Ottawa

Last week we took Derek to Youth Conference in Ottawa. Instead of returning home to Montreal the rest of the family stayed for a little vacation. Our friends the Mitchells had just moved back from Edmonton and we were so excited to see them. It is going to be awesome having them live closer again - we have such fun times.
After the drop off and a quick visit with our friends, mom, dad, William and Olivia headed to the Ottawa's Museum of Nature. It was under renovations but was still an amazing display of God's creations including the Dinosaur. Everyone enjoyed the experience and of course Olivia bought a stuffed toy. (like she doesn't have a million already!!!!)


We actually stayed at the Comfort Inn in Kanata, Ontario which is a town just west of Ottawa. It was very close so getting to Ottawa was very quick and the price was right. The motel provided a great breakfast every morning so that was one meal we didn't have to think about. I'm proud to say that we didn't eat out at all. I planned all our meals bringing food from home and buying stuff at the grocery store in Ottawa. We had sandwiches for lunch everyday and for dinner the first evening we bought a grocery store roast chicken and bagged salad and I had brought coleslaw and bean salad from home. For our first night we ate at Britannia Bay a beautiful beach with beautiful grounds and the water looked so good. Sadly we didn't go swimming there but I'm sure we will return another time. We finally made it to our hotel and unloaded the van. We just vegged out for the rest of the evening. The weather was amazing the whole time. We have been experiencing a heat wave with temperatures reaching over 30C and then high humidity so it felt like 40C.

Friday morning we visited the Canadian Mint. They make the most beautiful coins there. The children were very impressed by the bars of silver and gold. They brought home a holder for collecting the 2010 Olympic games coins. So far Olivia is in the lead with 3 coins. So if any of you happen upon those quarters we will be glad to exchange with you. Sadly, you are not allowed to take pictures in the Mint so we took some fun ones outside.





Later after lunch we went on a boat cruise around the Ottawa river. The guide, Adam was great, pointing out all the interesting buildings and telling us amusing stories. It was also a relief from the city heat to be on the cooling water because we were melting!!!



This is the Rideau Falls they were so cool and by cool I mean the boat got so close we could feel its wonderful spray.

The Rideau canal is amazing to see with the boats waiting for the locks to open so they can go out to the river.


You can't visit the capital of Canada and not go to the Parliament Buildings.

On Saturday we went to the Aviation Museum.




We had a wonderful time in Ottawa it really is a great city to visit with kids of all ages. On Saturday after the Aviation museum we drove around and saw Rideau Hall and the Prime Ministers house. Then we picked up Derek from Youth Conference and headed to the Mitchells for dinner and one last visit before hitting the road back to Montreal. We loved our vacation with all the sun and great places to visit it was a blast!!!

The Mitchells

Decluttering Chaos

Hello,
Well I have had a crazy week of decluttering my basement. It has started with just won storeroom but one room led to another. I have really noticed how much stuff we have that we don't really use but just have stored away in neat rubbermaid containers. Some I haven't looked in for 7 years, that's when we moved here! I've really decided to stop buying stuff. I'm going to Live Lean. I am going to ask my self myself important questions before I buy things--- Do I have the room? Can I borrow it? Do I really need it? Especially when it comes to crafts and things. I have way too much and really no time to do crafts. I wish I had a camera so I could have shown you the before and after,but the digital is with Stephen in Victoria. I do feel better now but now I have to clean cause the rest of the house has fallen apart. And I guess this means that I will have to work on the upstairs too. Now I have to try and keep it organized. I don't know why but I have a hard time keeping things orderly my life tends toward chaos.

Jasmine visits Montreal

Sunday May 10th which was Mother's Day I made Beaver Tails. I had a lovely weekend and since Jasmine was home I wanted to do something fun. They turned out fantastic. If you are wondering what Beaver Tails are they are fried dough. The missionaries in our ward said they call them scones and I have heard others call them Elephant ears. Whatever you call them they are delicious!!!

Birthday Bash

It was my 13th birthday a little more than a week ago. It was a great day! I went to the temple that morning with the youth of my ward. It was a wonderful way to start my birthday. When I came home I relaxed had lunch and opened my gifts. The missionaries were over and that is how we got these pictures for my slide show. I loved all my presents and I have already finished reading the Warriors book I received from my brother Derek. The DS game, Mario Party is a great game. Olivia and I can play it together. She has a DS also. I have already beaten the game but it can be played many times over and be just as fun as the first time. I love shooting Olivia with my new Nerf Gun. It has a lot of fancy features and add ons. The Poptarts and Skittles were a tasty and fun treat. I look more fashionable with new T-shirts and shorts. Now if only the weather would cooperate. I'm ready for summer. Later that evening we went to Boston Pizza for dinner. Mmmm, it was so good. We had the Tuscan and the Meateor Pizza. My favorite was the Tuscan. Try it you'll like it. I had a great day to begin another great year.

Parlez Francais ?

Things are moving along in the Macpherson household. We have been trying to focus more on learning french. We live in one of the best places in the world for that, Montreal. Olivia and William attend a weekly french class with other homeschoolers on Wednesday mornings. The teacher has a website where the children can listen to audio and practice their assignments. They are working on conversation and learning new vocabulary. They are also working on a play that will be performed at the end of the french session. I let them tell you more about that in their posts.
I find it hard to fit all the many things that I want my children to learn. We love History, Science and Math (well maybe not math!) but we can't forget about grammar and spelling. Teaching early morning seminary makes me very tired later in the day. I wake Olivia and William around 5:30 am so they can get up, dressed and fed and even start that school work before I return home from seminary/gym. It just seems we don't have enough time!!!