Carmangay Colony

Friday morning the boys and I got Emry off to school and my plan was then to CLEAN our house and catch up on laundry!!! Two minutes after the bus drove away Calum brought me the phone and said I had to call a lady! Curious I checked the message and sure enough a lady did call!! She asked if I could sub as a teachers aid at the Carmangay Colony! I called her back to get more details and let her know I might not be able to find a sitter for our boys with such short notice, her only response was "bring them...I'm serious!!!!" She said she was so desperate that she really didn't mind if they just hung out!!

The boys and I got ready, called our neighbor, also the mom of Emry's best friend, to see if Emry could go to golf with them, and we were on our way!!

Once we got there we met Mrs. Montgomery, the "principle" and got the boys settled in her room with Lego and trains!! She teaches the grades 1-3, and I was to go into the other building with Miss Barton and help with the grades 4-9! I have actually never been to a colony before so I wasn't sure what to expect! I know each colony is different but this one was quite laid back!! Friday is a short day so the first part of the morning was spent doing independent reading then Miss Barton read to the class a couple of chapters from a novel they have been reading together as a class. She would stop and ask questions and the kids would get right involved answering her questions. 

Next was recess!! Everyone went outside to play and after a good twenty minutes I wondered just how long recess was! After 30 minutes I asked!! I was told that whenever they felt like blowing the whistle they would!! After a few more minutes the other aid finally asked me if I knew what time it was! I told her and she decided it was time to blow the whistle!!

After recess was Math and I was able to help the grades 4-6 if they had any questions!!! Wow!! Am I ever thankful I had the answer key it would have taken me quite awhile to remember some of the questions they had! 

After Math it was lunchtime!! Fridays the teachers and aids eat with the colony!! Each little kid was assigned a buddy to walk with to the lunch room and as I came out of the big kids building I saw Calum and Armin holding hands with two boys!! Once at the lunchroom the teachers and I walked into a large room with tables and benches but totally empty of people!! The colony members eat earlier then serve us!! The kids eat in a totally different room!! The buns were so yummy!! I could have eaten all of them but I refrained!!! I was given a bag of buns to take home, and I was so grateful!! 

After lunch it was recess again and it went on much like the morning recess!! Once they finally blew the whistle all that was left to do was writing in their agendas and doing their clean up jobs!! Then the big kids would go get the little kids and do buddy reading!! Then it was home time!!!

As we were walking to the van Calum turns back and gives one of the girls a big hug!! She wasn't quite sure what to think of that!!! Once we were in the van and about to back up 4 little girls knocked on our window so I rolled it down and they asked if they could come home with us!! I told them we would be back again!! They liked this idea, and then let us leave!!

The boys had fun and were so good!!! Maybe I need to stop threatening them that if they won't be good they will be going to live on a Hutterite Colony, because they really seemed to like it!!!

I get to go back on June 2nd for a whole day! I'm really looking forward to it!!!

Lego Fest

Friday we had the opportunity to take the kids to Lego Fest in Calgary.  This is the first time it has been to Alberta and if I'm not mistaken, the first time to Canada!  I had told Emry that we going but I kept it a surprise from the boys!!  I was teasing Calum on the drive up to Calgary saying we were going to learn how to clean our rooms, or we were going to learn how to eat our vegetables....Calum did not like any of the things I told him!!

As we were walking into the building Calum asked if we could get Lego because he saw a family coming out carrying a yellow Lego store bag!  We didn't say anything just kept walking!!  As soon as we got inside the building we saw signs everywhere with Lego figures and the Lego logo.  Calum started to vibrate!!  After having our bags checked and our tickets scanned we headed down a long corridor all the while Calum was pulling on my hand and looking up at me with huge eyes saying "this is the best surprise ever!" and "Thank you, thank you thank you!!!"  Finally we made our way into the arena!  There was Lego everywhere!  Characters from movies built entirely out of lego, in life size proportions.

Superman was the best by far as a life like replica!!

Lightning McQueen was actual size and weighed 3 tons and used millions of Lego bricks to build! 

Armin was super excited to find his best buddies!!! Buzz and Woody!!!

Cinderella was totally awesome!!!  Emry loved standing beside this princess!!!

There were also sections where there were millions of pieces of Lego dumped out in a pile for the kids to sit and build whatever they wanted. There were building challenge stations and an Art Gallery where the kids could display their work of art!  There was every sort of Lego theme there, Lego City, Lego Chima, Lego Ninjago, Pirates of the Caribbean Lego, Lego Star Wars, Lord of the Rings Lego, Lego Superhero's, Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Friends!!  Anything and everything that has ever been done by Lego was there and it was AMAZING!!  We walked around and looked at all the exhibits, we participated in building a lego car and racing it down a ramp.  We made a piece of Lego Art and displayed it in the Art Gallery and the kids participated in a bridge building challenge!

Our second round of car building and racing!!

The bridge building challenge was so fun!!  There were 6 teams made up of 6 kids each and they all had a huge tub of duplo lego bricks.  Each team had 5 minutes to create a sturdy bridge.  Lego Mike explained the rules and then let the kids get to work designing and building the best bridge.  Emry's team was made up of herself and Armin and 3 boys including Calum all his age!  It was cute to watch them put together a plan, one little guy said we had to lay all the bricks one direction and the next level we had to switch the direction!!  A great theory but he only built the bridge that way on a quarter of the length of board we were supposed to build it!!!  So I got in there and helped them continue that theory all the way across the board!  The kids worked well together and Jared and I got a good glimpse of how Calum acts in a group situation......our conclusion.....AWESOME!!!!!!  He got right in there and got everyone organized with lots of bricks close at hand!  In the end their bridge held 5 pounds of weight which was actually quite amazing despite the haphazard way it was put together!! One team's bridge held 50 pounds of weight!!!  Quite unreal!!!

Before we left for the night we had to have a picture taken with a real life Emmett and Wylde Style from the first ever full length Lego Movie!!  Armin just stood and stared while we were in line and once it was our turn to stand next to them Armin freaked out!!!  Though after the picture was taken and we started to walk away Armin did give Emmett a high five!!!

We had so much fun and it was made even more fun with Myrna coming with us!! Even with a sore hip she trudged right along with us and really enjoyed seeing the looks of utter joy on Emry, Calum and Armin's faces!!  It was so much fun and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to take the kids, I honestly don't think it will soon be forgotten!!!

This is a picture of Lego Nation!  There was a spot where you could build a part of Lego City and then the Lego team would add your piece to Lego Nation!!  After 5 sessions this is the finished product, our National Flag!!!!  Pretty Awesome!!

Animal House

1. 1978 Film
2. "Unable to gain acceptance at the snootier fraternities they pledge, the Deltas, a a motley crew of misfits and sociopaths bent on disrupting the well-starched status quo, engage in various illegalities that land them in hot water with both the stern college dean and the neighboring jock fraternity. Their exploits eventually cause them to be placed on "double-secret probation," until finally, they are kicked out of school and, as the dean reminds them, newly eligible for the Vietnam draft."

   
   

   I couldn't think of an appropriate title for this post and then I remembered hearing the term animal house but didn't exactly know what it was referring to so I googled it!! The term is from a very popular movie from the late1970's! And I thought some points from the synopsis above describes our house quite perfectly!!!!

   
   

   About 4 weeks ago one of our barn cats started having kittens on our porch swing just outside our front door! Emry, being the animal lover she is decided Chloe needed to be brought inside to finish having her kittens! So Emry got a box and an old towel and transferred Chloe from the swing to the box and promptly took her package down to her room where Chloe finished having her litter of 5 kittens!! They all have tabby cat type markings!  

   
   

   

                             Chloe with her 5 kittens, and they are getting cuter everyday!!!!

   
   

   Thursday Emry, Armin and I picked up the newest member of our family, a brother for Gibson!! We love having two dogs on the farm and since Martin died we have been noticing that Gibson is lonely. So I ran across the cutest puppies ever on Facebook when a friend of mine posted a picture of her newest puppy! She passed the information onto me and I instantly sent a message to the owners.  I have always wanted a Saint Bernard, but Jared was sure it would either eat our children or slobber them to death!! This puppy happened to be a Saint Bernard/Lab cross, a Labernard!!!!!  Perfect, we were able to compromise!!!  The puppy we picked out was the biggest out of the nine born!! We were instantly draw to him because of his size!! The mother, a purebred Saint Bernard, is actually a dry mouth breed so she doesn't even slobber, not at all!!  We decided to call this puppy Fender, after another guitar!!! It's fun to do this, I hope we always stick to this naming system!!  He has fit in perfectly with our family!! Gibson is getting more and more used to him everyday and today he started to play with fender!!  He follows us wherever we go and toady even went and laid beside Jared while he was under the cultivator fixing it!! Fender didn't just lay beside him he rested his head on the arm Jared was using to fix the cultivator!! Fender also went with Jared and the boys to feed cows, IN the tractor!!!! Once Jared came in for the night he left Fender outside! After a little while Jared opened the door to check on Fender and found him lying right against the door with his cute little head resting on the toe of Jared's boots, even without Jared's feet inside them he still found comfort in them!!

   
   

   

   
   

   Fender at 6 weeks old, 10 pounds!!

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   Fender at 8 weeks, 18 pounds!!!! Almost doubled his weight in two weeks!!!!

   
   

   

   
   

   The same day we brought Fender home the ugly long haired calico kitty who also lives outside started having her kittens! And every time we opened our front door she was there and would bolt inside and down our stairs!!! She really isn't our favourite cat and just wandered to our farm about a year ago! Though this time it was me who found a box and an old towel and brought ugly cat inside to have the rest of her kittens.  We now have two adult mother cats, 10 kittens and one almost adult male cat living in our house!!! I'm totally impressed that there hasn't been any accidents!  My reasoning to Jared for keeping the new kittens in the house until they are a bit bigger is so they won't become wild!!! I don't know how much longer he will go for this!!!!

   
   

   

                                                 Ugly Cat with her 5 kittens!!

   
   

   So like the synopsis of the movie, our house is indeed "a motley crew of misfits and sociopaths bent on disrupting the well-starched status quo"!!! We are over run by animals so therefore the title of this post is very fitting!!!!!