Happy Easter

The chicks are too big now

Looking round Amy & Rudi's new house

Riding on Kevin's 4 wheeler

Josy

Easter brunch at the Phillip's

Harriet as the Duke in Sleeping Beauty (she's the one on the left)

Look water in Yoho, it's spring at last

Crazy Harriet paddling in Yoho, yes that is ice!

What a beautiful weekend to celebrate the good news of Easter. The sun is shining, flowers are starting to bloom and we've had a great time. We went to church this morning then onto Kevin and Dianne's for an Easter brunch followed by their annual all age Easter egg hunt! The hunt was every man woman and child for themselves and with Larry, David, Rudi & Rich all hunting it was mayhem! After a quick game of cricket the 4 wheeler came out and then we drove into the woods to see how Rudi & Amy's house is progressing. Tonight Maeve has come for a sleepover as it's a bank holiday tomorrow. There are lots of Easter treats for sale here but not a simple large hollow chocolate egg with flake, mars, crunchie etc mini bars with it!!! I found one store selling imported smartie eggs for $6 each...what? In the good old days you could get them for £1 from woollies! Think it'll be half price chocolate in the sale this year!

The chicks are now just about fully feathered and are too big for their box at Yoho so tomorrow they are moving to their new home at Rich & Jen's after a few modifications to the hen hut.

Harriet's show was postponed from Wednesday to Thursday this week as we had another winter storm with some snow but lots of freezing rain so schools were once again sent home early. Sleeping Beauty was really funny and Harriet did really well. We also found out that she got the part of the Duke because of her real British accent! Harriet also had the first swim in Yoho lake this week, it was as the ice was just melting round the edges and she went in in her wetsuit...crazy girl! Yoho was frozen and we could walk on it until Saturday morning, we went to market and came back to a completely defrosted lake with waves...that was a strange sight after all these months of snow and ice, but very welcome.

Josh is away on his school trip to Quebec and Ottawa this weekend, he phoned to find out the football scores on Saturday so we presume he's enjoying himself!

Yesterday was a fantastic market, I sold 11 dozen hot cross buns plus cakes and cupcakes, everyone must be off their diets for Easter. I sold out and had to go home and make more in the afternoon for the orders I'd got!

I got confirmation from Partners for Youth that I've got 25 hours per week work for them in the summer...yippeeee. I'm really looking forward to it, it's just an extension of what I'm doing now. So I'll continue doing the market too and see what September brings.

Chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken lay a little egg for me!

Well the chicks are now 2 weeks old and all 8 remaining chicks are doing well. One of them can't use one leg so she hops around. The one Harriet named Feather never learnt to hop and even with Harriet's constant care still died this week. They are getting feathers now and can fly a little and are a good source of entertainment. Harriet has taken 103 pictures and video clips of them this week!!

I've done well for animal spotting this week I've seen numerous deer, the bobcat and also 2 bald eagles nesting in a superstore car park! David had another moose moment on the way home from life group he turned onto Yoho lake Road and as he came to the brow of the hill he saw a huge silhouette facing him, thankfully he had time to stop.

We keep hearing how nice the weather is in the UK! Well it's been mainly sunny this week and very warm during the day except today when it's rained all day. The snow is melting quickly now but the lake is still well frozen, it is making bubbly sorts of noises so that's a good sign we may see water soon.

We get a long weekend for Easter next weekend which will be good. I have a great stall on the market for a couple of weeks so hopefully I'll sell loads of hot cross buns this Saturday again.

Harriet is performing in her play this week at a drama festival and at school, she is taking very seriously her parts as a Duke and a Deer.

Josh has already packed for his trip (he's not excited at all!) He goes to Quebec City on Thursday then onto Ottawa and returns home on Easter Monday.

Everything is in place for us to move house except the sellers haven't got a property to move into so our moving date is still 31st May but could move forward. I've packed some things but just have to be patient to finish off nearer the date.

Mum and Dad arrive in just over 2 weeks which we are really looking forward to. They will be kept busy helping us move and making our new place like home! So once we've got settled who else is going to visit us this year? Get your booking in quick to avoid disappointment!!!!!!

New arrivals

'Piping'

The final push

Drying out

Bess loves her new friends!

Our first 8 chicks

On Saturday our eggs started to hatch as I write we have 9 live chicks already hatched. They are very cute and very noisey, especially during the night! Some of them will go and live in Richard & Jen's hen house and the rest will be the start of our smallholding at our new house.

Our house sale is progressing well so far, everything should be in place for Friday then it will be waiting for the sellers to find a house to move into and we can move. This will be somewhere between 18th April- 31st May.

Josh is going on a grade 8 school trip to Ottawa over Easter which requires lots of fundraising from all those going. One way to fundraise is by collecting bottles! In Canada they pay you to recycle any drinks cans, bottles or tetra packs. You take it to the bottle depot and get 5c per item. We drove round Yoho collecting and raised over $14 from one road.

It's Josh's 14th birthday today and to celebrate we are going out for a meal later.

This April fools isn't funny!

This was my view home tonight!

I took this photo on Monday when I was excited to see crocus' growing in this yard.

Hmmmph, woke up to a lovely morning, snow melting, spring tempting us, then.....

Dinner time it starts to snow AGAIN and it isn't funny.

It took me 1 1/2 hours to get home, last time I went out it was to the top of my wellies and it's still falling. Once again it's a Friday storm just before market day, I don't find it funny shovelling at 4.30am!!! Go away snow and come back at Christmas.

Don't get me wrong we have really enjoyed winter and all the snow but now everyone is ready for spring. Canadians tell us you need new snow ontop of the old to melt it quicker, let's hope it works!