Youth Group Wrap Up

Last night was the last night of youth group for this year. Their leader made a special award for each of the kids and the girls were all very pleased with theirs. Through the year there had been a challenge for them to memorize the books of the bible. All of them. BOTH testaments! We had the page on the front of the fridge forever. They all started off trying to do it but Lovey was the only one who persisted and worked on it. She used the books for her spelling words and practiced them every night to get the first half of the Old Testament down. Then she just started practicing saying them over and over and earlier this week she only had the New Testament left and was getting nervous. She buckled down, took the list on the bus to review on the way to school and back. She got her seat mate to quiz her and finally she got them all memorized! There were only 3 kids who succeeded in the challenge and she was the youngest.

She was so pleased with her candy filled trophy! You can see her run through them in the video at the bottom. :)))

Lovely Long Weekend!

We had a fabulous long weekend! Thank you Victoria!!! We bbq'd hamburgers on Friday night, yummm! and had the big adventure in the park. Then on Saturday there was more gorgeous weather so we took our bikes and went down to the trails and biked along the river, stopped along the way and practiced skipping rocks. The girls are fascinated and frustrated by this. Lovey was the first one to get a couple of skips and that just discouraged Honey immediately. She did keep trying though and eventually got a couple herself so hooray! Lovey managed to get 3 skips one time and was pretty excited about that!

Lovey was poking along, falling waaaaaaaaaaaay behind so I kept up with the speedy ones on my bike and Murray ran with her. When we stopped for a water break, they all wanted to know if we could get a popsicle when we got back to the start. Since it had taken so long, we said there wouldn't be time if it took as long to return as it did for the first half. Suddenly Lovey takes the lead and kicks butt all the way back to the van. Obviously "c'mon, let's go! wanna catch up? they're getting way ahead!!! hurry up!" mean nothing to her, but man oh man, dangle that popsicle/carrot and she's a rockstar biker!!!

Unfortunately the ice cream stand wasn't open for the season yet so all that effort didn't pan out in the end.  What a rip off! I compensated by telling them they could have a popsicle at home and a run through the sprinkler and saved the day though!

Saturday night was movie night and we watched Tin Tin but I missed the end. I'd offered to help out a family in our multiples club who had triplet boys recently. They also have a 7 yr old and an 18mth old and her husband had a fundraiser/relay race to attend in the  middle of the night & so she was going to try and do the night shift alone. What a time warp! I got there as they were finishing up the evening feed at nine. Her older son heard my car from  his room and ran out to his parents "hey mom! your friend who makes the cookies? I think she's here!!!!"  I'd gone for a visit earlier and brought some smartie cookies which apparently stood out in his memory! LOL

All the babies were down and we went to bed around 11. They were allllll back again at 12:45 but they were much better than I remember our babies being! I was back in bed myself from that feed at 2am. I don't remember ever being able to get all 3 up, changed, fed, burped & back asleep in an hour and 15 minutes! I think they were back up again a little after 4 and that one took a little longer. The mom went back to bed and I finished up with the last baby but he wasn't settling well so it was 6:30 or so before he was back in bed and I crawled into my sleeping bag. The older kids usually wake up around 7 but I didn't hear much for awhile. It sounded like her 18mth old was having a tantrum (and has been doing this for attention a lot lately, go figure!) so I sortof tuned that out until her son came and knocked on my door to say that his mom needed my help with the babies. I went up and it turns out that the screaming fit was not from the toddler but the infant! Ooops! neglecting my duties! I'd only been asleep for about an hour so I blame my foggy brain on that! We got them sorted out and had some breakfast & I showered and headed off for church. I was fairly tired the next day but one night wasn't too bad especially when I knew I'd be able to nap or go to bed early the next night. I remember when Aunt Cathy used to do this for us once a week. I don't know how she went in and worked a full day after that!! and she came back week after week!!! I did take it fairly easy Sunday afternoon and had a nap in the car on the way to M&D's for dinner. 

After supper we went for a walk down to the stream by their place and it was pretty strong from all the rain last week. The girls brought their rubber boots so their feet wouldn't get wet. It worked pretty well until they started swimming! We had to watch them pretty closely once they got too comfortable in the water. The current was moving along quickly and could pull them away if we didn't have a hold of their shirt. It's very shallow and most places they could stand up but there are so many rocks that they could knock themselves out. Once they were good and soaked we headed back up to the sunny field for them to dry off and run around. What a great evening and who doesn't love going for an impromptu swim in their clothes and boots in May??? I didn't have my camera but I wouldn't have had any free hands to shoot with anyway!

Monday was another great day so we took the canoe out and paddled to a beach where this time there was swimming on purpose! It was a bit chilly for me so I didn't go all the way in but everyone else was feeling adventurous. It was time to head home for supper but no one wanted to leave. Next time we'll have to pack a lunch! Anybody have a canoe and want to tag along???

It was a great weekend with lots of fun in the sun and family togetherness, life is good and we are sooooo blessed!!!

 

Yay for summery warm weather in May!

The Next Installment!

There's nothing Honey hates worse than getting the end of a good book, only to find out it's the first in a series and be left hanging "at a realllllly GOOD part!!!!" I reserved the next books in the 2 series she inadvertently got hooked on and they were available for pick up (great service, check it out online if you haven't tried this yet!). The last one came in on Friday and she wanted to go straight down there and get it right away! Since we were going downtown on Sat anyway and it was close to closing on Friday when I got the notice, I had to torture the poor thing with a day's wait.

She was so excited to check the books out on the self serve terminal and happily posed with her haul afterwards! "I spread the books out so you'd be able to see them all in the picture Mum!" Atta girl Honey!!!

Fancy Flowers

I forgot to put this photo up yesterday! The girls found these intricate chains of dandelions and were quite impressed with them. They're of course, all decaying in my entryway now!  A little covert project for tomorrow "operation disposal" will commence at 07:15 right after the bus leaves!!!

Mini Adventure

Murray has a race coming up and the organizers set up a practice course for those unfamiliar with navigating by compass. On Friday night, we took the girls to run through the mini race. Initially we had no one interested. Going to the park and sitting down to learn about a compass and a map was NOT of interest to them..... until they found out they'd be running through the woods and not just looking at a map the whole time! Once we sorted that out, they were keen. After we got there Lovey was soon tired out while the other 2 were bolting all over the place. I guess all that running training has really paid off! (for those actually practicing anyway). There were the usual skirmishes over who got to hold the map & compass but other than that they had a pretty good time!

At the end we found some interesting graffiti that I couldn't really read but sincerely hope is not anything offensive! Once we got to this last spot, Lovey perked right up. Pose? Pictures? NOW we're talking!! Murray headed off to get the car so we had a few minutes to do some shots and Lovey had very specific ideas on what she wanted and where she wanted to be and how she wanted her hood etc.

It was great to be outdoors and feel the warmth of the sun well into the evening!

Ducks Unlimited

Lovey & Honey's classes went on a field trip this week and got a tour of some wetlands by the Ducks Unlimited staff. Lovey & Acorn were glued together for the whole event and Honey sat with her friends. They heard about the life cycles of the damsel fly nymph as well as ducks. They were paired up and given a small net and a bucket and got to skim through the water and see what bugs they could find. Needless to say all ducks and frogs had hightailed it out of there long before the kids got anywhere near the water. They were able to see a family of ducks in the distance so that was pretty exciting for the group.