Miss G, First Grader!

I handled this first day of school better than last year.

I think it's because the teachers are no longer strangers to me, but colleagues and, most importantly, ridiculously awesome people.

And, I haven't JUST moved across the country.

Nor am I teaching middle school for the first time.

Nor am I returning to full time work for the first time since the girls were born.

Man, it's a miracle I survived last year at all!

Greenhouse in Yellowknife

The girls and I have been putting in a few hours at school each day, so I'm not too rushed when school begins, and so that when Eli comes back from Inuvik and the girls are having long school days, we can have regular evenings without me being overwhelmed with start-up school details.

That's the plan.

Happy Birthday, Nanny!

Nanny celebrated her birthday today in New Brunswick while we were up North, with Papa visiting, but we managed to meld the celebrations together.

The girls called Nanny in the morning, and here Miss A is laughing pretty hard at the talking card we sent Nanny with a knock-knock joke inside.

Play Hard, Sleep Hard

I snapped these pictures before Eli left on his trip to Inuvik.

Oh, as a side note, Eli took our new favourite indestructible shock-proof, water-proof, sand-proof, everything-proof digital camera up North, and is documenting everything.

Just wait until you see what he saw in Tuktoyaktuk yesterday on a flight up to the "other" ocean shore of Canada.

And, yes, he did dutifully take off his military boots and socks to walk around in the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean.  Love it!!

Anyways, you'll have to wait with me for a complete post series on travelling to the north-North, as in North of Yellowknife upon his return in less than two weeks.

I digress.  I do that a lot.

Each night, before we go to bed, we check on the girls sleeping in their beds.

All day, they approach life at 110% enthusiasm.

The play hard right up until that moment when sleep comes to them.

Once they are asleep, an elephant could dance in their room, and they'd hardly open their eyes to check it out.

I can flick on the light, mop, put laundry away, and tidy toys while they are sleeping.

When we go in to to check on the girls right before we go to sleep, this is what we find.

Usually, Miss A still has her flashlight on, with a book discarded close by that she was reading (see The Three Little Kittens?).

We dutifully slide books from underneath them, turn them around, adjust their pillows, snuggle and tuck them in. 

In short, we love them and hug them and call them George. 

When Daddy is home, he sneaks them to the bathroom for a sleepy potty break.

I take over on nights when he is not around, and while the top bunk poses some challenge, I have it down to a science.

They usually stay asleep, and give the best hugs to and from the bathroom.

Sweet dreams, Sleeping Beauties...

School Supply Shopping

I love school supplies.

My girls do, too.

We've got school on the mind, since the girls have been "helping" me as I set up the classroom and clean all of the toys and learning materials (I'm a germ freak, what can I say?).

This morning, after breakfast, we packed up to go to Staples to take in Teacher Appreciation Day, and to get the girls their school supplies.

As the girls were getting in the car, I passed them their supply lists, which were in their report card envelopes in June, and happily have photos of everything on the list, so the girls could follow along. 

Once we arrived, the girls consulted their lists.

Not surprisingly, they wanted to get everything in order, so we did. 

And, as we went, they each got to check the items off their own list.

We got things for my classroom after the girls had everything on their lists.

Have you gone back to school shopping yet?

Are you as excited as the girls?

Our Busy August Weekend

This weekend was busy.

I didn't realize it was busy while we were in the middle of it, but it was!

It all started on Friday with Papa's birthday!

On Friday, after swim lessons, I took the girls out to get Papa birthday presents.

They had VERY SPECIFIC ideas about what Papa would like for his birthday, and couldn't wait for Papa to arrive home on Friday evening from work. 

Miss A wanted to get Papa a robot.

"Miss A, why do you think Papa would like a robot?"

"Um.  Papa likes robots.  And, Papa can share his robot with ME!" 

Miss G wanted to get Papa a stuffy to sleep with, and she picked this soft and cute puppy dog.

His name is Patch. 

Patch has yet to spend a night in Papa's bed, because Papa tells Miss G that Patch really likes all of her doggy toys in her bed.

She has yet to argue with his about that! 

Eli and I picked out Papa's cake... any guess who got the duckies?

Papa, Miss G and Miss A. 

We thought about switching the numbers around to read 26, but Papa is very secure with his age and was like, "No way!  I'm 62!  Put 62!"

Excellent attitude! 

I don't think Papa managed to blow out either candle on his own. 

The girls are fast at candle blowing! 

Birthdays bring their enthusiasm for life up about 10 notches to beyond extreme.

Friday night, Daddy snuggled with the girls. 

Please note that Miss G is snuggling with Patch (and her owl), and Miss A has Robot (and her seal, which you can't really see).

Last night Miss G sighed and said, "Papa really loves his presents.  He loves to share them, too!" 

Daddy got some extra special snuggle time on Friday night, because on Saturday morning, I drove Eli to his work early in the morning so he could meet up with the rest of the crew heading to Inuvik (which is far North in the Northwest Territories) for Operation Nanook.

He'll be in Inuvik assisting with the air operations for Op Nanook for 18 days in total, returning the day before the girls' first day of school.

He says the weather is about 2 or 3 weeks ahead of us in Yellowknife, and it is cooling off.

I'm not surprised, because it feels like some autumn air is pushing in here, too!

He is sharing a tent with six other guys, and he says that it is luxurious by many other military standards.

Eli packed well, and sent me this picture of his cot and space within an hour of landing in Inuvik.

They have good food services within the operation itself, and Eli brought his little mini burner for making coffee and other snacks, too.

And, last night, he went fishing with some rare downtime with some of his buddies, so I think he'll manage just fine.

Meanwhile, on Saturday evening, Papa and I ordered in.

On my way back home from picking up our supper, I saw this parked close to my house, and it totally cracked me up. 

Ah, Northern humour.

After church on Sunday, I stopped by my classroom to drop off the puppets and stuffies (reading buddies) I took home to put in the laundry, and to bring home another bag of toys to clean. 

I've been in the school a few days so far to set it up, and I had help on the first day from a good friend Michelle who volunteered to help me move my furniture around. 

Any teacher friend of mine know that Michelle must be a good friend!

It's coming together nicely, and I'll take you on a full tour once it's all set up. 

Later on Sunday, Papa introduced the girls to Jiffy Pop.

They were totally amazed and pumped to pop popcorn this way!

Usually, we just use our popcorn popper (we don't own a microwave, and haven't for many years).

They polished off almost all of the popcorn, and had some help from Papa.

Then, I moved into the kitchen to make a tuna casserole for a family in the community who needs a little extra lovin' right now. 

I'm sure they would appreciate a prayer from you, too.

When I returned from my supper delivery, the girls were on the front deck with Papa and our neighbour friends, all drawing in notebooks.

This is Miss A's Giant.  He's grumpy.

This is Miss G's bird in a bird house.

Maybe next year a family of birds will move into our bird house in the tree in the front yard.

And, on Sunday evening, I finished these dresses for the girls.

This was my weekend project, and likely what made the weekend so busy when I looked back over it!

The girls love looking at fabric, and this was picked by Miss G.

I had to modify the pattern a bit, because the girls are to teeny tiny.

I fully lined the dresses, and I loved the ruffle (called a flounce) on the hem of the dress. 

I'm so impressed with myself!

I had to bind every hem because the fabric was challenging to work with, but the final product looks great and the girls love them.

Oh, and they think they should be fashion girls.

What do you think?

Cousin Bike Race

My cousin, Lena, lives here in Yellowknife, and we have been able to visit and hang out quite a bit over the last year

Our kids have also grown to know another generation of cousins, which is wonderful.

Toward the end of July, Lena's boys came over to visit my girls.

Miss G asked me to call Lena to make sure she had the boys' bikes in her van because she wanted to bike with them around the court. 

It was pretty fun to see the five of them come up with the Bike Race all on their own.

They took turns waving the flag to begin and end the race around the court loop. 

The four of them are off!! 

The three leaders rounding the turn at the end. 

Miss A's leisurely racing pace meant that she got to wave the flag next, and here she is rounding up the racers. 

After several loops, the cousins decided to turn my driveway into a masterpiece. 

The girls love to draw and create, and the boys do, too! 

It is really fun to see all five of them together, doing their own thing and then joining forces. 

The boys also introduced the girls to the refined art of treasure map making, and I must say that it has been a massive hit!

There are maps all over the house with all kinds of dangerous obstacles and obtuse turns.

My favourite treasure maps threats that I've seen so far are the Mean Duck and a Mean Sea Snake, interspersed with rainbows, mermaids and lovely islands.

The boys were a little disappointed in the rainbows and mermaids, but the boy cousins still think that their girl cousins are alright.

Have I Mentioned that Eli Loves his Boat?

It's true.

Eli loves his boat.

A few weekends ago , Eli finally took off for an expedition fishing and camping and boating trip to the East Arm of Great Slave Lake.

It's where the REALLY big fish hang out, and they think they are oh-so-cool because they live in the 'burbs.  Know what I'm saying?

Eli and a coworker buddy of his took off Friday, July 20th, from work, and left at about 2 am in the morning to take advantage of the calm winds. 

2 am in July in Yellowknife means sunrise, y'all. 

That's the Midnight Sun, right there. 

And, Eli's boat.

The darkness of the looong winter exhasts me, and I must say that I was surprised to discover that the light of the looong summer days exhausts me, too.

Yellowknife is home of the extremes... extreme beauty and extreme exhaustion, I guess. 

But the beauty is amazing, isn't it?

Isn't Eli well-trained? 

He's been working on making that horizon straight when he snaps a picture to make his photographer hobbyist wife happy, and the pictures from this trip are outstanding! 

Eli says this was totally worth waking up at 2 am. 

About 2 hours later, the boys arrived in the East Arm, and headed to a secluded island protected island (yes, that's not a typo...) that Eli had picked out long before with his charts and maps. 

He's an obsessive planner, and it pays off on these elaborate trips.

Oh, and Eli loves his boat.  Did you know that?  He loves those motors.

Eli said the weather was perfect and the fishing was amazing.  He said that at one point they were getting a big fish every 10 minutes!! 

They saw two moose on the trip, too.

This one was swimming close to the boat.

I'm assuming that Eli zoomed in a bit here, but even still, that's a close moose encounter!

The other one was on an island facing the campsite, but Eli said that he didn't get to the camera in time. 

They boys ate well, a la Chef Eli. 

This is their camp set up.

Eli snapped this one as his buddy reeled in a large lake trout.

His pal brought along his dog for company and protection, and Eli said that it was pretty cool to have a dog in the boat. 

De nuh, de nuh, denuh-denuh-denuh... 

Eli was so impressed with the trout.  Even without a trophy trout, they were still among the biggest fish he's ever caught. 

I like this one.  The dog is staring at his master... "Uh, Eli?  Are you sure master should be steering the fish catching aparatus??" 

Eli like this one because you can see the two down riggers and rods.

Eli loves his boat.  He calls it a fish catching machine.  I know it's really his mistress. 

Happy Eli. 

Bird covered island.  Look at them all! 

This was the big one from the fishing weekend.  16.22 lbs.  That's 7.36 kg. 

That's waaay bigger than Twofour. 

Eli and the Big Guy. 

Yeah, that breath cannot be good!  Man, Eli must be hard up on these trips. 

At least he always has his mistress.  The Boat.

Saturday night, Eli said that a thunder and lightning storm lit up the sky.

He snapped this from the boat as the storm approached, and as he headed back to camp. 

Eli got back late on Sunday. 

There are no pictures of his return trip because it was a lot windier, and he had to add an hour on to the travel time to safely manage the waves.

On Monday, however, he sorted out the filleted fish, and I found this in the kitchen when I went to check on him. 

WHY would you need scissors and masking tape to fillet fish? 

Well. Miss G really wanted to help, but the smell was driving her bonkers, so she improvised an ingenious stink-blocker all on her own! 

She was so proud to be able to help Eli with the fish! 

Smart Little G.

She loves Daddy.  She loves fish.  She does not love the smell.  She loves tape, though!

And, Daddy.  Well, Daddy loves his girls.  And, he loves his boat.