i love goodies

YIPEE!!!

i love getting orders in...it's like christmas in the griffin home!

here's a peek for you at some new stuff i just got in yesterday.

let me know if you see anything you like...i will only be having a few crop nights at my house over the summer so get it while you can!!!

will be going to the cabin for 5 days on friday afternoon ( and i soooo need it ) so you can comment on my blog or send an email if you'd like me to hold anything for you!!!

thegriffs@mts.net

have a great weekend everyone...be back online in 5...

:O)
p,s.

i think the kids are over the loss of our little Squirt now...tyler asked me yesterday if we can get another hamster soon...

should i try again? maybe something else for a pet this time?

(NO dogs and NO cats)

any suggetions???

week 3...

today was another adventurous day!
tyler and i had the sweet company of our neighbor's son jordan for a few hours this afternoon...he's 3 and FULL of energy!! and a sweet little guy that just turns you to putty in his hands too!
after lunch and the return of courtney to school, we took jordan on our weekly visit to see 'tyler's geese' at the park!! he was very excited to go and see them (although i don't really think he knew what he was about to see!)

today is the first day of week 3 with our photo journaling and we had many surprises today...

first of all, we found a new darling family of 5 newer little goslings!! haven't seen them yet and judging by our facts and books we have been reading about, these little guys are only about 4 or 5 weeks old! the parents of these little ones were WAY more protective and aggressive over them. it's almost kinda funny how we as people tend to act the same way...when our babes are so small, so new and completely defenseless, we hover and guard them too. and within a couple years ( or in the goose's case a few weeks ) we're like 'sure mom, you can have 'em for a sleepover...get 'em out of my hair!'

kinda funny.

anyway, here's a close up of a very proud and protective gander of a daddy!

...i LOVE this little fuzzball...isn't it the sweetest little thing???

...mom and dad were very close at all times...although they themselves came to us for some food, but they wouldn't let the little ones come for food themselves...

...hard to believe all their sweet little 'peeps' right now will be taken over within a few short months by the majestic HONK known of our Canada goose!!!

...and then another surprise was coming across the family of 11 babes we've been taking note of!!! since our pictures just last week, most of them have really plumped out, grown their black and white tail feathers and some now have even started changing and growing into that beautiful long black neck and white cheeks!!! if you look closely at some of the bigger goslings, you will see it there!!!

tyler and jordan having fun feeding the geese!










see ya guys next week...

...and after all that excitement at the park, we went home and picked up courtney from school and went for our first 'dip in the pool' of the summer!!! water wasn't too bad but the air was a little chilly. i'm pooped right out now at 10:23pm after a long, fun and busy day with the kids.

...must get sleep soon...

:O)

sad little news...

our little dwarf hamster, SQUIRT, died today.

the kids got him from santa just this past christmas, so he wasn't very old, but i guess you just never know about these little critters how long they will last.

courtney and tyler loved this little guy. he was very docile and friendly and they loved to play with him. they would come home from school or wherever they were and go see him right away, asking if they could take him out and give him some treats...

i often found myself taking him out of his cage and having a wee visit with him when the kids weren't home too! he really was a cute little thing and very playful.

i discovered him this morning lying kinda slumped over near his little nest, but not in it. so i knew something was wrong. i had a visit with him late last night when i came home from doing a wedding (photography) and he seemed normal, so i was very surprised and disheartened with my discovery this morning. i took him out of his cage and wrapped him in a soft tea towel and informed courtney of the news. he hadn't passed yet, he was still hanging on so i offered her to hold him in his little 'blankie' and say her goodbyes to him. i held him in there on my chest for about 2 hours until he finally passed away. it was such a sad and helpless feeling to only offer the little guy cotact comfort as there was nothing i could do for him but wait. i don't think that taking him to the animal emergency clinic would have helped him but just prolong the end result.

now, i'm sure lots of you are thinking...'it's only a hamster'...but he was our little family pet and the kids LOVED that furry little guy!

i am sad that he died too and i will also miss him....

NOTE TO SELF:

this is the 4th hamster in about 4 years, why do i keep getting them?

{GIGGLE}

i have lost a few dogs in my time too, so i know that the loss of a dog is WAY more devestating than a hamster, so i don't want to put my kids through that one...if they want a dog ( which they beg for often ) i tell them they can have as many dogs as they want when they're older and have their own house!!! WINK!

GOODBYE LITTLE BUDDY...

( this is courtney with him on christmas day )

...in other news...

the wedding i did yesterday went great, minus about a million mosquitoes and i would say it went perfect! hahahaha!!!

this was the first time i had a groom and his groomsmen in KILTS!! and they also had a piper at the church and reception..very cool and entertaining for me! i'm sure some people had bagpipe headaches afterwards, but i loved it! also a first for me was the surprise of doing some 'rooftop' photos at the reception! it was at Bergmann's on Lombard on the 6th floor ( quite the lightning show in the evening too...) and we were able to go up on the rooftop for some shots. the groom used to be a chef there so he had some connections...i LOVE connections! i have many myself...the should really be called blessings!!!

and friday night's class was the tin luch box/card album...that also went great! everyone seemed to have a fun time! i still have to finish mine up, inside, but here' s a few pic's of some of them from the class!!!

(tara's)

(lora leighs's)



(grace's)

(and dana's)

i guess that's about it for my news over this weekend, so far...

i have yet to tell tyler tonight when he comes home about Squirt...not going to be a fun bedtime tonight! i was supposed to work tonight, but decided to stay home with the kids as i know when it's bedtime and the tears are coming ( not that they haven't been already ) that MOMMY will be wanted!!!

CONGRATULATIONS LITTLE PRESCHOOL GRADUATE!!!

today was tyler's preschool graduation...whaaahhh!!!

what a great job his wonderful teacher did in preparation for today! the children sang 3 cute little songs for all the parents, then they put on a play ( including props and music!) featuring the story of 'the very hungry caterpillar' by eric carle. SO CUTE!! acting and everything!

and then they were presented with their 'diploma's' and a beautiful memory book made by his teacher!!!

A HUGE THANK YOU LIZ FOR A GREAT MORNING AND A YEAR OF DEDICATED LOVE TO YOUR TEACHING AND PASSION FOR YOUNG CHILDREN'S EDUCATION! TYLER WAS BLESSED TO HAVE YOU START OFF HIS EDUCATION AND HAS LEARNED SO MUCH FROM YOU AND YOUR ENCOURAGING WARM WAY OF TEACHING. WE WILL NEVER FORGET HIS TIME IN YOUR CLASSROOM!

AND THANK YOU FOR SUCH A THOUGHTFUL GIFT OF HIS MEMORY BOOK!!

I CAN JUST SEE YOU SPENDING SO MUCH TIME PUTTING THEM ALL TOGETHER AND PERSONALIZING THEM WITH YOUR LOVING GENEROUS TOUCH!

WE WILL CHERISH IT ALWAYS!

:o)

proud mommy and daddy...

...and proud grandma who came along too...

thank you for coming and sharing a special morning mom!!!

gonna be blog crazy now!

oops.

ok, so bear with me while i learn how to transfer my pictures from my new camera into my blog...it didn't show this one 'sideways' and now i can't rotate it in here...sorry! {GIGGLE}

these pictures are from wednesday night...courtney had her first 'black and purple' swim meet she attended at the Pan Am Pool! obviously she was on the purple team! i was surprised to see at least 150 Manta swim kids there...all different ages to about 17 years old or so. quite an interesting event, and VERY different from her highland dance competitions, i found this whole thing really unorganized, but at the end of the racing, all went well and courtney had lots of fun.! her team ( of half the kids there ) finished 2nd with 114 points and the black team won with 140 points. ( i don't know how they accumulate point value yet) but they swam 6 races altogether! each swimmer had to swim a 25m lap in each race with a total of 150m swam in total per swimmer. and of course they had to swim each race a different style.

it was very different and lots of fun. we finished with a huge BBQ outside afterwards ( but courtney and i checked out the diving that was going on first. HOLY COW. pretty intense. i was thinking of letting tyler try out diving as he got older, but i don't know if i want him to do that...it looks so technical and dangerous. you could probably really hurt yourself if you don't know what you're doing...i tip my hat to those young divers we saw, most cool!

ANYHOW, here a a few shots of court's first swim meet!!!

... a little nervous for her first lap...

...1st lap, freestyle, 25m...

GO COURTNEY GO!!!

...FUN NIGHT!!!

my exciting news

GUESS WHO'S FINALLY GONE DIGITAL???

MOI!!!

that's right...i bought myself a digital camera after months of 'looking around' and finally decided on a Canon S3 IS...6.mega pixels and 12X optical zoom...it also has an image stabilizer in it too!

i hope this little toy will bring me pictures i will be happy with. i have been avoiding digital for the simple reson that ( sorry if i offend any digital lovers out there ) but the fact that the printed photos always looked so 'fake' to me. the outline of main subjects was always so defined that the pictures almost had this 3D effect look to them. i LOVE and will always be passionate about the finished product of an SLR camera. nothing beats a true shot image with no 'photo shop' or other fancy alterations. it is taken for what is truly there, no lying, no cropping, no changes.

given the fact that you can always scan in the finished product of an SLR photo and play with it on any photo shop program, which is absolutely fine, i just didn't feel a need to go digital...yet.

i was checking out several Nikon ( my camera choice of all choices ) digital SLR's as well, but they defeated the purpose of wanting to buy something smaller than the 2 SLR's i already have. i wanted soomething compact to take to family events and other activities. it was a real pain lugging around my big camera bags to things so i definately wanted to downsize for personal events and save my SLR's for mostly photography jobs.

so, there you have it. i haven't quite got all the functions figured out on this new toy just yet...there seems to be so much to remember that i can do with it...but i am going to post for you again in a few minutes with some shots i took with it over the last couple days...

and hey....now i can show pic's of products much sooner for my scrapbooking classes as well...no more 'cell phone shots' hahahahahaha!!!!

:o)

...a few more

ok.

how cute is this??

i just can't get enough of them!

...courtney yesterday at the park checkin' on 'tyler's geese'...

...collecting flight feathers duing the geese's molting period! tyler and courtney found quite a few of them to add to tyler's project book!!

AND...

the 'exciting thing' i mentioned yesterday will hopefully be posted sometime tonight...

(i'm workin' on it tara!!!heeheehee)

:O)

and so the goose goes on...

FIRST OF ALL....

let me show you the outcome of a great monday night class!!!

the ladies came to make a 6 x 6 summer journal project using the new

BIND IT ALL machine and we had lots of fun! they tried out using acrylic paints on the inside covers of their journals and then painted die cut chipboard flowers ( courtesy of allison from the Scrapyard...thanks again!)...and then they attached their painted pretties on a transparency cover for their journal! they were given co-ordinating patterned papers and cardstock and some new scalloped bazzill cardstock as well to use throughout their project.

TA-DAAAAAA!!!

...AND...

here's more pictures for you of our little canada goose project tyler is working on at home with me! these were taken last tuesday (june 12), the day after we took my grandparents...we found a huge flock on the other side of the park EAGER and READY to nibble on our yummy little bread crumbs for pictures!!!

...little photographer in the making...

...despite all that protective silly hissing, the ganders were really quite curious and didn't feel threatened by us at all..i was practically hand feeding them.


this one of his webbed feet ( a good shot for tyler to see how they work ) was NOT taken

on a zoom lens!!! i could almost reach out and touch it if it weren't for the fact that i was holding a camera in one hand and bread in the other to keep him close enough for this shot!

...and then yesterday, a week later, i decided when i picked up courtney for lunch i was going to take her to the park again for a picnic lunch hour (or so..heehee) to check on 'tyler's geese'.

after much driving and walking around, we finally found them all together by the golf course, naturally! they were being scooted off by a golfer and we just followed them down to the lake pulled out our bread crumb bag...and like flies to poop, they were surrounding courtney and i in just a few minutes! this time we sat in the grass gradually throwing the crumbs closer and closer to us to watch the behaviour of the parents if the goslings came a bit too close. and of course all this time i was getting some great shots of them too! they just make me soooo happy inside..they are so darn cute and their little honking squeaking noises are just so sweet!

anyway, the ganders did their usual hissing at us here and there if their babes came to close but they didn't bat at eye at us when they approached a near by crumb for themselves.

although it was hard to leave their wild family(ies) it was time to get courtney back to school...
she was quite thrilled with her exciting lunch hour (or so) and told me 'this was the coolest thing ever mom'...so i didn't feel so bad for stealing her away from gym class a little longer than i should have....{GIGGLE}


and who WOULDN'T want to spend their lunch break with this???

...i have something to tell you...

...i have something to show you...

...it's very exciting...

but you're gonna have to wait til tomorrow!!!!

:O)

been a while...

i know, i know....

where have i been?

well, since i last wrote, we've all been super busy, as always! i will start with this past friday's Preschool trip with tyler's class to the Assiniboine Zoo!!! what a sunny, beautiful and fun day we all had. ALL? mom, dad, grandma and even courtney got out of school for the day to enjoy some good quality family time together at the zoo! we started off at 9:30am in the Zoo Education Centre classroom with a presentation and small guided tour...the rest of the day we were on our own to explore! we stayed for lunch there and didn't leave until 3pm! the kids loved seeing all the new little babies around...as you can see a few of their favorites here, but tyler's favorite babies were the little prairie dogs...

...tyler's favorite prairie dog babies...

...our own little favorites...

..and then we had a busy saturday and sunday outdoors at the Forks with courtney's two day dance competition! man, was it a scorcher, but we all toughed it out in the heat, once again!

courtney danced very well and between both days she finished 3rd overall out of a pretty tough group of dancers. once again, we're very proud of all her hard work and love of dance.

(although i am very happy we are finished with competitions now until the fall....YIPEE!)

so, WAY TO GO PUNKY on a great weekend and your 6 new medals!

...we were very happy to have grandma liz griffin come for the first time to one of courtney's competitions...thank you for all your support and sharing in a rewarding day for courtney!

and thank you also to my mom who attended both days with lots of hugs too and encouragement, for courtney and ME!

..are you still wanting more????

i have been working on a home project with tyler on our own about the canada goose. we have been visiting the library and reading books and watching videos and so much more! i have been getting all kinds of kid friendly info and activity sheets off the internet as well to give him lots of 'work' to learn about! yesterday, i had plans to take him and his disposable camera to a nearby park to take some pictures of some geese and hopefully some goslings too...

i had called my grandparents ( both 86 years old ) earlier in the afternoon to see how they were doing and grandma wasn't having a good day. i told them of my plans with tyler and invited and encouraged them to come along with us for a bit to get out of the house. she had to think about it. when she called me back to tell me OK they wanted me to get them too, i was elated!

tyler and i picked them up and off we went to kilcona park....

to our pleasant surprise, after not seeing much action on the lakes, we found one single family near the golf course gates who gratefully and anxiously met us with our bag of bread crumbs we had ready for them! tyelr and i were snapping away with our cameras and grandma was like a giddy little girl throwing them the bread crumbs and seeing them all come running to her with their happy little bellies! grandpa was content sitting very close nearby in the van watching....(it's very hard for him to walk around much )

anyway...here's a few results from our adventure yesterday!

thank you god for such a special happy afternoon!

i will never forget this!

{MELT}

{i can still hear her calling to them, giggling and ohhhing and awwing...}

thanks to this darling family of mom, dad and 9 goslings who sure made our day....we'll come see you again soon!




STAY TUNED FOR MORE CANADA GOOSE ADVENTURES...

TYLER AND I WENT TO SEE MORE GEESE TODAY, PIC'S ARE COMING!!!