Summer....continued

Happy Canada Day! To celebrate the occasion we went to Billings Estate - a preserved home and grounds that was built and owned by one of the first settlers to come to Ottawa (I hope I got that right). Anyway, it was a step back in time as we celebrated a 1909 Dominion day. The children helped to churn homemade ice cream, munched on popcorn, painted their own wooden yo-yo and toured the home. It was fun, low-key, low-stress. Next year we'll probably do the fireworks thing and be out later. I just need Zanna a bit older for that. But this was good. 
We came back home and did some sparklers in our back yard. We were careful to try and teach proper care and safety concerning the handheld fireworks but no matter. Sometimes things must be learned first hand the unfortunate way. The evening ended with Zanna grabbing the hot end of a used sparkler and she got it. She has a pretty high pain tolerance so I knew she was hurting but not to the extent of an ER trip or anything. As a matter of fact it could have been a lot worse and we're thankful that after the initial accident, it didn't seem to have any lasting effect. 
The last picture is of our yard. Our home improvement project for the year was a patio to cover up the muddy mess in the backyard with better drainage put in and rocks. We then purchased the gazebo structure and furniture to lounge on and I must say - it's been a dream! We enjoy sipping coffee/tea out there in the morning or cool drink in the  hot afternoon. We've done some entertaining. I've napped sprawled out on the couch. It's like having a whole other room. We are loving it!!

Anyone that knows me well knows that I not what one would consider a nature girl. I prefer to experience nature behind a window in comfortable air-conditioning where there are no bugs. Having said this, since becoming a mother I yearn to instill in my children a love for God's creation and a fascination with nature despite my inadequacies. I was determined this summer to do just that. I purchased a bird feeder and seeds to encourage birds to "hang out" in our yard and that the children would observe them. They could use their binoculars and wait in the play structure awaiting the little visitors. This was my vision. Reality is quite different.

It took a few days but word got out to the birds that there was a new restaurant in town and soon enough they came! But it was the unexpected addition of the chipmunks that came too. We couldn't figure out where all the little seeds all over the lawn were coming from until I realized that Wayne had moved the bag of seeds out of the shed where I had put them and instead placed them under the stairs. This turned out to be a veritable smorgasbord for the little animals. This bag was promptly moved back into the shed but no matter - the chipmunks just hung out under the feeder waiting for the inevitable seeds to drop. The squirrels then thought they would join in. While this is indeed nature in our backyard I was not altogether bothered by this but my husband was. The final nail in the coffin was the arrival of raccoons. That did it - Wayne and the raccoons stared each other down until he took a hose to them and then took down the feeder after their departure. But it was too late. The birds had come to like our backyard and decided to start a family in the corner of our new gazebo within the bug netting. Wayne removed the beginnings of the nest 3 times but mama bird would just return to build it again. The netting came down. So much for nature. Now we have no birds, chipmunks, squirrels or raccoons. Maybe we'll go to the zoo......