A fairy special Birthday for Lucy...

Today our dear, delightful daughter is five! I can hardly believe how the time has flown! Yesterday we had Lucy's Fairy and Frogs (because boys don't want to be fairies) Party in our enchanted garden. Mark had a bubble machine going, he and Uncle Brian decorated the yard with fairy lights, I read a fairy-tale, we had a fairy hunt and made magical wands.
I can't seem to get these pics in the right order, but this 3rd one is of today... after she fell during her special "Mommy & Lucy Bike ride". I took her down a little hill, and she wiped out on her face! She cut both her lips and scraped the skin under her nose. Poor little one!
Lucy was excited to have Joshua, cousins Grace, Griffin & Brandon, and many friends (+ important adults in her life) at the party.

We are so thankful for Lucy: she is very sweet, very funny (a bit of a drama queen at times!) and has many beautiful gifts. We pray that God will use her humour, her songs and her stories to shine the light of Jesus in her life and through her life. Amen!

Thanks Staci for taking many of these great shots!

Millie has friends too!

One of the nice things about having a puppy is watching her play with other dogs. On Canada Day our friends Karl & Sarah came over for a BBQ, with their Bernese Mt. Dog, Logan. Logan walked in and hoovered up Millie's dinner in her bowl in 2 bites! He's a big guy, but very sweet! It was fun watching our lil' pup try to get Logan to play, jumping, climbing on him, a little bark here and there. Logan was very patient and played a bit with her, but this guy preferred to lie down and relax!
Millie's other buddy is a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel named Bailey. These two are a better size match, and get to play when they meet up their respective "grandparents" homes, who are neighbours.

Sports time

Late spring/early summer had our weekends full of Soccer & Baseball. The kids did a soccer camp every Saturday morning - which was a lot of fun. This was Lucy's first chance to play soccer... though she probably will not continue in the fall because girls play Sunday mornings, which conflicts with church. Josh had two buddies in his group, and they're hoping to keep together on the same team next fall.

Sunday afternoons found us at the ball diamond where Mark played outfielder (can you see him way out there?) on "Chin Music", one of churches 5 baseball teams. His team placed 2nd this year. Josh was pretty attentive watching the games, but did take time to play with some friends. Lucy never really paid attention, but did enjoy running around and playing at the playground. She's posing here with Abby.

As fun as these sports are, we are looking forward to the lazy, dog days of summer ahead!

Last week of June

The last week of June was busy - the end of the school year (we went until June 27), and the end of my 4 year job at church as Children's Ministry Administrator.
Ending my work at the church was a tough decision, but mentally I'm very tired of juggling ministry, teaching and parenting/home life. It's time to take a break. Here are Josh and Lucy hanging out at the church office with Miss Chelsey when I handed all my stuff and keys in.

With the end of things come celebrations.... on the last Friday of June we celebrated our buddy Jeff's birthday. It was a very fun evening to relax with friends. Earlier in the week the kids and I had gone to my teaching partner L.B.'s house for our teaching team's dinner. We all brought our kids and had a fun evening - playing soccer, Wii, and pirates.


Bring on summer!

Weekend in Kelowna

Mark's company took us up to Kelowna for the first weekend of Summer. While he went golfing on Saturday morning, the kids and I explored the City Park and the lake.

Lucy had to show Mitzi and Kia (her dogs) the rose garden.

Joshua preferred to look for ducks on the lake. After visiting the Farmer's Market, we met up with Mark for an afternoon at the beach. We had gone to Kelowna expecting HOT and SUNNY weather, which Saturday did not deliver. Undettered, we played on the beach anyway!

We were enthralled by pirates on Okanagan Lake that day - quite a few boats were flying the Skull and Crossbones flags and had their boats equipped with cannons and fire-power (well, mainly buckets on ropes they kept dipping into the lake to fill with water!). They were maybe 100 m from us, and Josh stood on the beach waving his arms yelling "Come and get me!" He really wanted to play!

We went to the Manteo Resort for dinner - very nice! There, we ran into Vern and Diane Neumann and chatted with them for a bit. They invited us to come check out their new development in Kettle Valley the next day - which we did after church and lunch with our friend Annabel. Kettle Valley is a beautiful community -Mark and I would definitely move up there if the opportunity came up!

Goodbye Preschool

After 4 years of preschool, we are saying good-bye. Lucy had her Preschool Graduation at the end of June - and the ceremony was adorable!

Miss Hok is our beloved teacher, who has taught both of our kids. We will miss her gentle nature very much! Lucy's favourite activities at preschool were playing with her friends, with the toys and doing crafts. I'm confident she'll do just fine in kindergarten in September. She is eager to head to the "BIG" school and start French Immersion!

Run, Joshua, Run

Well the school year ended a week and a half ago, and I'm not yet caught up!
At the end of June, Joshua's school had a special assembly for Kilometre Club, which we and Nana attended. A lot of school in our area do a km club - I love that ours is run by parents and it is after school - meaning that the kids who really want to be there are.
This year 215 of 300 students participated, and 13 of them ran over 100km, including.... Josh!

Josh ran 102.5 km in 20 days, averaging 5 km in 30 minutes each day. He was the youngest student to earn a trophy (last year he won a silver medal). His goal initially was 90 km and to earn a gold medal, but then when he realized he was close to the trophy, he could not be deterred!

We are VERY proud of Josh and his persistence.
Way to go Son!