Summer 2017

Another year has past...

I always love Canada Day celebrations, Genevieve was in the Abbotsford parade again this year with cheer, and we dressed up including Ginger for the occasion.

Next up is Genevieve's Birthday, this year we went to cultas lake amusement park.  I think this was the best idea ever.  We got all the kids their ride passes and Jeff and I set up at the beach.  Kids were told to stick together and come back for food and drink when they needed too.  The lake is right there so when they needed to cool off, they jumped in the lake for a cool down.

Genevieve also had some family celebrations as well.  For her birthday presents she received a recording microphone and a Wacom tablet!

We had a few camping trips this year, maybe not as many as other years but we had fun.  I tried to keep this summer a little easier by not going on any major trips and we also kept a routine of doing school work almost everyday.  We mostly just did math everyday, read some books aloud, and did a little study on rocks.  I think doing the daily schooling helped both of them.  We all seem to do much better with a little structure.  Genevieve continued to take private tumbling and group tumbling.  She also carried on with music and voice instruction, she really liked doing this over the summer, as she was able to find more time to practice, and I think feel like she was getting ahead.  Every year in the fall it is always tough getting back into music, not because she hasn't practiced, but it is finding out where she is at, then finding music selections.  Then she needs to get some Christmas stuff organized to play, then it seems all too soon, she has to make selections for festival, and she just isn't ready, it seems so rushed.  This year, because of the summer, she has most of her songs picked out.


Here are some camping pictures of our trip to Manning Park with jeff.  We love going the august long weekend as they have a lantern festival every year.  Kids love making their own lanterns and launching them at night.

recreation of baby photos... Nathan is a little long...

Nathan's banana, or Canoe

Genevieve's ship

Both Nathan and Genevieve helped me with canning this year, and boy did we do a lot.  Genevieve did about 10 hours with me and Nathan was at about 7 hours!  Nathan was our master peeler, so he stood in front of the stove and dipped tomatoes and peaches in the boiling water then transferred them to ice cold water, Nathan also had the opportunity to be my go getter ha ha, whatever I needed he had to go get.  Genevieve is my master chopper and mommy massager.  She stayed up late with me a few days to help clean up after canning and make sure we got everything done.  All I can say is that they were excellent workers and I think they knew they just had to help get it done, they knew there was no way I could get it done on my own.  We had 2 water bath canners going at the same time and managed to get 140 lbs of peaches done in 4 hrs, thanks to their efficiency!

sooooo much

and here it is all in canned ready to go for winter

Lots of memories this summer playing with friends, and camping with them.

Here is a funny memory with my parents, grandma wanted to see if Nathan was taller then her, umm grandma who are you kidding, Nathan is almost as tall as grandpa.  In the picture grandpa and Nathan were then trying to stand on tiptoe to be taller, I got a normal picture here.  But they sure had a few laughs.  Genevieve made some cards while staying at grandma's as well, she brought up a lot of her supplies and had some fun creating.