Fruits of our labour

Our cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen! Alison enjoyed eating the first tomato, which she named "Fred." I think she enjoyed it.

Summer Vacation, Part 4: The beach

We spent a lot of time at the beach. Sarah, Alison and Mackenzie created a beach side hot tub and a complete sand city. Rustle chased sticks and water splashes. On our last day, Alex and Sue joined us, as well as Mary and the boys. It was the nicest day of the whole vacation. A perfect beach day.

Summer Vacation, Part 3: Littlekroft

After our guests left the cottage, we noticed that Princess Emma had left her glass slipper (also known as a pink jelly shoe ) behind. In true Fairy Tale Fashion, we headed up to Littlekroft to fit the slipper back onto the birthday girl's foot. What four year old should be without her glass slippers on her birthday?

Rustle and the girls took advantage of another opportunity to go swimming and help celebrate with cupcakes.




Rustle was extremely well-behaved. Best dog ever!



Playing the soon-to-be-classic birthday party game, Bury the Mom:

The lovely Lizzie:



The charming and somewhat bashful William:

What do you mean, it's the first day of school?

Seriously. I still haven't finished posting pictures from the vacation, our day at the cave and basin, or Mary's big surprise. Yikes.

Here are the girls and their puppy on the first day of Junior High (Sarah is in grade 7 - I can hardly believe it) and Grade 4.

Summer Vacation, Part 2: The Guests

We had a great time at the cottage unwinding as a family, but we also got to spend some time with some friends.

Mary, Ed, Lucas, Jack and Sam spent a couple of days with us. The lake was seriously colder than the pool Chez Mauro, but we did get in for some splashing about. Rustle proved to be a fun friend for everyone.


Susan and her trio came up for a visit with a few extra friends: Lisa, Linden and Jemma from North Carolina. What a great surprise! The dynamics were a bit different with the addition of 5 children under 5, especially for Rustle, who frightened poor William so much that the poor boy ran as fast as he could back up the road to escape. Once the children found out how much Rustle likes to catch water splashes in the lake, he became a much bigger hit with the younger set. I'm working on editing the movies from this holiday, where I'll share just how entertaining our visitors were... For now, a couple of photos:

Summer Vacation, Part 1: The Cottage

We began our summer vacation at a cottage in Muskoka. It was lovely to be on the water! Although the cabin itself was not exactly what we'd expected, the property was gorgeous, and we spent a lot of time outside. The weather wasn't perfect, but it was good enough. The girls learned to play chess, Alison learned cribbage, Rustle was a swimming machine, and we had some great family time. Some photos:

Man's best friend!

Alison has been put to work. With proper supervision, of course.

Johnson Lake

I just realized that I hadn't posted about Johnson Lake! It is only the best little secret lake ever in the history of local secret spots. We took the canoe and swim suits and had an absolutely fabulous day. Here are many photos:

My view:




Family portrait:

The locals have the Tarzan swing set up across the lake:


The mad paddler:

Excited because she's going alone with Daddy:



Here they come!

Fairmont

We had a lovely weekend at a friend's cabin in Fairmont, B.C. Rustle was able to join us this time, and SwimmingDog enjoyed himself immensely, especially at Columbia Lake (headwaters of the mighty Columbia River, no less!) I wonder how long it will take his hair to clog things up in Portland? Anyway, some photos...

Waiting on a friend

Alison is watching patiently for her teddy bear to finish his bath.

Update: Mooke's blog

For all her readers, Mooke has posted on her blog.