May Long Weekend, why are you so long?

Now don't get me wrong I love a good old long weekend. But this one was different for us, we were busy!

1. We rebuilt a deck in our backyard (with some necessary assistance from a neighbour),

***pictures coming***

2. Helped build the neighbours deck (he helped us what was I supposed to do!),

***pictures coming, maybe. His deck is nicer than mine***

3. Went out to grandpa's farm and planted a massive garden (the kids planted their pumpkins),

Mom enjoying an old fashioned garden planting!We have been working to ensure or kids know where food comes from. We are by no means as ethical a maybe we should be when it comes to what we consume, but we try to show our kids the importance of food, the environment, and taking care of our planet.

We have been helping with the large garden at the farm for a few years, and last year we stepped up our gardening game.

We built a garden box and grew some carrots, chives, cucumbers, and onions. And we also spent more time at the farm. We planted,weeded (occasionally), watered, and then harvested.

Digging for potatoes in 2011This year we are going to try and get the kids even more involved and engaged (we will see how that goes!). 

Posing by his pumpkin plant

4. Spent a morning in Moose Jaw (see post below),  

5. Had a great walk at Wascana park and fed geese and ducks at Water Fowl Park,

and then

6. Ended the long weekend with a wiener roast in the backyard. 

the blank looking at fire stare......fire......

It was a great way to end the weekend. Grandma and Grandpa came over and sat around the fire with us. An we all got to relax out doors and reflect on the past 4 days. The kids were happy to be eating macaroni and hotdogs outside!

It did get a bit hairy once the hose came out and the kids plastic slide was covered in grass and water and the little guy was sitting on top of the slide screaming "Cock-a-doodle Do!!!!!" over and over again, but overall it was a good evening.

Wait!

I forgot the s'mores. We ate s'mores. Lots of s'mores. It looked like our middle one got into a fight with a s'more and the s'more won! Followed by mores s'mores!

Not your ordinary s'mores. These beauties though began like all other s'mores. 3-5 marshmallows burnt to hell then the one perfectly toasted brown one. But the s'more upgrade comes when you smash your roasted mallow between two chocolate coated biscuit cookies.

It is amazing!

No fumbling with chocolate bars and scalding marshmallow between graham crackers. This is the whole package just waiting for your expertly cooked marshmallow. mmmm!

And while we are talking about food making this weekend great. I would like to pass on a drink recipe that we heard about from our awesomest friends ever (I have likened it to our family dating our friend'sfamily, we are together so much. It is the best!).

I will make up a name for the drink right now and call it....Summer Orange Juice or Daddy's Orange Drink For Hot Days, or even a Summer Screwdriver. 

If you look close you can see an empty glass that once had the yummy cocktail

RECIPE

1 ounce Pinnacle Whipped Vodka - it tastes like Cool Whip!!!

1/2 orange - all the juice squeezed into glass with ice - make sure to get some pulpy bits, they make the drink work.

top your glass with Ginger Ale - we used diet Ginger Ale. 

ENJOY - next weekend we want to try this blended....

So that was our looong weekend. Deck built, clean laundry piled in our bedroom waiting to be put away, kids exhausted, and we are both tired, slightly sunburnt (just Dad), and happy. Except Ang - she started getting sick yesterday. 

Update on 2012-05-24 03:31 by Steve Torgerson

Pictures of the 'new' deck

So I finally got around to taking a picture of the deck this morning. It is nice to have a deck with out 1/2 gaps between boards that includes spoons, toys, garbage, a shoe, etc.

Last Thursday night once we had taken the railing off, with help from our friendly neighbourhood neighbour-man, our middle son who is not really afraid of things, he seems more to be challenged to try dangerous things, runs full tilt to the edge of the deck and launches himself off the side to the lawn below. 

The drop is only 3 feet, and he made it unscathed, but this is the kids who broken a bone near his elbow and had to get it pinned after falling 1 short foot 2 summers ago.

poor guy waking up after having 3 pins put in his elbow.

So I am ordering the railing today!

I know why they are endangered, because they are darn adorable!

We decided to get out of the house first thing this morning (the weather looked like it was not going to cooperate with letting the kids play outside) and go to Moose Jaw. 

Moose Jaw - great little town, lots of old people, temple gardens mineral spa, fun place to spend a day.

We first checked out the Kinsmen Sportsplex in town. It is a great little place. With a waterslide (nice and slow for young kids), full lanes for those who wish they were were Olympic swimmers, a great pool area for toddlers with a Zero Beach Leisure Pool, hot tub, steam room,a decent concession for snacks and light lunches, and 5 family change rooms. 

After almost 2 hours of swimming we got dressed and decided to check out the Burrowing Owl centre. Now before you say "Oh boy, burrowing owls...".

But the place is pretty neat. Don't expect to spend the day there, you are really looking at 20 - 30 minutes depending on how much your kids like looking at cages with burrowing owls. 

They have a short eared owl and a row of cages with about 10 burrowing owls. There is also a sand box, a small building wit some owl display, and a place to look for wild life. But these other things are pretty blah and nothing special.

But those damn cute owls make up for it!! They are like little stuffed animals with beaks and talons. Even though they are a bird that can fly, and does, it decides to live underground and run around like tiny evil chickens. 

A young 3 year old burrowing owl.

The oldest ambassador owl, Trooper, was super cool. He flew over from his burrow and sat right at the edge of his enclosure and showed us a leaf he had in his beak.

Posing with the owls

So give it a shot if you have an hour to spare. Check the hours of operations though before you go, they change by the season.

Looking for other wildlife at the burrowing owl centre.