Favourite Author

I meant to blog about this a while ago, but I guess it got missed in the long stretches of blog inactivity, my apologies.

This was a special event for Evan that happened in March, when he got to meet one of his favourite authors. Those of you who know Evan at all, know that he is a voracious reader who goes through books at an amazing rate. He has many favourites series' including Harry Potter, Redwall, Warriors, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Another series that he discovered this year is the "Dragons in our Midst" books, which he signed out of our public library and devoured, and then told me that they were ranked high up on his list of favourites. So he was quite excited when he found out that the author of these books, Bryan Davis, was going to be doing a book signing at the House of James.

Evan and I went early one Saturday morning to have breakfast with Bryan Davis and hear him speak about his writing career. Then we bought one of his newer books that Evan hadn't read yet, and he signed it for Evan.

Sweet girl

And, because the last few posts have all been about the other two, here are a few recent pictures of my sweet Rachel, who loves to hug, and snuggle and hold hands. She is a precious ray of sunshine in our family.

Rachel has a special affection in her heart for her Nana, my Grandma Chatham.

Our Gracie

I just had to post this picture because it portrays our Gracie girl so accurately! :) Grace has always been a spunky girl, who does things in her own way, on her own time. She's a wonderful, helpful, hardworking girl a lot of the time, but we have had our struggles with her lately and I am working hard at having patience with her and modelling right attitudes.

Stepping up in the world

These posts are all out of order, but oh well, at least I'm getting them done.

Here's my sweet Gracie-girl, "graduating" from voyageurs. Next year she'll be in Pathfinder girls. Grace thoroughly enjoyed Pioneer clubs this year and she learned a lot under the wonderful care and teaching of Mrs. Hiller and Mrs. Schmidt.

Enjoying the sunshine

My two bookworms, reading in the front yard together.

It's very normal in our house, to find kids curled up somewhere, reading a book, but lately, it's not so common to find these two in close quarters and not bickering. So I had to snap this picture to remind me that it is still possible! :)

Mother's Day gift!

I know it's already past Father's Day but I still wanted to do this little post about Mother's Day. The theme at our church this year for Mother's Day was about how Moms show God's love. A few kids were asked to share how their Mom shows God's love to them. Here is Evan up on the stage reading what he wrote about me, while the girls held a sign in front of him (this was a big deal for Grace and Rachel by the way. Being on the stage is something they usually avoid at all cost, but they decided they could be brave together this time, since they didn't have to do any of the talking!)

Here's what Evan said:

"The way my mom treats me, tells me that God loves me too! She makes dinner, prays with me every night, reads her Bible, loves God, cares for me, is patient with me, forgives me when I sin, does not stay angry with me, knows when I need a hug, likes to cuddle with me, is there for me when I am sad. All together she is Awesome!!"

What a Mother's Day gift!!

Flying Club

A couple of weeks ago, Evan had the opportunity to go flying in a small plane, thanks to the Abbotsford Flying club's "100 First Flights" event. The Flying club offered 100 kids the chance to go for a flight around the Fraser Valley for free.

First they had "ground school," where they learned about how the plane works.

Then it was out to the runway, where they climbed into these little planes, which held anywhere from 1-6 children plus a pilot.

Here's Evan with his pilot and crew mate after the flight

One very happy boy!!

When we found out about this event, I had asked Grace if she would want to go too (Rachel was too young) but she said no. After seeing Evan get to go though, Grace was saying that she definitely wants to go next year if the flying club does this event again.

My little Indian Brave

I'm learning from my cyber-friend Sarah and playing catch-up by posting one picture at a time. Maybe this way I will do a little more blogging and not feel so overwhelmed by the thought of doing a big long post.

This spring we spent quite a bit of time doing a unit study on Canada's Natives Long Ago. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it and we all learned a lot. Evan's greatest desire was to make some native weapons but once he had made the spear and the headdress, he felt that he really should have some leggings and a loincloth to make the outfit truly authentic. He begged me for quite some time before I finally suggested he call Grandma and ask her because I really, really am not a seamstress. If you want clothes to disappear, you put them in my mending box - and never see them again!

So, Grandma came over one evening for a couple of hours, brought her old curtains, and voila - one happy little Indian brave!!