Grade 1

Picture Day

Our August

Just before we moved, my husband Daren officiated at a wedding for a couple we knew from our ministry time at the U of M Navigators.  The reception was held at the Mennonite Heritage Village.  It was a great place for our boys to run off some energy through exploration before sitting down to a nice dinner and program.

Abishai waiting for the wedding to begin.

At the museum waiting for the reception to begin.

A little nervous about the bulls.  

The boys are very fond of kittens.  They spent a lot of time in the barn.

Our long-time friend, Trina, was at the wedding.  She was the nurse that delivered both Abishai and Micaiah at birth, and resuscitated Micaiah when he was born not breathing.  

A steam-powered fire engine.  The boys are peering into the fire-box.  We did a short unit study on steam-powered engines this past year that you can see here.

Dinner is served!

After the wedding Abishai and Micaiah headed off to day-camp while Asher and I packed up the remainder of the house before the big move.  Asher's sitting down to lunch after a hard morning of work.  Do you think he'll finish all this food?

In his own way, yes indeed! 

This is Asher's version of packing.

The tree we planted 3 summers ago is now big enough to climb.  Abishai climbed it for the first and last time 2 days before the move.  It was sad to leave this tree behind.

The moving day was a huge success!  It went so smoothly with such terrific helpers.  Daren had 6 men to help him load and unload the U-haul.  He said they were like work horses and did a great job playing Tetris with our furniture in the truck.  At the new house I had 3 wonderful women at different times throughout the day to help clean and 1 amazing family who made lunch for all the helpers.  At the end of the day I wasn't even exhausted like I had expected to be (being 6 months pregnant).  We were so happy to have so much help.

Asher playing with Eva, neighbours from our old neighbourhood.  She and her family were the first dinner guests (outside of family) at our new home.

Daren and I feel so thankful to have this house.  After a year and a half of looking, I started to wonder if God had a house for us. But oh boy, did he ever!  Daren and I have always experienced God's provision, especially when we were raising financial support for 9.5 years as missionaries with both Youth for Christ and Navigators. But this time around, we experienced not only the provision, but the extravagance of God.  With 5 of us and a baby on the way, living on one salary, a house like this shouldn't have been possible for us. But God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, controls everything, and brought this house down into our price range.  The neighbourhood is beautiful, quiet, and the backyard is big enough for the boys to run around in–– the reason we started looking for a new house in the first place.  

Micaiah helping Daddy set up the library / guest room.

Daren arranging his many books.  This also is where I will be keeping all our homeschooling books.  The floor unit on the left is set aside just for that.

Here I am doing some patch-work in the laundry room.  I'm excited to have dry wall this time around.  I have pinned some ideas from Pinterest to make this room an enjoyable place to be.  I spend 4 days out of 7 (sometimes more) doing laundry for a family of 5.  I want it to be a pleasant room to spend time in.

My loving husband working hard to make it a dream room for me.  I wanted a light yellow to make it bright and fresh looking.  My friend suggested Daisy Chain from CIL, so I went with it.  More pictures of this room to follow. Now to start planning for the upcoming school year. Our school books have arrived in the mail, and are waiting for me to look them over and lesson plan. I look forward to Abishai's grade 1 year!

Hot Summer Fun!

Our July in pictures.

At the beginning of July I got together with two long time friends and our 6 boys.  We lined them up from youngest to oldest.  What a party when all of them are together!

Asher is now tall enough to join the Avengers Team!

A day spent at Grand Beach on Canada Day!

My young biologist found a marsh where we discovered...

Tadpoles!

 Snails!

Cute babies!

And we actually got to see a snail emerging from his shell!

My boys getting wet in order to roll in the sand.  Asher thought this was so exciting.

 Sand all rinsed off.  Clean again!

It's not everyday that Batman and Robin come to clean out the bottom of the lawnmower.  They were so helpful.

We spent some time at the cottage.

Almost half way into my 4th pregnancy!  I met a group of women who each had 4+ children.  We sat around on the beach together for the afternoon and talked while our children played.  It was a refreshing time.

Private swimming lessons for the older boys.

Relaxing with their Stevia sweetened Zevia drinks!    

Playing with a group of boys.  

It's bound to happen! 

Quality time with Daddy. 

 Examining a dragon fly up close.

Our cottage is located on a peninsula.  Abishai wanted to know the difference between an island and a peninsula, so we took them to the tip to show them.

Lots and lots of sand play.  They had so much fun with this fresh mound of sand. 

After we got home, we got to work on doing some serious packing.  Here Micaiah is taking his bed apart to move to the new house.  We're so close to moving day.  I'm so excited!