Author: Pam

Sunday we headed to Pansy and had great fun hunting for Easter eggs and baskets. The brief thunderstorm threatened to spoil our fun but it blew over fairly quickly. Grandpa did have to run outside and rescue a basket that was sailing across a large puddle.

K got right into the spirit of looking for eggs. She did quickly discover that if one looked into other people’s pails it was generally more rewarding then looking under furniture.

L had great fun hunting for eggs too although it is a bit disappointing to find out that you can’t eat them all right now. I’m glad that we got to be with family this year but in past years it was fun to recieve the Easter Bunnies parcel in the mail.

Easter Saturday we celebrated in Riding Mountain. It had been 5 years since we were around to celebrate Easter with family so it was good to be a part of the emerging traditions. Saturday afternoon Bert and Ernie were harnassed up and we all went for a wagon ride. Uncle B and Uncle M rode the saddle horses and did some scouting for open trails.

Daddy also did some time on horseback.

L rode shotgun. It had been a long time since I had been up in the hills and it did feel a little like the old west riding across the fields on a wagon with riders coming up from the distance. To L’s delight Grandpa let him hold the end of the reins and that was enough to make L feel like he was driving the team.

Once we got back home I gave L a short ride on Chickaree’s back, he didn’t protest but he wasn’t very relaxed either.

K is doing exactly what you think she is doing, putting some music on to listen to.

L is busy making a Monster protector. Not sure if it protects the monsters or him. He is learning to tie knots, and never had more fun learning something. At the start of the project he was under the impression that I was going to tie all the strips on for him, I promptly informed him that it wouldn’t be his art if mom did the work. Unlike K who doesn’t want help, L is of the opinion “why should I do it if you can do it for me”.

Lowell has been frantically trying to get a paper done so that he could talk about it with his advisor this week. That paper has been sent away so for now the frantic is done and the paper continues. Once again Lowell is involved with putting the St Margaret’s choir through their paces. Our music director broke her ankle and so Lowell is helping get the choir ready for Easter. When he is not sitting in front of a computer he has been doing some workouts. L and K find this fascinating, they participate for 5 seconds and then watch for the rest of the workout.

L is busy “artzookaing”. This new activity is based on the CBC show Artzooka it involves creating art out of all kinds of things. Grandma spent an afternoon with us helping L make a train tunnel. Thank you for coming up with the project idea it was right up his alley.

K is busy learning words as fast as she hears them, exploring books especially lift the flap books, and watching out the window for puppies. Unfortunately for K you can’t tap on the window at our house and see a puppy like you can at Grandma and Grandpa’s.

I have been reading “The way of the Pilgrim” a book about what it means to pray without ceasing for my Lenten discipline (Lowell’s discipline is watching the kids Thursday nights so I can go to small group). I have been sitting in front of my sewing machine most evenings after the kids are in bed altering a suit and a flower girl dress. Next on my list is a black bowtie and cumberbun. I have also taken up a quilting project which is just way too many things in too short a period of time.

It seems that we haven’t been making it to the computer to blog very often lately. Sorry to those still far away or those that we still don’t see as much as we would like. We had a great Valentine’s Day party, this was our second annual Fondue. Mommy had lots of help arranging the fruit and eating it too. “It is was GOOOD, but a little bit hot!” according to L.

K is finally starting to enjoy books. She will sit in your lap and listen to a story now, but she also likes to sit alone in the rocking chair with her favourite “beee”(blanket) and read to herself.

L is generally happy and enjoying life…

…but this week L has been fighting something or other. He has had a fever for the last 3 days with no other symptoms. Hopefully today will be a better day.

I know that 0 degrees Celsius will bring snow, slush and dirty vehicles and that it won’t stay, but we are enjoying the warm weather today. I took L to the community centre before lunch and he had another chance to practice skating. There was a light layer of snow on parts of the ice surface and K had a blast just running. This worked well for L’s learning because when he forgot himself in chasing K he did pretty well.

So other than this warm day my kids are adapting fairly well to being Manitobans. Daddy and L went for a walk the other night to burn off some of that cabin fever, K had to stay home with me. She spent the entire half hour getting dressed to go outside. At various points she had mittens and L’s rubber boots on as well.

L was not wanting to wear his long johns the other day, I told him he needed to because it was minus 30 outside. He replied “Yours is 30 mine is (minus) 1”.

Our basement has been usable for a few weeks now. There are still bits and pieces that gradually find a home, but for the most part it is a great improvement. The kids enjoy playing downstairs; K likes to just run around (although the slope in the floor is a challenge) and L likes the fact that he can drive his remote control truck around or set things up and play with them for a few days before he has to clean them up.

K is taking to colouring or playing with her brother’s playdough. For a kid who doesn’t sit still for a story it amazes me how long she can sit at the table and play. I guess it doesn’t seem long when you are busy talking on the phone.

I enrolled L into Kindergarten yesterday. It doesn’t feel real just yet, but I don’t really look forward to it. Yes it will be exciting, but it is nice having him around too. We chose a French Immersion school for him. L already knows the Kindergarten curriculum: the alphabet letters and phonetically, he has started printing and he has some basic concepts of addition and subtraction. As Lowell said French Immersion might not help him, but it won’t hurt him.

Life goes on at a whirlwind pace. K finds something new to get into everyday it seems. Her newest fascinations are footwear and stirring. As if getting dressed for winter wasn’t hard enough now we have to search the house for 4 different sets of boots because K has carried them away and left them wherever she tired of them.

Friday we had a combined birthday party in Pansy. Both C and L appeared happy with their gifts. If we hadn’t tried to avoid the Christmas birthday party we could have waited closer to the end of the month and had a birthday party for all three Friesen boys, their birthdays fall in a 7 week span. I like this photo of the next generation of 3 Friesen boys.

Today is the second Sunday of Advent. L and I are celebrating this season together by creating a Jesse tree. Advent means Coming, we wait for the coming of Jesus another theme of advent is God’s faithfulness. The Jesse tree comes from Isaiah’s reference to the root of Jesse (11:10). As you can see we only have 3 ornaments on our tree, but we are 7 days into Advent…time is a factor, but I also want L to be excited about the story and creating something and sometimes he isn’t interested in doing a craft. A good friend of mine has made an amazing felt tree with ornaments that you just velcro on, I think that will be the direction we take when we concentrate more on the stories and less time on the fine motor skills. That however will be a project for the new year.

I have been wanting a compost bin. I finally found instructions online for something that I thought was within my capabilities for building. Lowell very nicely volunteered to cut the wood for me which I gratefully accepted since the scroll saw intimidates me. Way back in Shops class I remember using a table saw, a band saw and a jig saw. That was a long time ago and none of those saws are as free form as a scroll saw. So last Monday we got started. I had to work Tuesday so my plan was to finish it on Wednesday. The weather was supposed to turn nasty on Wednesday so Lowell volunteered to work on the compost bin Tuesday afternoon. He didn’t want to take over my project, but really I don’t need to have a woodworking project under my belt. As it happens if I was going to do it all myself I would probably still have 16 pieces of wood in a pile, but now I have a great compost bin.

Thanks Lowell.

to a girl who is 1.

The concept of presents is still lost on K, but she did have a great time carrying the gift bags around.

K celebrated with both sides of the family, she had a cake the first time and a pie the second time. It didn’t really matter to her as long as she could get her fingers into the icing/whipped cream.

K is one going on 3 years I think. She pays close attention to what her brother has and gets to do and wants to do the same. L and K trick or treated this past Halloween. K knows the word treat now, knows that it comes out of an orange bag and never misses L’s request to have one.

K is busy walking everywhere or pushing around a stroller that she got for her birthday. She has a few words in her vocabulary; she recieved a phone as a gift and loves to walk around saying “Hi!” (we are working on “Hello” for a little variety). She also says “Bye Bye”, “Night night”, “Dad”, “snack” and “cat”. She loves watching the cats through the window and at Uncle J and Aunt S’s, but gets a little freaked out if they come towards her or are lying in her path.

It is all in who you ask. Lowell was childproofing some kitchen cupboards which required him to sit on the floor. The floor is kid’s domain; as soon as he sat down L and K were checking out his activities and offering their help. He was getting frustrated, I was amused.