We have been busy lately, really... :)

We have been a *wee* bit busy since our return from France, I suppose. It seems that we arrived in Canada, started running, and are just now hopping of the treadmill of life, free to start to walk at our own pace. Kinda. ;) 

We arrived home near the end of April, sent the boys to school the next morning, and started unpacking and painting the house, and planning the rest of the renovations, and the yard work, and catching up with friends and family back here at home. Also, I stepped back into the position of President with our local chapter of Canadian Parents for French, and that has been a busy job this spring, let me assure you! Add in soccer season for two boys, and guitar lessons and guitar club for another boy, and it's been busy almost every evening, too. But school finally finished at the very end of June, and Canada Day was hard on it's heels. 

On July 1, Canada turned 145, and our community also celebrated it's first Canada Day as a City. To that end, the City held the grand opening of the new spray park, and the children had a lot of fun. It wasn't even too crowded there, because it was basically the first nice day of summer, and most people ran away to one of the many pristine and beautiful lakes that are a short drive away.  

The spray park was a lot of fun, however. :D

The children of our local French Immersion program were invited to sing O Canada! in French that evening for the festivities, and all three of mine were delighted to comply:

 The children from the three classes who came to sing O Canada!.

Notice Margo front and centre, in the hat?  Riley is on her right, in a white T-shirt, 
and Carson is in the back row, standing ears and hair over the rest of the children.

Margo, passed out in bed, clutching the goody-bag handed
out at the singing by the Chamber of Commerce.

After the children ran around the park like little hooligans for a while after they sang, we all came back to the house.  Lloyd worked a bit longer on the playhouse in the backyard (more on that in a future post), and Riley and Margo crashed, hard, as evidenced by the photo, above.  Basically, as soon as she stopped talking, she passed right out. It was amusing, because she wasn't letting go of her goodies for nothing or nobody!

Lloyd and Carson returned to the park later that evening, for the promised fireworks.  (I was a bit bummed that I wouldn't be watching, but the thought of having Riley and Margo up that late, then up at their regular time in the morning (06:30) after not getting their 10.5 hours was enough to convince me to stay home.)  In the 12 years that we have lived in this community, there has not been a local celebration of Canada Day.  It has happened in other, smaller communities in the region, and also, it is celebrated in a big way at the Provincial Parks in the area.    Last year, we decided to take matters into our own hands.  We bought fireworks, checked into the local ordinances, and invited some friends to the tobogganing hill in town.  At (almost) full dark, we started.  While a lot of fun, it wasn't a professional show, by any stretch of the imagination.  :D 

This year, the local fire department promised 46 minutes of fireworks, synchronized to music, starting around dusk.  Dusk, here in Northern Saskatchewan, is sometime after 22:00 in the summer, but the show was apparently worth waiting for.  I don't have any photos, but when Carson and Lloyd rolled back in just after midnight, the excitement and awe on Carson's face told me it was a superb show to end a lovely day.