photo tag

I've been tagged by Jackie :-) I'm supposed to pick my 6th picture folder and then the 6th picture. Here it is:

I don't know what happened, but the colors are "off". Photo is from July 2004. We were at a friend's cabin, near the water. The kids had lots of fun finding crabs. Jessica, my nature girl, had no fear of holding them -- as long as she kept her fingers away from the snaping claws :-)

Benjamin's cake

Benjamin with his cake. He wanted a bunch of stick people looking at a big banner. This is what I came up with using his idea. Note: there are only 10 candles even though he turned 11 :-) Jessica counted wrong!

Now we have the extra candle added.

Blog CANDY!!

Alecia's got some AWESOME blog candy up for grabs! She's put together a mini-kit complete with embellishments! Check it out!

Blog CANDY!!

Tammy's got some blog candy up for grabs! Go take a look!!

Picnic time :-)

Yes, even though it's fall! Devin and I went on a lovely picnic at Riverwood Inn last Saturday. The weather was beautiful!

What an awesome spot! Danny and the staff really outdid themselves with our little basket lunch. We sat by the river and our basket was brought to us to enjoy :-) It was so quiet and peaceful there.

The food was delicious! I can't say enough about it -- you'll just have to try it yourself some day!

new contest at...

Scrapbook and Cards Today!

"All you have to do is add the Scrapbook & Cards Today blinkie, (found on the main page of the blog under the “All About Us” column, Get a CRUISING CONTEST Blinkie) to your blog and then come and post your blog address in the comment section below."

Thanks, Jacqueline, for the heads-up :-)

Happy Birthday to .......

ME! My birthday was on Friday -- I turned 41 :-) The day was a bit hectic as my sister and family left in the morning. I spent just about the whole day cleaning (you know how it is when company leaves) In the afternoon, Devin and I tried to play tennis but it was too windy out. We came home again and I noticed icing sitting on the counter ;-) Pretended not to notice. Devin and I left again for some errands. When we finally got back with supper, there was NO evidence of cake-making in sigght -- well, except for a ring of dirty icing all around the sink! LOL!

After supper, Jessica and Benjamin brought out the cake they made. It sure was yummy, even if the icing job couse have used some help!

We watched a movie (Meerkat Manor) and had some snacks in the evening. All in all, a great day!

Fishing trip

We went fishing yesterday. Fishing is one thing dh loves to do (even though he doesn't like to eat fish!) and he wanted to take all of us along on a trip. We left around 4:30pm and didn't get home until almost 11 pm.

We first drove to an out-of-the-way place where someone had told Devin there was a great pond for trout. Had trouble finding the pond, but just decided to try this one spot. We ended up walking about halfway around the pond (good thing we were wearing rubber boots). Benjamin had a fish on his hook but lost it while trying to reel it in. One of the kids - Jessica, I think - caught a small one in this pond.

We saw LOTS of Pitcher Plants, Newfoundland's floral emblem. They are carnivorous plants -- how cool is that! Here are some photos we took:

This is looking down into the "pitcher". It is filled with water, and has fine hairs lining it. Prey fall in and can't get back out.

We also saw these beautiful pink flowers. I need to look up and find the name of them.

Anyway, this first pond wasn't yielding much trout so we walked through the woods and back to our van. Traveled about 15 minutes to another pond. Nothing there, so we went looking for another spot. This was about 9pm by now. The trout were starting to bite :-) We all caught at least one fish except for Timothy. He did have several fish on his line but wasn't able to hook them and reel them in. Jessica caught the biggest one.

Here is the one I caught :-)

We saw some wildlife -- a couple of bunnies, lots of birds and also a toad. Oh yeah, this little guy, too :-) Can you see it?

Benjamin let it walk around on his jacket for a while.

All in all, a GREAT evening. We'll go again one day next week. Hopefully, we'll find a good pond and catch LOTS! My grandmother is thankful for a feed of pan-sized trout.

Five Random...

things and photos. Deanne challenged us on Sisterhood of Scrap to try this journaling challenge.

1. My kids thought this was the FUNNIEST! We saw this sign outside a shopping mall.

2. Mr. Squirrel playing hide and seek :-)
3. Youngest son and I on the go-cart track.
4. Our Flowering Crabapple has bloomed. Shortly after I took this photo, it rained really hard and blew off most of the blossoms.
5. My mom is home for the summer. For the past 3 years she's been teaching in northern Manitoba. This is the cake my 13 yo son made for her.

Happy Canada Day!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!

We're heading out shorthy to Canada Day celebrations. We were worried everything would be rained out, but the weatherman said it was supposed to clear up. We had a big thunderstorm last night and hopefully that cleared away the rain.

Lots of fun and games here at our local stadium, then off to an inn for a family scavenger hunt. This evening is for music and singing, ending it all off with a huge fireworks display!

Bloggy challenges and PRIZES!!

Check it out at Crafty Moments! Beverley is turning the BIG 4-0 in 40 days and is celebrating big time with her online friends! 40 days of freebies & a whole host of blogs to visit.

"Every day there will be a new challenge, competition or good old fashioned RAK with a great prize. Every day, there will be a post here on my blog, with a link to that day's venue - so make sure you come back every day to see what is on offer"

Want to win a RAK???

Carla has one up for grabs HERE!

Check out the awesome prize!

National Scrapbooking Day crop

My sister and I, along with a friend, decided to plan something for National Scrapbooking Day :-) Scrapbooking is getting more popular in our area, so hopefully this will go over well.

It's going to be on May 3rd from 10am-4pm, here in Springdale. We have the use of the dining hall of Living Waters church -- lots of long tables, also a kitchen area and living room area. It will be nice and comfy!

..... anyway, come and bring a friend! Bring your own scrapbook supplies. There will be prizes throughout the day and as well, we'll have patterned paper and cardstock (and maybe other embellishments) that you can buy. We will have diecut systems available for you (ex. Sizzix, Cuttlebug)

Cost is only $10 for the day!! Snacks will be provided and we'll be ordering in lunch (that'll be extra).

Hope to see you there!

It's a "marble-icious" kind of day :-)

I took a walk with my two younger children today. The sun was shining and even though we still have snow here in Newfoundland (and lots of snowbanks still!) the kids wanted to take their bicycles. They are as anxious for spring to come as I am.

We are able to see some MUD! I was excited to see that. Benjamin wondered why I would be excited about mud. This time of year just brings me back to my childhood. We'd be waiting for a spot of ground -- a small spot would do -- and we'd be out making a marble hole to play in. I remember sticking the heel of my boot in the softening earth and spinning around until I had a nice big hole made. Then we'd share out our marbles. Good times, for sure!

I don't see too many kids playing marbles anymore. Too many other things to occupy their time, I guess. We certainly had fun with it though!

contest and fun prizes!

Have you heard of this fabulous contest going on at SheetLoad of Cards! In honor of reaching 15,000 hits, they are having a month-long celebration -- complete with some awesome blog candy (prizes!!)

Devin's 40th Birthday!

Hubby turned 40 years old yesterday.

I decided to put 40 candles on his cake, as a little joke :-) I bought the kind that are attached with paper and you only have to light the first one. Well, Luke wanted to light them, but what a surprise we all got! They went POUF and everything was aflame! HA!

Delicious cake, though -- only 1 piece left today.

Sock Puppets

Look at these cute sock puppets the kids made! I love it when they're creative :-)

New Years traditions

This year, New Year's Eve was different for us. Usually we have a crowd here -- mostly family -- this year we had my brother and his wife and son, and my sil. My brother and family left early as it was a stormy night and not good for being out around town. We also usually make Chinese food on New Year's Eve. It's a tradition that my sister and I started a few years ago. My sister and family weren't able to come up to our home this year -- my bil was working and didn't get home until the evening. We decided to make our Chinese food on New Year's Day.

The kids, of course, wanted to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve. We played some board games and some games on xBox360. We munched on some snacks all evening, waiting for the countdown. We watched a few fireworks being shot off outside our windows, but it was definitely not a good night for fireworks. We sent the kids to bed around 12:30.

The next morning we waited for the snowplow to come so we could get on the road to my sister's house. We started just after lunch with preparations for supper. What a lot of work, but oh, so tasty Chinese food!

Our menu:

Egg Drop Soup
Won tons
Egg Rolls
Chicken Fried Rice
Sweet and Sour Chicken
Vegetable Stir-fry
Chow Mien
Garlic Spareribs

After supper, we played some Wii and also played "Apples to Apples". Lots of fun!

Now I feel like it's time to get back into routine. I've taken down my Christmas tree and have just about all my decorations around the house put away.

I hope you all had a wonderful, safe and happy new year!

Google images tag

Here's a fun TAG post. Type in the answers to the questions on google images. Then paste the first picture that comes up (at least pick something on the first page!)

1. Age at my next birthday…



2. Place I’d like to travel…


3. Favorite place…


4. Favorite objects…


5. Favorite food…


6. Favorite color…


7. Nickname…


8. Place I was born…


TAG, you are it!! Post a comment so I can see your pics!