Sherrie and I both volunteered at the Powow this year. It was quite spectacular! Our neighbour, Dennis, is the main organizer of it. Here are some photos:

Sherrie took this trip while at work.

This is what we did on Fathers' Day morning - My idea. It was lovely.

Lots going on lately...

• We're getting ready to have a lawn (a big deal actually - we need the path, the grass, the landscaping...)
• We're getting ready for Erin's birthday - it'll be at the playground on our street. We'll be running games and activities there and carting the refreshments over there.
• We're starting to talk about the flights to Ontario for the summer (we fly in two weeks!)
• We're volunteering at the annual Peace River powow this weekend
• I'm trying to finish the books, and Sherrie's as busy as always traveling to schools around northern Alberta
• The sun is always up and we're staying up later because of it - it's making us sleepier in the day
• Many activities for the girls towards the end of school - lots of field trips and sports days and such.

Here are some photos:

Z's getting bigger

This is the tree that Jim put in our shipment, at our request. It basically looked dead as a doornail when it arrived in the truck, but I planted it anyway. It looked like a dead tree when the snow came. It stayed out in our yard, in the terribly cold winter, without any cover or protection (give me a break - the snow came so quickly and covered it!). It sat all spring and never sprouted even a bud, and the dog and the neighbour's dog kept chewing on it. Then, just about two weeks ago, KABOOM! leaves and buds. I'm so happy - I water it every day. I hope it'll be ok while we're gone in July.

Erin accompanied Sadie and I to the reading time at the library one Friday when she had a P.D. day. We learned about Rapunzel and the girls made their own princess hats afterwards.

Amy got her T ball uniform. It's really very classy, kind of nostalgic. I totally want one of the hats. by the way: Today at T Ball Amy hit consistently very well - consecutive non- stop base hits. Her best yet.

The tradition at Springfield (Amy and Erin's school) is to open sports day with a 'boat race'. Each family makes a boat (can be anything really) out of cardboard boxes and the kids run with them. Here are some photos of our Imperial Star Destroyer. It was kind of difficult to run with, but boy did it get a lot of compliments! Each grade had a race, so both girls got to run with it.

More rock balancing.

Sherrie still reads to the girls before bed each night (when she's in town - otherwise the kids are stuck with me). It's wonderful seeing them yawning on the sofa in their cute little jammies.

We attended a teddybear picnic at the school the other week. This is Erin having fun there.

That's all for now. Sadie and I are going biking.

New Photos:

Amy and Erin had career day at school and got to dress up to show what they wanted to be when they grew up.  Erin's a professional swimmer and Amy's and artiste.

The girls on one of our hikes.  They're spinning and hugging at the same time.

Our next door neighbour's dog, Muskwa, likes playing with Z.  They're best friends.

This photo was taken shortly after 10pm.  Kind of crazy, huh?  Haven't seen 'midnight sun' yet, but I assume it's coming soon...

I've got a new hobby - while out walking Z along the river I like balancing rocks.  There's no trickery involved - it just takes patience.  I have many more photos of my rock balancing and will periodically be posting my favs.  

That's all for now -make sure you check this site out in the future.

Steve

What a week!

Ok, big news of the week... AMY CAN RIDE A TWO WHEELER!  This is a very big deal for us as she didn't really get much practice in Ghana.  We're so proud.  I'm so proud.  She worked so hard.  I'm so impressed and proud.  Here are some photos.  

Want some more?  Ok!  These photos are of her riding around the tennis court/skating rink in our neighbourhood.  She's also good at riding on the sidewalk to the playground by herself.  

Sigh.  May 12th we woke up to snow and cold.  It lasted for two days.  Sigh.  

This is Sherrie and the girls at Strong Creek.  Sadie's on my shoulders, so isn't in the shot.  

I've really gotten into walking up the mountain behind our place.  It reminds me of my walks in Hong Kong, but there are more trees.  Here are some of the views from the trails up there.  (Isn't Z cute? He loves hiking too)

Sadie's team got uniforms.  As she just turned 3, Sadie was pretty assertive when choosing her number as the coach handed them out.  She got what she wanted!

Her team played their first, uh, game, sort of, against the grey team.  It was a blast!  They totally had NO idea what they were doing and it was so fun to watch and cheer!  I'm sure I had more fun than Sadie did...

Spring Sports

Given Amy's experience with Soccer in the Soccer-crazed and misogynistic environment of Ghana little league sports, and given Erin's disdain at being made to go to skating over and over when she didn't want to, I have to admit that I was cynical and apprehensive about how Amy would take to T ball and Sadie to Soccer.  (Erin didn't want to sign up for anything this spring, and we're cool with that).  I mean, I'd been practicing soccer with Sadie and T Ball with Amy all the time since signing them up, and I knew that neither was too keen to practice much and that they'd much rather be doing something else altogether.  I feared the worst; that they'd hate it, that they'd not do as well as their peers, that they'd ask me not to go anymore, the whole gambit.  

I'm very very very relieved and proud to say that all of my apprehensions were unmerited.  The girls absolutely LOVED their first days!  I had no idea how much I was worrying until I experienced their joy this week!  The coaches were warm and supportive, the kids' levels were all similar, the girls were confident and they had fun!  I'm SOOOOO glad that they enjoyed sports!  I sound so negative.  I sound like such a worry wart.  I can't wait until the next practice!  Here are some photos:

Sadie's Team

She did SOOO well at running and dribbling

She is so cute in those pads!  

Amy at batting practice - She did great.  I'm glad we got a T and practiced at home.  

Amy's out there:  she's the light pink blob above and slightly to the right of the yellow and black bag.  Sorry I couldn't get any closer - I had the puppy with me and didn't want to take him out onto the field.  Take my word for it that she's throwing the ball very well.  Her catching needs quite a bit of practice, though...

Amy's T Ball group - a great bunch of kids.  Can you see her in the middle with the pink hat and brown pants?

Speeders!

Ever heard of a speeder?  It's a tiny little car that goes on railroad tracks.  I don't think they make them anymore, but there are enthusiasts out there who maintain them and ride them around when they can.  It turns out that our next door neighbours, Lori and Doug, are speeder enthusiasts and invited us to the fairgrounds for a ride.  (They have a track laid at the fairgrounds that they use for giving folks rides at fairs and such).    There are actually speeder clubs and they travel all over North America in them - Doug and Lori showed us photos of a group who they travelled to the Northwest Territories with.  The group were from as far south as Louisianna or somewhere like that - and travelled all this way in little tiny speeders!  Cool.

It was a perfect way to spend a Friday evening with the girls.  

After the ride Doug showed us one of his creations - a car propelled with a bike chain and pedals.  The girls loved it!  Doug has made several cool things including trains and such for his kids.  They're grown up now.