Officer Buckle and Gloria

He is here!!!! Sid loves this book by Peggy Rathmann. Officer Buckle believes in Safety First!! He goes to schools and gives speeches about safety which all the students sleep through until he gets his very own police dog, Gloria, who unbeknown to him, helps with his presentation.

Sid completed an Officer Buckle and Gloria lapbook about safety which included knowing her address, phone number, and when and how to call 911. Once we were finished with everything she declared that she needed a Gloria out of felt. Too easy I thought! Like an Airedale but easier. Alas, needle felted Gloria was born. Sid loved her immediately and made her act out the story but quickly pointed out that she HAD to have an officer buckle. I said I couldn't make any promises but I would do my best.

TA DA!!!!!!

Now I am making some chickens for my friends mom and then some play food for a local playgroup. I also donated a coupon for a FurEver Dale to the National Airedale Quilting Bee. They hold a fundraiser every year to fill the bank account back up so we can continue to rescue Airedales. Check out their beautiful, A is for Airedale, quilt here:

http://www.airedalerescue.net/alphabet/a_is_for_airedale/index.htm

The winner of the FurEver Dale coupon is in Texas and will be having me make her a FurEver Dale of her aireboy Dixon sometime in the next month.

Speaking of rescue, please go to animalrescuesite.com and click on shelter challenge. Switch the country to Canada and enter AireCanada as the shelter name and BC for the province. You should see Airecanada airedale rescue. Click VOTE. You can vote once every day and the winner can win 10 000.00 for their rescue or even 1000.00. One vote for every computer every day will really make a difference.

Thank you!

Fair Time and Fall Harvest

It is a sure sign of Fall when the Russell Fair swings it gates open to eager children of all ages (Ken and myself included). This has become a family routine for the last four years and we continue to enjoy being a part of this wonderful small community.


Finally a little taller and now able to drive the bumper cars. Look out!!!


Mom and Sid taking a spin on the Merry-Go-Round

Dad and Sid in the fun house

Sid's favorite part, the animals of course!


Lama LOVE

There were lots of agricultural displays and animals to visit. This year they had a bunny exhibit. That evening Sid turned this box into her warren and decided to sleep in it on the lower bunk of her bed. BunnySid slept in there the entire night!!!

I have been AWOL from the blog for a few weeks but it is mostly because I haven't been taking my camera anywhere. We visited the re-opened museum of Nature and it is fantastic. Nothing as wonderful as the old museum but still bright and quite interactive. We have had a few friends over, a couple walks in Mer Bleue with the very hungry chickadee's, a birthday party and hockey for me has started back up and ballet for Sid has started. Ken continues to play music and tries to make it out to open mics when work doesn't keep him too late. Oh we also have the privilege of a guest Airedale for a month. Rupert (aka foster boy Ripley) was one of our fosters 4 years ago. He was a stray and in terrible shape and rehabbed with us for six months. We found him the best home ever and he has been with his family for 3 years now. His mom and new dad got married and have left on a honeymoon to New Zealand for a month!!! His mom was distraught at what to do with him since he is a sweet boy but still a bit skittish and rocket powered. We welcomed him "home" with open paws and have been having an all out Airedale parteeee. Ok, honestly every dog in the house seems to have a limp at the moment so the parteeee has been put on hiatus until everyone is feeling back up to their OLD selves and can handle the bump and chase of little Rupert.

Finally we harvested the last of our veggies and apples. We still have some pumpkins in the garden but will get those with the first frost. I am so thankful Ken put a garden in this year, it was wonderful. We have missed the fresh, right out of our yard, food for the last 5 years!

I am working on a cool felting set for Sid. Should be finished tonight so will post pics later if I can. Stay tuned.......

Guess who now wants to be a vet?

On holiday Monday we took the drive to Upper Canada Village with Ken. It wasn't long after we were there that we discovered how we would be spending the entire day. Piglets, cow milking and chicken wrangling were the only things on Sid's agenda.

We waited about 15 minutes in line to milk the cows and there was a family of older girls in line in front of us from the ages of about 10 to 16. They took so long trying to milk the cow. They couldn't get the milk flowing without help and then each pretty much gave up after about 5 minutes of trying. Sid then sat down, grabbed the teet and successfully milked the cow on the first try. I was so surprised and the farmer announced that there was a future Dairy Maid in the barn. Sid was beaming with joy. The pride she was feeling was so evident as she skipped and hopped to the next barn announcing to everyone that she could milk a cow and was going to be a vet.

Along the way we ran into the piglets. Just two this time and so cute and friendly, not a gang like the 11 we saw in the spring.

Sid got to pet, pick up and feed the piglets then ran to the pump to get them some fresh water.

The absolute best part of her day was when we went to a barn that had three hens, a rooster and big chicks running around loose. Sid asked if she could pick up the chicks and thinking we were being smart we said sure, if you can catch one you can pick it up......

Ta-DA! Chicken Wrangler. Sid was thrilled with this. She would let this poor baby rooster go then chase him down again and again. One onlooker suggested we have a t-shirt made for her that said "Look Out, here comes LOVE".

Not only did the chickens get caught but they got kissed and cuddled too!

Pure Joy!

When other kids came to the barn Sid would grab her rooster and bring him to them and say "so, do you want to hold him? This is how." and would then pass the bird to the eager kid. She did this with kids and adults of all ages. Ken and I were stuck in this barn for at least an hour while Sid played proud farmer. It was so awesome to see the pride and sense of accomplishment when she realized she could do something that many adults were too afraid to do. This just made her day. We didn't get to see much else of the village because after all this excitement it was time to head back to home, the village was closing for the day.

After all that farm work, Sid was too tired to walk so she took the Daddy bus back to the gift shop.

Just like most attractions these days, the tour ends right in the gift shop and Sid negotiated the purchase of a new mommy and baby stuffed kitties. Now that she is going to be a vet not an RCMP officer, she needs to have animals to practice on.

I have signed up for a shop on Etsy. I am going to post these little barrette and necklace combos to see if they get any attention. Sid loves them and we made little apple necklaces for her friends because we are going apple picking at an organic orchard near us next week.

Lastly I have to post this interesting new find discovered in my yard this week. We always go for a walk after dinner and when walking past our big gate I looked over and saw this:

I was shocked because I had never seen anything like it and it looked so vicious with all the spikes but my brave farmer / vet reached out and touched one and exclaimed "They're really soft Mommy!"

I had come up with a name for this vine but was quickly told that it is a wild cucumber. Once it dries out the seeds are apparently huge and fantastic for crafts. I will keep my eyes on them and try to harvest the seeds. They are not edible and are terribly bitter.

It is amazing what you can find in your own backyard!!!

Lumiere Festival

Lumiere Festival was this Saturday. It is a wonderfully crazy festival that celebrates lantern lighting and all things unusual. We went last year and were delighted to find magicians, musicians, faeries, and more. This year as a fun project Sid and I decided to make our own paper star lantern for the special party.

First step was to cut 5 sheets of wax paper and draw a 5 lined triangular shape to be folded and glued into each star point. Below sid is doing the folding.

Once folded each star point was glued together to make the five point star. We used a hole punch to put light holes in it.

Next step was to paint it.

Once the paint was dry we used a sharpie to decorate it with squiggles

Last step in decorating.... sparkles of course! Then we taped a small flashlight to it which also doubled as the handle. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but it is actually 3 dimensional.

TA-DA!

It looks simple but it took a couple of hours. Between cutting, tracing, folding, gluing, hole punching, painting, assembling, it was a big project but really fun!

Then it was off to the festival with our little fairy girl. Finally the ballet recital costume gets some more use!

Sid was disappointed the silent dancing fairies weren't there to dance with this year but she found Esmeralda the Dancing Fairy who was thrilled to have Sid join her.

Jump my little fairies....

Now leap my little ones....

There were many performers but the weather was very cold and it rained a bit. Not as much of a turnout as last year but better organized. Sadly I think most of the lanterns got wrecked before it got dark enough to light them.

Daddy and Sid take a moment to celebrate Lumiere with the ducks by sharing a rice cake.

Stilt walkers, magicians, plasma cars, marimba band, Sri Lankan dancing, fiddle music, Mini Cirque and more drew our attention and entertained us for the evening.

At last as dusk fell we got to light our lantern which got terribly flattened on the ride in the back pack. However once it got dark enough it did the trick and we were proud to have our very own homemade lantern with us.

Until next year.....