The Return of Rosalina Ballerina

Rosie pulled this lovely ensemble together for the big performance. I love the polka dotted tights and the necklaces together with the more traditional ballet skirt. Her music of choice is the Annie Soundtrack (what else?) and I see a real "Miss Hanigan" look here.

There was a costume change during intermission while I was putting the finishing touches on dinner. Rosie is very pretty in pink and is really working the audience here with "It's a Hard Knock Life"

In true Rosie style, her attention is caught by Nemo and the performance comes to an abrupt hault. But it was good while it lasted! ~Mandy

Home

For those of you who have never driven down the Trans-Canada from Moose Jaw to Caronport, who haven't stood in the wheat fields and watched the wind create waves over the golden grass, who have never seen the curvature of the earth on the horizon, who haven't walked the grid roads in the evenings when the shadows are long and the bugs are thick, these pictures are for you.

It doesn't have the obvious draw of ocean, lake, forest, mountain or city. The Saskatchewan prairie has a beauty apparent only to those who can be comfortable in stillness and absence. This our home. ~Mandy

Ama's Visit

Ama came to mix things up in Late July. How wonderful to have her with us again. Brookie and Rosie fell quickly into the new routine of waiting for Ama at the top of the stairs in the morning so we could watch cartoons together and have our cereal. I just love how the girls fold others in so easily and completely. With Ama around, there are always things happening . . .

We had tea parties

played in the pool

had spontaneous picnics in the hallway

and read lots of stories.

I always enjoy watching Ama drink in every last sticky-faced kiss, wide-eyed question about life or umpteenth request for the same book. She is patience personified and her time with the girls is time I can have to catch my breath. But mostly, I love having my mom around to drink tea, discuss paint colours, wash dishes, and just be. ~Mandy

The Mortlach Sweet Shoppe

Summers in Caronport require a certain adventurous spirit (as you have seen in the previous post) and so we travelled to Mortlach, a small town just west of us, to see what they had to offer our hot, dust blown, prairie weary family. I wasn't expecting much, given the track record of attractions around here. But wasn't I surprised to find the Mortlach Sweet Shoppe, an adorable little store catering to those with a craving for anything sweet. When I first saw the red brick facade, I thought I was seeing a mirage. It was really hot out. But it was real! Our first visit was so wonderful and refreshing - I realized how much I had missed walking through all the cute little shops in Westdale, Dundas, or the Oakville lakeshore but the girls just liked the ice cream - that we have since visited our favourite little shop many times.


This store is truly a sight for sore eyes

Outside, the owners have set up an inviting little sitting area. Here Brooklyn and Roslyn are savouring the house specialty

Rosie is focused

Brook's favourite part of the experience is finding out what colour jelly bean she has at the bottom of her cone

No matter where you are, ice cream with those you love is pretty great. Here's to a successful Saskatchewan adventure. ~Mandy

"A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again"*

Nan had left and things seemed even quieter than they normally do. Deafeningly quiet. It was time for an adventure to take everyone's mind off the fact that we were feeling a bit lonely here on the prairies. But something we hadn't done before. Something exciting and different . . . but not too far away since we had to be back for lunch. Then Supermom remembers a big lake just moments down the road. Yes, that's right. A lake. Ducks Unlimited flooded this vast stretch of prairie to create a bird sanctuary. A friend told me there were dozens of species of birds, including pelicans. We had briefly driven by this area but hadn't really explored. Now seemed like the perfect time. Bird-watching isn't up there on my list of favourite pastimes but it sounded like a unique outing. So we threw some things in a bag - sunscreen, hats, bug repellent, books, Piggy, "Baby Ee ee" (Rosie's stuffed monkey), "Baby"(Rosie's doll), diapers, wipes, snacks, the cover of the "Annie" soundtrack (don't even ask), kleenex, more books, Tylenol (for me - and by the looks of this list, are you surprised?) and then we were off.

It began as a fun adventure. We chatted along the way in the car about lakes and birds and bumpy roads and cows. Rosie piped in a few times with her ideas about animals and she got really excited when a plane flew overhead ("Bop's plane" she always says). At last we turned down a grid road which seemed to go nowhere. Just when I was about to turn around, we came over the crest of a hill and there it was - the biggest body of water I have seen in this area of the world. It was very exhilerating.

Brook and Rosie led the way down to the the water, anticipating fun of some kind

It was a long walk so there was time for a few pictures

This is it!

The girls posed for me, though it was so windy that Brook needed to hold her hat

Soon after we made the lengthy walk down to the water, I realised that it was really smelly. Really. And really grungy. Really. Then my job became making sure Rosie didn't swim in or drink this disgusting water. Brooklyn became statuesque, frozen to the spot by her fear of the filth surrounding her. She mentioned numerous times in the span of about two minutes that she smelled something funny and she didn't think it was Rosie. Then she decided she wouldn't go any further. So I chased Rosie, keeping her from the water, eventually resigned to carrying her kicking and screaming back to the car (we had been there for five minutes tops) while Brookie cried - no screamed - for me to come and carry her. We all were less than chipper on the slow walk back to the car through the grunge, the dry, prickly grass (this also got a rise out of Brooklyn as it scratched her legs), the broken beer bottles ("No, Rosie. Don't touch that, Honey."). Finally we all piled into the car, I scarfed down a couple of Tylenol and took a few moments to go to my "happy place" which looked nothing like this stupid lake. Brookie and Rosie calmed down when I passed out a snack or two and sat in relative silence until Brookie asked, "Mommy, where are the birds?" That's right. We didn't see one.

~Mandy

*This title is borrowed from a fantastic essay by David Foster Wallace. It just fit so pefectly, I couldn't resist.

More Fun With Nan

We also went to Crescent Park in Moose Jaw while Nan was here. When you have small children, parks are a large part of life. This park is especially fun because it has a wading pool and water "splash" area. Seeing as the temperatures were well into the high 30s we thought some splashing was in order.

In true Brooklyn fashion, she cautiously approaches the spraying kids

Wee Rosie wants a bit of the action

Rosie was surprisingly controlled, hanging back to watch for a bit

Look at that face!

Needless to say, we all had a great time. After lots of water fun, we enjoyed a little picnic in the shade and then left feeling much cooler. Another good park day with Nan.

~Mandy

A Visit from Nan

Sean's mom (aka Nan) came for a visit this July and it was wonderful to see her. The girls were very excited about going to the airport to pick her up and then it was fun, fun, fun for 6 whole days.

Here are Sue and the girls at Wakamow Park in "the Jaw". It is one of our favourite places to hang out.

The girls got cute new summer outfits from Sue (shown here) and gave them a test run in the sand.

After a day at the park, it is always good to wind down with yet another viewing of "Annie" or as Rosie says "Morrow".

~Mandy