Happy Easter!

I took this photo on Good Friday afternoon - so wonderful to see the spring coming! I have been reminded recently in a number of ways how good God is to us - to mankind in general, to my family and to me. At the supper table we were talking about God's greatest gift to us, and after numbering many gifts, we came up with "SALVATION" as perhaps His greatest gift! And so, that seems appropriate for an Easter post.

Some of the most exciting words in the Bible:

"Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen!" Luke 24:5, 6

If you do know God's wonderful gift of salvation, I pray that you will be filled again with the wonder of it, and if you don't, I pray that God will be leading you to discover it. And if I can help you on that path in anyway, don't hesitate to ask!

HAPPY EASTER!!

New Haircuts!

Here are the freshly shorn boys!

Jubal Cottage School - Spring Concert 2009

We had our Spring Concert last week for Jubal Cottage School, it also marked the end of Jubal for this semester. The Junior Choir (above) sang three numbers, and the Juniors also recited poems. Some gave individual recitations (like Tim doing "The Charge of the Light Brigade"):





Or in a group (here are the littlest ones doing "The Sunbeam", I know the photo isn't great but they were SO CUTE!!).




The Senior Choir was good and the Seniors did monologues, very impressive! Sorry, no photos of Seniors - but maybe next year when Emmi moves up!



The goal of Jubal is to glorify God by training children in the arts. This semester we focussed on music (the choirs) and the spoken word. I think we achieved our goals of building skills in the children. We also were able to share in some great friendships and comraderie!

Maple Sugar Time!

Over the March break we went to see some maple syrup being made! Last year we remember being able to go tubing on a hill after the tour, this year it was much warmer!

Emmi enjoyed being with one of her greatest friends:




Pip checking out the "old fashioned" way of getting sap into buckets:

A group of happy children learning how the early settlers made their syrup:

A more modern method:


We enjoyed samples of maple syrup, and had a great pancake lunch! It was one of those experiences that makes you happy to be Canadian!

Reading

As a family, we all enjoy reading! Here are a couple of neat photos I took this month with some of our readers! Above are David and Emmi enjoying a relaxing Saturday afternoon, and below are Pip and Tim (with Ben looking on - he seemed to be following just fine up-side-down as Tim read aloud, and Pip of course copied his big brother!!) waiting for their breakfast.

Rodman Hall

We took a field trip to Rodman Hall recently. Rodman Hall is an art gallery that is part of Brock University. The building is a very large, old home, and it has extensive grounds and gardens too. The art there was mostly contempory, including an exhibition by Brock Students. Here is one of our favourite pieces from that exhibit, a giant, cardboard Viewmaster!

After walking around the galleries and being (relatively) quiet, and not running, and not touching (harder for some than others), we went outside and enjoyed the gardens! There were winding paths, and stairs, and a river (just outside the gate) and there was a lot of running, and happy shouting! Here is Pip on the staircase, jumping down each step.

Basketball

Last Saturday was the last week for basketball! Emmi and Tim have been playing basketball with the Welland Warriors (Wow!) since September, and they have both really enjoyed it! It is hard to take pictures of them playing indoors (in a gym) and get the light exposure right, so please bear with the pictures! Here is Tim on the court (he was #10):



And Emmi (#6 light blue):


This is Tim after he received his trophy:



Here's what they thought of their season of basketball!