My Little Artist

When Kamille started daycare I was most excited about the fact that in her own time of independence that she would be socializing with new friends, learning from her teachers, singing, dancing and doing arts and crafts.  I looked forward to hearing her talk about her day, whether it made any sense or not, it was always neat to hear her verbalize her interactions and play.  

The one thing Kamille never failed to do was fill up her art work folder.   How precious it was to take home her very first pieces of art and to watch as that artwork progressed from all over the place brush strokes to more meaningful shapes and patterns.  As her artwork came home, I was determined to collect it, hang it, frame it, keep it and preserve each and every piece.  That was 3.5 years ago and more than one million pieces of art later, my tune has changed.  

Very early on, my little artist proved this task to be very difficult for me.  I learned how to sort through and look for the meaningful pieces to keep, the ones that told stories or the ones that showed her progression as an artist.  I used the rest as wrapping paper or tossed it into the recycling bin.  I began to photograph her art too.  Realistically I cannot imagine holding onto a bizzillion pieces of artwork for the next few decades, but photos take up a lot less space, right?  So now her artwork from age 1 to present sits nicely in 3 different folders on my hard drive, and the "keepers" are accumulating in a pile under the house in the crawl space.  

Recently Kamille has been telling people that she is going to be an artist when she grows up.  Oh, how I love the potential in a statement like that!  There are some days when I love that Kamille announces, "Mom, I'm going to make some artwork for you today!" and then there are some days when I positively cringe at the thought of just how much artwork I will be adding to the previous day's pile that has yet to be sorted.  

The whole idea of photographing her artwork is great, however the pace at which this girl creates masterpieces is insane.  Truthfully, my budding artist overwhelms me with paper crafts, drawings and paintings three days a week!  Its just non-stop!

Kevin has always picked a few items to hang around our house or in his office and one day he gave Kamille some painters tape and she that she could do the same in her bedroom.  She went crazy.  Her walls are plastered with her artwork today.  I decided that this was great for me because she displays it all and all I have to do is point and shoot to capture it.  

A couple weeks ago there was a still a pile remaining on the floor so I had her pick it up and hold the "special" pieces so that I could capture her with it. ; )

I love seeing how she has progressed in her letter writing and how her people figures have gone from just heads to having arms, legs, fingers and sometimes eyelashes too!  She even draws some of them in patterned clothing.  Love it!

Recently she has been bringing home many versions and copies of Birthday invitations that she created for her friends.   She is obsessed with her birthday and talks about who she is going to invite, etc, etc.    Funny story - I was aware of this obsession with making birthday invites and one day while at daycare the mother of one of her little girlfriends came up to me and started to apologize for not RSVP'ing to Kamille's birthday party.  For a split second I freaked out a bit like "no way!!!" Kamille managed to send an invite home with someone!  Geesh!  Realistically this didn't make sense and the mom realized that she was talking to the wrong mom about an invite she had.   Phew!

And after holding plenty of pieces up for me, she started getting tired of it all too!  ; )  

The pile and hard drive folder has begun for this little one too.  

Karis is a Bingo Dabber artist.  She looooooves bingo dabber art!  

Maybe the obsession is with me?  

Maybe I really don't have to document and save almost every single thing that my girls make or do?  

Hmmmmm????   

Wrapping Up An Incredible Summer of Camping

A few weeks ago while at our trailer, amongst the squeals of kids splashing in small pools of water and adults socializing over huge bowls of chips and bottles of beer, I saw this at my feet.

I stopped, paused and was reminded of how much I love the look of fall leaves.  I leaned over and took a quick snap of it.  It was the first weekend of September and we were experiencing the warmest temperatures of the summer season.  This fall leaf seemed so out of place as my bare legs and shoulders were warmed under the blazing sun.

The truth is, that our summer had arrived so late this year and the reality that it would end earlier than we all would hope was staring me in the eye as I looked down at this leaf.

Getting in touch with my surroundings again, looking around at the 20-something people and their kids that came to spend the long weekend with us at our trailer "Open House," I realized that if this was the end, then this was going to be the BEST way to end our summer of trailer camping.

To think, that back in May we were only just beginning conceptualize the idea of a joint family place to spend our summer weekends and now its an incredible place for us that has evolved so much.

This place of ours was literally as thick as the forest surrounding it, and among the trees we carved out a driveway and site for our two families that is delicately manicured and welcoming...

 This is what we created for our families.....

the view from the top of our driveway 

the view from the edge of our site

The view from the water

And this space evolved in so many ways in just 3 short months.

A space was created for the kids that is tucked in amongst the trees...

 Stacey also added her interior flare to our outdoor spread as well.....

 And when we realized that this wasn't the ideal situation or use for our cooking and drinking water.....

...we just asked our boys for a kitchen, and it was received.

And when you get a kitchen, you start think about the luxury of running water....
And if you give Kevin a challenge, he'll take it on!
With a little help of the trusty IHI, or HIH as we call it,

and with the generous offering of the campground owner, we became the proud owner of a giant water cube and a water tower.

And just like that, we had running water....

Our water tower sits right on our site, but tucked away and out of sight.   However, hidden amongst the trees and shrubs we have a line straight to our new and improved kitchen....

Seriously!  A four tier water station for all your kitchen needs.  

And when the boys asked us again what they could do to bring the comforts of home to our home-away-from-home, we thought it might be nice to not have to walk 300m to the closest port-a-lou in the wee hours of the night and after a few drinks around the fire pit.  

Seriously, who designed that logo?  It makes us laugh!  

The boys agreed, and we received another generous gift from the land owner who allowed Kevin to use one of his machines to drag on old out-house that he had to our space. 

Its not fancy and its something that we have to maintain on our own, but I can easily sit my butt down and have a pee without feeling absolutely disgusted by the fact that I am sharing a toiletseat an entire port-a-lou with hundreds of others on any given day - just our really good friends! ; )  THAT is comfort for me.

Our out-house sits just around the base of our water tower and so next year you can bet that we will have a fully functioning wash-up sink and there is even talk of a solar shower all in that space!  Next year!

Seriously, it makes me a bit teary to think of just how awesome Kevin has been with creating this vision in his mind and keeping us all working with him on it.  He makes this stuff happen!

Rory fixed up the kids a place for lounging....Its awesome!

He also made it possible for us to explore the "other side."  

Kevin and Rory spent a couple hours in the water clearing out trees and debris at the base of our site so that we would have a launching place. 

 How cute are these kids?

 Seriously!!!

Stacey proved to us that anything the big boys can do, she can do too.....

And she also put up a really good fight with Kevin's chainsaw to get it started....

because someone had to get Kevin to back away from it before the entire campground heard him dropping f-bombs and threatening to throw it in the forest...

 Sadly, not even Stacey could get it to start, but I give her a super A+ for effort.

And the kids? 

Well they have enjoyed each and every second of it all.

this small table was another generous gift from the campground owner. 

Good Morning Henry!

On occasion, we've joked about our "little island" and who would get booted off the island if we had to take a vote all Survivor style.  Kevin and Rory always manage to score votes based on the fact that they are the muscle in creating it all.   Kevin once told Stacey that she would be staying because she's "a cow" - initially considered an insult to her, however he reminded her that she still produces breast milk, hence being the cow, and jokingly it was obviously that she had survival benefits, so she gets to stay.  

Me though?  

I'm just the obsessed photographer of it all.  

 And I've managed to redefine the latest trends in camping fashion.

These socks were hand knit by some grandmother in Germany - no joke, the warmest going!  

I'd get kicked off for sure.  

However....

Did you notice how well we ate while we camped?

Ya, thats what I am talking about.
(Even though Kevin, Rory and Stacey will know that I had no involvement in the preparation and cooking of the food in the two photos above).

But keep me, keep me, I cook and clean!!!!  

However, I am sure everyone else would survive and be fine with the usual beer, coolers, and chips that happened between the great meals we planned for! 

Ha!

Our most recent trips out to the trailer included hiking to find treasures,

Paddle boarding....

Games in the trailer...

Sunset splashing at the beach...

yes, that beard is out of control!  

and of course roasted marshmallows...

During Labour Day weekend we hosted our Open Trailer event for our friends to come out and enjoy our space with us.  We had friends who stayed the day and friends who brought their kids to spend the night camping.  It was awesome for both of our families.

That weekend the water level dropped to an unusually low level and we had a full on mud bath at the base of our site.

It was thick and depending on how heavy you were, you could sink in to your knees at any given step.
Our kids, and all the kids who came to our open house loved it.

It was such a great weekend to end our summer with!

Fall is officially here now.  We haven't been to the trailer in about 3 weeks, but our trailer adventures are far from over for the year.  We still have plans to go up for lunches, afternoon campfires and crisp, leaf-crunching walks through the forest.

Fall is my favourite season.  I love the colours that appear and the way that the earth transitions from one season to the next.  I am really looking forward watching how our space will changes in appearance as the canopy recedes, the water levels rise and the ground hardens.