Can We Go To The Park Today?

Okay, so you know you're kids are city-slickers when this is the first question out of their mouth on the first morning they wake up at their "new country home".



Many time we drive by this park/school on our way to Grandpa and Grandma's and so the kids have been eying it as a place to hang out during the summer. Well it took a bit to get through to them that country kids don't go to the park ... they just go outside and play in their "yard".

But after a couple days I gave in. On a trip back from town we stopped in to play at the "park" (it's actually a school playground). I must say it was a really nice playground. We didn't stay long but the kids loved it and I'm sure we will be back again before we leave to have a longer play. The best thing is that in the country kids don't go to the park ... they just go outside to play in their "yard" ... so that means there is never anyone else at the playground. Everytime we drive by it's empty.

The reason for this lovely playground is heartbreaking. The playground was erected in memory of the Woerlen family, where the mother and seven children died in a fire. I knew the park was put up as a memorial, but as I read the marker it left this awful feeling. I know what it's like to suffer through loss ... but I cannot even begin to fathom what it would be like to lose your whole family in one day. They definitely did a beautiful job on the playground

Marietta loved this play structure

Becca loves to play and climb, but her favourite spot is usually the swings. I wish we had room in our yard for a swing .... guess we better find a try to put on in for this summer.

No ... there wasn't a splash pad!! Matthew is absolutely loving the country ... for with rain comes ... puddles!!!! I think he spent more time in the puddle then on the play structures.

Tickle Fight

If you ever need to win a fight against Rob just pull out your tickling fingers and you're almost guaranteed to win

This is what happens when someone declares a tickle fight against Rob

Confused? No worries, I would be too. Vehicles make a very good protection area when one does not want to be tickled ... but how it became a road block ... well that's just one of those "you had to be there moments" ... and since I wasn't there at the moment, I'm still not quite sure how it came to be this.












Rob was doing quite well fending off the three boys at first. But as he began to tire out they called in reinforcements ... Maaike was most definitely up for the challenge ... Rob decided it was best to make a get-away and so he locked himself in one of the company trucks.


I have further pictures of the event ... but Rob is insistent I am not allowed to post them ... at least not now, maybe someday in the future he will change his mind ... so in the meantime it's suffice to say that Rob survived being tickled to death by avoiding his attackers, even though they had him boxed in for quite some time.


It was very cute to watch Matthew during this time. He was quite concerned for his daddy as you can see by the expression on his face in these pictures. He kept doing the sign language for "all done" as he watched. It's amazing how quickly kids pick up on conflict ... even play conflict.

Are We Almost Ready to Go??

I guess this means we took a bit too long packing up and getting ready to leave on July 1st.

We tried to hold him off till we left, but he just couldn't wait for that nap any longer!!

Finishing off June

The end of June was busy as the kids finished up school and we tried to complete all the things that should be done around home before we "moved" to our summer location.

On Saturday, June 27 we were able to successfully through a surprise 60th Birthday Party for my mom. We didn't think we'd be sucessful as we knew she was quite busy getting ready for their trip out west and had no spare time for parties ... but in the end she was surprised (and perturbed that nobody forwarned her so she could dress a bit better :). We had a nice evening of fellowship and eating :) This is the only picture I managed to get, and since it was getting a bit dark it's really not the greatest, but will have to do.

To add to the business of the end of June Matthew threw in another sickness ... this time with tonsilitis and a double ear infection. Poor little guy was more then just a little bit miserable. Since many things had been left to last minute before we left this threw a bit of a wrench into some plans as he was constantly in my arms ... but in the end we still managed to leave on our scheduled day. It took quite a bit to get Matthew to sleep during those days as his ears were pretty bad this time around. He only wanted to sleep with me in the lazyboy and refused to let me put him in his bed ... sometimes I managed to get him to fall asleep in our bed with a bottle, all propped up on pillows and watching TV. Needless to say it was a few sleepless nights for both parties involved.