Pumpkin Patch

I have never been into decorating for Halloween, never been into Halloween either. This year, I really wanted to decorate for fall, but not have an overly Halloween themed house. Now, this craft is not one of those super cheap ones, but it is one that I can use over and over. I wanted to celebrate fall, and the harvest, and Thanksgiving. Since Canadian Thanksgiving is squeezed into the beginning of October before Halloween, I think it largely get ignored. I mean, it's not as though we delicate an entire month to decorating and celebrating it. This year, I decided that I was going to make something that incorporates both days. So was born my pumpkin patch.

I don't like pumpkin as a general rule. Not in pie, or muffins, or the like. I don't carve pumpkins with Little Bear because I cannot stand the smell. So, I saved my pennies and waited for those fake pumpkins to go on sale at Michael's (Canada's version of Hobby Lobby).

I then picked out a sweet font, and made the type huge, I think it ended up being 460 or something like that.

Then I traced the letters onto my pumpkins.

Used some craft paint to fill them in.

And set them up outside, where, in this crazy wind they promptly fell over. So I drilled a small hole in each and put a few rocks inside to help them stand up. Not the cheapest craft ever, but one that I can re-use.

Laughing

I was browsing pictures on my computer, and I came across this one that was taken 3 years ago at Thanksgiving. This is my youngest brother, who I call, Repeat.  It just made me burst our laughing at a moment I needed some funny.

Embrace The Camera

So, How much have I been slacking in this department! Um...lots. Anyway, With Papa Bear gone a lot working and this Mama Bear failing hopelessly at using a self timer on the camera, we have to wait for Papa Bear to man the Camera. This picture was taken during our last hike, when we hiked over the top of the mountain into the neighbouring province.

Me & My Little Bear

Lining up over ---> HERE!

Forum Lake

Another post about hiking! We here at the Bear house sure like our hiking, and this one was my current favorite. The trail head for Forum Lake is just north of Cameron Lake, this trail has several branches that can be hiked. One can be done over the course of 3 days, doesn't that sound like fun! The entire trail is called the Akamina Pass, and it goes a long way.

This trail was quick rocky, compared to others we have been on. It gets steep pretty quickly, and is a steady uphill walk for about a kilometer, then it is kind of an uphill/downhill for a while. One of Little Bear's favorite things about this hike was hiking all the way to B.C.! 

That's right! You cross the Provincial boundary on this hike. Not long after passing this sign, the trail forks, we took the main trail. The trail we were on on also leads to Wall Lake and continues the Akamina Pass. Further along there is a second fork, this time we took the smaller trail and boy did it get tricky after that. 

These 2 are so funny!

Once you branch off on the Forum Lake trail things get super steep, for a long time. I would like to do this hike again with a GPS of some kind to measure how much elevation you gain. You are in the trees from here until you nearly get to the lake. One thing I liked about this trail is, there's a ranger station! Which means a bathroom! Which means, an outhouse, but that sure beats a tree in my books. Just past the ranger station there is a little trail that forks off and takes you to Forum Falls. It is only a few dozen meters, and well worth the few minutes,

We took our time on this hike, partly because there was so many pretty flowers and other vegetation to look at and mostly because it was really steep! Little Bear was a champion on this hike, it was taxing for her, but she pushed to the end. When you get to the end you can see this

It was another successful hike, and we had a lovely picnic on the shores of this little lake. It was cloudy when we were up there, and I wish I could have gotten a picture of the lake when the sun came out for a few seconds. The lake turned this incredible shade of turquoise, It was breathtaking. If you ever feel like taking a hike that will challenge you, this is a good one. It is about 4km each way, and should take you 3-4 hours depending on how fast you can scale those inclines.

Looking down from above the falls

On the way back down we decided to hike the cut line along the AB/B.C. border just to see what we could see. Papa Bear always the surveyor noticed this. It is the official marker of the border, or something like that, ask him, he knows all the real words. 

True to our luck, we saw a Mama Bear & 2 cubs while driving out of the park. Un-lucky was that I was not camera ready! But that brings our bear count to 10 this summer! 

The Family Craft

I have stumbled across a wonderful LDS resource, a blog, it is full of excellent ideas, and after spending about 2 hours looking through the archives, my head was swimming with so many ideas. On of the more recent posts included a free printable craft that we did for Family Home Evening yesterday. Papa Bear isn't home on Mondays, so we try to have our FHE on Sundays, but if we forget or I am not prepared most often it goes un-done. Well this week we had Papa Bear home, and so I pulled out the pages I had printed off and we put together the cutest little banner. Each of the pennants have a key word on them, which was taken from The Family: A Proclamation to The World. To see the Blog I adore, click ---> HERE

Little Bear and I cut them out while Papa Bear read parts of The Proclamation to us.

We hot glued the pennants onto some ribbon I had on hand.

We put our banner up in the living room where we can see it all the time. Super easy, and super cute!

Saving

At the beginning of the year, Little Bear discovered American Girl Dolls. “I WANT ONE!” She declared to me, over and over and over. I told her, SURE! You may have one, but you need to save up the money for it. I thought that would be the end of it, but not so! She got an empty juice container, and decorated it. That container has lived on my counter all year. Each week when we gave Little Bear her allowance, she would pay her tithing, put part of her money into long term savings, and then she was free to use the remaining money for whatever she wanted.

I have to say I was quite pleased to see her add her spending money to her Doll Savings. To get her closer to her savings goal faster Little Bear started volunteering to do extra work around the house. One job that she seemed to really like doing was cleaning the car! My car was kept super clean inside, all for the low, low price of $5 a month! My point? Well a couple weeks ago, Little Bear was counting her money and SHE HAD ENOUGH! Out came the most recent catalog, and we poured over it for hours, choosing a doll, and an extra outfit. The doll has be purchased, and is on the way here! Stay tuned.

Math Project #1

Little Bear and I completed her first math project last week, the assignment was to create a pictograph showing peoples favorite days of the week. The first day Little Bear and I talked about our favorite days, and we added them to the graph, then Little Bear drew a picture showing why those days were our favorite.

I sent a quick text message to all of my siblings and their spouses, and asked them to include the children when they answered me. It was great; all of the responses came back within 5 minutes. I prepared a sheet of paper with a post it note on it for each person who sent us a reply, under the post it was the day they chose, and the reason they chose it.

I gave the results to Little Bear, who then transferred all the information to the pictograph. She worked on this project for 90 minutes straight! She took extra care to write all the names neatly, and to get the hair colour of each person exactly right, and to make sure that each person’s favorite colour was used in their picture. She took great care with her work, and it shows. The pictograph is awesome! Great job Little Bear!

Choice Made

The choice is made; the die has been cast, as they say. We have made our decision regarding schooling Little Bear for the upcoming school year. It will be at home. Papa Bear and I have been agonizing over this choice since October. Since the 5th week of the school year, the thought of homeschooling has been on my mind. I very nearly pulled Little Bear out of school that 5th week, I thought about it in November, and then again in March. This has been a long process, weighing the pros, the cons, and the stigma. We made a list of every benefit to leaving her in public school, weighed against being at home, alone. We talked at length of what was more important at this stage of her life, socialization, social skills, or self-esteem.

What it came down to, for us, was no child’s self esteem is worth waiting for the school to make a decision. Little Bear's self esteem is not worth waiting for other parents to take notice of their child’s hurtful behavior. She is our responsibility, and this is how we have chosen to take action. We did not step on this path blindly, or without thought. We do not go into this thinking it will be the easier choice, or the easier way. It is going to be a difficult road, with the majority of the work falling to me, I am fine with that. I am looking forward to it. What we hope to gain form choosing this more difficult journey is a lengthy list of attributes Little Bear is going to need to live in this world, and be happy.

Piano

I know in my last post that things were winding down here in the Bear house. Due to a ferocious winter storm, things got mixed up a bit and rearranged some. Baby Bear started piano lessons in September this year, and just loves it! She has the greatest piano teacher, who is calm and sweet and boy can she play the piano! Each year, all the students choose a song to play at the Christmas recital, Baby Bear chose to play "Away In A Manger". She also turning to to quite the fashionista, she loves dresses now, versus a few months ago I couldn't hardly get her near a dress. She is also loving have longer hair again, and being able to have curls, and French braids.

She worked really hard to get the timing right, to play the right notes, and to play the whole piece without looking at her fingers. On the recital night Baby Bear was the first person to perform. She did a super job! No stage fright, no hesitation and to her credit NO mistakes! She was just thrilled and so were Papa Bear and I.

Baby Bear seems to have grown 5 years in the past 5 month, she is such a joy to have in our family, we just adore her. I will leave you with the video of Baby Bear's musical number. (That is if the video uploaded correctly!)

Thanksgiving

I am Canadian, but I am posting about Thanksgiving today, on U.S. Thanksgiving. Why the 2 different dates? Weird. Anyway our Thanksgiving was done in 2 parts this year, and I am sad to say I didn't take a single photo of either event!

We went to my families home on Thanksgiving day, and had a blast! We had fun all day with rock band, and a bit of shopping. The meal was cooked by my older brother, who made the most delicious food ever! I really had no idea that he could even cook! The stuffing was my favorite part.

The following weekend we spent with Papa Bears family, their get togethers are far quieter than with my family, but just as fun. The food was pretty good, (but I won't lie, the 1st meal was better) and the company was great too. We had lots of fun playing with the babies, and playing the crazy confusing games that Papa Bears brother always brings.

We hope that your Thanksgiving was or is just as much fun as ours.

Wedding Fun

My little brother got married last Friday. It was such a fun day, being with family and celebrating with the happy couple. My job for the wedding was sewing (of course!), and I really enjoyed working on the dresses for the 3 bridesmaids and 2 flower girls. I also made a vest for the groom & ring bearer, 2 bow ties and my first ever long tie. I do not have permission from the entire wedding party, so I won't post pictures of everything today. If I do get permission, I will post more pictures of the day. For now, I will leave you with one I snapped of Baby Bear at the lake in her fancy dress.

Climb Every Mountain

It was a beautiful day here in Bear country, so nice I thought for a moment it was July, not the middle of September! I was struck by a stroke of genius today, as I was thinking about the nice weather and how little we have explored our new home. We didn't get a summer vacation this year, because of the move. Weekend trips are out due to heavy class loads at school and very little money. So I came up with a plan that would keep us close to home and be fairly inexpensive.

Papa Bear doesn't have school of Friday, and Baby Bear gets out early, we decided to get Baby Bear right from school and go to the very near by National Park. It is a breathtaking 40 minute drive away, and it is a great place to do some exploring. Baby Bear was thrilled that we were going to the mountains, and so we decided to climb one! Granted it is more like a large hill, and you don't even come close to breaking the tree line, but to her little legs it was mountain enough.

The mountain we climbed is a popular easy hike, called Bears Hump as seen below in the photograph. We had a nice picnic on top, enjoyed the great view, the sunshine and the wonderful fall breeze. Afterwards we enjoyed an ice cream and a leisurely drive around the village.

This is a picture of the view, looking south towards Montana. You can see the little village, the lakes and the mountain range. I plan on finding out which mountain is which so I can label this picture.

School Days

WHEW! It has been a crazy couple of weeks here. Baby Bear went back to school on the 31st of August, and Papa Bear went back to school on the 8th of this month. It took up a lot of my energy getting their things ready for them. We did manage to get everything, including a bag of textbooks for Papa Bear that weigh roughly the same as Baby Bear.

Baby Bear is enjoying Grade 2! (when did she grow up?) She has 2 cousins in her class, the bonus of being in a small town school! The other bonus is that there are only 13 children in the class. Yay! for small schools! Papa Bear on the other hand, is in college so his classes are huge! He is enjoying his classes so far, I believe his exact words were "School rocks!"

I don't have a first day of school picture for either of my school goers, but I do have this 5th day of school picture of Baby Bear. The fall clothes are out in stores, and the colours this year are fantastic!

Long Time...

It has been a long time since I posted, sorry about that. We are moved, we have been in our new house for 3 weeks now after spending 2 weeks at my in-laws place. Our quick renovation turned into a major overhaul overnight. I guess that is to be expected in an old house. We ran into a few problems, but after a few trips to Home Depot we managed to get it all done. Now we are on to other things, and getting ready to go back to school! We had a fun time shopping for school supplies, and new shoes. Thanks to my brilliant planning ahead, the only things we had to buy for Baby Bear in the way of school clothes was 2 pairs of jeans. It has been fun getting Papa Bear ready for school to, there is still a long list for him, but he can shop on his own.

Not much new other than that here. Baby Bear would like to show off her "new" smile though. Happy rest of the summer all.

Empty

MAN! Our house looks like we are camping!

Quick Update

Quick update! Things are good. Packing is coming along kind of slow, and time is running out so I am sure it will pick up here soon ;-) Baby Bear and I were able to spend some of last week with extended family we haven't seen in a long time. It was really fun, Baby Bear jumped right in with the other girls her age and I didn't see her for nearly the entire evening. We also spent a few hours cleaning our new "cave". We don't have running water there yet, due to a leak in the bathroom so wall washing had to wait. We have some big plans for this new cave of ours, we will be doing some renovations! I am excited to break our my paint roller and go to town, Papa Bear will be putting his flooring talents to good use, and replaceing the old, old, Old lino that is currently in part of the cave. Stay tuned for a FULL feature before and after photo post to come!

Speaking of rennovations! The BLOG is getting one too! Very excited for our new look!

Quickly

Time is moving very fast toward our moving day. I have been super busy packing, sorting and selling, and launching my little sewing company. Things are good, we are all happy! Forgive us if the updates are few and far between for the next month or so, we will catch up soon!

Until then, enjoy this amazing Tile work that Papa Bear did! It is all slate tile, which is tricky to work with, but he did a fabulous job! I should mention as well, that he put down all the hardwood in this house too!

First is tile that goes around the island in the kitchen.

Next is The fireplace, tiling on the diagonal is not as easy as you might think.

Last is the entrance, So pretty!

♥ The Three Bears♥

Moving Along

Things are moving along in my quest to pack this house. I showed a picture a while back of the sewing room at the very start of my packing.

I was still in the d-junk stage at that point, I took a photo about a week ago to compare if I had made any progress yet. I think it is pretty obvious that I made the mess a lot worse! I was able to get rid of the larde storage unit, but I gained a PIANO! Baby Bear is excited about that, she is going to start taking lessons in the fall.

I had a burst of energy the past couple of days, so I put it to good use and I am very pleased with the actually progress that has been made. The final photo is one taken today, things are moving along.

July 1st

It is Canada Day today! Papa Bear has the day off, and we sure like it when he gets to stay home. We did some yard work today, the lawn really needed it. I don't have before and after pictures bacuase that is just, WAY too embarassing! We went on a bike ride, got some ice cream and just spent some time together.

This morning Baby Bear helped me out again, by modeling some skirts I made for the Etsy shop I recently opened. It was really fun to see her creativity in posing, like the last time, Baby Bear had complete control over where and how to pose. Here is a few of our best shots.

Where the WILD THINGS are.

Well, they are at the ZOO! And that is where the Bear House was on Saturday. It was the Bear country family reunion over the weekend, and we spent some time in the big city with our fellow bears. It was a great time playing with the medium sized bears and snuggling the little bears. Enjoy some pictures we got of some of the wild things we saw!

The Bear cousins.

Baby Bear was thrilled they had HIPPOS! I was thrilled that they were out and visible.

You could get really close to these long legged friends.

This guy was just wandering around the Zoo!