Jammin'

Last week, at 10:40pm, the phone rang and my SIL's sister Marie called to tell me she was going strawberry picking in the morning! I said, ok sure, I'd join her and Pam at 7 the next morning to pick berries. The picking was great, and in an hour we had over 100 pounds of strawberries.

We took our kids to daycamp and then went to work at Marie's house, making strawberry rhubarb freezer jam.

(Pam cooking up the rhubarb.)

(Me, hard at work!)

(Hours later, the very last strawberry...with Marie!)

The fruit of our labor! From lunch time on, we had all 11 kids with us, but they did pretty well playing on their own. Marie was helping to feed them and clean up, and Pam and I plugged on. We finished up by about 4pm. My freezer is full of the yummy stuff! and 18 bags of just the berries for smoothies etc.!! So begins the food production season! (Thanks for including me, Pam and Marie! And thanks for the pictures, Pam!)

Fair entries

Hi one and all. I hope you're keeping sane in this heat! It is time once again to make some entries for the local fall fair. Last year, we took a break and didn't enter, but the year before we did some entries and it was great fun and we even took home some prizes! You all helped me in choosing which photos to enter, and I'm hoping you'll help me again! This time I won't be a "new competitor" and will have to enter the "intermediate" division. I have Liam entering some pottery that he made in school, and possibly will convince him to do a pastel art piece. Riley is entering the Lego competition again, as well as a "live competition" where you have to bring your own lego and build on command whatever the judge asks of you! Should be fun! Riley is amazing with Lego and has officially outdone me on his abilities to create virtually anything. He is so excited about an order of Lego power functions that is in the mail, which will help him create all kinds of motorized things. Anyway...back to what I need from you. I am still thinking through which photos I want to enter. I will post about ten and hope you can help me narrow it down. The categories are: 1. Open...colour 2. Sunrise, Sunset, Moonlight and Reflections 3. People 4. Action/Sports 5. Plant 6. Animals 7. Travel 8. Open...black and white I can enter up to three in every category, and don't suspect that I'll have any photos to enter of Action, Animals or Travel. I think entering 6 will be lots. Ok...so... 1.

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(I will need Heather's approval for this one!) 7.

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(I guess I do have an animal!) 13.

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Hmmm....I don't have any black and white on here. I will have to continue my search through my photo archives (not easy). I'm thinking maybe one of Isaac, and I am open to any suggestions. If you can think of a photo that you'd like to see me put up here, please say something! Thanks so much!

Blast

Summer is in full swing now! The sun has decided to show itself and we've finally been able to enjoy some summer activities...

In the last three days, we've been to the splash park, the waterslides and the beach! The week before was still grey and rainy, and we were at the coast for my aunt's wedding.

Congratulations to my aunt Elizabeth and new uncle Wayne! It was a beautiful wedding, and the sun shone for a few hours during their ceremony. Here we are...all dressed up...

Though it wasn't very summery, we still had lots of fun with our family in the hotel and tried to go to the beach for a bit in the cold.

We met up with Heather, Christian and Hugo for a bit too. Then we zipped home and stopped at the Othello tunnels on our way home. A great little hike by Hope that passes through old railway tunnels.

So we're home again to loads of housework and yard work, along with the fun trips out with friends and family. Today G and Liam were helping Glen and Bri move out to Kamloops. They picked the hottest day of the summer so far to do it! We are sad they will be leaving, but happy they are still close enough to drop by often! So here we go...the summer mayhem has begun and we are already tanned and tired!

Feast yer' eyes!

My pretty bouquet from G is getting prettier. It had closed lilies on it when I got it, which have now opened up into huge pink and yellow flowers! Look!

I had to take a lot of pictures of it because we are leaving for a few days and I'm scared it'll be dead when I get back :( Today was a busy day filled with packing and cleaning. Mainly cleaning the van and my dirty children! We ran off after dinner to watch the movie "Brave" with all the in-town cousins! Was quite fun! "Feast yer' eyes!"

Memorable week for all

Today was the grade five graduation! Riley is officially finished with elementary school! I wasn't too emotional because I still have years left with Liam and Shea in that school, and I feel like Riley is ready and happy to leave there! The slideshow was really cool. It faded out from their kindergarten photos into the ones I took of the kids just a few weeks ago. It was a tad emotional to see the changes from their little faces to the much older ones! We loved both the teachers that the boys had this year and are so thankful for good teachers. What would we do without them?!

Liam finishes up softball today. He has loved it and it is the first sport he hasn't whined and complained about!! Phew, cuz it was two days a week for the last two months! Here is their cute little team...

Running home...

Shea had a big preschool graduation as well on Tuesday...

And of course, Greg and I had a big celebration of our own...

Hello Summer!!!

It was great to have G come home again from New York. Happy reunion! So we've had a good week hanging out again and are now celebrating our 13th. Time flies when you're having fun!! I love my Greg. Shea asked me to put on my wedding dress for him. I've been into watching "Say Yes to the Dress" on Netflix. He took one look and said..."Not good". I guess he has watched too many shows with me and is now aware that this one is clearly out of style!! Oh well. I wouldn't choose it now either....