A FULL House

We had a fun time this weekend. There was a big homeschooling conference this weekend, and of the four homeschooling families at our church, two of them went. Their 5 children that needed babysitting were split up between the remaining two families. We had a 5 year old boy and his 7 year old sister come Friday and stay over, and then were joined by another 5 year old boy on Saturday.

So what do you do with 7 children? Go bicycling! This activity was a big hit! We rode our bikes (some of us on foot, and some in-stroller) to the canal, and then took the ferry across, and rode on the bike path there!

Many of my planned outdoor activities were cancelled because of the cold, rainy weather (we thank the Lord for the break in the afternoon to let us go bicycling!) - we never ate the popsicles I laid in, but we did spend some happy moments with Lite Brite.


All the families met up at the end of Saturday for a BBQ (also indoors!) and a time of sharing what was learned at the conference, and what had happened while they were away.

April Showers

April is fast slipping away! We've been having fun with our April showers recently. The children received umbrellas as Easter prezzies from Granny, and they hadn't used them until Monday. It looked like it might rain as we left for our walk to the post office, so I stuck them in the stroller. The sky grew darker... and then just as we got to the post office the rain started falling! Great excitement! Out came the umbrellas for the walk home!

Today we walked again to the post office, and then to the park where we had a lot of fun. Finally it was time to go home, and as we left, we noticed large, dark clouds rising in the west. We stopped along the way to talk to a neighbour with a new puppy (so cute!!) but quickly started up again when we felt some drops falling (no umbrellas in the stroller today!). We ended up running the last stretch, with the two littlest ones in the stroller. Emily and Tim were on the porch, and I was just lifting the stroller up when the skies opened, and it POURED with rain! We stood on the porch, puffing and panting, and said "isn't it a good job we're home!", and then came in an had hot chocolate. (Tea for Mummy!)

God is good to let us enjoy the simple things of his creation!

New Student in Twos and Threes

Sunday was Pip's first time in our Twos and Threes Sunday school class! He seemed pretty eager to go in:

And had a great time once he was there!

Terrific Turtles!

The Marshwiggles have been joined by a prize-winning turtle!

Last night we had our AWANA Grand Prix, and Tim's turtle, though not very fast on the track (no surprise - it's a turtle!) won the first place ribbon for novelty entries! (Those entries that don't look like cars - like turtles - are entered in the novelty division.) Unfortunately, Emily's entry, a very cool silver car with glitter fish stickers on it, and a hand-painted rainbow on the back, did not win a ribbon. In fact, it didn't even make it to the finish line. The wheels were mis-aligned, and in an attempt to correct them with hot glue, I made it even worse! Her car only crossed the line once, when a friendly Sparks leader gave it a little push. Thankfully, Emily didn't see the push, and she was so pleased her car had finished!

I was very happy that Emily, though quite disappointed, handled her feelings well, and was very pleased for Tim and his ribbon. He, on his part, sympathized with her poor result.

When my battery on my camera has charged, I may just treat you to some pictures of their cars.

Pip is Two!

Pip turned two yesterday! Can it really be possible? We had a very nice celebration with Granny and Granddad, and Auntie Charlotte made a great cake shaped like a monkey's head. Pip's eyes really lit up when he realized the cake was for him!

All in all, he seems pretty pleased to be two!

Happy Easter!

1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Field Trip!

Granny and Granddad came to visit yesterday and we took a neat field trip to the Glenridge Quarry. This is an old quarry that was turned into a landfill site, and then "naturalized" so it is now a large park with a children's play and science area. We had a fun time exploring the Earth Tunnels.
Then we talked about the weather,

and the different kinds of precipitation.

But I think we had the most fun playing on the (rather unrealistic) model of the solar system.

Altogether a fun time had by all!

KWCHEA

This is a photo of a partial stack of books I am trying to find room for in our schoolroom:
They are the results of KWCHEA, the Kitchener-Waterloo homeschooling conference that we attended this past weekend. The children had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa, Emily said to someone at church on Sunday, "We got to spend a whole day with Grandma and Grandpa - all by ourselves!"

David and I went to several neat sessions, and one or two boring ones, and also spent time in the exhibit hall buying most of our curriculum for next year. Highlights from our curriculum purchases are:
- Story of the World, volume 3 by Susan Wise Bauer. We love our history program! We've done vol. 1 and most of 2, so next year we look forward to moving into vol. 3, covering 1600-1850
- Forts of Canada by Annie Owens. Tying into our main history, we will be studying Canadian history from the Vikings up to Confederation. One book for this is the Forts book that has Tim rejoicing! He wants to start it - NOW!
- Adventures with Atoms and Molecules. Our science next year focuses on Chemistry, and there are a lot of neat experiments to do in this book. Hopefully Granddad can help us with a few!
- Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit by Teri Maxwell. This book is for me, and I've already skimmed through it - looks good!

As you can see from our stack, there are lots more! It's a busy day at the conference, but it always gives a boost of enthusiasm and energy for the day to day effort of homeschooling, plus gives a chance to evaluate how we are doing.