WWII War Veteran, Snow Day and Anthea!

Wow, another week gone and what a week! 

First of all, we had a WWII war veteran who lives in Ferndale, about 15 minutes from Lynden, came to Cornerstone school and gave a presentation about the time he was a captured fighter pilot in the hands of the Germans. He is 92 years old and relived some of his experiences during that time. He, together with a friend, wrote a book "A fighter pilot from Buchenwald". I had already read the book as our 'librarian' sold me the book by her review and so I asked if Joe Moser could autograph my book. He happily complied. Joe is a Christian and confessed his hope in God as the only thing that kept him going. Was really neat to hear and see Joe.

This week Shantel was 'Star of week' at kindergarten. We had to make a poster at home describing Shantel with photos of family and her favourite things. We practiced several times before the day and here she is presenting her poster to the class.

One of their learning centers was gingerbread men, so the day before, we decorated and baked some gingerbread men to take to school and share! They were a hit! (I couldn't find cachous pearls so used some cake decorating beads - edible - but they kind of sunk and the cookies looked like ghosts rather than gingerbread men). But they still tasted great!

On the days Shantel is home, the girls will happily color in or do a craft.

Thursday night was basketball games for both Jaclyn and Stefan and they did very well, and they both won their games. 

Snow was forecast for the next day so we were all wondering how much we'd get. A look at a local radio station online was the means of advising parents if there would be a snow day or not, meaning no school!

We had also been told by Anthea, to facetime at around 4:30am our time, as she had something planned for us, and we needed to get in contact with her so she could tell us. Well, to say that it was a surprise was an understatement! I took my phone to the lounge, and the first thing I saw was her standing at the airport with the sign, 'Bon voyage' behind her. At that point, I knew what she was up to. She was about to board the plane and head our way and spend a month of her holidays with us! Wow, she managed to keep it hidden from us for 5 months, as she had already booked this before we had even left Australia!!! Well, sleep was out the question for the rest of the night (or morning). As well as that, a look outside and on the web, informed us that Friday, was indeed a snow day and hence no school!!! 

The kids were so excited! So many things: no school, lots of snow and Anthea coming! We took advantage of the snow and made a snowman, Stefan and Jaclyn along with the kids next door did tubing behind the ATV. Everything looked so white! It was beautiful!

And to top it off, the school kids had their Christmas concert in the evening. It was a beautiful event and the kids did a great job!

After the concert, we had refreshments in the gym and then it was time to head home and off to bed. Saturday morning we left for Seattle at 9am. It takes just over two hours to get there, and we wanted to allow for any traffic delays etc. We got there well on time and waited for about an hour for Anthea to go through customs and out to where we were waiting. The little girls were so excited! And finally we saw her!

And just a few of the goodies Anthea took along!

It was really nice to see the girls chatting away to Anthea! And they've Americanised their speech already too! We had a good trip back but by that time it was already getting dark so what she saw of Lynden was shadows and lights! After unpacking all the goodies for us and the kids, (thanks to all the family who sent lovely gifts and drawings etc!), we all headed off to bed. Very thankful that she could be here and that God protected her on her journey. We now have four weeks to catch up, show her the sights and see some new ones in the process!

Sultanas = raisins
Abattoir = slaughterhouse
Quad bike = ATV (all terrain vehicle)


Well, that's it for this week. Thanks for popping past!