A Reason to Gather

My Dad's side of the family (the Friesen clan) have become somewhat scattered over the past several years.  The regular gatherings have sadly become a thing of the past due to geographic restrictions.  Yet a good portion of the family managed to all gather this past weekend to celebrate my Grandpa's 90th birthday.  We all got together at Ron & Carla's for a BBQ on Saturday night and the next afternoon moved our party to the Menno Home to have cake with Grandpa.  It was wonderful to see everyone!

 Three of my wonderful aunties.  Carla, Chris and Gaye.

 All of us!  Missing three cousins and their families though.

 Feeding us all was quite  feat.  Well done, Kamps crew!

 Some of us show our love in the form of play fighting!

 The Watkin family spend the night at our place and Liam bonded with his two second cousins Lukas and Olivia.  They are as sweet as they look!

Missing quite a few of his grandchildren but we went for the photo-op anyhow! 

My Grandpa has very strong genes.  Most of his siblings are alive and kicking....very healthy folk all in their 90's.  Grandpa is pretty healthy but quite frail.  He mainly lives on chocolate.  True story.

 With some of the great-grands.

And then with four of his five children.

We had a nice visit in the relief of air conditioning.  It was a scorcher yesterday!  So happy to see everyone and hope we can do this again sometime soon.

Found It

I'd been hoarding my Home Sense birthday gift card for the perfect item for my front hall and tonight I found it!  Now I'd like to find a small decorative lamp and it will be just right.

Lucky Me!

Secretaries day came late this year but I'm not complaining!  Flowers, lunch on a sunny patio, being serenaded with a song( with custom lyrics and a talented young guitar player) and Keg gift cards are nothing to sneeze at!
Heather and Jeff both set the fantastic tone of the office and I don't believe that there is any better place to work on this planet.

Grade 10

Bad Perm

Greasy Face

Zits

And too much rollkuchen padding my face.

This made for a yucky grade 10 year.

O Canada

July 1st rolled around once again and it was time to celebrate Canada's birthday.  The A.C.T. group had a circus themed float this year and both boys were a part of the entourage!

 Liam quite enjoyed the parade.  The candy was a highlight as were the police cars, fire trucks and other loud vehicles.  Mind you he did have his fingers in his ears!

 And of course we had our traditional post-parade BBQ with the two families we love!  Everyone contributed and it was quite delicious.  It's a shame it was a rather chilly afternoon.  Basking in the sunshine would have made it just that much better.

 Cheesecake with fresh berries rounded of the meal perfectly.

We went to the fireworks later that evening.  Liam had been looking forward to it all day.  It was even more fun to watch his face rather than the show.  He was entranced! 

Another successful and fun Canada day under our belts.  I love Canada, friends, family and all the blessings in my life!

I Love Accents!

I will readily admit I have a weakness for accents.  Especially British, Scottish and Irish accents.  Marci has two  guests from the UK staying with her right now and she brought them over for a girls night.  It was a really nice evening of getting to know some truly lovely girls.

We had strawberry daquiries and a nice long soak in the hot tub.  A perfect way to end a very long and tiring week at work.

More Proud Moments

Nathan had a strong finish to his middle school years!  He really, really enjoyed his first year at MEI Middle...it was a complete success for him.  He's made so many wonderful friends, has enjoyed the extra spiritual component of learning and especially loved having his mom watching over his every move from the office.  Ha ha!

He was able to make it on Honour Roll each term (medal winner) and for his daily help in the library a Service medal.  Well done to Nathan.....here comes high school!  And doesn't he look old?  Oh my...it all makes me a smidgen verklepmt.

The LAST Day

The final hug from Mrs Wiebe...the fabulous principal.

The final awards assembly complete with singing 'Low Tide' to tug at all the momma's heart strings.

The final visit to the court yard of the school.  As much as it would be lovely to send Liam to King, it just is not logistically possible.  Our time at King has come to a close.

And a reward to Chad for an excellent report card, a reward to Liam for sitting still for the entire assembly and a reward for Nate just because!





Grade 5 Graduate

Good Bye King Traditional Elementary

Hello MEI Middle School

Chad hits another milestone!

King put on a lovely little grad celebration for the grade 5 class.  They all said a short speech (yes this was a touch of torture) but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Chad has good confidence and ability in public speaking.  They sang a song and  then ended off the evening with a lovely dessert buffet complete with fondue and hand-made floats.  King Traditional is an excellent school and has served both my boys well. It was totally worth the four day camp-out to register our boys there many moons ago!  It was a sad good-bye but the boys will always have wonderful memories of their elementary school years there.  Chad is very excited about moving on up to middle school and I look forward to having all my little chicks in the same nest on campus!

Grade 5

Oh lordy....this is hideous!  I was always an awkward child....didn't really come into my looks until grade eleven or so.  I wanted to be pretty and tried SO hard.  My shag hair cut was really doing it for me.  My sweater makes me look very chubby and well....it's all just plain awkard. 

Just the Five of Us!

Our guests have left.
The rooms have been cleaned within an inch of their life.
My boys are back in their own bedrooms.
My washing machine has been humming all day.

I feel a bit guilty about how excited I am to have things back to normal!

Grade 8

You can laugh all you like.  This is my 13 year old self in grade 8.  Yes, the hair is full of 'Sun-In', the lipstick is 'Pink Voltage', the sweater is vintage Woolco and my earrings were probably made of plastic.  Crikey...and I wondered why the boys didn't like me?!  Ha ha ha.....my kids thought this photo was a hoot.

A Gift From Nathan

Nathan made this beautiful ring for me in Tech-Ed.  What a generous lad...I think I'll keep him AND the ring!

A Markings of a Great Dad

He spends time recreating with his kids.

He makes their birthday cakes with care and creativity.

 He's their personal barber.

He's got strong shoulders.

He takes his kids on special one-on-one trips.

 He shows his boys by example how to treat their future wife.

He truly loves babies.

 He's never afraid to show his love and affection.

Keith you are a great dad.  The boys are blessed to have you as a dad and I love watching you with them!
And thank you to my dad for setting an example so I knew what qualities to look for in a spouse that would make him a great dad one day!

Midnight Snack

Last night I awoke to crying coming from Liam's room.  It was 3:30 am.  I went in to see what was up, thinking it was one of his famous night time nosebleeds but he was quietly sobbing and saying he was hungry!

I remember that yesterday evening he had said a few times he was hungry but since he had eaten a hearty dinner we figured he wasn't serious.

I suppose he was!

So after a nice snack of banana and yogurt, he settled back down to sleep.  Of course I didn't fall back asleep until 4:45 am or so.  I think that this evening I will be a bit pro-active and fill up his tummy with some porridge before bed!

Expo '86

Oh what a very exciting experience Expo '86 was for this young lady of 13 years old.  I was a part of District #34's Treble Choir and as such was very priveledged to sing in a mass children's choir at BC Place for Prince Charles and Princess Diana at the opening ceremonies.  It was amazing...I still remember it vividly.  We had to learn the Canadian Anthem in English and French.  Even though I was an alto we had to sing these insane high notes that only a professional should attempt.  We were screeching!  I dug out some old momentos of that time. 

The Program.

 My passport for getting stamps at each country's pavilion.

 The choir I was in sat directly at the centre of this photo.

And my certificate....it was a very fun choir.  I had to audition for it (heaven only knows how I made it in!) and we practiced one evening a week at Yale Secondary school.  How I loved it!

The Weekend

I will not question why but I am again able to upload photos.  I don't know how long this will last but will keep trying until I am denied again!

It was grad weekend for Melissa.  She had a great time celebrating the end of her high school years with her friends.  The grad parade was amusing and beautiful!

The boys have their bikes all tuned up and sorted out now so we are able to send them away to play tennis and burn off excess energy.  Believe me when I say this is a VERY good thing!

Sunday we walked the Discovery Trail.  It was a good two hour walk and near the end was a rest to play at a great park.  I love walking!  It's my favorite form of exercise.

If you look very closely you can see the MEI campus in the background here.  Even just one or two years ago it was much clearer but the trees are growing so fast.  I blame it on the excessive rains this spring!

Chubby Cheeked Cherubs

This was Chad's pre-school graduation.  Dang those were cute kidlets.  What the heck happened?  They elongated, started to stink and lost that sweet look. 

At least I have Liam who still smells good (most of the time), is chubby cheeked and still thinks I'm awesome all the time.  Come September it will be his turn for preschool...wow!

No More

I cannot upload even one more photo to my blog.
My photo storage is full.
I can either pay $2.49 per month to get another 25GB (whatever that means) or start deleting my archives, starting with 2005..
Sigh....neither options are very appealing!

Grad Week

Having Melissa here during her grad week has made me a bit nostalgic about my own graduating class of 1991!  Here I am after the ceremonies....most excited about the night ahead with all my friends.  My friend Shawna in the photo had a boyfriend in our grad class (and is now her hubby of 20 years!) so I was a bit of a third wheel hanging out with them but it was a fantastic night anyhow.