Littlest Pet Shops

The most played with toys in our house at the moment are the numerous Littlest Pet Shop animals that the kids have collected.

They use them for all kinds of things, including as models for their many photo shoots.

This fairy monkey is just so cute!

Here's "Cappy" hiding in a cave during a recent camping trip.

Their latest ongoing project has been making a movie (using Pet Shop animals as actors) of Bee's favorite book, "Into the Land of the Unicorns". The above photo was taken for the movie poster. Another movie is also in the works - "Harry Paws and the Philosopher's Bone" (starring a Littlest Pet Shop dog, of course).

Shoreline Cleanup

We took part in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup last week. The section of waterfront that we were responsible for was a duck pond and stream not far from where we live.

Here are the kids assessing the job - there were a lot of plastic bags and coffee cups in the water.

Here's Bee collecting bits from the underbrush. Apparently the small pieces of garbage are as much or more of a problem than the big stuff because the ducks and birds eat it which can kill them, and when they decompose, the plastic remains and the cycle begins again, killing countless animals.

Here's a picture of the happy ducks enjoying their clean surroundings. We've found some pretty strange things doing this over the years (thankfully there were no needles this time), but the worst thing we found this year was an empty propane canister in the water.

Leaving the park clean is rewarding for everyone, but the best thing is that I don't think any of the kids involved will ever litter after taking part in an event like this, and will certainly become more aware of what a problem garbage is.

Fun with Photography

I found these when I downloaded the photos off my camera today. They were taken when Bee was chasing Jay with the camera and a wooden sword. I think the blurred aspect of the pictures captures the thrill of the chase beautifully.

Rain Dance

Here are our crazy children out doing their rain dance when the heavens opened up at bedtime last night. The sound of rain pounding against the windows always sends them running out the door!

Pajamas and rubber boots - they obviously inherited their mother's keen fashion sense!

Africa Webcam

National Geographic has set up a live webcam of a watering hole in Botswana. We watched it last year and saw all kinds of amazing things (elephants, warthogs, giraffes, impala, ostriches, etc.). Afternoons and evenings (North America time) are the best times to watch, as that's when the animals are having their bedtime and early morning drinks.

Check it out here:
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/index.html

What we did on our summer vacation...

This summer we went camping at our very favorite place.

Here are Jay and Bee enjoying the view from our campsite.

Anemones in a tidepool.

We love these purple starfish.

This huge stump washed up on the rocks years ago - Bee and Jay like to pretend it's a giant ship.

This is one of the sandcastles that they built on their grandparents' beach - the moat is filling up nicely!

This is a picture of the "schoolbus" that serves the islands around here - it's called The Scholarship. It picks kids up on the neighboring islands and brings them to a central school - it might almost make school worth attending (okay, maybe not).

Calvin and Hobbes - Free Range Learners

We love, love, love Calvin and Hobbes!!

Tomato Soup

We got our first rain in ages today, and Bee decided that she felt like doing some cooking. As she often does when this urge strikes, she took out our favorite cookbook for kids - Mollie Katzen's Honest Pretzels. It's got all kinds of fun and delicious things to make, and we cook from it regularly.

The order of the day was tomato soup (quite fitting for a drizzly day). It was really yummy, with lots of garlic, croutons, and a dollop of homemade pesto stirred in.

I hope it rains more often!