VBS and More

Jasmin being Jasmin! 

                                                               VBS photos...

 Lunch at church because











                       Graffiti Art Camp in the afternoons.

Just for the girls - Aiden went home and took long naps.  it was a long, very busy week for them, but they had good fun, of course.
We met for Friday supper downtown, as "on the way" I picked up Imma at the airport, here for a quick week's visit!  We've picnicked by the river (where we saw two new to us birds and a family of ducks) and in the park for a splash pad relief from the heat,

gone to see the light show again, and spent lots of time together at home just enjoying one another..

Waiting for the show to begin

Noisy scramble, Messy Silence

We had the weekend all planned out:

Go see the light show on Parliament Hill Friday night

Usual Saturday laundry and clean up

Supper with NiNi and YeaYea

A friend's church on Sun

Leave the kids with NiNi and YeaYea for a week of VBS...

2 1/2 hours before we needed to leave for the light show

Daddy says, "why not go to NiNi's tonight? We're going to be halfway there..."

Noisy scramble!

Supper to make and eat and clean up

Bags to find, choose, pack

Lists to write, and check, and add to, and cross off

Loud directions issued, and reissued, and relayed

Aiden helpfully emptying drawers, dragging fist-fulls of clothes

Laundry in, laundry out

A growing pile of things ready to go by the door

Everyone to change for a cool evening outdoors

Everyone and everything in the car

On the go amazingly on time!

Only a few things forgotten:

the violin to practice

midnight snacks for the every-hungry horde

Sunday afternoon, I come home alone

Messy silence!

Greeted by Saturday cleaning undone

with ample evidence Friday's whirlwind preparations added in

But the week is mine in the quiet

I'm given this time to plan the school year

But in-between thinking and writing and preparing

When I'm tired of sitting, cluttered with ideas,

Bit by bit I can tidy

And, what I clean stays clean!

I like the quiet

Getting enough sleep

Planning in blocks rather than inadequate snippets

I like knowing the kids are having a blast

And I don't have to be there

I like cleaning when it stays clean

But I am already very much looking forward to Friday

When noisy and messy will return.

Five for August Begun

An early morning run discovery that we want to explore more fully:

 I sat and watched a family of ducks feed and it looks like a place for a fantastic afternoon!

While Grace and Jasmin were in Chinese school one morning, Aiden and I checked out a new park. It was so good we brought the girls there after they were done.

We also met another homeschooling family there, with whom we hope to connect more.

This month we are turning grocery shopping outings in to one-on-one "dates" for the kids.  Only sometimes the attention gets sidetracked...

 Even by cows in the dairy section!

We started back into schoolwork slowly this last week.  It brings a relieving order to our days but I don't hold us to it if friends come knocking.

 Aiden wants to be a part of it, and has discovered colouring.  He does a pretty careful job of choosing colours for different sections and trying to stay within the lines.  He just hasn't figured out what hand he prefers yet!

I think he might be a lefty, looking at the number of times he switches to left and the quality of work.

July End TidBits

By the end of the week of camping, we were ready for home - especially since our last full day of camp it rained all day!  Although, having to take home wet tents and damp bedding, did mean that it took nearly a week to wash, dry, and put away all the camping gear!

The journey home from Fairhavens  was quiet and smooth. We took the most direct route which was on secondary roads through little towns. A good choice. Aiden and Jasmin slept the first half. Grace doesn't sleep easily, and being hungry and car sick didn't help. So we stopped for an early Subway supper and gas in a largish town.  We were all really hungy and ate nearly double what we usually eat at Subway! And even then we went to the grocery store and bought apples and cherries for the road.  It was a really good thing we stopped then, as it was the last town of any size for a good long while and we wouldn't have made it.

Of course, as soon as we were home, all the toys had to come out for a welcome home play so the nice clean house we left looked well-played in within the hour!

We jumped right back into life - Monday the girls went back to Chinese school for the morning.  We're proud of them - even though it was a full-on immersion situation that they didn't like, they've gone each day without complaint, and found fun.  Not sure if they've learned any Chinese, but there was certainly lots of exposure!  Today is the last day and then we get a month off before starting the weekly Saturday class in September.

Aiden began violin lessons also this last week!  He is very into it - just about every time he catches sight of his violin in the corner, he wants to practice.  Since he is starting earlier than Jasmin, we are having to listen to squeaky squawky sounds - but his practices are 5-10 min only.  We'll see if it sticks for him.

We had a great friend-filled weekend last week.  Saturday we had a swim and pizza supper at a friend's house, and on Sunday an afternoon at a new splash park with other friends.  It seems like we were having too much fun to take pictures...