Puck's Farm

After swimming lessons on Monday, (the 4 oldest have 2 weeks of lessons, finishing Friday, the day before we leave for RockLake Lodge) we went to Mom's & had a fun evening with everyone there. No one was missing, not even Amy! :)


Great fun! We played Settlers downstairs, & even slept over. But poor Steve didn't get much sleep, though -- our boys were in his room & Andrew was whimpering from 2-5a.m. because of an earache. Finally at 5 Steve brought him to us, where he fell asleep within half an hour. Thankfully he was much better the rest of the day, because we had plans to go to Puck's Farm with Amy & Ashleigh.

a peaceful hay ride through the fields
countless pony rides around the pond
a rather nervous cowgirl!


Daniel's first pony rides -- he got quite brave by the end of the day!

These hay bales were as exciting as the pony rides,
especially with their beloved Auntie Amy to play with!




this reminds me of Beatrix Potter stories somehow...
a lovable llama
Thanks so much for coming along, Amy!
Who wants to join us next year? :)

Catching up...

Last Friday, Amy came over & helped out, doing lots of gardening & weeding... some areas of our back yard were getting to look rather jungle-ish! Thanks again, Amy!

We bought this bike & trailer (just $50 for the pair!) when the people across the road had a moving sale a couple weeks ago. Here the boys are enjoying their first ride in it...

Ralph has this week & next off, & we are enjoying having him home! He's been using his time to do odd jobs around the house, like building shelves in the shed & some more in the garage as well.

Busy kids...

Isn't summer great?! There's so much you can do!
Here's some things our kids have been busy doing this week,
besides their usual reading & playing...

making sandals out of cardboard, & repairing them often
(they've been wearing them around the house for a few days now!)
"Engineering School":
Maria & Timmy each drew a "roller," and Maria built hers as well:
Timmy's design:

Sweet Sounds...

of baby giggles!
Bethany was just laughing in my arms a few minutes ago,
which she has only done once or twice thus far in her short life. :)
What a priceless joy, to giggle with a two-month-old baby!
She kept it up for about a minute, while I tickled her sweet
cheeks & chin and laughed along with her.

These 2 months have flown by, and she has been such a good baby, crying only when necessary :) (not much!) and sleeping through the night early on. For a number of weeks now she's been sleeping 6 1/2 - 7 hours at night, sometimes even 8; and the last couple nights she slept 8 1/2 hours! We are very thankful to God for the good gifts He bestows on us!

But the sweetest thing about Bethany at this point, I think, is her almost unending smiles, especially if you catch her at the right time -- after a good nap and with a full tummy! I often hear from one or the other of the kids: "She smiled at me AGAIN!"

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Here she is, looking rather solemn in her Sunday dress

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and comes down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
James 1:17

Happy Birthday, Maria!

Rachel & Maria were at Joshua's house from Sunday
to Monday evening, when Christine brought them home
& helped us pick some more cherries!
They then were picked up by Opa yesterday
morning to do some sewing with Oma.
(Last summer she taught them to use the sewing machine!)
Opa & Oma brought them home at lunchtime today
& helped us celebrate Maria's 9th birthday.

The boys all eagerly made cards, & Daniel is quite proud of his!
Rachel picked out these azaleas for her sister.
We thank God for you, Maria,
& pray that God will bless you for many more years!

Saturday

John & Betty invited both sides of their family over on Saturday.
We fully enjoyed our time together there -- thanks, guys!

We observed a number of interesting critters: the first looked like bird poop, but turned out to be a moth! I checked it up this morning, & found out its name: a wood nymph moth, genus Euthisanotia.







Below the moth is a small praying mantis which Josiah tried to capture, bravely but unsuccessfully.
We also admired (?!) many caterpillars.








sharing shoes :)
John & Betty are renting a big house by a river --
here is a picture of part of their huge backyard.



3 cute babies -- Bethany, Joanna, & Titus!

Hallelujah!

It seems as if our energetic little Daniel always is either busy amusing us, or busy getting himself hurt... he & Andrew are a little too rough with each other sometimes when they wrestle. And we hear many alarming screams from Daniel for other reasons as well, especially when things don't go his way -- how do you teach a 2-year-old to control his temper?! Well, we all know God's appointed method, but I am not as faithful at carrying it out as I should be. But I do want to tell you about some of Daniel's lovable little traits, like:
- coming up to siblings who are seated on the floor & putting his arm around their shoulders as he peeks at what they're doing
- giving us so many irresistable grins throughout the day
- always calling Bethany "my li'l sister" and plastering his face against her to get her to smile
- humming or singing little tunes much of the time (he might have learned this from Andrew, who continually hums segments of various hymns)
- asking me where his brothers or sisters are as soon as they are out of his sight -- he is very much a "people person" and spends much time following his big brothers around, especially!
- being quick to say "I love you" and give kisses, although most of his kisses are given when he is telling his brothers or sisters that he is sorry... which he often does even when they are the ones who are supposed to be apologizing to him!
- hugging me or Ralph enthusiastically when we come in the door
- singing "Read your Bible, pray every day..." in bed early one morning a few days ago, one of his favourite songs lately. This morning we heard him singing "Hallejah, praise the Lord!" in his crib. How beautiful to hear children "sweetly singing joyful tribute" to our King!!