As summer Draws to an end...

This week is Katie's last week of summer vacation, although the high 20s temps make it feel like July. I have been keeping us busy to try and spend some quality time with her before she is off to school for 3 full days of kindergarten starting on Tuesday. Work still has to be done though, and activities have begun so it has been a mix of fun and business.

We spent the long weekend around home. Friday night we enjoyed a BBQ at Bar None with friends, feeding the horses some of our fallen apples and checking out the grounds and playground. Mom and I took the kids to the Okotoks market on Saturday morning where they enjoyed eating hotdogs from a roadside grill while watching a band play in the towne square and got some balloon pets. The lineups were too long for face painting but they handled missing out on it very well. That afternoon was spent running errands in the city, just Mom, Rachel and I while Katie supervised Daddy and Uncle Blair making sausages and Liam took a much needed nap after a very late Friday night! Sunday & Monday we were home putzing around the yard with various visitors dropping by. Monday we also headed for a last ice cream at the shop in Carseland...much enjoyed by the kidlets as Liam demonstrates in the first photo. 

We started "strict" bedtime routine last week, moving bedtime back to 7:30 in hopes of getting Katie ready to get up at 6am for school. The plan was to get her to 7:00 this week but with loads of visitors coming through we have not been successful...I guess if we aim for 7 and end up with 7:30 that's not too bad. We started getting up and going through the morning routine this week - up, dressed, make bed, eat breakfast, wash and brush up. Eating breakfast is her biggest challenge, she likes to wait  a bit before she eats and that just is not possible when she will be getting on the school bus at 7:10ish. I am finding this as much of an adjustment as her, adding the extra hour onto the day makes it long! Especially when I am up with Rachel at 4:30-5am. She started dance yesturday and has a new teacher, Miss Monique, a new genre, Jazz and also a new time. We are now in the land of evening activities and let me tell you - I Don't Like It!! It was utter chaos at the studio yesturday with 6 sets of parents and children coming and going, plus siblings. The studio is under construction to boot (permit issues set them back). Anyhow, she likes the new teacher but it won't be as personal from a parent perspective due to the busy-ness of the studio - with the afternoon classes we were the only group there and got to know Miss Christina very well. Next week brings Monday morning skating lessons for both kiddos. So we dropped off skates to Allison to have sharpened yesturday, in between going to see the Winnie The Pooh movie and dance class.

We have harvested almost all of our apples and have given away hoards of them as well as many bags in our freezer and have started to make jelly. The peas are out of the garden and everything else is coming along. I have been searching for recipes for various veggies and we are enjoying the wares (beet salads, chocolate zuchinni cake, pies) and should be suitably chubbed up in time for the winter cold! We are going to attempt to store some root veggies this year for the winter if my husband doesn't give them all away! Mom has been a great help in the yard and with the kids. She is away now for most of September, home on the weekends. She has found a house, the 2nd one, as then first deal fell apart due to issues on home inspection.

I get to have some "me time" now that school is in and fall activities have started - I am taking a cake decorating course on Thursdays in Sept and will start scrapbooking on Wed nights at the end of the month. Bryan and I will also start planning in some "couple time" with Mom in town and yard duties slowing down. October will bring Bryan's annual hunting trip to Grande Prairie and maybe I will go away with Mom and Rachel for a couple days when he gets back.

Buckets of Apples

 

 Chief Apple-Picker

Kids digging for worms in the front garden - the pots in the ground will be my herb garden next year. We are trying to simplfy some of the gardens and moving the herbs closer to the house is one way.

Hanging with Grandma as she can't get in the dirt yet