Last Day of Summer Vacation!

Pictures from Assinaboine Park.  The English Gardens and the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden

So as summer vacation has come to an end, so has my sanity.  I really do have mixed emotions about summer ending though.  I love spending time with all the kids together, just being able to wake up and say okay lets go do this or that. 

Today was one of those days. I hadn't really planned on doing anything today except for going to the chiropractor and picking up a few groceries for school lunches tomorrow.  Instead of the groceries we ended up knocking off a few more things on the kids summer bucket list. 

Laying on the table getting the activator.

We first went to the chiropractor.  Zachary loves this part of his day. We walk in and he says "hi everybody" (referring to Dr. John and Breanne, the receptionist)  He likes to guess who gets to go next and then gets so excited when it's his turn he yells out "MOOOOOORE
CLICKS!" and runs over to me so I can lift him up.  He used to stand on my lap to get activated now he's practiced enough that he can lay face down on the table now.  We are now down to twice a week instead of three times a week.  With school starting this will be good.  Zachary got a Mater sticker today.  He's got the receptionist trained. She actually got up and went to the back and found new stickers for him today.  We leave the office and he says "bye everybody"  He's going to be so lost once we stop going. 
 

We decided that we would go to Assinaboine Park to cross off some things off the Summer Bucket List.  We first went into The Conservatory.  Zachary loves going in there, they have red eared slider turtles in  The Palm House part.  They have redone it all, replanted lots of trees and plants, added cute little hide away things. The Koi fish are so beautiful! They landing to stand on to look over at them is a nice addition to the place.  The garden room is done with late summer flowers right now.  Beautiful, but nothing spectacular this time around. I love going there, it's so pretty and relaxing. The kids have

a lot of fun as well.  I really think one of these days Zachary will sneak one of those red ear sliders our of there.  He loves reptiles.  "bye turtles, miss you" was the last thing he said to them.  The really do have a great set up in the Palm Room.  If I could have a set up like that I would for sure have some.


We then went to the Duck Pond to feed the ducks and geese. Zachary wasn't totally into this. He was having more fun yelling at them to share the bread.  The duck pond at the park is quite large now and is kept up pretty well. 

After the ducks had a snack we walked across the road to the English Gardens.  These gardens are so beautiful, I could stay there all day long.  There are always people in there wedding, planting, watering, fixing something.  I wish my garden could be a fraction as beautiful as these ones.  The flowers in there are amazing. Some I have never seen before.  The colours and shapes of them are just stunning.  We also made our way over to the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden.  Zachary liked the bear statues and the deer.   

Assinaboine Park is a great place to have a family day.  We decided that we wanted to do more things though so we made our way down to The Forks.  We went and fed the ducks and geese by the river walk first.  I think this one of the first years in many that it hasn't been closed because of the flooding in the spring.  The river was pretty low this year.  Zachary got into feeding these guys. The weather so perfect for a day at the Forks.  Usually when we think of going it's so hot outside, that we don't end up staying very long.  Today was wonderful! There were a lot of families taking in the last day of summer vacation, yet you weren't falling over each other either.


After feeding the ducks it was time to feed us.  We went inside and got Zachary his first mini donuts.  He loved them!  Heck what's not to love? Donuts, cinnamon and sugar! We got serenaded by a Jamaican guitarist. It felt like we were on a vacation. The smell of all the different foods and all the tourists. The Forks is always a great time.  We got to sample peanut butter chocolate fudge. Sabrina was the only one that actually liked it. They have a truck in the market part that looks like Tow Mater... we didn't tell Zachary we let him see it on his own, he was so excited I thought he was going to choke when he gasped. MAAAAAAAAY MAAAAAAAY!

The last thing on our list before we headed home was to go check out the new play ground.  I knew they were working on it last year, but forgot about it until the girls mentioned it after being at The Forks last week end.  This park is
 so amazing. It is everything I would want to put into a park.  The ground is rubber, so if the kids fall they don't get hurt.  There is a General store with hay bails (plastic), a train that you can go in and blow the whistle and crawl through. That was Zachary's favorite, he did not want to leave that train. They have canoes, slides. the 3 section slide was also a hit. Zachary had the girls going up the hill and down the slide about 20 times. "Help me girls" the hill was a little steep so he wanted them to hold his hands. 

We had a wonderful last day of summer vacation together. Everyone back to school tomorrow. Madisen starts grade 6 and Sabrina starts grade 4.  Not so little girls anymore.  Each year as I send them off to their first day of school I think back to their first day of nursery school Madisen took her JoJo's Circus back pack and Sabrina had a Tinkerbell back pack.  Now? It's plain colours or patterns no princesses, no My Little Ponies, No more Tinkerbell.... they are growing up... Back to school shopping for shoes was done in the women's section for Madisen she no longer fits the children's shoes. Sabrina is at that age where she wants to dress a little older but nothing fits her properly. I know they are going to have a great year with new adventures and wonderful memories.

More Clicks...

At the end of July the kids and I were in a car accident. We got rear ended by a woman that was clearly using her phone.  When are people going to get it???  Cell Phones and cars DO NOT MIX!  This was also a day of why didn't I listen to my inner voice?  Had I done so, we wouldn't have been hit.  We were at my moms and needed to go pick up some milk and stuff to eat.  It was a very hot day out and I had promised the kids that we would stop after Walmart and pick up those $1 frozen lemonades from Tim Hortons.  As we were leaving the girls wanted them first, I caved because I was actually hot too and thought I didn't want to fight the rush hour traffic to get to our Timmies later.   So we stopped and everyone got a frozen lemonade. 

We headed towards Walmart, to do so I had to merge onto another road.  I was waiting my turn, Big trucks were coming so I thought it best not to go. I never took my foot off the break, but somehow the woman behind me decided it was a good idea to put her foot on the gas, and she hit us hard and we were flung forward a fair distance.  I pulled into the parking lot and the Madisen was screaming that that Zachary was bleeding.  I had totally forgotten about the drinks they all had.  I jumped out of the van and whipped the door open.  He had so much blood coming from his mouth that I couldn't figure out what had happened. Madisen finally said that the straw had cut him because his head flew forward when we got hit.   (As this is happening, I hear the woman that hit us on the phone saying "I'm going to be later then I just said, I was in a car accident) The road we were on there was no where to pull off to text or call someone with out still driving.  We exchanged everything we needed too.  The damage on her SUV a dented license plate.  Mine? the estimate was over $5000.00 of parts. 

So the 4 of us are now going to the chiropractor 3 days weeks.  We have known this chiropractor since last October.  I had been driving a friend of mine there after her accident.  So Zachary was very comfortable with the office and him.  We get the activator thing and I get adjusted.  Zachary loves going because he gets "more clicks, my back" and he also gets to play with this toy helicopter (the one from Cars) and see the kissing fish (the actually come up to the glass when you "kiss" them)  When we leave he gets a sticker.  What kid wouldn't want to go?  I have to say since I've been going I feel so much better.  I've had a second thermal scan and it's a lot better then the first.  So are the kids.  Now we have to figure out how to get there 3 times a week with school starting next week! Early early to rise kids!  Zachary asks me every night if we're going for "more clicks?"

Tinker Town

 

 Awhile ago I won something from our local radio station.  I went to pick it up and while we were in the lobby "Are you Gonna Kiss Me or Not?" by Thompson Square came on the radio. Zachary and i love this song, we dance to it all the time.  He came over to me while I was talking to the receptionist and wanted me to dance and sing... I of course did not.   Anyways, the promotion director happened to be passing by when all this was going on, he came back with 2 passes for Tinker Town and gave them to Zachary. SO all that to say... we took Zachary to his first trip to Tinker Town and he loved  it!

Thank you QX104 for the passes! We had a great time!!  

I told the kids to get ready because we were going somewhere.  They had no idea where.  We kept driving and they were guessing all sorts of places.  We finally got there and they were so excited. Zachary of course had no idea where we were, as he has never been there.  As soon as he saw the cars he got it!  He loved the airplanes, and the boats.  It was a little hard with all 3 as Zachary couldn't go on the rides Madisen could go on and Madisen couldn't go on a lot of the rides he was going on, so there was a lot of  whining. We all loved the train that goes around the entire park. We rode that 3 times, the other favorite of all was the carousel.  Again we pretty much spent all day there, We arrived at noon when it opened and got home about 6pm.  Another fun day with my kids! 

Morning Sound Farm

We went to Morning Sound farm for their family fun day. 

The kids had a blast!  We left at 9am and didn't return home until close to 4pm.  It was such a hot day out, but none of seemed to mind, we were having so much fun!  

There were hay rides (which we did 3 times, Zachary loved the tractor that pulled us) They got to feed a baby goat, milk a goat, hold baby chicks. Madisen fell in love with this rabbit and had we not had all the other animals I honestly would have let her bring it home.  He was so cute!  Sabrina liked the little black one, I told her it looked a lot like the one I had when I was little named Kocoa.  Maybe one day, they will get their bunnies. 

We packed a lunch and ate in a old barn, with lots of tables set up.  We ate every single thing we brought.  Then it was off to watch a sheep get sheered. Each kid got a piece of the wool.  We learned how they cleaned it and made it into wool.  The family makes blankets for the winter from their sheeps wool.  

The girls have decided that this will be an annual summer trip.  We had so much fun.  I miss having horses and all the other animals around.  

Thank you Morning Sound Farm for a wonderful day.