Maple Key Cottage: family time

Showing posts with label family time. Show all posts

08 December 2015

Elf Seeds- Free Printable

Elf seeds are something my sister does with her kids, and we will do this year. She asked me to design something to go on boxes of Tic-Tacks, so that's what I've done and can now share with you!

Just click the link below and download. Print off, cut out along red lines and tape to a box of Tic-Tacks. Have children plant them.

Wake up the next morning to a candy cane garden! It's Christmas magic!

Plant these in a shallow dish filled with white sugar and use sprinkles as fertilizer. Once the kids go to bed, switch out the tic-tack "Elf seeds" for full size candy canes. There will be some pretty excited kids jumping around the next morning when they see what happened to the seeds! I can't wait to try this.

Elf Seeds Free Printable

05 December 2015

Festival of Lights- Santa Claus Parade 2015

Last night was our little town's Festival of Lights Parade. We haven't been to a Santa Claus Parade or tree lighting ceremony since we lived in Kingston- 6 years ago!

The boys were all excited about going to this one since it's been so long.

For a little town, it was a really big parade. The whole thing took about 45 minutes. Jacob was in it, since he's in Cadets and they were marching. I tried to get a photo of him, but by the time I spotted him he was nearly past me and my phone was too slow focusing.

Max seemed to enjoy it for the most part. The sirens and music coming from various floats was too loud for him (and me!) so he cuddled into Corey whenever it got to be too much.

We had good weather for it. About -6, but it was windy, so that made it colder. Still not a bad night for early December on the prairies though!

30 August 2011

Cannon Beach, Oregon

We were told before going that Cannon Beach is possibly the nicest place along the Oregon Coast. I think this is true! While busy and FULL of tourists, it manages to keep it's charm.

It is so quaint. The little shops and houses are very well kept, there are window boxes everywhere.

The beach here is fantastic. This is the home of Haystack Rock and it's, well, a giant rock. It's fun to watch how the tide moves in on it and then away as the day goes on. Sometimes it's possible to walk right up to it, and other times not, depending on the tide. The water here is VERY cold. Too cold for me to bother swimming. Actually, there wasn't much swimming done by anyone. Children played along the edges of the water, but that's about it.

There was a stream feeding into the ocean out to once side, so we took the boys there. The water was a bit warmer here. Still not warm enough for my liking, but the boys seemed to enjoy it, along with a number of other children.

As always, lots of photos to share!

Haystack Rock

Enjoying goodies from the bakery

Cute little bakery we discovered

This is a kite shop! How cute is this?

I believe this is called Corn dogging

Cafe in Cannon Beach

Sunset over a stream where it meets the Pacific

We love Cannon Beach!

28 August 2011

Seattle Vacation

We traveled to Seattle this month. Oh my goodness, could I love it any more? I knew I would love it before we went, and have been dreaming of visiting ever since I was a little girl. Remember the movie Sleepless In Seattle? Yeah, that sort of did it for me back then, and I've been yearning to visit ever since.

This was a dream come true, and I wasn't the least bit disappointed. You know how sometimes things seem better in your imagination and then when they happen in real life it's a real letdown? Not this time! I loved, loved, LOVED every part of this experience. We camped, had fires, visited the Seattle Zoo, the Marketplace, the aviation museum, strolled along the harbor and just generally had a great time.

It's just beautiful. The weather was great while we were there, and we fell in love with the laid-back attitude. Although it' a large city, it doesn't really feel like one. Everyone is free to do their own thing, there's a bit of a hippie vibe going on. We will return for another visit someday, maybe sneak in another trip while we still live in the West!

Being such huge Starbucks fans, we dragged the boys to the original location. Heaven! It wasn't what I expected, although now, I'm not sure what I WAS expecting! It was great and totally exceeded whatever I thought I was going to encounter.

We first camped at Bay View State Park for a night, before making our way down to Seattle. Excellent camping here. We had a trailer, but got there too late for water/power hook-ups. It didn't matter though, and I can honestly say that I'd tent camp here (I generally dislike tent camping). We cooked dinner over a fire and went to bed early. Next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and a slight chill in the air. After a quick breakfast, we went down to explore the beach (photos below) then headed back to the trailer to pack up and drive to Seattle.

I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. Part II coming tomorrow, our visit to Seaside, Oregon!