Gymnastics

The girls just finished their first session of gymnastics, and recieved medals according to their level of achievement. (Like getting the coloured badges for swimming lessons.) Charlotte also likes to show off her freakish bendiness. Ryan is signed up too, for the next set of lessons.

Christmas Morning

Kids and presents. Enough said.

Christmas 2008

Another good year is behind us. The kids as always are very excited to put up the tree. Each year the children are a little taller so the high water mark for the ornaments is a little further from the ground. Please excuse the construction mess that always seems to be around me. (It's starting to give me a complex.)

Charlotte's Birthday

Can you believe she just turned four? Here she is intently colouring with the colour by number poster sent to her by Grammie Herring. I can't believe these pics are only six weeks late this time.

Claire The Doctor

Here is Claire fixing Ryan and his "broken leg". The other two sit there patiently and watch. Sometimes, Charlotte and Ryan are sent to fetch things like stuffed animals to be babies, scissors, markers, glue, tape (loads of tape - I can't find a roll of scotch tape to save my life), kleenex, etc. They play together quite well with a few blow ups and the occasional tears.



Does this look official? Claire is always devising ways to take charge of the play. Sometimes she is a teacher and tries to teach kids their letters, sometimes she is a gymnastics instructor. It's rather cute because the other kids fall into it but she consumes a great deal of printing paper and other materials.

After great delay, here are some pictures of our children. At least the ones who are still wanting their pictures taken. These were taken at a park in Napanee, the day after some heavy rain. A little messy but the kids still had fun.



The three of them often do a slide train. It generally works out - you get the odd injury and Ryan does get upset because he likes to monopolize the front.


This is Claire swimming in my parents' pool. Claire took two sessions of swim lessons this summer - the first session she was a little scared of the deep end but by the end of the second session she was doing really well. The weekend this picture was taken, she was able to jump off from the diving board and swim to the shallow end. You could tell she was nervous at first, but she was really pleased with her accomplishment.

A day on PEI.

Welcome to the Penny's. The steps that Great Grammie and Great Grampie are sitting on will soon be replaced by Mike and Sheila. Sadly, we couldn't stay long enough for the after picture.

This is Michelle and the kids at Murray Harbour just after eating at Brehaut's. (Of course!) No, Ryan is not getting sea sick, he's throwing rocks in the water.

Grammie and the kids are finding sea shells and throwing rocks in the water.

Adam and Cheryl's Reception

The happy newlyweds.

Charlotte ready to dance till she drops.

Claire and Ryan watching the band set up.

Charlotte after she dropped.

Adam and Cheryl's Wedding.

We went over to PEI for a day to take in my cousin Cheryl's wedding. As you can see, I will never make it as a professional photographer. Ryan didn't quite make it through the ceremony.

A Visit to the Hatfield Farm.

Thanks to Natalee for finding and recommending the Hatfield farm. It was very affordable and the kids had a great time. In the second photo Ryan is staring down a goat that had jumped up the rocks ahead of him. Thankfully it ended without tears. Lastly a picture of the elusive Tory. She is very good at dodging out of pictures but this time I got her.

Gone Fishin'

Before we set out to the East Coast we spent a weekend with Beau, Gail and Kevin at the cottage.

I finally got some spare time.

Here are a few of our favourites posted in our usual timely fashion. Karen and Daryl will be glad to know we finally added them to the link list.

The Snails

During the gardening this spring we found a number of snails that the kids kept in a bucket on the picnic table. The were each designated a rank in the snail family, such as "Mommy Snail" or "Baby Snail". As far as I know all the snails survived with only slight emotional trauma.