Wordless Wednesday or Welligton Tour Part 2

Bazaar Update

Our Christmas bazaar went very well, for which I'm very thankful!

There were of course, glitches.

There are always glitches!

The heavy rubber mats we use to cover the hardwood floor were supposed to be down before I got there to set up on Friday. They weren't.

Thankfully, I was there an hour and a half earlier than planned and Jesse was with me, so he rolled up his sleeves and with help fron Mr. DeHaas, got those mats down in record time. Jesse was in charge of the kids games but was happy to come along and help set up as well.

Whew!

Morgan got to school shortly after we did, as he took the afternoon off work to help set up, and get ready to run the Wii games once the bazaar began.

This is my cousin Leona and her daughter.

Leona, her husband and kids moved here last year from rainy B.C and she offered earlier this year to be my Co-organizer.

It was great fun running this event with her.

It seems the inability to stop coming up with 'good ideas" runs in the family. . .

Once we had measured out the area needed for the petting zoo (something new and also a Leona idea) I could see our traditional set up was going to have to be fiddled with. Thankfully my friend Joyce stopped by during a break in professional development day.

Joyce and I have run the bazaar together several times and she can visualize how a space can works better than anyone I know. A few suggestions, a bit of table moving, and we were on our way!

Some of you may wonder what kids do while their moms are volunteering their time.

Some like to give their little brothers airplane rides.

Others get a kick out of climbing the bleachers .

Unfortunately, if you're old enough to be useful your mom will probably ask you for help often. And she will greatly appreciate it!

The petting zoo was the big hit of the night. (And that pretty young woman in blue is my youngest sister-in-law. We are all looking forward to meeting the newest addition to the family!)

Have you ever seen anything this cute?

It's starting to get busy.

I wonder what the kids are up to?

The Wii was very popular. That cute redheaded boy beside Morgan is one of my nephews.

Apple bobbing! That looks like fun. This game was organized by the sons of both Joyce and my friend Loretta. There seems to be rather a lot of water on the floor though. I wonder why?. . .

"What do you mean if they get the golf ball at the bottom of the bucket they get an extra prize?!!"

Who would be foolish enough to do that?

It seems a lot of kids were.

I saw several walking around dripping water as they went, soaked from head to knee literally!!

To their moms I can only say. . .

I.am. so.sorry!!

Oh look! It's Sinterklaas and Swarte Piet! In the Netherlands they come to leave gifts for children in their wooden shoes on December the 5Th. Although I think these days they probably fill up more running shoes than wooden shoes!

Loretta and Jurrina chat with a bazaar goer about the wonderful soaps and lotions they make for their company Rub It In.

There were many lovely handcrafted items for sale.

Wow! This is quite the turnout!

What's going on in the foyer now that supper's over?

It looks like the interim Principal's wife thinks her husband (far left) needs a time out.

I should think so! Look how close they let Jesse get with his wet sponges! Yikes!

There is nothing a kid enjoys more than the chance to throw wet sponges at the teachers!

Looks like the Bazaar is over. All that's left is the clean up. . .

Thank you, Thank you to those of you who stayed, unasked, to the bitter end. You guys were awesome!

And did any of you notice how many people came up with good ideas or helped to run things? I've only mentioned a small sampling. There were also the beautifully made gift baskets, tasty supper, delicious desserts, dutch treats, tables loaded with toys at prices kids could afford thanks to the ability of a few moms to find 'really good deals' and beautiful backdrops for SinterKlaas were created. The list of things people did just goes on and on.

You could never thank everybody who helped in an event like this. Not only would you end up forgetting someone, there are always people who work so quietly behind the scenes they sometimes go unnoticed. With out every one's effort though, an event like this would fail.

So to every one who contributed I want to say a huge Thank You!

Look what I got to bring home. Henry made the winning bid on this basket. Isn't he sweet?

Now, I'm going to rest for a few days. . .

Quiet Sundays

Bazaar day

Well it's bazaar day today and I'm getting a little nervous.
I was up past midnight fighting with my computer, trying to make a bunch of posters. I would type up what I needed in Word, spend way too much time trying to fancy it up with a border, check how it looked in print preview and then trying to print it.
Disaster! Anything I tried to print would be missing the title or a sentence or both.
By the last poster all I got were random letters and punctuation!
I e-mailed everything over to my friend Ev's in the middle of the night in hopes that she might be able to figure it out this morning.
Otherwise. . . I have to do everything over by hand!
Which I don't have time for .
*Note This is what happens when you wait until the last minute.
I'm going to jump into the shower, do a bit of baking to take along and then we'll be off to school to set things up.
We've got a lot of things happening at the bazaar this year. More than we've ever had before.
I hope it all fits into the gym. . .
I'll be back to morrow to let you know how it went.

Wellington Garden Centre

Here are a series of pictures from the garden centre.

It is one of my favorite places to go to when I need inspiration. (And I haven't managed to leave it empty handed yet!)

It has a series of small buildings, each with a different function. The buildings are connected by walkways lined with many interesting pots, statues and displays.

And the show gardens. . .

They are small, but you get the opportunity to see many plants in a garden setting. If you go back often during the warm months you will see just how these plants look through out the garden season.

The weeping 'Red Jade" crab apple tree in their garden has convinced me that I need one for my own garden as well!

I hope you enjoy the tour.

Tomorrow, the potting shed and the main building. . .

Life Gets In The Way

This morning I told you I would be posting about the Wellington Garden Centre.

Here it is almost ten o'clock (bedtime!) and I still haven't managed to get it done and I feel as cranky as this penguin looks!

Life really does get in the way sometimes doesn't it?(smile)

I will do my best to post it tomorrow but, I won't make any promises. Our school's winter bazaar is this Friday and I have a ton of things to do before then.

I need to make posters and contest entry forms, decorate ballot boxes, figure out how to decorate the food tables, shop for prizes and the jellybean contest, phone anyone I can think of to help out with Jesse's carnival area (his classmates now have a basketball tournament that day), make sure I have enough tables, get the keys to the school and church. . .

Whew! Makes me tired just thinking about it!

It is a real blessing though, to be able to contribute to an event that has been held for so many years and brings back so many fond memories in our community.

Young men and women who's children now attend the school reminisce about their favorite memories, like throwing water balloons at the principal, beating the Kindergarten teacher in a skip off, (actually, I don't think anyone ever beat her!) or how exciting it was to sit with Sinterklaas and Swarte Piet and get candy canes.

I've been doing some grumbling today (mostly to myself) about how all this work is affecting my Christmas plans.

I think it's time to focus on the joy I'll see in the children's eyes on Friday instead, don't you?

I'll post when I can this week and I'll have lots of pictures from the bazaar to share with you next week.

Enjoy the first week of Advent!

Stay Tuned. . .

Tune in later today for a stroll through the Wellington Garden Centre.

But first. . .

A school bus ride,

A walk with Jada,

And a little Christmas breakfast. . . (http://rose-gardendiary.blogspot.com/2008/01/its-official.html)