Matthew was SO happy to rediscover his familiar home. Elizabeth was keen to do all the things she's "been missing for a wary wary long time". Besides, the sandbox is "kind of like an Ottawa beach"

- Sailing (0.278431)
- Leader Board (0.275424)
- Pumpkin carving (0.272727)
- Hold the hand (0.272727)
- Good night little bus (0.270833) All

Elizabeth is a rather cautious child when it comes to things she thinks might be dangerous. Once she gets comfortable - look out world!

 

She was quite determined to swim to the trampoline this year and super proud of herself after she got over mean Mommy forcing her to swim rather being towed out.

 

The iceberg slide was deferred until "next year". 

- Elizabeth lost (part of) a tooth (0.304217)
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- Birdhouse (0.280742)
- Summer week 6: Circus and Gymnastics (0.280702) All

Here is a group of photos showing the cottage "animals" in their "natural habitats".

• Matthew covered in food
• Elizabeth at the beach. Elizabeth went swimmimg in her clothes (and could hardly believe her good fortune at getting away with it)
• Grandma reading her book at the end of the dock
• Deer going to to the Bondi playground

Elizabeth has a checklist of THINGS WE MUST DO before we leave the cottage. (Well, actually, she wants to stay here forever and ever, but since we assured her that isn't going to happen she is settling...)

 

Seeing a deer was high on her list. Success!

- Cousin Camp: Beach day (0.308394)
- First bath; meeting Erika & Auntie Yukiko (0.308219)
- Summer school jul 13-17 Circus week (0.307692)
- 6th birthday party (0.302144)
- Family Day (0.301205) All

9:00 am Elizabeth, Grandma J and I act as safety boats for some of the nine brave souls that swam from the dock to the point and back. Three of them swam back to the point again - I think Kevin was trying to impress Jenna (who rather proudly told me during the bear hunt that she is a competitive swimmer - she was pretty fast!)

 

10:00 am Elizabeth and Mom head to the beach. It was super windy, so after a mere twenty minutes Elizabeth was persuaded to head back to the cottage.

 

10:20 am Matthew and Daddy were napping. Elizabeth and Mommy went to play ping pong in the barn. Then we rode on the tire swing horse. And fed it. And watered it. And rode it some more. We ordered corn from the office for dinner.

 

11:00 am Elizabeth sees some other kids getting ready to play frisbee golf. Next thing I know we're playing our own version. We take turns. Elizabeth always gets to make the last shot.

 

12:15 pm Everyone is awake, so it's time for lunch. Elizabeth eats a "Moose hoof" from Henrietta's for dessert.

 

We do a little reading practice. Elizabeth writes a couple of letters.

 

1:45 pm Nancy drops some eggs off in our cottage. We go to find out if we can collect some too. She gives us a bucket and instructions. Brendan giggles at the creative use of horseshoes and hockey sticks as chicken perches. Elizabeth marvels at the eggs that are still warm! Three were on the ground and cracked, but Elizabeth is careful and doesn't add to them. She's quite concerned about whether there are baby chicks in the eggs.  We chat with Nancy while she mucks out the horses stalls and Elizabeth runs around "feeding" the chickens and trying to pet / catch them. Elizabeth is an expert at feeding chickens after her week at Farm camp, she informs me.

 

3:15 pm. Matthew is awake again. We hop in the car to make promised visit to the bear at the Trading Post. It's a shadow of its former self unfortunately but Elizabeth enjoyed herself immensely. We were very tempted by a t-shirt that encourages you to flip up the bottom to reveal a bear.

 

5:15 pm. Watch Carol pick our corn. Elizabeth helps Grandpa walk it back to the cottage where we cook and eat it.  Yum.

 

10:00 pm Brendan is lured outside to enjoy the fullish moon reflecting off the lake and some more lovely stars.

- Triathlon (0.428571)
- Sportball (0.415816)
- Cottage Days:Swim, visit and treasure hunt (0.414025)
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- The Big Clock (0.410172) All

Elizabeth wanted to do another Bear hunt but her cousins went back to Ottawa. So we decided to invite all the kids at Bondi this week. Apparently there are 22 kids here right now! I decided we needed more bear treasure for all the potential hunters. One thing led to another when Daddy sent Mommy and the kids to Bulk Barn on our own. Elizabeth spotted the treasure chest piñata first.

 

At the appointed time, fifteen kids aged 4-11 showed up ready to help Mr Bear find his treasure. We divided them into two groups of older and younger kids and off they went. The younger kids just repeated last week's treasure map with the clues in a different order. I made a more elaborate map for the older kids. Yes Dad - I had way too much fun!

 

Unfortunately I also dropped a clue & managed to close the loop prematurely, leading to some scrambling at the last minute to find all the pieces of the map. Luckily the kids were good sports! Brendan obliged me by paddle boating one clue out to the water trampoline so some of the kids actually swam out to grab it! Several participants were a little worried, wondering if there was a real bear. I confessed that the bear was not expected to join us. Then some kids began to worry the treasure wasn't real :) After they put together the maps and read the secret message on the back, one group retrieved the stick from under our canoe and the other group found the treasure hiding in the office. We triumphantly bore the treasure away to a suitable tree. Kids under six got two whacks, kids over six just one. It made it more or less to the end of the line... Just bearly (hee)...

 

Bondi has some bonus bear hunt pictures too. Bear hunting isn't the only thing we did today - there was bike riding, beach time and bocce ball - Elizabeth rules apply. She gets to throw the little one and half of the large balls, Mom and Dad get to divide the rest....

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