SO funny!

My friend Donna is our school's secretary...we call her the Queen! It is truly unbelievable what this woman does in the course of a day. She wrote this blog about our first day back that is so funny (funny now that we've all lived through it anyway). Oh My God...bus dismissal was pure mayhem and she captures it perfectly! Check it out...

http://peterssm.blogspot.com/2009/09/it-can-only-get-better-from-here-on-in.html

Back To School

For the past 4 years the end of August always means the same thing...saying goodbye to Ottawa, packing the Buick up to capacity with all our new purchases and making the 15 hour drive across three provinces to arrive in Kingston in time for my re-integration into the working world. (with my Mom along for the ride...did I mention how much I love her?!?) This year, Hurricane Bill had different plans for us so we ended up making the drive a three day affair, stopping in Fredericton and Moncton before making it home. 

I dread, no DREAD leaving Ottawa. I cry and am miserable leading up to my final days there and usually my first day back in Kingston too but once I get into my Nova Scotia groove again all is well in my world. 

My classroom set-up went great. My Mom was there to help (again...God I love her!!) and I'm really excited to be teaching a new grade this year. Michael and Abbey are starting kindergarten (it's called Primary here) and taking the bus for the first time. Lots of new stuff to look forward to right!?!

I started class on Wednesday, Sept. 2nd and Michael and Abbey weren't scheduled to start until the following day which was great since I could focus 100% of my energy at school on the first day and not be worrying about my little munchkins. 

Thursday arrived...WAY early! Abbey and Michael's bus comes at 7:45am and with Steve flying up North for the next two weeks, I wanted to heave plenty of time to get ready and make it as stress-free as possible for everyone. 

My friend Janice met us at the bus stop and then followed the bus to their school to make sure they got to class okay (that's the hard part in being a teacher...you can never be a part of your child's first day of school and maybe hiring someone to do so was a bit over the top but it was so worth it for my sanity!!)

Here are my little darlings getting on the bus on their first day.

Here they are settled in the front seat!

Now about two second after the bus was out of sight was when I lost it! Oye! I cried and cried and cried some more. Now most of you know that I work less than a one minute drive from my house...not a whole lot of recovery time for my blotchy red eyes. I wore my big sunglasses inside as long as I could... but by 10ish, the puffiness had gone down, Janice had come to give me my camera and show me the pictures she took and give me the run-down of bus arrival and I was back to normal. 

Here's Abbey and Michael getting off the bus at their school (pic taken by Janice)

SO...we survived day 1! Stay tuned for day 2!!!!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Here's how we started our day this morning...

PJ's and rain boots....gotta love it! What's with the weather this summer? Global warming...ya right!!!!

Oaklawn Farm Zoo

What do you get when you cross a donkey and a zebra? All the locals know...it's a ZONKEY and we have our very own at the zoo near our house. Hilarious isn't it?!
The bird below completely freaks me out. It was so close to the fence that I didn't even use the zoom to take the photo. I was so nervous it was going to peck at me. I literally snapped the picture and ran. Anyone know if this is an emu or ostrich? Do they have teeth? Did I have a right to be scared? I think emus eat there own poop....is that true? Crazy colouring...look at those eyes sizing me up, and the mouth open just a bit waiting to attack! yikes!!!!

Port George!

Living so close to the water definitely has it's privileges; lobster, scallops and lots of beaches! Last week my neighbour and I took our children to Port George, which is a little village on the Bay of Fundy, and only about 15 minutes from my house. The weather can vary greatly by water and land. The sun was shining brightly that day but was quite windy on the Bay.

Port George has a rocky waterfront so I brought some paints and let the kids "inner artists" come out! It was tons of fun!

Here's the gang bundled up for a photo op.

Here's Abbey and Michael painting rocks...

A great day seal watching, rock painting, snacking and admiring the beautiful scenery!

"Reunited...

And It Feels So Good!" This is the song I've had in my head since Mary moved back! (you know the song by Peaches and Herb from the '70's!!) BAhahahaha!

The Major Family is now back in Greenwood! Yay! On July 10th, Sophie and Jackson came over to play so that Mary and her husband Jason could finish/start? unpacking. Abbey and Michael were so excited and they all had such a great time together, picking up exactly where they had left off a year ago. Here are some pics of our day together.

All deep in concentration colouring at the kitchen table...

Having fun on the playset in the backyard...



and off to the zoo: Abbey with a baby goat (that she held for like 20 minutes!!!) and Sophie double-fist feeding the deer.











Finally... ICE CREAM....a sweet ending to an awesome day! Here's to many more playdates in our future! Welcome back friends!!!

The HOG!

Everyone on our street has these fancy dancy John Deere ride-on lawn mowers...and then there's us (and our neighbours the Tromp's). We had push mowers and just didn't fit in. Well, last summer we decided to go in on a joint investment and buy ourselves a ride-on lawn mower. We bought "The HOG" off Kijiji...and now we REALLY don't fit in! But it's just so freaking funny to see these two big men mow the lawn on this thing. Here's a pic of Steve mowing this week... knees almost up to his armpits ha!ha!

To make up for it's lack of size and speed we added flame decals. Check out the hard-core skull you see from the back...ha!ha!

It does the job though and we get a good chuckle every week.