Memorial Day, Steve's Birthday, Sports Day and Washington DC!

First of all, an 'apology' to all who look weekly for an update! It's been kinda busy and now is my first chance! Enjoy!!

Monday, the 26th of May, was Memorial Day. The morning was wet and raining but the afternoon cleared up enough for an outing, so we took the canoe and went to Silver Lake, about 40 minutes away. The lake was smooth and flat and the view of the mountain just beautiful. Alec joined in the fun and the two boys went around the lake with a canoe and a motor! 

Beautiful and green!

Alec and Stefan in the canoe 

Dad and his two little girls! No sand, just stones/pebbles.

 At the boat launch, the girls were fascinated by a huge group of tadpoles. The dark water is them swimming towards the girls!

Look at all the tadpoles!

On Wednesday, it was Steve's birthday! At 21, he feels half his age! Breakfast in bed was a treat!

We are thankful that our Heavenly Father has been with him for another year, and pray He may continue to bless him in the year to come!

Friday, the 30th was Sports Day. This was held at Bender Fields just a short drive from school. The kindergarten kids joined in with the grade 1 and 2 students. They did different events in the morning such as filling a bucket up with a sponge, dressing up in clothes/boots, spider race and a pretzel run. 

Running with a sponge full of water to fill up a bucket

Spider race with Elias

Throwing pegs (clothes pins) in a container

Dressing up and running (although it was more like walking!) to the other side

The older grades do events similar to Australia. High jump, hurdles, 100m, 400m and 800m, shotput, discus etc. Interestingly, the measurements are all in metric!

Lunch was preordered and consisted of hotdogs, fruit, chips and a choc milk. The last event was wagon wheel relay. The weather was just gorgeous and the day ended with a popsicle (icy pole).

Over the past two weeks, the production 'Sound of Music' was performed by members of the church in Lynden as well as members in the Fraser Valley. They have been practicing since September last year and so it was very exciting to finally have the time arrive. Steve and Stefan were ushers 6 out of the 7 nights and we attended as family on one of the Saturday matinees. It was just amazing. To see the actors get right into the mood and perform their parts so well! I enjoyed it so much, I went to see them a second time! Well done to all involved. It was wonderful to be part of the audience both times!

My two ushers!

Shantel discovered doing the dishes by hand is actually good fun! You go girl! Just watch that knife!

Liana came over one afternoon. They had a lot of fun!

Jaclyn did a home economic course this year at school which involved cooking/baking for the first half and sewing for second half. She really enjoyed this and made a pillow case, pyjama pants and a laptop bag. When it came to a pair of bootleg jeans she didn't like anymore, she cut off the bottoms and make them into three quarter pants. All by herself! Well done Jacky! And with some left over material, she even made a headband. 

On Sunday evening, we had Steve's birthday party. We had a nice group of about 7 couples since there were about 3 or 4 other parties/events that evening!! We had a fire going and sat around it all evening, enjoying the sights and smells of Abbotsford in the distance and the tranquil surroundings of the farm (when the tractors weren't going!). It was a very pleasant evening!

Very healthy Jan!!  :)

Today, Jaclyn along with her grade 11 and 12 classmates left for Washington DC. They will be gone for 10 days and will be seeing many sights on the east coast. They fundraise for this for two years (they go every second year) and the whole trip is funded by the fundraising. They left for Seattle at 4:30pm and the plane left at 9:30pm tonight. There is a blog recording their trip with the link being: http://ccs-dctrip2014.blogspot.com/

Jocelyn, Kristin and Jaclyn

Off and away!

The strawberries are ripening....!

The grass and corn planted a few weeks back has come up and growing fast!

Can't see it too well, but the corn has sprouted!

The weather this week is looking just perfect! Shantel has her kindergarten graduation on Wednesday and her grade 1 orientation on Friday! She is one very excited girl!

So that was our last fortnight! Thanks for stopping by!