Mason Bees

Butterflies are so old school. 

Just kidding. We love doing butterflies and have raised them for several years. This year I thought I'd take a break of them - it never fails to bother me when they cannibalize their fellow chrysalids. I know nature is nature, but the confined growing arrangement of the caterpillars with feeding medium isn't terribly natural to begin with. In any case, we'll do them again next year I'm sure. 

But this spring is all about mason bees. From a local supplier, we purchased mason bee cocoons along with a DVD all about them, poster of their life cycle and habitat for them to live in. They are a native species of bee that are apparently very docile and friendly. Mason bees do not produce honey; but they do pollinate flowers, making them a wonderful addition to a garden or yard that grows fruits. Our own yard has raspberry, honeyberry and blueberry bushes. Someday hopefully apple too, but space is an issue for that, especially with the addition of the kids play set and the maintenance of our ample vegetable garden. 

Tonight I set up our bees, which had already started to emerge from their cocoons. We will get to watch them at work all spring as the pollinate our bushes, and in the fall we can choose to harvest the new cocoons for the following year or let them hibernate in their home to emerge next spring. Hopefully, this will be an on-going addition to our repertoire of Cool Things We Do. 

Next year, I think we'll add on preying mantises.

Such fun!

An Exploration of the Trades

Today we explored the Skills Canada Trade competition at the Expo centre. It's a remarkable gathering of students in the trades in a competition of skills. There were also booths of various colleges and businesses looking to share what they do with anyone interested. We watched chefs create works of art, fashion designers construct dresses, hair stylists style, aestheticians do what they do. The coolest part was watching two robots compete together. We were able to talk with people at booths focusing on Aidan's interests in computers and game design and even learned of great summer camps in animation and 2D and 3D modeling for graphic design that he may want to look into in a few years. 

This competition is a yearly event. It was great to see what it is all about and definitely useful for the kids to get a sense of the range of options within the trades. I know I saw career ideas that would never have occurred to me. It's definitely worth repeat visits into the future!

Play!

We go out a lot to the playground, but sometimes you just need to take it home with you.

So that's what we did. Meet the kids new play set!

Aidan loves the monkey bars.

A place for three swings. We'll be picking up a baby swing for Cai.

Aidan writes in his "Dude Dairies" while Summer watches in the treehouse.

Mother's Day!

It wasn't set up for an epic Mother's Day, what with Sean working a shift, but it turned out magnificent.

In the morning, after sleeping in because the baby had been up until 11 pm the night before, Sean and the kids brought home breakfast. After a leisurely shower, I packed snacks and bags to spend the day at the zoo with my mom.

It was Cai's first visit to the zoo. As anticipated, he said 'meow' to many a small creature that he saw. It was fun. 

After looking at the animals, eating ice cream and riding on the merry-go-round, we went out to dinner at East Side Mario's. 

I came home to a large "Happy Mothers Day" chalked out across our driveway. As well, Sean had managed to finish building the kids new play set he had worked on from the day before. He had vacuumed and was just finishing cleaning the kitchen. I was delighted! And to complete the wonderful evening, he ran out to get me chocolate and then played with the baby out back so I could enjoy a leisurely hot bath (which he drew for me, complete with Epsom salts and candles at the ready). 

It was a fabulous Mother's Day! Summer gave me a sweet stuffed animal duck and beautiful card, and Aidan created some Minecraft art for me. The day could not have been more perfect if it tried. 

Aidan's Minecraft pixel art made for me for Mother's Day.

The inside of Summer's card for me.

Lego Club

This morning was Lego Club at a friends house - Medieval theme. The challenge for the day was to figure out how to make a catapult with Lego Technics. Those that preferred, made Lego castles for aforementioned catapults to assault. 

Aidan made himself a catapult which he improved upon with the help of some older boys. It was neat to see him have the opportunity to help a younger boy in turn with his catapult. 

Summer worked collaboratively on a castle with three other kids. 

After our morning of creative construction we went off for a swim with friends. 

Play Days, Park Days and Rocket Science

Park Days. Play days. Lazy afternoons in the sun. Spring took its dainty time in arriving this year - just a week ago we were still amidst snow storms. But weather in Alberta is finicky if nothing else. A mere two days following -4 degree weather, we saw a balmy 27 above. Two days. 

And it's been beautiful since. 

Cai enjoyed his first visit to a playground. This kid is unstoppable; there's nothing he won't try to do, from attempting to ride his sisters bike and climbing on play equipment for kids years older, he's revved to go!

We haven't been going out on too many excursions, as we just can't get enough of local outdoor play right now. Between the back yard, the neighborhood, the lake and park, we have loads to keep ourselves occupied. 

Amidst our outdoor fun - lots of running (I'm exciting because I've been jogging daily), biking, free play and walks - some indoor fun is being had. Aidan designed his very own Minecraft texture pack and is developing more. In addition, he watched a teleseminar today on rocket science which fascinated him. As I worked on clearing our garden later on in the evening (while Cai and Summer went on a walk with dad), he excitedly talked about Newton's laws of thermodynamics and some basics of rocket science. He especially enjoyed learning what would happen if you burped and farted in space at the same time. Learning doesn't get much cooler than that!

At the Lake!

A great way to welcome the final arrival of spring: a return to Lake Beaumaris! It was so wonderful to get back out into our urban nature. Cai was introduced to birds and ducks and geese. He wanted to dive head long into the lake! Each dog we passed he would chime "meow" too (I think we can officially call meow his first word!)

There were a couple of younger kids playing in the Rock Garden: a five and three year old. A couple of times one of them was having difficulty getting up and down and Aidan stepped in to help without any hesitation. I was quite proud of him.