funny thing is... there will only be 4 girls in Avery's Kindergarten class next year (a class of 19/20 kids). The 2 other classes also have only 4 or 5 girls. Twas the year of the boy!

If you could be so kind...

I'm looking out my patio window drinking my coffee, thinking what an awfully blah day. Thank goodness I did my grocery shopping last night so that I can just spend all day inside today hanging out with the kiddos.

I'm also thinking that tomorrow morning I will be out in this awful weather. However, it is for a great cause so it won't be awful after all. Me and the kids will be walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for a Cure! So many kids are affected by this horrible life changing disease. Could you imagine having to give your kids injections on a daily basis (sometimes 5 times a day), poking them at least 4 times a day to test their sugars. Counting Carbohydrates and not being able to let them have that cookie that they want so much and you know would make them so happy. Constantly worrying and hoping that they don't get that sugar low that makes them so sick and is so dangerous that it could be fatal. I couldn't! I'm so blessed that none of my family is affected, but there are so many children out there that aren't so lucky.

We are walking for a boy who was diagnosed with diabetes when he was just 8 years old---the same age as Blake! He so desperately wants to find a cure and him and his mom have been working very hard to collect donations. While my son is playing Video Games, this boy has been riding the bus (because their car doesn't work) to different neighborhoods to see if anyone can help him find a cure. I'm trying to help him find a cure, so if you could be so kind......

visit my JDRF website HERE and make a donation today. Anything will be greatly appreciated. Just remember you never know when your family might be affected.

Thank you so much!

Mother's Day

There's nothing like homemade gifts presented to you first thing in the morning from the ones who mean the most to you.


I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day. We certainly did. We woke up bright and early to go fishing as it was the first weekend fishing opened. Even though the weather was not as nice as we had hoped and considering that we completely forgot to grab the bag of snacks for the kids and that we didn't get one nibble and thus left after a couple of hours, we still had a great morning just being together on the boat.
The afternoon was spent watching (napping for me and Dale) Planet 51, playing the "Game of Life" and preparing lobster for supper. My friend Janine joined us as her husband had to work...this was like a pre-Mother's day for her as she's due with her first child in July (a girl!)

Today I woke up very early to get to my first Pilates class at 6AM. I will be doing this twice a week for 7 weeks. I can already tell it will tone me in ways the gym just can't do, so can't wait to see the results! Then Dale and I were supposed to have a morning golf game (with the new golf clothes Dale bought me for Mother's Day), but the weather cancelled that pretty quick. Instead I spent the day baking 4 zucchini loaves, 3 dozen zucchini muffins and a ton of mini brownies (the ones from Jessica Seinfeld's book...they are baked with spinach and carrot puree). My kids love them and they're healthy, so I'll spend the time baking them!

Tomorrow will be a busy day....field trip to the zoo with Avery. Ball with the kids at 5:15 and then off to an evening of scrapbooking and "GLEE" watching with my girlfriends. Can't wait!

I'm sure it wasn't much more than 2 weeks ago that the kids were riding their bikes to school in shorts. Yesterday was a different story...


Went on a field trip with Avery's preschool yesterday. One of the dad's is a city bus driver, so he took the whole class on a bus ride.


We got to tour the garage where they work on the bus's. We also were the first people to step foot into a brand new 2010 bus. This new bus is one of those that kinks in the middle and it's extremely long (I think they said over 60 feet)


We also drove through the bus wash, which was a favorite for most of the kids.


Finally the trip ended with the kids getting their very own city transit bus. What a fun field trip!