Mens Choir and Spring Break!

Spring break has been and gone, Steve had his two concerts (one more to go) and school has started up again. This is the last leg for the year with 10 weeks till the end of the school year! The countdown is on!

The first concert Steve sang in was in the Surrey church. The men sang a number of songs along with organist Andre Knevel. Panflutist Liselotte Rokyta was supposed to accompany them however she got held up in the Czech republic and hoped to come later in the week. Instead we had a group of string ensembles play in her stead. The Men's choir did a great job under the baton of Frank Ezinga. They sounded really great too!

Surrey church - Steve on the very right

Here is a short video from the concert in Surrey (the song was about 5 min long!):

The second concert was in the Langley church and this too was nice. Liselotte was there too and she accompanied most pieces with her panflute excellence! 

The neat thing about Langley church was that they are online so family in Australia could enjoy their Sunday lunch and listen and watch the concert too! 

Photo taken by family in Australia watching online!

A coffee with John, Veronica and Tante Fien at Tim Hortons finished off the evening!

From Monday the 31st of March to Friday, we had our spring break. We, along with Marv and Bernice, and Darryn and Bea headed to Kah-nee-ta, a RV park with Indian flavor. It was some 8-9 hours from Lynden and so we chose to leave at 3am Monday morning in good Byl tradition! We arrived at noon and spent the afternoon setting up and checking out the area. D & B had left just after midnight and had arrived already at 8am! M & B left later after chores etc and arrived at 9:30pm.

The biggest drawcard was the pool. It was huge and heated by warm springs coming from under the mountain. It was delightfully warm so even when the weather was cold, the kids loved the pool (so did the adults!). It was hard getting them out most days. 

Our time there was packed with lots of fun and activity. We played mini golf with the kids, went horse riding (even Shantel had her own horse), went hiking right to the top of the plateau, campfires at night, and of course, lots of chatting and coffees!

Shantel, Liana and Taleesha occupied while travelling in the RV

M & B's trailer is the centre bottom of photo, and ours is the second of the bank of four. D & B is the third one

Our setup at Kah-nee-ta 

Lots of cuddles with Chloe

Tuesday was a very cold day - playing rockets

Our RV became a party bus! The younger ones did lots of colouring in and the older ones, well, they were never far from their devices!

Story Hour with Mrs V!

Dinner time!

Downtime!

Our campfire at night

Mikayla and Liana having a 'spider'!!

Mikayla and Shantel

Shantel rollerblading

These tee-pees were also available for hire. They have a concrete floor and a fire in the centre and that's it!

Kaitlyn

Taleesha

Shantel

Looking at the pony. They had a horse ranch over the road and have horse rides several times a day.

A group of us climbed the 'hill' and here we are at the top! The view was amazing and photos don't do it justice.

Looking down at the campgrounds

Heading down again. We were up on the plateau behind Bernice.

Horse riding!

Jaclyn

Shantel on Itchy

Stefan

From the front: Shantel, Craig, Stefan, Elissa, Jaclyn and Seth. Steve is photographer and at the end

A bit hard to see but in the centre of the pic you see a group of horses. That was our group coming back from their hour long horse ride

On Thursday Bea and myself stayed behind with the little ones, and the others met up with the Fabers at Spring Rock about an hour further south and did a hike there.

Monkey Rock

Marv and Bernice - the happy couple! Just celebrated 25 years of marriage!

Father and son time - good ole footy

Panorama shot showing the summit out in the distance

Dinner stop on the way home

So to sum it up, we had a wonderful and relaxing time! Great company and great location! And above all, we give thanks to God for granting this time away and for His traveling mercies and protection. 

Thanks for looking!

Science Fair, Birthday and Planting Party!

Last week the students at CCS had a science fair in the gym. The freshman/sophomore grades worked on experiments such as investigating mold, speed and sugar content in drinks, while the junior grades needed to make something for math. 

So Stefan and Cody made a car powered by CO2 canisters (used for guns). They demonstrated the speed their car travelled and made it into a powerpoint presentation.

Jaclyn made a log cabin out of pretzels and chocolate icing as mortar. She spent hours on it and it turned out beautifully! The little girls couldn't wait for it to come home so they could play with it (and eat the chimney which was made out of choc coated sultanas!).

The week was busy with baking for my birthday on Saturday. I made matchsticks, almond rolls, mock cream biscuits, egg and bacon puffs, caramel slice and venison (deer) meatballs. 

Saturday morning was the big day and I was spoilt with lots of electrical items (I think Steve is trying to keep me in the kitchen!!). I got a deep fryer, meat grinder for making sausages, electric knife and small hand mixer.

Then for breakfast we headed to Dutch Mothers which is cute restaurant in town. We had waffles, bacon and eggs, toast and omelette. Delicious food and very generous servings. We didn't really need lunch that day!

In the evening we had some friends and family over for a party. It was very enjoyable and a great way to end the day! It was different not having any direct family over, but I received phones calls, cards and emails so I wasn't forgotten. Thanks for all who make it a special day!

Today (Wednesday) we had a planting party! Not a fun and games party but more a split and repot party! Let me explain. Being the start of spring, plants are popping their shoots out of the ground and other plants need to be split. So people go through their gardens and bring in the plants their gardens have excess of, and we separate them and plant them in smaller pots. In a month's time, we hope to have the annual plant sale where all the plants get sold. This makes for a tidy profit as all the plants are donated and don't cost a thing. The community is well aware of this plant sale and love to buy the plants! Most of the plant names were foreign to me but some I do remember were peony, hosta, lilies, ferns and mums.

Working in the shed at Bernice's repotting the plants

Helena labelling the plants. By the time we were done, this trailer was full!

This weekend is gearing up to be a busy one! Steve hopes to have his concert on Friday night, Saturday morning is Pancake breakfast in the gym, Saturday afternoon is open house for Marv and Bernice's 25th, another concert on Saturday night and somewhere in between all that, finalise packing for our spring break. We hope to head to Oregon with a number of families and spend a week there. 

Well, that's our update! Enjoy and God bless. Thanks for looking!

Spring is on the way!

This week was a mixture of sunshine and rain! The girls just loved going outside and playing in the sunshine! Spring is on the way! Bulbs are pushing through the soil and some are even flowering!

The girls went to some little friends for an hour or two while I went to the gym, and she donned their rollerblades and she caught on really quick! She was allowed to take them home and so the car had to be out the garage, and all obstacles put in the way because apparently 'she needed to learn to turn'.

One day after their bath, they thought they'd be really funny and dress in their pajamas with a difference. I caught Shantel 'dressed up'! Very funny! 

Jaclyn is now playing volleyball (Stefan gave it a miss) and she had her first game on Thursday. She did well and their team won.

On Thursday, I visited Mrs and Evelyn Eisses. Mrs Eisses is related to the Heerema's in WA. They were really excited to show me their scrapbook of their holidays to Australia! It was fascinating seeing the familiies some 20-30 years ago!! We had a lovely morning!

(Photo courtesy of Shantel)

Today, we looked after Vincent who is Taleesha's age. They had fun (most of the time!). Normally he has an afternoon nap but he didn't have one today. And so on the way home, the little fellow just couldn't stay awake. He crashed some ten minutes before getting home!

Two more weeks to Spring break! Yay! We hope to go away for a few nights in the RV. Can't wait!

So, it was a quieter week again, but not that we didn't do anything. I've been to the gym, did a number of 3 miles walks, baked a 9 inch aussie meat pie as well as 4 individual pies for Steve's lunches (!), baked buns, a caramel slice and a number of pound cakes! They were so good, they disappeared as quick as the slices got cut!

Aussie meat pies with cheese in the making

Well, that's it from us here in WA, USA! Enjoy your week! Thanks for looking!

Seven months!

This past week marked 7 months of living in Lynden/Sumas. Time has gone so fast! We have settled in well. We enjoy the country living out on the farm along with the occasional smells that come with it! We experience the communion of saints during the week and on Sundays. All thanks goes to our Father!

We have gotten used the  driving on the right hand side of the road, American banking (they love their checks/cheques!), grocery shopping and in general, it's all becoming normal. Temperature we still like to refer to Celsius, but we know that 32 Fahrenheit is 0 degrees C. And 25 m/h is about 40 k/h. 55 m/h is about 90 k/h. And Australia does have nice paper bills (notes). Here the different denominations are very similar in colors and the $1 is still a bill. The coins come in 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c and 25c. But they are more referred to as the pennies, dimes, and quarters.

We are almost 3/4 into the school year, so the end is in sight! Shantel just celebrated 50 days of kindergarten. They had a little party on Friday with balloons and everyone took something that amounted to 50. Some kids took 50 lego blocks, other took 50 M&Ms and Shantel took 50 pieces of candy.

Last Sunday when we woke up in the morning, it had snowed again. However, because the wind wasn't blowing, church was still on, but the roads were slippery so caution was needed.

This photo below is us going to church in the morning and meeting a snow plow going the other way.

In general, we had an uneventful week. Womens study society met on Tuesday morning, our congregational meeting was on Tuesday evening, followed by a mission presentation by Urban Mission which includes Kelmscott and Mt Nasura churches as well as the churches here in the Valley.

On Saturday we went to Steve's Aunty in Abbotsford for dinner. We went in two cars so that Jaclyn could head back with the kids and put them to bed. We were very relieved to hear that she crossed the border without any problems and arrived home safe and sound. We also caught up with Steve's Uncle and Aunty and John and Veronica. We had a nice time.

Daylight saving is once again in effec so we are now 15 hours behind.

Anthea received her working holidays visa, so now she can put her moving plans into action!

Well, that's last week's update! We hope you have a lovely week! Thanks for stopping past!

Snow days and lamingtons!

Well, the snow we had on Saturday continued to fall all through the night and by Sunday morning, it was a white winterland! However, it was also very windy making visibility very poor. We doubted whether there would be church as it would be too dangerous to be on the roads. And sure enough, the call came through that the morning service was cancelled and another call would go out later as to whether the afternoon service would go ahead. So we watched Langley live and listened to Rev Ryan deJonge. 

The snow continued to come down and the wind didn't stop either so before long we received another call to say the afternoon service was also cancelled. This time we tuned into Rev Ben Schoof. Both sermons were very edifying and it was neat to be able to 'go' to sister churches through live feed!

Snow drifts in front of our garage. We couldn't even get out if we tried! 

Stefan had to get one of tractors from next door and clear the snow.

The main street in Lynden

Just a bit of snow!

The church

The school. See all the snow on the roof?

Close up of the front of the school

It was kind of inevitable that Monday was going to be a snow day. It was very cosy just to be inside and watch the storm outside! And then Tuesday also became a snow day! The snow really came down in Lynden and had over a foot of snow everywhere making it look so white, but too dangerous to be at school. While the main roads were cleared, new snow was making the roads very icy so that at one point the main road leading to the school was closed due to quite a few cars going in the ditch and several semis even overturning. So then it's best to stay home and off the roads. 

Tuesday the wind stopped and the sky was clear blue! Awesome contrast!

Stefan's friend Alec stayed at our place for a few days as his parents where holidaying in sunny Arizona (!), so they had fun out in the snow and tubing behind the ATV (four wheeler). 

Wednesday was the big lamington day! February is mission month and so our schools raise money by way of fundraising. At Cornerstone, each class tries to raise the most money with the highest class 'earning' pizza lunch. One class did cinnamon scrolls, and another did a bake sale. Steve's class decided to do lamingtons. So Wednesday was the day set aside for this. We had ordered 5 slabs of cake with each yielding 96 pieces and these all had to be coated with chocolate and coconut. So with the help of Steve's students, we coated and boxed 480 pieces of lamingtons! And they sold like hot cake! It was a great morning. The kids were split into groups of 3 and they first coated the cakes, then rolled them in the coconut. Once the chocolate hardened somewhat they were bagged and then put into boxes. The kids worked well and happily did the dishes and mopping the floor! Anything to get out of class.......!

The girls found my window pens and decided to make some window art. Since Shantel is starting to write, she even added her caption! Can you read it?

Shantel. I love reading books. I am five. I got a little sister. Her name is Taleesha!

And some colouring in. I had to take a picture!

Today, Saturday they were forecasting more snow. While it's freezing cold, so far we've just had flurries which haven't amounted to anything much. Just looks like fertilizer on the lawn! We'll see what we get overnight. 

For the rest, everything is going well. Stefan was struck down by the stomach flu on Wednesday but being a 24 hour thing, he was back to school on Thursday.

I was helper for the last hour in kindergarten on Friday. They have craft then, so an extra pair of hands is always very welcome!

That's it for this week! Never a dull moment. Thanks for looking!