EIGHT.

The radiant birthday girl

Yesterday, Juniper turned eight.  EIGHT. Like, we're talking 2 years short of double digits.  Or, as Juniper would be quick to tell you, three years away from being invited to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I could spend a long, drawn out post detailing the various emotions that go along with such an event (where did the time go?  what happened to my chubby little baby?, and the like), but instead, I'll simply detail the events. You're welcome.

So, as any very keen observer would have already noticed from that opening photo, the big present this year was -- wait for for it -- PIERCED EARS!  Eight years old is the (relatively arbitrary) magical age wherein the kids in our house can choose whether or not they want to put a permanent hole through their earlobes. Though she hemmed and hawed about the potential pain involved, Juniper's sense of grown-up-ness and fashion won out over her trepidations.  With much excitement, off we went to the mall.

I love the look on her face, and the hands gripping the chair arms.  She claimed afterwards that it was "no big deal".

Though I don't have a great close-up, she chose 14-karat gold studs with a bezel cubic zirconium (for all those who need details).  These must stay in for at least three weeks, and then she's free to start switching them up.  She already has a few pairs ready and waiting, and thinks she knows what she wants to wear on her first day of school.  This is all, if you haven't already guessed, VERY exciting.

The birthday party itself was a small but fun affair at our house.  Lots of food, cake, and presents, and I had bought some white cotton ball caps and fabric markers for an activity/loot bag "prize".  Plus, there were lots of raspberries and snow peas to harvest, which kept the kids entertained for longer than you'd think. Though there were a bunch of invitees who couldn't make it for one reason or another, we ended up with a pretty stellar crew: Will and the girls; Toni, John and Bella (who, of course, also just turned 8), and our awesome neighbours from across the street: Ruth and kids (Liam, Zoë and Ruby).

Making personalized hats

Juniper's request: both chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, in the shape of an 8

The kids in their hats! (l-r: Eva, Sylvie, Juniper, Bella, Zoë; Liam, Ruby, Linden)

The whole birthday crew....

.... and one more with silly faces!

It was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a very book-themed  present-opening.  Two gift cards to Chapters, a box-set of Little House on the Prairie, and an addition to a series that Juniper has been devouring as of late.  With those gift cards burning a hole in her pocket, Juniper and I headed over to Chapters very shortly after the party ended.  She knew exactly what she wanted, but opted to get three books instead of four, as that would leave her enough to also get Linden a little set of Lego.  I should also add that she came back from Fredericton with $20 of birthday money from my sister Kelli and her family, and the first thing she did with it was get Linden two presents at the Dollar Store.  That is pretty cute if you ask me.

Relaxing at Starbucks with her new purchases and a mint tea

And that about sums it up!  I'm sure there will be more parties in New Brunswick when the kids head back there later this week.  Since I've got pictures, I'll also add a round-up of some of the other activities from this past week:

My first-ever strawberry-rhubarb pie (made with rhubarb from our back yard).  It was deeeee-licious, if I do say so myself.

Juniper was as excited as I was

Trying out a new project: drawing with glue, and then colouring with chalk pastels.  It was SUPER fun and successful:

Juniper's finished piece (chick and egg)

Linden's underwater scene...

... and his exploding volcano

Clark took the kids down to the tall ships weekend.  It was, apparently, CRAZY. But at least the kids got their pictures taken with a "girl pirate".  (Juniper talked about it for days afterwards)

They went to tall ships with Ruth, Joe and kids, and had lunch on the waterfront.  Here's Juniper, clearly very happy to have the privilege of holding Ruby

And finally, we did a bunch of science experiments this past week, including the construction of a balloon-powered car.  Here's a little video:

Guest post: NB vacation, little cousins, farm goodness

Clark here -- since I was the one with the kids for the entire last week, it made sense for me to fill in for Tara and do a guest post. Sorry it's a day late. If Tara were to write, it would be all about: quiet, cleaning, house projects, relaxing, quiet, and sleeping. Did I mention quiet? Sounds like a good time, for sure, but not really blog-worthy. So, while this will mostly just be a bit of a picture dump, I'll try and give a sense of our week in NB, and the myriad (and satisfyingly tiring) adventures that transpired.

The original motivation for the trip was that Andrea and Dinesh, and more importantly their new little guy Jacob, were going to be in Fredericton for a visit, and while Tara is going to get to spend LOADS of time with him when she goes to Vancouver in August, I realized that this was the only chance the kids and I had to meet him while he was still (relatively) small. So, I told Tara that the three of us were going on a road trip, and she wasn't allowed to come -- her job was to relax and get some quality time without parental responsibility.

He seriously was this cute just about the entire time we were hanging out with him. I think he likes his cousins!

Yup -- just chilling. When you're so cute why would you be anything but happy?

He looks a little more skeptical here, but I can assure you we were also best buds.

There was a great big joint birthday part for Ethan, Jamie, and Juniper. There were 3 cakes! (and a delicious and visually pleasing tray of fruit skewers from Liz). Also the largest turkey I have ever seen. 

Chelsea (left) and cousin Ali.

The birthday boy and the (almost) birthday girl. Just for context, when I first met Ethan (when Tara and I started dating), he was basically the same size as Jacob ....

Aunt Kelli!

Deb and Yvon took the kids to Kings Landing again. They had a great time, and Juniper was happy to have a chance to use her own camera to document the trip. This is one of her photos.

Linden and Deb. Another of Juniper's photos.

We also had a nice little visit with Poppy and Lilly (and Jane, Mike and Tom)! This was the only photo that one of them wasn't totally blurry from not being able to sit still. Also, Tom really wanted to join the party.

The kids and I spent an afternoon at Science East. It was actually my first time, and they loved it. We'll definitely go again.

Infinite fun.

After a few days in Fredericton, the kids and I packed up and headed to the Farm for the rest of the week. 

The first activity? Painting canvasses (with pirate ships) for Grandma and Grandpa. I forgot to get a picture of the completed masterpieces. That's Grandma Barb in the background making her signature delicious strawberry rhubarb pie. We managed to have it for dessert two nights in a row (because I was able to keep myself from eating the leftovers for breakfast).

Next up. The beach. With a wagon of gear in tow, naturally.

Linden is fascinated with looking for bones on the beach now. And this visit was no exception.

And then it was necessary to take advantage of the new swimming raft. Seriously, we went swimming every day. We came home with very little dirty laundry because the kids were in their swim suits so much.

We also took a boat trip out to the beach on Isle of Pines. Which involved more swimming, and also some "fishing" with Grandpa.

Which was topped later by REAL fishing, courtesy of Linden's cousin Hunter (behind) and my cousin-in-law Jason. My cousin Sarah and her family were down for the weekend and the kids and adults all had a fantastic time hanging out and swimming. It was a lot like the "old days" when all my cousins would be at the farm during the summer -- great times indeed.

Linden also took advantage of the farm bikes to have a few rips around the yard. He would rather have been driving the tractor, though.

There was also some haying to do (of course). This is another of Juniper's photos. Shortly after this Linden was so desperate to help out he tried to insert himself in the activity and catch one of the hay bales as it came off the wagon. I wasn't pleased, but the truth is I remember doing the exact same thing when I was young and would "help" my Grampy with haying.

All good things must end, and this is the requisite pre-departure group shot. Juniper said she missed her Mom and wanted to go home, but she also didn't want to leave. Yup.

A nice reminder of one of the reasons why we wanted to come home -- our lovely neighbours made a "Welcome Home" sign. That's pretty nice to come home to after a fun and exhausting week vacation.

Beach Days and Runaways

Is there anything better than sand, shovels and buckets?

I am writing this morning from a VERY quiet house.  Clark and the kids left yesterday for a week in New Brunswick, with the goals of meeting new little Jacob (Andrea and Dinesh and Jacob are visiting currently), and to spend some time on the farm.  On Clark's firm prompting, I stayed behind, so as to have my own little mini-vacation. I will, after all, shortly be heading to Vancouver to have a whole lot of one-on-one time with Jacob, and I will visit New Brunswick before flying off.  Yet, I waffled about staying until basically the moment they all drove away.   I am feeling slightly jealous after being sent shots like the following:

Cousins.  Do you get any cuter than this?

Jacob: "OMG. Stop with all the selfies already"

Already, however, I think I made the right decision.  A whole glorious week of no one's schedule but my own?  That is truly a gift that does not come often.  I have about a million things planned (including a whole lot of sleep).  Next week, there will be a full report -- mostly, I'm sure, from perspective of the New Brunswick gang, as I reminded Clark a *few* times to take a metric tonne of photos.  But for today, a quick glimpse at last week - the first full week where the kids and I got to decide how to spend our summer vacation days.

Beach Bliss

As the title of this post suggests, the activity of choice for both kids involved going to the beach.  Now, I am going to be up front and say that the beach is not my very favourite of destinations.  Sand in every crevice, constant sunscreen concerns, SO MUCH prep work and so many items to bring... you get the picture.  Plus, there is the added fact that we are in Nova Scotia - home to beautiful beaches, but also frigid cold water, and weather that can change drastically five times an hour.  I am not nearly as big a miser as some people *cough, CLARK, cough*, who I think secretly believes sand was the creation of the devil himself.  But I also didn't jump enthusiastically into a full week of beach, beach, and more beach.

Linden, in his natural habitat. More than anyone I know, he loves every single thing about the beach

Instead, we took things slow and leisurely: mornings spent playing and doing stuff in and around the house, running errands if need be, hitting up some museums, wandering around downtown.  And when I could put it off no longer, we spent two nice full afternoons at the beach - the first at Rainbow Haven, and the second at Conrad's.  The Rainbow Haven Day was surprisingly cold when you actually made it to the coast - I spent the time huddled in a towel, and even got rained on a bit as a huge dark cloud passed overhead.  The Conrad's Day was beautiful and warm - enough so that I even donned a swimsuit and went to join the kids in the water.  However, despite the fact that I have a very high threshold for pain, I did not make it past my feet.  And even then, the agony was unbearable for more than about 10-15 seconds at a time.  I am convinced that if I had immersed my whole body, my heart would have stopped instantaneously.

Somehow, however, the kids were completely impervious to any of the conditions that held me back. They happily frolicked in the waves, wore nothing but swimsuits, and loved every single minute.  This meant that I got to... relax, mostly.  So despite all the grumbling, I'd say both excursions were, on the whole, a pretty big success. Plus, apart from the obvious (swimming and sand castle-making), there are seemingly endless ways the kids keep themselves occupied.  Cases in point:

Finding some local wildlife

Frolicking with gigantic pieces of seaweed

Lounging

Making "sand holes" (also helps with Linden's apparent goal of making sure he manages to get sand in every single crevice of his body)

I will end on a related note - one that is perhaps worth relating, if even just to remind myself of an era that we have apparently now entered.  So, early in the week, I told the kids that if they could do the things they needed to do without me constantly nagging and reminding, and if they could listen and follow instructions (these are all things we are currently trying to *improve*), then we could go to the beach.  We had, at this point, not yet gone, and it was a huge source of potential excitement.  Linden, however, was just not able to pull it together.  He was feeling - I don't know - particularly devilish, I guess.  When he went one step too far, I called it off.  If I threaten something, I'd better follow through, right?

He FLIPPED OUT, and finally said, "fine!  I guess I'll just go find a different family to live with!".  Then, 30 seconds later: "I'm OUT THE DOOR!".  And off he went.  I watched him from the window as he stalked down the driveway, crossed the cul-de-sac, and entered the path that leads to the mailbox (and ultimately to the Penhorn mall). I gave him about a full minute or two (while I didn't want to give hime the satisfaction of running right after him, I wasn't sure how far he would take this, and didn't want him to end up really and truly lost).  I found him sitting by the mailbox.  He had apparently decided he would just wait there until it got dark, then come back.

I'm not sure anyone really learned any lessons - when I tried to point out that we could have been at the beach if he'd just done what he was asked to do, and made better decisions, he just indignantly demanded "how would YOU feel, if I told you YOU couldn't go to the beach?  HOW WOULD YOU FEEL?"

Sigh.  I would be a little more concerned about the whole thing, except that I think it was about this age that I threatened to run away from my house over some perceived injustice.  I had even prepared a bit better (having packed a bag, at the very least).  But I do remember vividly how that felt.  So... I guess we'll just see how this pans out in the weeks (and years) to come.  Perhaps we both have to change our approach a bit, if everyone is to stay living in the same family, and all.  Hey - if I can figure this all out by the time the kids are teenagers, then it will all have been worth it, right?  RIGHT?  

Stay tuned for what I hope will be loads of photos next week!

day-to-day... summer vacation style

A serious artist brings his tools with him for all outings

This past week marked the beginning of summer vacation.  It is just beginning to dawn on me that this is actually going to be a bit of a crazy next couple of months, involving travel, visitors, and not a whole lot of routine.  But in the off time, it will likely look a lot like the following pictures depict.  Hanging around, going on adventures, trying to get some never-ending projects on the go (or finished!), as well as both enjoying each others company, and getting completely irritated by the seemingly non-stop proximity to each other. A good dose of fun/annoyance; stress/relaxation. Maybe by the end we'll come out more or less balanced?  

Stopping to rest by an old forge site at Shubie Park

Biking adventure along the Salt Marsh Trail.  Check out the new baskets!

A manky old feather that I convinced Linden to leave behind, with assurances that I would take a picture of it and post it on the blog

Playing the public piano in the Dartmouth ferry terminal while we wait to cross the harbour

Sketching the Macdonald Bridge mid-ferry ride

Juniper's "bad attitude" face, coupled with Linden's "supper annoying urchin" face... a rare photographic event! 

When you don't bring swimsuits to a beach, might as well dig in the sand

All geared up and about to rent a canoe to paddle along the Shubie canal.  We would love to find our own canoe (cheaply!) if anyone has any leads...

All the stones, ready to be placed in the garden

Trying them out.  I have since spread clover seed to fill in the gaps, and made even MORE stones, as this seemingly huge amount barely covered half the space.

Butterfly and shadow

Double chairing it (while eating homemade pizza for supper)