First visitors

Mick has been decorating away and with hours to spare has managed to get the guest bedroom ready for the arrival of his parents this Saturday!

  

We've also been working away at the green swamp in the garden and have managed to turn it into the beautiful blue swimming pool that it once was.  It has been very hot some days and having the pool has been fantastic.  We've managed to bbq nearly every night and sit outside to eat, which is lovely and always makes it feel like we are on holiday.

  

School has now finished until September and the children are looking forward to a lovely long hot summer (it had better be hot now that the pool is up and running lol).  They are off to camp for a week in August and obviously the way the school buses are organized, it is no surprise that the camp buses are just as organised.  They will pick the children up at the end of the road in the morning and drop them off at the end of each day.  Gracie and Mya are very excited and I am too!  The summer holidays are long here so a week at camp will definitely be good for us all.  Both got excellent school reports (all A's and B's!) and when they go back in the fall, Gracie will be in grade 2 and Mya will be in Senior Kindergarten.  Plus we will have been here in Canada over a year.  Time is whizzing by so fast.

  

Tomorrow is the 1st of July and it is Canada day.  There are big "birthday" parties everywhere.  We are going to Seeleys Bay and we're all looking forward to our first Canada day celebration.   Happy birthday Canada! 

First cut

After much tinkering and some new parts, the lawn mower is up and running.  I wouldn't say it goes like a rocket but it does move at a good pace, and is completely different to our last petrol mower we had in England.  I tried reversing it but I thought I was probably going to hit something so I have left the job to Mick.  To everyone here this is just a way of life but for us it is another new experience!

                                                                                                                                                                             

One done....

Mick has worked really hard and got Gracie's bedroom finished.  She was speechless when she got home from school today - VERY unusual for her!

It has turned out fantastically well.

She only has one mattress on the bunks as Mick and I still don't have a bed so we are using the children's spare mattresses.  All in good time.....

Our new home

We finished moving all the stuff from our rental home to our new home today.  It was sad to say goodbye to the rental home as it was lovely and had such amazing views.  We don't have a lake at the bottom of the garden in our new home but it is ours and we love it.

The pictures are of the back garden, taken from the deck and the other is the back of the house from the back garden.  

We have alot of work to do, some is urgent some not so urgent, but it is such a great feeling owning a home again :)

We are still sleeping on mattresses but we do have a table and chairs, which is much better than having every meal on a picnic blanket.  Beds and sofa's are next on the list I guess.......

Its a boy

We have a new addition to our family.  His name is Harry and we got him today - he's a hamster.

We also have a new friend that lives in the lake.  He is an otter and he is very entertaining!

Mya is 5!

Mya had her party at Chuck E Cheese today and it was fantastic!  They really do know how to throw a birthday party in there.  Mya and her friends had a brilliant time and we can't wait to go back.

Our road trip

We took a fantastic trip last Saturday.  We drove over the border into the USA!  It wasn't quite as straight forward as I thought it would be, we had forms to fill in and loads of questions to answer.  All of the officials were lovely and once we'd had finger prints and photos taken we were sent on our way.

We weren't sure where we were going but we had our Tom Tom and a map and we ended up in Watertown, which is only about 30 minutes from the border.  It was quite funny because we use kilometers here but as soon as you cross the border it changes to mile per hour!  Watertown was quite a busy place and had a big mall that we loved!

Coming home was alot more straight forward.  All they did was check our Canadian Permanent Resident cards and send us on our way.  

It is so amazing that we can drive such a short distance and be in the States!  All very exciting and we will be going back to explore more.

                                        

                                    

Also, things seem to be progressing with our home purchase so all going well we will be moving by the end of April.  We are all so excited and looking forward to settling into our own home.  The pictures were taken a little while ago so we can now see grass instead of just snow!