Margarita

Josiah cried when Daniel left but soon had a little pal to play with

Margarita, a sweet lady from Bulgaria, spent the day with us

fun with the cousins

The week before going to the cottage (last week in Aug) John was to speak at the OCRC YP conference and Ralph & Sharon were chaperones at our YP conference (Tamarack), so guess what we did instead of getting ready for the cottage and camping directly after that?

- thankfully Betty did take Joanna with her - that would've been too much this time - since we already had 6 with Anna being here too due to extra kids and sickness in her house preventing Sarah from going there as originally planned. They all had a great time the little cousin friends together - great warm-up for the cottage :)

Scrubbing feet is fun - it tickles

for Anna, its serious business - need to get every bit of dirt off

It was a fun week! and by the end of it, I was beat!

'cuse me, can I sit with you on the couch? Me too! and me, and me, me too! - under and over, whatever, we can still all fit! Well, mostly... Opa's chair beside will do too.

Girls Special Day

Our secret pen pals and R&M came over Sunday til Monday evening.

Our pump organ is a little tricky to play if your're not used to pumping with your feet. So they took turnes pumping while the other played - very well too.

Monday was a full day of exploring the trail...

...picking flowers and hanging out together...

....scaling walls... (I don't know how they got way up there!)

...making "stain-glass" vases and arranging flowers (Can't really tell from the photo how artistic they were - especially Zi Tynn's as it didn't make it on the picture - sorry)

...playing chess ...

...playing Dutch Blitz - every moment between meals and activities! What fun - Remember , Betts and Ralph?
...making gourmet pizzas... yum...

... giggling, snuggling, being teased by Opa, and teasing me. A lovely bunch of girls Thanks for coming girls! It was a real treat and pleasure to have you!

- even when you hogged my couch... ;) .

Summer fun with the kids

We're taking advantage of the summer months at home by having kids stay over as often as possible. R&S' kids have come the most often since their house is being renovated.

Following are photos from different occassions here:

Richard Scarry's big book is probably the favourite of all my visitors (kids that is - well, some adults too :) )

And of course the brook is a big attraction.

Woah Rachel! Its too shallow!

The boys figured the new bridge need some paint so they busily applied a very non-toxic (and short-lived) stain with their bullrush "brushes".

Oh, its cold!

This lovely girl recently turned 10! Congratulations Maria!

Joanna escaping from her diaper changing?

We drop by M&R's on our way home from downtown sometimes.

Here the kids got to enjoy both Omas & Opas at the same time!

Changes with Church Family

We've been blessed with 6 babies this year so far...

We had a bitter-sweet afternoon together as church to say good-bye to 2 families - one not too far away, the other to very far away to serve the Lord in Guatamala

See their blog at: http://shouts-of-joy@blogspot.com

We'll miss both families and wish the Lord's blessings on Doug & Melissa and Wilf & Sharon and families

We are happy to welcome Rich & Angela and their family back for 6 months on home assignment from Mexico!

Jacob & Joshua in the parsonage. Looking forward to getting to know this family better!