It has been a super busy month. I have had 3 dogs come into rescue in a week and I am busy organizing our house league hockey team, two existing homeschooling groups and our new fall indoor homeschooling group. Too much time on the computer! My intentions to blog are good but I keep finding myself having to do "admin" stuff so the blogging gets put aside. In a week or two things should flow back to a normal pace. I haven't even been taking my camera out! Anyhow Sid has been enjoying the last throws of summer with her friends. Trips to the parks, woods and friends houses while still maintaining and absolute passion about Kajukenbo. We bought her a free standing punching bag for downstairs because our house isn't going to survive her "training" as she calls it. We have caught her trying to turn on lights with her round kick, she steps over obstacles with one leg in the air. Things in her way are prone to sudden bursts of karate with a dose of grappling and sparring thrown in for good measure. Even the dogs are at risk of being taught dog Karate which involves learning a few Catas ;)
This past Friday she went to her 5:00 class and was getting ready to leave the club when a few of the older kids arrived. Sigung said "put your gear on, we are fighting tonight." to the new arrivals. Sid stopped in her tracks turned to Sigung and said "Sigung, I want to fight." He agreed and told her to get her gear on. She ended up staying until almost 7:30 but was loving the sparring and watching the older kids spar. Sid spared against orange belts, purple belts and her friend Johnny who is also a white belt then Sid got a unique chance to spar against her teacher. Enjoy....
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This should be a poster for 5 year old homeschoolers on a sleepover LOL! Yup the girls are playing chess. They have set up the board on their own and know the different names of each piece. They even know how they move. The only "new" rule they invented was that you can jump over your own player to take out an opponents piece.
The summer has been jam packed with activities so we are trying to get back to our monthly sleepovers with the girls. We have started declaring them play overs because there really is very little sleep going on!
Bella went to Sid's karate class and Sigung gave her a t-shirt and invited her to join anytime she comes for a sleepover. She was quite excited.
Here the girls show their injuries from two completely separate incidents of fingers being slammed in the doors. Poor Bella got the tip of her finger caught in the back door and it caused a blood blister and then much later Sid closed the camper door with her thumb in the hinge. WOW did that bleed. She will likely loose her nail but given the amount of blood pouring down her arm when she ran to me, I am glad it is only her nail she will loose. Best sister do everything together I guess.
Kenny is the sweetest guy ever! He did a fundraising gig for Tools for Schools which he personally m.c.'d , provided the musical entertainment for and including his donation, scared up 1500.00 for the cause. On top of that he arrived home with two tiny tiger cubs, identical except for a little white spot on ones head. He told the girls he heard purring and noises in the bushes and when he looked in he found two best sister little tiger cubs who had been abandoned. He scooped them up and knowing they were best sisters he called them Bella and Sidney. He gave the two legged Bella Sidney tiger to take home and the two legged Sidney got Bella tiger to care for. That way the best sisters would have best sister tigers that would remind them of each other. Awwwwww.... The girls and mom were just smitten :)
Here the girls told me that Bella was the Queen and I had to answer everything with "yes your majesty" and Sidney was her lady in waiting. They ate dinner like this.
Best pic I have taken of Bella in a long time! Just fills my heart with joy when I look at it. This kid has the best smile. She also has a Willy Wonka thing going on here.
Bella provides music while Sid does acrobatic shows on the climber.
Of course we had to have marshmallows and our official marshmallow extinguisher Dad!
Now they are getting the hang of blowing out the flaming snack!
We got to sleep in the camper for the night. I wasn't sure they were going to last the night but we did. It was C-O-L-D! Before we went to sleep the girls went into the camper and came out with lanterns, a notebook, a pencil and a magnifying glass. They informed us that before they went to bed they had some scientisting to do.
It was a last minute thing. A phone call asking what we were doing tomorrow followed by a 3.5 hour drive. We were so excited! We hadn't seen Addy, Taylor and Greg since Christmas (we missed you Shae!!!!). Oh and did the girls ever get along together! Thick as thieves as they say. Little Addy is just a bundle of happiness and cheer. She followed Sid around everywhere and tried to do anything Sid did. Addy doing Karate after Sid showed her kicks and blocks was priceless.
This is my fav pic. The girls take a moment to share their favorite apps on the iphonesLOL!
The kids were playing hide and seek and it was Addy's turn to count!
Sid taking being a big cousin very seriously. She mothered little Addy and made sure she stayed safe.
A helping hand
Addy amongst the flowers
BIG hugs!
Proud Granny and Grandpa! We LOVE you guys!
A serious Sid pose. I just loved the light in this shot.
Double somersaults!
It was a whirlwind visit but so much fun! Thanks for hosting Granny and Grandpa. It is so amazing to have a place for the girls to run wild together!
We will miss you Addy and hope to come and visit soon! Siddy sends mega love your way and wants you to know how much she misses playing with you.
Just too cool. Sid learning Kata 1 from Sigung. We recoded it so she could practice :)
Sid still loves Kajukenbo and goes often. As a nice bonus I have begun working out while she does class and I have been promised a 6 pack by September. And I don't mean beer LOL!
I will be posting several posts over the next few days. I havn't had the time to process pics (the trouble with shooting in RAW!) but will post as I get it done so please stay tuned and check back often over the next few days!
This was the August long weekend and it was filled with fun stuff. The weather was once again cooperative and we got to spend a majority of the time outdoors.
In her jammies and getting ready for bed. Sid gives Dad a kiss goodnight at the campfire. We were camping this weekend. Where did we go? This cool little camping spot near Limoge. It is dog friendly, great swimming, wireless internet, and access to a full kitchen and bathroom.
Look familiar? Yup, that's our yard and Piotr's camper that he is allowing us to use. It is the new guest house. Anyone is welcome to come spend the night and camp. It could be really fun after a day at the World's Best Water Park - Calypso, which is just down the street from us! I assure you, the accommodations are spacious!
And the Airedales are available for rental if it is chilly in the evening!
We also provide live music by our resident super star :)
Watch the sun set and the stars rise, have a campfire and fun. All for the low cost of your company! Reserve today. Oh and kids are welcome but the Airedales might teach them some bad habits....
This is how you do it! - Lily
"Like this?" - Sid
Piotr has been working on his flying Dutchman sailboat in our garage. I think it is done, he put the serial numbers on it this weekend. He loves his boat and he and Ken have been discussing the intricacies of sailing for sometime now. Occasionally they really get into it....
"Yes, but let's put the ghost pirates here and see what happens"
"Well I prefer the Vikings at the helm....."
(they are going to kill me for this one lol!!!)
Piotr has an incredible daughter named Niki who is 16 and her and Sid LOVE each other. They have oodles of fun playing and chatting and Niki is the big sister Sid will never have. She even told Sid that she would be her big sister and will visit whenever she is here from New York.
Here Niki and Sid play Simon Says.
Here Niki is surprised by Sidney's "Wingardium Leviosa" spell.
Niki and Sid hanging out together.
Niki doing Sid's nails with crackle! French braiding was next on the list after bracelet making and drawing.
Niki, it was so great meeting you and having you here. Can't wait until your next visit! At Karate, Sid met up with an old friend. Brianne's mom and I were in prenatal classes together and then went to the same playgroup for a year or so. We have reconnected and the girls are so close in age and are having so much fun together. It is great for Sid to have a girlfriend in the "neighbourhood".
Here they are practicing their splits.
The garden is flourishing and we have already picked a dozen zucchini. We put some of them to use in a delicious zucchini date bread. I had lots of baking help!
What's the best part of helping mom bake zucchini date bread???
Licking the bowl!
Last week we also had a chance to get together with some homeschooling friends at a very cool water park. Above Sid and Huwyl discuss the meaning of life. Well actually it was probably the rules of the game they were inventing but nothing would surprise me with these two.
This place has a really cool climber type structure with movable parts and water. Great engineering play!
And look, Sid's best sister and my other daughter, Bella, lost both front teeth. How absolutely adorable is she? She even has a tiny lisp when she talks.
Now on to Lily the youngin' in the house.
Oh so patient while Sid dresses her up!
Getting the hang of doing clicker training at 6 in the morning... *yawn*
Lily being Lily
Lily's goofy grin!
Ok, the last bit is rated PG. View at your own risk. This is a picture I took this morning of a carrot I pulled from our garden. I call it When Fresh Veggies Go Bad. Scroll down at your own risk.....
