Port Burwell 2011

On Saturday night we had a storm roll through and Sunday was a cool and windy day.  We could hear the waves crashing onto the shore from our campsite in the morning, but did not have time to go down to the beach and have a peak, so we promised the kids we would do it after the second service.  Our kids have never actually seen the waters wavy.  Their idea of waves are my idea of calm if I recall the time we would spend as kids swimming at Knights Beach with the huge waves crashing in on us.

By time we got home in the afternoon we could no longer hear the waves from our campsite, so they didn’t get to see the really big waves, but they did get a sense of what it looks like when it’s more wavy.  We spent some time walking the beach, jumping the shore waves and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation around us.

     

On Monday before we left we had to make sure that we took some pictures on this log.  Whenever we see this log I think all of us have the same photos in our mind (see below)

2011

Matthew refusing to smile

 

Some assistance from his sisters to get him to smile

Okay, they’re all smiling now

 

2005

Wow, I just can’t get over how small they are on these pictures.

 

James at six and a half months.  Such a little cutie … who would have thought …

Oh … and since I’m posting some old pictures her are the girls with Brent and Mitchell that same year … they’ve done some growing too!   The kids always would talk about the huge deep hole they found when they were at Port Burwell and how they sat in it with Brent and Mitchell.  Funny how what they imagined and what it really was is not the same.  When they seen the picture again they were like “it wasn’t really that big”.  Ah well, it gave them thrills at the time.

Labour Day Weekend

Another long weekend … the one that signified the end of the summer holidays and the beginning of another school year.  It’s one of those happy/sad weekends.

We survived the July long weekend with almost no rain, but we went into this long weekend excepting rain and unfortunately we did receive it too.  We hum-hawed on Saturday whether to pack up before the rain and call it a weekend or weather to stick it out.  The decision was to stick it out …. without grumping (that comment was especially pointed at me)!!   It actually didn’t put too huge of a damper on the weekend, but it did bring in colder weather and that meant swimming was out and sweaters and long pants were in.  We had a cold end of August and so we arrived with our sweaters and pants and warm sleeping gear expecting to be cold and snuggled under the blankets at night …. wrong!  Wow, it was hot and humid at nights and the cold didn’t really come until Monday when we packed up to go home.

All smiles … we’re finally on our way!!

The kids were very excited when they received visitors on Friday.  We did not say anything to them since Dave and Ange did not know for sure if they were coming or not.  And then we figured we would just surprise them.  The kids were off at the park when they arrived and even though Brent, Mitchell and Slater said hi on the walkie-talkies the girls did not clue in until we showed up at the park. 

After a walk and some lunch it was off to the beach for the afternoon …. we had a lovely afternoon for hanging out at the beach.

 

Mmmmmmm ….. sandchips

Protective and helper Matthew helping Vivian put on a bike helment

      

“I think your hair is in the way” … something he’s certainly not used to

Supper time

   

Each night we had a rainbow fire for a little bit.  This is made by putting a piece of nylon garden hose in a copper tube and throwing it in the fire.  It would make a lovely array of colours for about 15 minutes.

   

And of course, what’s a fire with spiders and marshmallows.

We ended the evening with sparklers.  Unfortunately it was a bad ending to the evening when Vivian grabbed the wrong end of the sparkler and burned herself.  But she was a brave little girl who still wanted to enjoy a sparkler and so she tried …

but needed some ice and mom’s help to finish the sparkler

Matthew loved camping and now still months afterwards he asks if we will go camping again in the summer.  He loved being able to ride his bike on paved roads and was so proud of how fast he could go.  At home he doesn’t even touch his bike … gravel is to much of a challenge in his opinion, he rather just wait until the next camping trip.

 

Rob is the morning chef when we are camping, he loves cooking on the hotplate over the fire … that is when he can get a fire going … wet firewood is a pretty common thing when camping, so here he resorted to using the air mattress pump to blow air and get the flames going so the wood would finally get hot enough to catch.

Okay, so not really sure what Rob’s doing here, but we’re enjoyed the chef’s cooking

Fun at the park.  The girls are getting bigger, so the park does not hold as much interest for them anymore.  It’s fun when they have a group of kids to play with, but not so fun when it’s just our kids, although sometimes they can have lots of fun with Matthew.

 

Our bitter sweet weekend ended off cool, a sure sign that fall was on it’s way and it was time to get back to the book.  It’s always sad to see the summer go, but yet the kids do enjoy school and it’s nice to have routine back in one’s life … it’s a nice balance.  We had a busy and enjoyable summer which flew by unbelievably fast … but then, so does the school years, as here we are already two and a half months into another year and listening to talks of Christmas and what we’ll be doing for the Christmas holidays (just a big sign that I’m way to far behind on my blog).

Summer Soccer

This summer the girls each took part in Summer Soccer again.  This is a program run by volunteers for the students of our school.  We pay $4 per student to play, and this cost is just to cover the cost of the metals and team pictures that are purchased for the players for the end of the year. 

This year I happened to be on the organizing committee and we worked to try and set up a program that is closer to what the “town soccer” offers.  Practice time started at 6:30pm and then shortly after 7:00 the kids would have a snack before they started game time, which went to 8:00pm.  The school property is divided up so that all ages are playing on the same night.  We have three divisions so that the little kids don’t get run over by bigger kids.  Right now our older grades team is lacking in players, but we hope as this program takes off it will begin to fill up a bit more.  Coaches are volunteers who receive a coaching binder with a large list of coaching games to help them teach the kids skill.  Each team has two coaches to help things run smoothly.  Finding enough coaches is our biggest problem but we hope that parents will be willing to take a turn from time to time so that the same parents aren’t always coaching.  Rob and I both coached a team this year, Rob did Marietta’s team and I did Rebecca’s team.  This worked out fine, except for the fact that I never got to see Marietta play.  Next year will be different as Matthew will start playing and I would really like to see him playing but do not want to be his coach as I think he will do better under someone else.  Marietta and Rebecca will be on the same team next year, but if I coach that means I won’t have time to watch Matthew.  So we’ll have to see if we get enough volunteers next year.

I think overall the changes we made to the program (this is the second year it was done) went over well and were a good improvement.  We hope to be able to keep it up and I’m sure over time we’ll iron out some of the other glitches.  The kids enjoyed it and Matthew is already talking about how next year he will get to play soccer too.

Surprise Birthday

Marietta’s birthday was on July 14th, when we were on holidays.  She had hoped to have a birthday sleepover/campover, but her friends seemed to be on holidays each time she hoped to have it.  So after some time she sort of gave up and decided she’d settle on going out for supper with the family instead.  I could see her disappointment, as well as her willingness to settle for the next best … so meanwhile mom was at work behind the scenes trying to organize a sleepover still.

We had set a date for going out for supper, except I sort of forgot as in my head I knew she was going to have a party … that date came and we made plans for the day and suddenly Marietta pointed out that I had said we were going out for supper that night … oooppppsss, I forget how I weaseled my way out of that one, but we reset the date … for the actual day of her surprise “party” (at this age it’s no longer a party but just having friends over).

Tuesday, August 23rd rolled around and the plan was to meet Steve and Cec’s for an afternoon at Binbrook Conservation and then go out for supper … at least that’s the plan Marietta knew.  Rob went off to school (dutch) that morning and after he was done school he ran some errands and then went to pick up Kelsie and Esther and met us at Binbrook Conservation.  Since Rob had school that day I drove separately to the park, we got there before Rob and set up and the kids went off to play.   Kelsie and Esther made there way to our spot at the park under our dingy boat … but they didn’t make it the whole way and Marietta noticed the extra legs under the boat.  She was quite thrilled.  We spent the afternoon at the beach and then headed home …. no going out for supper afterall!

Late night dessert …. I think it’s called Candies with a Little Bit of Ice Cream.

The girls slept out in the tent, doing as girls do … chattering until late.  I was awake in the middle of the night taking Matthew to the bathroom … I think it was around 3:30-4am and as I came down the stairs I heard talking outside in the tent.  Wow, how did they manage to stay awake that long????  But then I looked at the tent and I thought “ah, that doesn’t look right”.  The tent had collapsed in the wind, a pole broke, (it was pretty windy that night) and the girls had woken to a tent just above their faces.  I had heard them as they were attempting to gather up their stuff and come in the house.

Jessica came to join the girls the next morning and the plans for the day had been to spend the day playing in the pioneer fort in the barn … but the high winds ruined those plans.  After that extreme wind storm we had in the spring we discovered that the roof on the barn had shifted, leaving it somewhat unsafe in windy weather.  The kids are not allowed in the barn when it is windy … and it was definitely windy that day.  Windy enough that they also really could not play outside … altho they did try swimming and jumping on the trampoline, but it was too cold and windy.

But kids are kids and given some time and they can come up with other things to do ….

Present time

  

Tea Party

 

I forget what they called this game, but they worked in teams where they would blindfold each other and then put a small amount of food on a spoon and the person had to eat it and guess what it was.

 

Indoor picnic instead of outdoors.  Marietta and Rebecca are taking voice lessons and here they are practicing/performing their song “How much is that Doggie in the Window?” and the others are acting like the dogs.

 

While I usually do not encourage TV/Videos when having friends over we did end up watching a movie in the afternoon to pass some of the time away since swimming and playing outside wasn’t really an option … movies and birthdays sort of go together.

Marietta was certainly surprised and they had a good time together.  This is the last time that Marietta saw Jessica, who has now moved to Australia.

Jada – Day 9 and 10

Day 9 was a Wednesday and Wednesdays it’s a dollar to play mini putt.  So after lunch we headed to town to go to the dollarstore and get some things for Jada to take home on her long bus ride the next day, then off to the dentist with Matthew.  Once that was out of the way we ate our picnic supper and went to play mini golf.

After our road of mini-golf the kids played on the teeter-tooters for a bit, before we had to head off home.   The meeting I had to attend was cancelled and so instead the kids had another fire before they showered up and went to sleep in the tent  … this time Marietta choose to sleep in her comfy bed and Matthew got a chance to sleep out in the tent.

 

And then a week was done and it was time to send Jada off on the bus back to New York.  We were up early on Day 10 to have a good hearty breakfast before Jada headed off for her long bus ride. 

Jada took another family picture, this time with Matthew

Good-Bye’s

On the bus, ready to go.

 

It was a fun experience and we had a good time.  I highly recommend partaking in the Fresh Air Fund Program.  They are always looking for new host families!  You can read more about the program here: http://www.freshair.org/.  If you are interested you can let them know now and they’ll be in contact with you in the spring to go through the steps needed to become a host.  The children that come are carefully screen and while not everyone has a good experience the majority of the experiences we’ve heard have been good and the children come back each year again.  If it were to happen that you are matched with a child who just does not work in your home you can contact the organizers and they will have the child removed from your home if they think it is causing too much problems for your family.    If thing go well with your family and the child you host then it is possible for the child to keep returning to your home until they are 18 years old.  The important things is to treat them like a member of the family, have them partake in the family just as the other kids do – helping, doing chores, obeying the same rules.

Jada fit in nicely with our family.  She played with the girls as well as Matthew.   While she came off the bus holding celebrity magazines and talked a bit about her favourite celebrity, once she was at our home she was a true kid who spent much time playing with the toy kitchen set and dressing up with the dress up clothes.  She was respectful and listened when told something.  From time to time we had to remind ourselves that she comes from a different background then us and so the things that are just normal in our household and the household of many of our friends (e.g. having a bedtime and a bedtime routine, not eating all the cake at once but saving some for the next day) may not be so familiar to her.  We don’t know what next summer brings, but if it works out then we’ll be happy to have Jada come spend some time with us again.