Sunday, 31 May 2015

Sunday Pictures

Asher – 8.5 years
Chancery – 6.5 years
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Asher: “I’m almost ready, I just have to put my other sock on.”


Chancery: “OK, just hurry up!”


Asher: “Almost finished!”


Chancery: “Finally you’re done!”


Asher: “We love church!”
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Captions by Chancery

Thursday, 28 May 2015

Crime & Punishment

Yesterday Chancery got a time-out, & she stomped her way to the stairs for her 6 minute punishment.  When it was over, I told her to come & talk to me.

Chancery: “Do you forgive me, Mummy?”

Me: “Yes, I forgive you.  Will you try not to do that again?”

Chancery: “Yes, I’ll try not to do that again… Are all of my 6 minutes over?”

Me: “Yes.”

Chancery: “Six minutes is quick!”

Me: “Should I give you longer time-outs?  I’ll have to give you another minute when you turn 7, but should I just start giving you longer ones now?”

Chancery: “Well, when I turn 7, you can give me 8 minutes then, ok?”

Me: “Well, we’ll try 7 minutes & see how it goes.”


Chancery: “Ok, I just like asking if you’ll forgive me at the end of them.”

Sunday, 24 May 2015

Sunday Pictures

Asher – 8.5 years

Chancery – 6.5 years

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IMG_1750 Chancery: “I went to a birthday party yesterday with Daddy!”

 

IMG_1751 Asher: “Is that where these balloons are from?”

 

IMG_1752 Asher: “I thought they were for Uncle Kurt’s birthday!”

 

IMG_1753 Chancery: “No!  It was Uncle Kurt’s birthday yesterday too, but he didn’t turn 90!”

 

IMG_1754 Asher: “I guess not.  He didn’t seem that old when we saw him last summer.”

 

IMG_1755 Chancery: “Did you remember to tell Uncle Kurt ‘Happy Birthday’?”

 

IMG_1756 Asher: “No, I’m not on Facebook yet.”

 

IMG_1757 Asher: “…but we can use Mummy’s blog to say it!”

 

IMG_1758 “Happy Birthday, Uncle Kurt!”

Sunday, 17 May 2015

Sunday Pictures

Asher – 8.5 years

Chancery – 6.5 years

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IMG_1746 Chancery: “We are very excited because it seems like summer is really close!”

 

IMG_1747 Asher: “It was so hot yesterday that Digby was panting… like this!”

 

IMG_1748 Chancery: “And I was wearing shorts!”

 

IMG_1749 Asher: “It was pretty awesome!”

Sunday, 10 May 2015

Sunday Pictures

Asher – 8.5 years

Chancery – 6.5

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IMG_1740 Chancery: “Where’s Asher?”

 

IMG_1741 Digby: “Woof’s Woofer?”

 

IMG_1742 Chancery: “I don’t know, Digby, let’s find out!”

 

IMG_1743 Digby: “Woof!  Arf, Grr, Woof!”

 

IMG_1744 Asher: “Surprise!”

 

IMG_1745 Chancery: “Happy Mother’s Day, Mothers!”

Sunday, 3 May 2015

Sunday Pictures… of a different sort

Sunday we went to my parents’ church & had cake afterward for a few 70th birthdays all happening around the same time.  It was nice to go back & see a few people we had not seen in a few years.

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After church it was family picture time.  This is the second photo we took, & you might say, “That’s a really good picture!” but you are not my Dad…

IMG_7128 IMG_7132 Apparently 7 was the magical number of pictures until we got the perfect one. 

But WAIT!  Dad had to go get his new sweatshirt, so IT would be in the photos too!

IMG_7136 IMG_7138 I bet he was glad to have us around!

Friday, 1 May 2015

A Gathering of Generations

IMG_7061The second surprise for my Dad was that we were all going up to Lynden to have breakfast with the extended family.  We had 4 generations represented.  All in all a great turn out!

 IMG_7076 In the front, are the cousins, along the right side of the ‘L’ are the parents, & Great Uncles & Aunts, & in the booths in the back are the cousins’ kids.

 

IMG_7079 Great Uncle Bill always has good stories!

IMG_7080 There are 21 cousins, & 10 of us made it to breakfast (we took this picture after Michael left).  Represented in this picture are Washington, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, & Prince Edward Island!

IMG_7096 After breakfast we went to Grandma’s farm, & of course had to swing on the rope in the haymow!

IMG_7102 Then we went to visit Grandma.  We had a nice time reminiscing & visiting together.

Thursday, 30 April 2015

Surprise, Dad!

Last weekend, my brothers & I flew to Seattle to surprise our Dad for his birthday.  The way our flights were scheduled, I was supposed to fly to Vancouver, then wait 4 hours before flying to Seattle.  My brothers were not excited about this, as it meant they would have to wait 2 hours for me to arrive before the 2 hour drive to my parents’ house.  In the weeks before the trip they kept telling me I should try to find an earlier flight, but the only one I could find would only allow for a 20 minute layover, which would not be enough time since I would have to go through a security check & customs in between flights.

 

My first flight was scheduled to leave Charlottetown at 6am, so I set my alarm for 4:45.  We live about 5 minutes from the airport, & I had checked in online, so I figured that would be enough time.  Inexplicably my alarm went off at 5:20 instead!  I quickly changed & woke PChad up, & he drove me to the airport.  The desk agent was not pleased to see me arrive so late, but I explained that I had already checked in, & just needed my boarding passes printed.  She printed them off, but told me I was too late to check my luggage.  That was fine since I had only a carry-on!

 

My next hurdle was security.  There were 4 security people, & I was the only person going through.  However, I was randomly selected for a second check, but it was simply for a hand swab, & it came back clear.  I made it on to the plane without incident & looked at my watch.  It was 5:35.  Incredible, but I don’t think I will press my luck like that in the future!  There was another passenger who came on the flight after I did, so at least they weren’t all waiting for me!

 

I flew through Toronto to Vancouver, & we had a good tail-wind & arrived 10 minutes early.  It was 10:50am.  I thought I’d try to make the 11:20 flight so I wouldn’t have to sit around for 4 hours, but I had to walk through a construction zone, security & customs yet.

 

Once I had made it to customs, I was surprised to find there was no line up of people waiting to speak to a border officer.  I quickly filled out my form & immediatly was called forward.  He asked where I was going, & where I had come from.  When I said, “PEI” his response was, “What’s that?”  So I explained that it was “Prince Edward Island”, & he told me to have a nice day!  I felt like running!  I’d never made it through customs so quickly & easily before!  Then I remember I DID need to run!

 

I made it to the gate for the 11:20 flight at 11:15.  I begged to be allowed on the flight, & the gate agent told me they they had not done a head count yet, so if I didn’t have any checked luggage, I could be put on the flight!  Wow, I’m not used to my flights working out so well!  I arrived in Seattle 2 hours before my brothers did, so they didn’t have to wait for me at all, which they were very happy about.

When we used to go to the airport with my parents, we always drove right past a Taco Bell, well I should say, we always STOPPED at the Taco Bell, because we rarely drove past it!  Since it had been airport tradition, we had all thought about delicious Taco Bell tacos, & we were all craving them at this point.  But, since we had rented a car, we left the airport a different way, so there was no Taco Bell in sight.  About 1/2 way home we remembered there was a Taco Bell off the freeway, so we stopped for a late afternoon snack.

IMG_7032 When we pulled up the house, Dad had been mowing the lawn.  He had stopped for his every-afternoon-at-3-o’clock Mello Yello, so he & Mom happened to be in the garage.  Dad asked, “Who just pulled up in a red car?”  Mom knew that we were coming, but she didn’t know what time, so she said, “Maybe it’s Nick & Candy, they have a red car.”

Then, between the vehicles, Dad saw Brian come out of the car, then me, then Kurt.  At that point Dad was thinking, “That’s not Nick!”  He was shocked to see us.  Despite almost spilling the secret a few times, we all managed to surprise him!

IMG_7036 

We had a nice dinner of salmon & asparagus, then we walked to the beach.  One of the things we always do at the beach is flip over rocks to look for crabs, so since we aren’t about to buck tradition, we flipped rocks for crabs!

IMG_7039 

Then we went back home for angel food cake to celebrate the birthday boy!

IMG_7053

2015-04-17 18.04.08

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Sunday, 26 April 2015

Sunday Pictures

Asher – 8.5 years

Chancery – 6.5 years

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IMG_1730 Chancery: “I don’t think Digby wants to have his picture taken today.”

 

IMG_1731 Chancery: “But we love him, so we want him to be in the pictures with us!”

 

IMG_1732 Asher: “Don’t worry, Digby.  It’s almost over!”

 

IMG_1733 Chancery: “See, that wasn’t so bad, was it Digby?”

Thursday, 16 April 2015

Definition Please

I’m not sure how it got brought up, but the other day at breakfast someone said they were going to ‘Hook Up’ with someone.  PChad said, “Well, that isn’t a good thing to do, so you shouldn’t do that.”

 

Asher: “Why, what does it mean?”

 

I listened intently, wondering how this conversation was going to go…

 

PChad: “It means a man & a lady who aren’t married, trying to make a baby together.”

 

Asher: “But they can’t!  You need a mommy & a daddy to make a baby!”

 

PChad: “Well, it means they are doing something they aren’t supposed to do before they are married.”

 

There was a brief moment of silence, then Asher said, “My brain is fizzing.”

 

Then the older boys admitted they had no idea that that is what ‘Hooking Up’ meant.  They thought it meant to meet up with some friends.  That demonstrates how important it is to fully understand slang before you go around using it!

Sunday, 12 April 2015

Sunday Pictures

Asher – 8.5 years

Chancery – 6.5 years

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IMG_1723 Chancery: “I love you, Digby!”

 

IMG_1724 Chancery: “Isn’t it so nice to just sit on the couch together?”

 

IMG_1725 Digby: “No comment.”

 

IMG_1726 Chancery: “Digby was scared of Asher, so he ran away.”

 

IMG_1727 Asher: “Is it because I look like a hoodlum?”

 

IMG_1728 Asher: “Get it?  I’m wearing a hood!”

 

IMG_1729 Asher: “See, Digby was just playing around, he’s not scared at all!”