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!

Visiting and a field trip!

We had some beautiful weather this week so we made the most of the sunny weather.

Our lovely green soccer field got ploughed up this week! Corn will be planted very soon and our view will change to a cornfield. 

On Tuesday we visited with Miss Betty who is blind. We enjoyed a walk to Lynden Bakery and had a yummy lunch; and an ice-cream at Edaleen was a 'cool' way to end our day! Taleesha had bubblegum flavor and Shantel, raspberry. They were very proud of their coloured lips! 

Betty's dog, Bethers loved the freedom of being off the leash and 'off duty' with the girls around and loved playing with them. Bethers is a black poodle and is very attached to Betty. It was amazing to watch her 'lead' Betty around and stop for kerbs, sidewalks and even stopping at a car about to reverse out of a driveway. But like any dog, another dog is a bit of a distraction even when on harness and on duty!!

Enjoying an ice-cream!

Do you love my blue lips?

I have pink lips but it's a bit hard to see....

Wednesday was the kindergarten's final field trip. We headed to Larrabee National Park about 40 minutes drive way and headed for the 'beach' to search for the little creatures that live by the sea. The beach here means lots of stones and pebbles, but no yellow sand! The kids were rewarded with lots of sea life. We saw huge starfish, crabs both small and big, sea snails, and lots of shells. There was rocks and tide pools so the kids all wore boats and took buckets to collect their treasures. After a class group photo, we headed back up to the picnic area for some lunch and games. It was a really enjoyable outing and wonderful to see God's handiwork even down by the sea.

The girls showing the huge starfish!

Sisters!

This week is shaping up to be reasonably busy again. This week it's my turn to help with school cleaning, Tuesday is our final ladies bible study meeting which will be followed by a picnic in the park, and Saturday we hope to attend the Sound of Music put on by some members of our church here and in the Fraser Valley. Practising for this began already last October/November so everyone is super excited it's almost here! A lot of work has gone into this production and it promises to be a very good show!

Well, that's it from us. Thanks for looking!

Aussie Connections!

This week we had the pleasure of meeting up with Steve and Helen Terpstra and their family. They were en-route to Vancouver for their departure back to Australia the next day, so they came for dinner and a catchup! We had beautiful weather so we sat outside and enjoyed a lovely evening together! It was fun listening to their experiences and comparing notes on all the differences.

Hunter is the neighbour's dog, however him and the puppy Rio visit us often

We have few days of dry weather, so the grass behind our house was mowed. After mowing, it gets aerated by what is called ted-dying, then raked and finally taken in.

The mower

Ted-dying

Dumped into waiting trucks

A lovely clean looking soccer field!

Jaclyn's volleyball games are over. They got in the semi finals but lost by two points! It was a really great game!

Five weeks of school left! It's getting busy on the school front. Jaclyn goes for a 10 day trip to Washington DC with the Year 11/s and 12s. Steve goes for a one night field trip with his class. Shantel has a kindergarten picnic next week. The graduation dinner for the seniors is being organised with the year 11 mums doing the dinner and serving! So plenty to do! 

Our weather forecast is looking very nice this week with temperatures around 25 degrees C.

That's it for this week. Thanks for looking!

9 months and some very warm weather!

We had some gorgeous weather this week; it even got quite warm! Thursday it got to 28 degrees Celcius! Beautiful weather to be outside and potter around in the garden. I planted some strawberry plants, some parsley and romaine (cos) lettuce. The girls thought it was quite hot and so when it's hot, you have icy poles (popsicles). They enjoyed their little treat.

Decorating the patio chair with dandelions

It was even the kind of weather you cook up some burgers and eat dinner outside. It was very pleasant; the grass was being cut and taken in, the sun slowly setting and the cows mooing in the distance. Doesn't that paint a nice picture?

It didn't last though! Today (Saturday) it rained. We had a plant sale with funds going towards the school on Friday and Saturday. Friday was beautiful weather and they sold quite a few a plants. Saturday was wet and dreary but they still did well. I was on the last shift of the day and we still sold quite a few plants. The left overs will go to the school garage sale we are having next week where typically they sell well.

This week was a bit of maintenance week. The little girls had their hair trimmed and then beautifully braided. Thanks Kristi! They got lots of comments that day! Shantel had her immunisation needles and was really brave. She loved her lollipop (sucker)! 

Volleyball season is almost over. Jaclyn has her playoffs and finals next week. This week's games were pretty intense. Her team won 2:1. Here's a few photos of her in action.

Jaclyn jumping up at the ball

Diving for the ball

We have some budding hairdressers in our house too! Look at their colourful creations!

That's is it for this week. We thank our Creator for the wonderful weather we could experience this week and also for the rain. All in His time!

Thanks for popping past!