Grandma is visiting this week.  Yesterday, we had a lovely re-visit to the goat farm.  Everyone enjoyed getting to see all the animals and Aiden loved spending time down at the lake.  A lovely, hot day for an adventure.

The warmth and sunshine of the last few days has been welcomed.  Our days are spent outside enjoying play and exploration.

Today we started on our "summer school" schedule. 

 A little math, a little printing, plenty of reading and lot's of time spent outside!

We're starting a plant study that we'll be working on with our neighbours. It will include experiments, gardening, and getting our hands dirty as we study botany.

We'll be comparing two communities in our province and seeing how different people lived 100 years ago.

We're hoping to fit in as many field trips as we can and lot's of get togethers with friends.

We're hosting a "PE Day" each week that consists of 27 kids (baby to age 13) getting together to play different sports and games.

The last few months have been busy with school, extra activities, and everyday life. I'm looking forward to this change in direction.  Caileigh's gymnastics is wrapping up this week with 2-3 hour practices every evening and the final show on Friday night.

Speech lessons are continuing once a month.

 Piano will continue weekly until the end of June at which time we will go to bi-monthly.

Little boys always dirty and exploring something.

{Jordan/Alex}

{Look at that!}

{What is it boys?}

{An Ant!}

Festival of Arts 2013

 Aiden and Caileigh really enjoyed participating in the local Festival of Arts again this year.  We added speech arts this year and it was a fantastic experience for the kids to learn about presenting poems and stories orally.  Although I danced for many years, public speaking is not something I am comfortable with so I would love for them to have a confidence in this area.

Last night was the final concert for the festival and Sean took Aiden and Caileigh.  We had received a phone call earlier in the week informing us that the kids would be getting presented with an award but we decided not to tell the kids and leave it for a surprise.
They were extremely surprised and delighted to discover that they won a trophy for their piano duet.  Aiden also won an award for his fable, and the two of them received gold certificates for the fable presentations.

They are busy with plans for next year and can't wait to add more events.  We're hoping to also get Mikayla involved next year but we'll see where we're at next spring.  My only desire is that they continue to participate for the experience and not the trophy:)

Bupee's Here

We spent a lovely weekend with Bupee Garling and Uncle Matt.  Each of the older three enjoyed a "special day" with Bupee and it was a nice time for him to spend one-on-one.  The dynamics with one child is very different from the group dynamics and it is nice for family to get to experience this.  Thanks for a lovely weekend Dad!

We celebrated Uncle Matt's birthday on Monday, and then finished off with the piano portion of music festival yesterday.  Aiden and Caileigh played fantastic!  They have been practicing their challenging duet for sometime and there were many nights I fell asleep wondering how it would come together.  They surprised me by playing it the best they had ever played it!  It was definitely a great lesson on team work and perseverance. Their solos went well too and they played with confidence.
(If I can figure out how to get video off the phone, I'll post their songs later.)

Yesterday we spent the afternoon in the yard.  Sean even brought out the quad (ride on lawn mower) and took the kids for rides in the trailer.

It was then a little hard to wake up to.....

snow!

Beautiful yes, but timely, no.

It has since melted but we're forecasted for more so I guess although we experience spring days, we're not quite there yet.

A good week full of several visits with friends, crafts, barbecues and outside play!  The weather has been extremely warm and the snow is quickly melting.  

I had a visit from a friend I have known since the age of 3!  We've only seen each other a few times since high school.  I was able to meet her daughter Freya and her husband, John.

With her, was another friend from high school who lives in the area with her husband.  

  I played some home videos from my 7th birthday party and it was good for a laugh!

Once we were giggly girls and now giggly mothers :)

I'll let the pictures tell the rest..........

Resurrection rolls, and painting flower pots!

A water works system to "purify" our gutter water.

A barbecue with friends!

{My brood with Freya.  Excuse Jordan's expression as he had a fever and fell asleep about 10min. after this picture was taken}

Teen and I.

Easter pictures......