7canzers

Temps are pushing 30, but the water is freeeeeezing here!!

The kids have been jumping out of the tree onto the tramp for the last week.  The challenge or game changes daily.  Malakai decided that he wanted to parachute out it, so he created his own rig with grocery bags.  Ashton was in charge of making sure the chute worked properly.  These games change as quickly as the shadows and a big motivation of my photography is to capture the memories, that our brains will forget in years to come, and try to do it in a beautiful way that satisfies my creative desire.

Maybe I am an anomaly these days.  I play with my kids very little.  I give them little direction when it come to playing or creative ideas.  It all come out of their own creativity.  And as a result I think they are phenomenal at playing as I believe kids should.  These girls had decided they wanted to go to the library.  They walked there and walked home and one of the books that they got was salt dough creations.  They got the whole production line going themselves.  One of our spare bedrooms they have also set up a little crafting table.  It makes me smile to see what their idea-of-the-day is.  Lucky that ‘bored’ is a swear word in our house, because they just never are!! 

I am feeling pretty spoiled and blessed.  It is my third day ‘off’ from my normal life.  Kent is giving me a break – a much needed one.  I feel like I have been ‘pounding the pavement’ of parenting and it has been nice to hang out with friends in beautiful places the last few days.  To be called “Mum” a few less times in a day and be called “Leanne” by adults somehow feels life giving to me.  Kent’s back is injured again and it is nice to get away from the discouragement of all that entails also.

Today I got to hike The Three Sister’s with my really good friend and her husband, a couple of other friends, and 3 teenage boys.  It is the most prominent peak around here that dominate’s the view we see from our house.  It was sunny and gorgeous and oh-so-wonderful.  So good!!

I took lots of pictures that I loved today, and one of these months I will get it up on my blog page, but for now, this is my favourite of the day.  About 35mins into the hike, straight up a rock headwall, we came across Bisaro cave.  A whole creek poured out of it and crashed down the mountain, and I was dreaming about bring the kids up and showing them.

I am loving the opportunities I am getting to go out with other women in our community on hiking trips.  There are all these big mountains surrounding me that have been calling my name for nearly four years, and I haven’t had the chance to get out there for a number of different reasons.  A couple of weeks ago we did a up and back trip on Mt Proctor, and today we went up Mt Fernie. It was cold, foggy and wonderful 🙂  And in the afternoon I did an impromptu hike to the very secret large ammonite fossil with a good friend who is in town for the weekend.

In light of the kids excellent year at school, we took them out to Dairy Queen and celebrated with a blizzard 🙂

End of year school prize-givings seems to be a point in the year that I actually feel encouraged as a parent!  Most of the rest of the year I am buried in how HARD it is.  But on this day, I am overcome with emotion on how wonderful these kids are.  All four of the kids have worked hard in school this year, and made a positive impact on those around them.  It is so neat to see their personalities and the gifts God has given each of them.

For grade 4-6 their achievements are publicly acknowledged.  Sequoia scooped an academic excellent award – one of the students in her class that achieved excellence over all subjects.  She is such a hardworking, disciplined and dedicated student.  A teacher’s dream.  A mother’s joy.  It is bitter sweet that this is her last day of elementary school.  I love that she is so lovely and mature, but I do mourn the passing of my little girl.  I am so proud of who she is, and is becoming.  I am looking forward to having her at home next year for school.  I think we will have lots of fun together.

Neika won the female citizenship award for her class (she did last year also).  In my humble opinion it is the best award – the one that celebrates excellent character.  She is super helpful, thoughtful, inclusive of everyone, encouraging and supportive of her classmates and teacher.  She is an enthusiastic learner, cheerful, a pleasure to be around.  She is so deserving.  She is a gem!

May and June always seem really busy, mainly because we have soccer 4 nights a week.  This year on two of the nights we have kids also playing in two different locations, which adds to the crazy. They all seem to love it though which I’m really glad about.