Horseback riding

Rebekah Loves Animals.

So it was no wonder when she discovered that she could climb aboard her rocking horse, that she would love it.

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Needless to say, she loves it!

Finally I got the video up... sorry it took forever!

Apple Picking

Ahh Autumn.

The leaves on the trees begin to change colours, then fall off.

Birds begin to Migrate south for the winter.

And Apples are Ripe for the Picking!

As a child we went Apple Picking every year. My dad still recalls the last time we went together, I was 16, and he got some great pictures of me picking apples at Chudleigh's Apple Farm in Milton, Ontario. Not much has changed there really, except that they are bigger than I remember. Dad and I took Rebekah there last year, but she was a bit too young to get really into it. This year however, she Loved it!!


We spent the majority of our time in the petting zoo, but she did love her first "driving lesson" with daddy, on the old tractors.






You can tell he is loving "coaching" her on how to steer, but she needs no instruction! She makes all the "vroom vroom" sounds herself, and absolutely loved the "Tucks".

I love the concentration on her face!

After playing around on all the "tucks" we headed to the petting zoo. Last year it was super busy, but it was a quieter day this time around, and we could really get up to the fences and feed and pet the animals. The squeals of delight must have been coming from all three of us, we had a blast!




There were cows, sheep, pigs, goats that had climbed up and were resting on different levels of posts (no, we didn't let her feed the cracker to the goats!).

She even had the chance to sit on a pony!

It didn't last long though. She wasn't so sure about this huge animal under her!

So she took to petting it and pointing out his eyes and ears instead!

We did finally get a chance to pick some delicious apples!

Rebekah even tried to turn the "eye to the sky" when picking her apple.

Then tried to be the big helper that she is, and pulled the wagon all by herself!

When we finished picking our bag of apples, we were right beside a play area they have. There are these giant slides that we all decided to try out. We let Rebekah try by herself, and she loved it! I was a bit nervous and had a hard time letting go of her hand, but after we all tried it together, we let her go on her own!

Organizing

This long weekend we spent a lot of time playing. We have recently discovered "blocks" aka - megablocks. They are in a separate drawer in their own bucket and Rebekah can't quite reach them on her own yet, so she will open the drawer and ask for "bok".

After a rough morning of not listening very well (we've had a few days of it but I think the weekend was the culmination) we came head to head over these silly "boks".

Rebekah had taken her blocks out and dumped them ALL OVER the family room, then decided she wanted to play with something else. I asked her to please pick up her blocks but she answered back with a very determined NO. I asked a few more times then gave up in frustration to tend to my fur baby instead. Phoebe needed a walk. I told Rebekah that I expected the blocks to be picked up when we got home..... and they weren't. So a time out on the stairs, hugs, kisses and finally a bit of tidying together, we got the blocks put away and were able to play with all our other toys.

Later that night, she pulls the block out again and I think "here we go again". The result was the following video. I would stack all the blocks in colours and we practiced our colours (she knows GEEN the best), then she would pull them all apart one tower at a time, and put them all away. I think we did this for at least 20 minutes!

In the video she is pulling apart previously assembled towers and putting the blocks away one at a time. She won't put two back in the box, they have to be singles! Sorry about the light, it's dark in our family room, and the angle too, I'm laying on the floor with her to start!


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Right, anytime she sees a camera now, she says CHEESE! Absolutely hilarious! Gosh I love this kid! Even with all the frustrating moments, I still laugh until there are tears in my eyes at least once a day, tear up with the impulsiveness of her hugs and kisses, an smile knowing that she is the strong, smart, brave little girl that she is.

Bathtime!

When we were visiting in Trenton Rebekah had her first co-ed bath with her older cousin Logan. He is a ham too and loves to say CHEESE when he sees a camera!

They had a great time filling each others cups, and Logan was loving dumping water over Rebekah's head. She really loves the water so it didn't phase her at all.

Logan wasn't too sure about water in his own face (we had a couple freakouts) but he finally got his own face wet and didn't cry at all! What a big boy!!

Feeding the ducks

As some of you may know, the first intelligible sound Rebekah made about a year ago was the sound of a duck - Quack Quack.

When I was a kid, we always used to feed the ducks at the cottage, and I was hoping that the ducks would still be hanging around 20 years later.

They were!

I went into a local bakery and they generously gave us a huge bag of day old buns to feed the ducks (enough for a week, seriously!), so everyday we would go down to the dock after breakfast and again after naptime, to feed the ducks.

The first few days Rebekah loved watching daddy throw the bread to the ducks and would get all excited to see all the "Quack Quacks".

By the end of the week, she knew that we went to the "pool" aka lake, to throw bread to the ducks. One afternoon on our way there she found a bun and I was able to ask her what she was going to do with it, and the following conversation ensued....

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Cleaning Up!

We built a fence this summer and ended up with a bunch of leftover wood.

After all was said and done, our garage was full of wood scraps and boards that weren't good enough in some spots for the fence.

At the same time, without us even realizing it, our family room was being overrun by toys.

Enter a great idea.

Lets use the scraps and not good enough boards to clean up the toys.

"Hunny, can you build me some toy storage?"

At this point, James isn't thinking Chrissy had such a good idea, but he helps to plan a layout for said storage shelf anyways!

Chrissy goes off to Ikea and buys a bunch of Trofast bins and suggests that these will be used as the drawers for our storage.

We start building. Does anyone realize how heavy 2x4's can get when you start screwing 11" and 30" lengths together? What going to happen when we add the side and back boards? This thing is going to be heavy! Well, we've come this far, lets keep going!

Once all is said and done, I give the unit a coating of water proofing/sealer to protect it. Let it dry and air out in the garage for a few days, add some felt protectors too the bottom, install some foamy floor mats, and bring it in the house to load it up!

Have to take a few pictures of the handywork before it gets loaded with toys though!

And now finally, we can reclaim our family room... well somwhat at least!!

Thanks Hunny!!!

Summer Fun, Volume One

Well we've been pretty busy so far this summer and I haven't had a chance to upload pictures... that and by the time I sit down at night I'm too lazy to get back up and find the camera and cable to do it!

Sooooo, I'm going to be updating our summer in installments!

I must admit, I wish I could be more like some of my other blogging friends who get online everyday or every few days, but I am learning that I don't think I will ever get there, so for that, I'm sorry!

We visited family and the cottage for about a week and a half in August, and Rebekah really seemed to enjoy all the new sights and people to play with.

She found some birds to love and hug...

Got annoyed when the other kids wouldn't share the slide, so took her own turn anyways....

And even took some time to stop and smell the flowers in Nan's Garden.

And before heading home had to have some cuddle time with Gramma.