Birthday Party for a Friend

My friend Melea (with three kids) had a birthday party for herself a couple of weeks ago and invited our whole family, as well as another couple of families.  

The kids had a grand time playing hide and seek.

Having sword fights with plates.  Because, of course.

Melea wanted to have a hymn sing as part of her celebration, so I did some accompaniment for that.

The kids participated for the first half an hour or so, and then Chris - God bless him - took them all to a nearby park.

We ended the time with some delicious food.

Including strawberry shortcake on the back deck.

So nice to have someone at the party to take all these pictures.  Now I actually have some that aren't selfies.

A lovely afternoon.

John's Christmas Gift to the Kids... Finally Fulfilled

For Christmas, John got a gift certificate for the kids for a ceramic painting session at a local craft (and toy) store.  We finally managed to go and use it a week or two ago.

Abigail chose a princess, Evelyn a piggy bank in the shape of a cat (a catty bank?), Jonathan an owl, and Sam a butterfly.

Here Evelyn peruses the palette from which she could choose her paint colours.

Sam consults Jonathan about his colour choices.

Abigail gets to work.

Though she didn't always look in the right direction when she was using her paint brush.

Here she is receiving some further instruction from John.

And again.

I think she only had a bit of paint in her hair at the end of it all, which was somewhat of a miracle.

 Evelyn was very careful in her work.

 

The boys too.

Jonathan with his owl - coming together!

Sam with his butterfly.

It was a very successful gift.  The kids loved choosing their figure and colours, and are pleased with the way they turned out.  And I'm happy to report that so far, none of them have been broken.

Tea and Lunch with Evelyn

A couple of weeks ago Evelyn and I went out for lunch - just the two of us - after church. 

We went to The Secret Garden tea shop, and Evelyn wore one of her fancy dresses.  She also didn't really eat lunch, but she did enjoy the chocolate desserts we ordered.

And she also loved using the little tongs to put sugar cubes in her tea.

When we returned home, she regaled her siblings with all the details of the experience, especially the part at the end where I let her put a sugar cube straight into her mouth.

Centennial Beach

We made a trip out to the Ladner area on July 2nd to check out Centennial Beach, one of the few beaches we've never visited before.

Abigail didn't feel like wading, so she and I stayed in the sand on the shore.

Meanwhile, Chris wandered out with the older three.

The tide goes way out at Centennial Beach, so the kids had a good time wading and hunting for sand dollars and crabs.

And making sand castles and moats.

Splashing.

Jumping.

Jumping.

Jumping together.

Panoramic view.

Lounging.

Even more lounging.  (Dads make such great pillows.)

Canada Day Race

On Canada Day, we took part in a race through the UBC endowment lands.

Here are the kids, pre-race, demonstrating their usual ability to take a group picture.

The three older kids ran a 1K race, I ran a 5K race, and Chris and Abigail cheered us all on.

Here's a decent shot.  Note that the boys altered their race numbers.  They were somewhat miffed that all of the kids doing the 1K run got the same number.  (Sam, indignantly: "That's ridiculous!  How can we all be number one?")

Apparently their need to differentiate is already pretty strong.  Can't wait for the teenage years when it fully blooms.

Abigail and I decided to photobomb this shot.

Here are Evelyn and Sam coming up to the finish line.  It was Evelyn's first race, so Sam ran all the way with her.  What a good big brother!

Here I am coming into the home stretch.  I didn't run very fast at all, but since the race was just for the average runner, I managed to finish 51st out of 249 entrants.

On our way back to the van, the kids decided that this big set of bike racks was a good place to play.

I love how creative they all are.

The big kids too.

Success!

June Miscellany

Abigail with one of the apples which had dropped on the back lawn.  So many this year!

"I picked thiiiis many!"

One at a time.

This is me on an indoor climbing wall.  I took Chris there for a 2-hour climbing session as a Christmas present, after he had taken the boys for their birthdays and decided it looked like something he'd like to try.

Despite it being a Christmas gift, we just used the session in June.  It was scary!  It was fun!  We liked it!

Evelyn getting her "diploma" from her Kindergarten teacher, Mme. Isabel.

Evelyn and her Kindergarten class on the last day of school.

Abigail voted 'yes' for the pink "frilly" lantern at Ikea.  I voted 'no.'

Abigail and I tried on hats at Winner's.  And then we bought them.  It was time for me to own a hat other than my baseball cap, and I have been enjoying wearing it out and about. 

Abigail and Chris selfie, with the new hat.

I saw this T-shirt at Sportchek and wished they had it an adult sizes.  :)