Last Weekend's Trip in Photos

Here are a few photos of our weekend trip up to the Gaspe.

 Leaving PEI via the Confederation Bridge on a foggy morning

 Marshes just off the bridge in New Brunswick

Euphemia the rabbit was not amused by the trip

 Some of the interesting names of places we passed in New Brunswick

 Sign for Shediac, New Brunswick - "lobster capital of the world"

 Some fall colour along the highway

 Coming up to "the big green bridge" (to quote my kids) in the Miramichi

 Just outside Campbellton, NB.  The foremost mountain is Sugarloaf

 Entering Quebec at Pointe-a-la-Croix

 Driving along the Gaspe peninsula.  Notice the cliffs at the left.  This road had to be blasted out of the rock.  The roads here were very poor, making the train the preferred mode of transportation, until fairly recently.

 A view of some of the Gaspe coastline

 The huge Catholic church in Bonaventure

Just outside New Richmond

Another huge Catholic church.  When you're driving along the coast, you can see the sun gleaming off the many church spires.

Almost home again!

I think we'll keep going, thank you.

There's our beautiful red island!

This is what is left of the old ferry terminal.  The Confederation Bridge replaced the ferry service on this end of the Island.

Thanks for visiting!

Home Again

We're back from a weekend trip to the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec.  I'm hoping to do a proper blog post later and put up some of my photos.  We were on the lookout for moose and deer the whole trip but we didn't see one!  They're smart critters - hunting season has started and they're hanging out somewhere safe.  

Reasons why I hate the "new" Facebook

1. THE ADS ALL OVER THE PLACE!
2. Facebook telling me what I'm interested in
3. Being unsubscribed from my friends' statuses (the only reason why I'm on FB is to READ my friends' statuses)
4. The annoying ticker on the side
5. I was already annoyed by the "new" chat feature - mine is always hidden

Those are the 5 that came to me first.  I am so ANNOYED (just realised I've used the word "annoyed" 3 times already).  Facebook has been such a great tool but I draw the line when a computer starts ordering me around!  Google+ anyone?

The First Week at Tamarack Academy

Our first week went surprisingly well.  The kids are getting the hang of the routine and I think they are really enjoying the Workbaskets (they love carrying them out to the kitchen table and looking in the folders to see what's inside).  Lass complains that there isn't enough "fun" stuff in hers (as compared to her brother's), but I reminded her that she is older than he is and able to do harder things than he can.  Every time I turn my back, she's "helping" him with one of his activities.

Lass is really zipping through her My Father's World First Grade curriculum.  I am absolutely amazed.  She struggled so much with everything when we started this back in April.  The lessons are really easy for her now. We could probably go through 2 days of lessons each day, but I wanted to ease back into schooling the first week.  We'll see how things go and adjust accordingly.

Ambleside Online has been a bit of a challenge.  I haven't been able to get some of the books and some books I find too mature for my children (like Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb - I like Shakespeare but I think we can hold that off for a couple of years at least!).  It is a very through programme with TONS of reading - I lost my voice a couple of times this week.  So far, we've been reading An Island Story by H E Marshall, The Little Duke by Charlotte Mary Yonge, Trial and Triumph by Richard Hannula, The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton Burgess,  and Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.  I thought some of these books would be too "heavy", but my kids love them.  We're also reading an Enid Blyton book as a family read-aloud in the evening and when we finish it, we'll be moving on to Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I loved the "Little House" books as a child and my children are enjoying them as well (we've already read Little House in the Big Woods and Farmer Boy earlier this year).

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better week.  The weather was gorgeous and we were able to be outside quite a lot.  We took a nature walk around the perimeter of the 15 acre field next to our property and gathered lots of leaves, berries, acorns, flowers, etc to create an autumn centrepiece.

Thanks for visiting today!

The Day I Pretended I Was a Tourist

Last week, my daughter and I went out for the day in Charlottetown with my sister-in-law who was home from Calgary, Alberta for a visit.  We went out for breakfast, did some shopping, went to McDonald's for lunch (at Lass' request - she loves the indoor playground), and then went down to the waterfront (Peake's Quay).

Cows ice cream!  Very yummy.  Lass had bubblegum (I can't remember their creative name for it - all the flavours have unique names).  It was bright blue and full of gumballs.

One of the many pretty window-boxes that are on all the shops at the waterfront.

My sister-in-law and I had tea (I had Irish Breakfast, she had Dalvay Breeze) at the PEI Preserve Company's Tea House.  We also had some of their famous raspberry cream cheese pie... delicious.  We sat outside at a little table and our tea was served in lovely china.  This fellow was standing guard outside the shop.

 A view of the boats anchored at the quay

On the way home, we stopped at Balderston's Farm Market in Stratford.  We saw some interesting vegetables...

...and beautiful flowers.  Can you believe this bouquet with the vase was only $12!  I love the colours.

They also have a U-Pick flower patch.  It is huge and full of gorgeous flowers of all sorts.  We picked a big bouquet.

It was a lovely day and we had such a great time!

Thanks for visiting today!

First Day

Today is our first day of school for 2011-2012!  I've been working on getting everything set up for the year during the last few weeks.  Our "workbaskets" (my version of workboxes) are set up.  I hope to do a post on these in the future.  I actually did a video to explain what I'm doing, but it was too big for Blogger to accept :(

To start off this year, Lass will be finishing up My Father's World First Grade.  At the same time, we'll be easing into Ambleside Online.  I am already excited about AO!  Hopefully, Lass will like it too.  We kind of hit a rough patch this weekend when she informed me that she wasn't going to do school, but we have worked it out, I think.  Later on in the year, we will be starting a different math programme.  I'm looking at Singapore Math, Miquon Math, and Math-U-See.  There are so many great products out there for every subject that it is hard to make a decision!  We will also be starting French lessons.  This subject will be a little different as I will also be teaching my friend Laura's son.  Our first lesson will be "Bonjour!  Je m'appelle ..."  I am also going to attempt to teach Lassie to knit - could be interesting.

Laddie will be doing therapy based activities mostly - colouring/drawing, Playdough, scissoring activities, puzzles, etc.  I have a few things lined up, but I'm waiting to see how things go before I make any solid plans for him.

So, that's the very basic outline for our year.  Thanks for visiting!
 

The Last Hurrah!

Yesterday we went on a picnic/outing with our good friends for Labour Day.  We went to King's Castle Provincial Park, which is probably my kids' favourite place to go.  The woods and playground are filled with storybook characters.  There is also a beach!  And ice cream!  It was a gorgeous, warm day and breezy so the mosquitoes were hardly around.

The white boat is a fishing boat.  The grey boats are mussel skiffs.  You can see the buoys in the water marking the mussel socks.  Mussel socks are a way of of cultivating mussels off the bottom so they are cleaner and better tasting.  The "socks" are tubes of netting with the mussels growing inside.

Some cute little bare feet on the sand

There were lots of snails stuck to rocks on the beach as the tide had gone out not too long before.

There were lots of dead crabs.  I hate crabs.

This is Lass' beach project.  I must ask her what it was.

The pumpkin slide!

Papa Bear of The Three Bears

A giant rabbit

On the way home we stopped at Buffaloland Provincial Park.  We actually saw some buffalo (AKA American Bison, Latin name Bison Bison) this time.  They have been rather elusive this year.

Thanks for visiting today!

This Morning in Our Yard

There is not too much going on out in the garden.  I'm afraid my zucchini have succumbed to some sort of blight.  Here I thought we would be overrun with them and we've had ONE zucchini (it was tasty, though).

We have had a number of birds visiting our yard lately.  The photos aren't great, but these are cedar waxwings perching on the kids' picnic table and in the apple tree.

I have a number of gladiolus out - dark red, bright red and purple.  They took quite a beating during the wind storm that was our share of Hurricane Irene.

When I was looking out the kitchen window at the red and purple side by side, I was reminded of my piano teacher.  I know, I'm weird.  She used to wear a purple cardigan over a red dress a lot.

This one is really bent over from the wind.

We're getting ready for a family barbecue tonight.  My sister-in-law is home from Alberta and my brother-in-law is over for the weekend from New Brunswick where he is currently stationed at CFB Gagetown.  So, we're having a big family get-together.  We're having barbecued pork chops, hamburgers, and hotdogs as well as corn salad, broccoli salad, potato salad, and jellied salads.  I'm making a Greek pasta salad to take as well.  Should be delicious!

Thanks for visiting today!