The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet. ~James Oppenheim

Fence-climbing 101

A few days after beginning grade 1, the social anxiety of said grade reared its ugly head. Brookie was playing with two other little friends. Now we all know what a group of three feels like anyway, and in this case especially because Brookie is younger than both of these other girls, so it wasn't surprising to me that at a certain point, Brookie ended up in tears at the back door. After giving her time to just sit with me and cry, I asked her what was wrong. "I am the only one who can't climb the fence and I hate being left behind," Brookie explained between sobs. It is always so heart-breaking to see your child struggle with anything but the struggle to fit in is particularly painful. I offered a fairly painless solution. What if we had a fence-climbing lesson with Daddy and Rosie after dinner?

And that is exactly what we did. After we ate that night, we headed out to the back yard fence and began practising the fine art of fence climbing. Brookie was determined. It took her only a couple of tries before she was scaling our fence without any help. Rosie "learned" too, although I think she had a good handle on it already. And by bedtime that night, the crisis had been adverted.

The next day after school, I heard Brookie ask through the fence if she could play next door. Then she climbed over the fence all on her own and ran off around the corner. I couldn't help remembering the first time Brookie had crawled away from me when she was just a wee thing and had disappeared around the couch. It was the same feeling I had in my throat; a tightening and a sadness at the inevitablity of our children leaving us behind mixed with a quiet pride in knowing Brookie had done it. No fence would ever hold her back again.
~Mandy

Grade 1

What can I say? Brookie began grade 1 August 25th and it was much more difficult for me than kindergarten. Much. Rosie and I walked our little first grader to the school and dropped her off. By lunch, Brookie gobbled down her sandwich and informed us that she needed to leave early so she had time to play. It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride with some days being great and other days punctuated with many tears but no matter what, Brooklyn Grace is growing up officially way too quickly.

Don't you think?

~Mandy

Rainy Day Adventure

The richness of the rain made me feel safe and protected; I have always considered the rain to be healing - a blanket - the comfort of a friend. Without at least some rain in any given day, or at least a cloud or two on the horizon, I feel overwhelmed by the information of sunlight and yearn for the vital, muffling gift of falling water. ~ Douglas Coupland

This August, Brookie and Rosie took swimming lessons at the pool in Moose Jaw. They were both in the same class - The crocodiles and whales. It was a solid two weeks of lessons every day for half an hour and I couldn't believe how much the two of them learned!

Waiting for the fun to begin

Paying close attention to the teacher

A well-deserved soak in the hot tub after all the hard work

At the end of the two weeks, both girls could float, glide, dive to get rings at the bottom of the shallow end, and kick the whole way across the pool with a flutter board. Amazing!

~Mandy

More Camping Pictures

The girls were beyond excited about riding real horses. Brookie rode Gator and Rosie had a lovely horse named Ebony. Both of these horses enjoyed trotting, which only made it more fun for the girls.

Minigolfing with young children is even more entertaining than the boring way of playing with people who can aim and who pay attention to each shot. This was more like watching a fast-paced hockey game, minus the goalie.

One of many scenic views we stumbled upon on a hike

Those are the faces of two little girls having a marvelous time just being

~Mandy

The Davidsons Go Camping

The last week of July was our family trip to Cypress Hills. It is a wonderful little spot close to the Alberta boarder with trees and water. Those two things alone make it worth the 3 hour drive. But in addition to the trees and water, there are all sorts of other great things to do like horseback riding, minigolf, swimming, hiking . . . you name it, we most likely did it in our short stay. It was a family trip to remember.

Here is our campsite - #47 - complete with a fire pit and two perfect tent spots.

The girls had their own tent and they were a little excited

One of the other exciting things about camping was the little cereal boxes - a camping tradition I am continuing from my time growing up

Our first night, we were a bit too tired from the drive to cook dinner ourselves so we went to the Cypress Hills Resort for a nice dinner. Rosie took this picture of Brookie and I . . .


and Brookie took this one of Sean and Rosie

The first morning, Rosie and Brookie went exploring and found a terrific fort which they revisited numerous times throughout our stay

There were beautiful trails for hiking and we must have walked on almost every one of them

The beach area was clean and expansive but the weather made swimming a bit painful for Sean and I. The kids, however, could not be stopped.

Here they are enjoying the icy cold water despite the arctic wind cutting through the trees

Eventually the wind and the water got the best of them - the blue lips confirmed it

Playing on the beach with the sun warming those little bodies was a welcomed change

Little hands . . .

In the midst of the trees and the water, we had time to do nothing and everything. We rode horses, played mingolf, hiked, swam, cooked our dinner over a little camp stove and read The Magician's Nephew by firelight. We laughed and talked more than we had in a while and realised that we really like spending time together. And while I had decided that surviving was probably the best I could do, I had a surprisingly good time even with the dirt and rain and sleeping on the ground. Here's to camping!