RTH, visits November

Roy Thompson Hall concert, still a big thing for Dad & Mom preparing for it and singing - especially with a great number of their kids & grandkids in the audience! It took a lot of arranging and shuffling of kids to get everyone there!  The day after, Sat, they all converged on our place to get kids back to their rightful owners
and to help puppy-proof the back side fence. 

 

Lisa & oldest 2 girls, who were back for the concert also came for lunch. So nice to see them again!

 

 

While they were at the concert, I babysat "2 lil' giwls"  - quite exciting complete with getting to see a real firetruck - with the lights flashing!  "Pwetty cool!"

 

 

Birthday visit to Maurice &Rachel's


Jimmy & Willy

Cutie Marike 

Aww...

Joe

 

Storing apples for the winter

Tia sniffing out the bad apples ;)

 

 

Andrew's poster

Remembrance Day

Just a quicky to share with you Sarah's & Esther's entries for the Remembrance Day Poster/Literary contest.  Thanks Sharon for letting us know about it.  (The deadline for entries was actually already this past Monday, but the man was very lenient and said they could still bring entries in today.  He seemed surprised, yet pleased to hear that they were homeschooled.)

Esther entered an essay and a poem.  Here's the poem.  If you want to read the essay, you'll have to ask her.

We will remember

We will remember

All the brave heroes who died;

The boys who never shot guns

The men who trained for battles

They all died alike and they all lie under the poppies.

We will remember

All the brave heroes who lived;

The boys who lost their dreams

The men who lost their limbs

They all fought alike and they all struggle with pain.

We will remember

All the families left behind;

The women now widowed

The children now fatherless

They all loved alike and they all miss their men.

We will remember

All the bloody battles;

The victories won joyfully

The defeats endured courageously

They all were braved alike and they all deserve respect.

We will remember

All the reasons they fought for;

The freedom of their countries

The faith of their families

They all were worth it then and they all still are today.

 

We will remember.

 

By Esther Westendorp

 

 

Here is Sarah's picture:

 

47th Anniversary

October

Dad & Mom's 47th Wedding Anniversary

Congratulations!

Bouts came and made their special day much more special. Enjoying a delicious fall harvest meal of roasted root veggies, boerenkool from our garden, baby greens salad...

  At Chris's for Kenny's 12th birthday - the baby of the family is growing up! 

 

 Good to visit with Mark too who was home on a break from Ottawa U

Also went for Josh's 16th earlier in the month

(wearing Opa's klompen in the Spring)

Produce

Just a couple pictures of our 39-1/2 lb watermelon.  A prize winner I would say, and it tastes deliciously sweet (with not too many seeds either).  We gave away 1/3 of it and even after eating some almost everyday since Saturday we have quite a bit left.

Thanksgiving Weekend Celebrations

We have soo much to be thankful for, and so many loved ones, so we packed full 4 days with celebrating God's goodness to us!

Friday we went on our annual Thanksgiving outing with 2 grandchildren - this time Joseph and Daniel.
No apple picking this year tho since the crop was not good enough due to the early Spring and then frost again. The boys did have fun meeting Willy the pig at the local orchard still (no photos).
Here they are at Round the Bend farm:

 

 

check out their hair-dos!

 

 

Awesome Blossom store

Saturday,  my friends Rebecca & Emy came over with their friend, Linda.
Linda is director at a Pregnancy Care Center and told of some of the amazing work the Lord is doing there through them saving babies- and their moms!

A friendly man stopped his bike and took our picture as we were out enjoying the fresh air, sunshine and emerging colours. Check out those leaves!

Back at home, feasting on God's bounty enjoying a full course turkey dinner together with sweet fellowship and giving of thanks.

 

Sunday we celebrated the Lord's Day, being blessed by excellent sermons and fellowship at Hope.

Monday we were reminded of many more blessings at the Covenant Church service and then got together for the annual Family hike - a few of us, that is (Ralph&Sharon with 3 youngest) as everyone else scattered abroad (Balls Falls, RLL, Rattlesnake point, Alymer!). It just happened to work out better this way for the various families/members and since the group here was so small we were able invite another family who had no relatives of their own to celebrate with (- thanks to Sharon's help and their having just enough room in their van!).

The hike was close to our home on a fairly level path so that all of us were able to go and enjoy the lovely weather and beautiful nature together! 

 

Thankfully we still had a stroller so little Riley could sleep peacefully the whole walk, giving his mommy a nice break while Dad willingly pushed him. Tia stayed out of the way of Mom's walking sticks pretty well. The kids had fun walking her as well. 

  

Ralph & little David

 

Little Rogenique loves Sharon - she's great with the kids... (& the camera - thanks for your contributions to this post, S!)

4 little ones on the bridge

 

The quaint covered bridge

 

The pavillion showing the history of the trail - used to be a railway

 

The "walk of fame" - each stone dedicated to a well-know Caledon resident who contributed to society in some significant way

 

Dad, Joanna, Daniel, Jaden

 

break time

 The boardwalk over the Wetlands

"I'm gonna get you!!"" :)

 

Tia babysitting Riley as he continued sleeping after the walk!

 

Singing after another delicious meal

 

Now thank we all our God... for family & friends and another wonderful day after all!