The Kitty Crew

Here is the rest of the crew. They sure are tiny.

And thankfully, they (and their Mama) seem to be quite content with the box I set up for them. Hopefully no more moving for a bit:)

My Closet is Squeaking!

I had plans to blog about hockey today - big people hockey pictures from the hockey tournament and little people hockey pictures from Kevin and Kade's final hockey last week. But I was in the kitchen thinking about supper when I heard my closet squeaking. Really. So of course I had to investigate. And this is what I found:

Right on top of my beach umbrella.

Who let the cat in the house???!!!!! And am I allowed to put her and her descendants outside? or do I all of the sudden have a house pet for a few days? Kevin asked me this morning why Kyggy was meowing so loudly and following him around . . . I guess I should have known.

But now I must go investigate a little further - with a flashlight or something. It is VERY dark in the closet and my flash did very well on that picture, but in real life, I can see NOTHING - I just hear squeaking . . . . and of course the motor of Mama purring.

I hope cats are neat about this whole process . . .

By Kevin . . .

Kevin does not enjoy writing. In fact if he sees more than two blank lines on a worksheet, he will try to turn the page quickly and hope that I never notice that he skipped a page. So yesterday he had to do some "Creative Writing". Usually when we do this type of thing, I end up suggesting a title (which he uses), and opening sentence (which he uses), some ideas for the body (which he ends up using) and he is generally able to come up with the concluding sentence himself - its usually, "I loved it!" or "It was fun". So Kevin's creativity and story usually ends up sounding like something that I wrote myself (although simplified and shortened).

So it was a great delight to me when I found this yesterday - i didn't hear ANY complaining about having to do it . . . I didn't help him even a little bit . . .and it actually makes sense - though it is far from a creative masterpiece!! Anyhow - I thought it was cute . . . so I thought I'd share it.

p.s. He did tell me this morning that Kade helped him . . .

By Kade . . .

The other day we were having a "discussion" with Kevin about his backtalking and how it was getting rather out of hand. We advised him regarding the importance of thinking before speaking, and of not blurting something out each and everytime someone speaks to him - especially when he has been admonished or corrected. After repeated mentions of how we would like to see the "backtalking" come to an end, Kade thought he'd add his two cents and piped up that Kevin should "front-talk" instead! Brought a few smiles to our previously serious conversation:)

Ella Grace

Piet and Mel were blessed with a baby girl late Saturday night. She arrived in a real hurry and barely made a hospital birth, but all went well, and all is well. She is absolutely beautiful and so far is a model baby! She weighed 7lbs 7 oz. and is a little sister to Timothy!

What a gorgeous little girl!

Piet, Mel, and Ella

Kylie was very intrigued and surprisingly gentle. She had to feel her hands and touch her fingers and rub her cheeks . . .

Kade
Kevin - who is learning the verb "avoir" in french right now and deduced (with a bit of help from me) that Ella's name must mean - She has grace.

I just noticed that she is sticking her tongue out at me! The nerve;)

And I thought I'd include two that Carrie sent over to me too (since she saw the baby a day earlier than I got to:)

We praise God with Piet and Mel for this safe arrival and pray that God would continue to bless their family as they raise their children in the fear of His name!

Myrtle Beach

After a long (especially in the eyes of the kids) night and day of driving we arrived in Myrtle Beach -- a long way from home, but weather not so different from home. Well, we at least did not have snow - although we drove in a snow "storm" almost all the way here, and did not bid farewell to the white stuff until at least North Carolina. Since we all LOVE spring - this was still considered lovely weather (though not quite what we are used to in our southern vacations:)) Having said that we ALL love spring, I should maybe clarify. Yesterday as I was sorting through and looking at pictures of our vacation, I had Kade standing over my shoulder grumping, and nearly crying, that he "wished we didn't go on vacation and wished we could have stayed here in the snow." Crazy child. Kevin also was rather disappointed to find the snow nearly all gone when we got home. They had just been busy building a snow fort/igloo the day before we left and were having a lot of fun with that. On the other hand, the adults in this home were quite happy to see that spring followed them home.
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Kylie having a nice sound sleep the night we got there. She slept pretty good there (which she doesn't necessarily do at home) Since we all missed quite a few hours of sleep the night we drove here, I was not surprised to see her sound asleep moments after putting her to bed!

A favourite morning activity was jumping out of bed and watching cartoons. Even my nighthawks dragged themselves out of bed cheerfully and became early birds in order to fit in some much loved TV time!

A late night soak in the outdoor hottub. It felt just lovely - though the 5C air felt rather FRESH when we had to get out!

Uncle Richard was a big hit at the pools. Kevin quickly learned Rich and MaryBeth's extension number and snuck in a call many times that we were headed to the pool to make sure that Uncle Richard would be there too. This ensured a fun time . . . .

. . . but definitely not a QUIET one!

Hunter and Mary Beth. Hunter was so cute in the pool. He would just snuggle and cuddle on the shoulder of whomever was carrying him and enjoy the ride. But he also loved to splash when he was on the steps!

Nate and Mackenzie. Mackenzie LOVED the water - but mostly only the water in the big pools - she didn't care for the hot tubs so much - which of course is the preferred destination of the adults. But she did get lots of water time - though I'm sure she would have stayed in longer if she had her way:)

Richard and Summer. Summer loved the water too -even after she fell in and needed to be saved. But it didn't seem to affect her. After she was rescued, she just got up and carried on like nothing serious had happened.

We went to see the ocean twice. It was very cold and breezy there - but very beautiful too!

Another fun place to visit was the park. This was a great place to go to when it was still too cool or early to sit by the outdoor pool, but still too nice to be inside.

Nerds!

On the rainy, WET, pouring, and cold day, we went to visit Ripley's Aquarium. This is basically a huge indoor aquarium and lots of small ones too. The kids loved it. It's quite amazing to see how many different kinds of sea animals there are - and that's probably just a small sampling. There were lots of beautiful and some rather ugly looking creatures too. Having seen it all, you surely have to think of what an amazing Creator we have!

I loved the sharks - especially the happy one on the left. Kevin thought the ones on the right should have braces, since "their teeth were all mixed up"!

Some more outdoor pool pictures . . . .

. . . and hottub pictures too.

Kylie is certainly the least brave of the girls and probably never left the steps unless we forced her - and then it wasn't too cheerful! Her preferred destination (probably like her mama) was the hot tub.

Catching some rays.

Sweet Mackenzie.

The three girls.

Out for a walk. Brothers and Buds.

And then it was over. We are home. We are getting busy again. But we are very thankful for this time away. It was great to spend time with family, to enjoy the sun, and to relax and be a little lazy:)