August 16, 2013

A marvelous (and belated) May...


    Following my new orderly posting routine, I will now share some pictures from the month of May, in general...of course you've seen my posts on the best event of May, the 2013 Family Economics Conference! Here is the rest of our month.... I'd love to hear if you enjoyed a picture or two from this post...you can comment here or on Googleplus.

   For our father's birthday this year, we decorated Spanish style, and watched El Cid, a movie that Papa has always enjoyed. Since this is one of our favourite styles, you can imagine that the epic decor stayed up for a while, even though it was springtime!

''El Cid'' birthday table in our recently painted dining room!
Although I love springtime, I was perfectly happy to have our dining room/living room this style for that week of May! We LOVE it! :)
stone...chains...candlelight
small trinkets, which we love to collect and use here and there in decorating
Sangria with fruit
a picture during breakfast
bread and candlelight
a birthday breakfast treat
This year, Katia's birthday card for Papa took on new dimensions!

Laura-Lise baked chocolate-y cookies which spelt out ''Papa'' These delicate creations went through some minor catastrophes...but stayed-almost- entirely intact for the grand moment of presentation
Of course...the big event of May was...the 2013 Family Economics and Discipleship Conference! Wonderful memories...priceless wisdom....what a blessing! I already posted on that but here are a couple leftover or repeat snapshots
L-L and M- first day
It looks like my Dad and I are dancing some fun dance...in reality I am twirling, and Papa is not
Jessie twirling

Below: most of us girls on the second day of the conference (missing oldest and youngest of the sisters)...yes, we wore black on purpose. It was kind of like a fun dare- how many folks could we get to dress in black!

Eating at the picnic....such beautiful lighting! Only in May!

Cake I made for Mothers Day! 
    As for other May happenings....there was a fun time with some of our sweetest friends! :) We went to a used book sale, ate our brought lunches at a huge Schnucks cafeteria and went to over 5 thriftstores together! :) I love antique and thrift shops!!! :) There is so much potential in places like that...you never know what you can find.

friends!

Sisters and friends! :) Fun times
The final thrifstore of the day featured several red-doored changing rooms perfect for.....
a fashion show! :) We gathered- interesting- items of clothing throughout the shopping time. It was fun to march out of the changing rooms all at once and burst into laughter at the sight of eachother!
Elodie...she actually bought those pants after all!


An odd assortment of fashions! M is the only one who looks not only sane but stylish!

We laughed at these shoes, but come to think of it- they're pretty fun!
Elodie's choice of crazy shoes. 


the second round of fashion show...it gets worse and worse.
still friends after a full day out! :) Thank you SO much H. family! :) 
Went to a mega American Girl store...brought back memories of my childhood filled with dolls. :)


yay! revolving doors. :) 
There was the week in May which I should call The Week of Animals....since we gardened much during those days, I discovered a whole nest of baby rabbits in the strawberry garden. Of course I immediately grabbed one...and my siblings came to the rescue for the other 5! :) They were adorable. That day someone found a snake...and I calmly wrote in my journal that night: ''wonder what we'll discover tomorrow!''- only to find a nasty opossum  lying supine in the middle of my newly-dug garden. It had obviously recently taken its final breath, and without ceremony I had Sam fling it over into the field behind us.
 The next day we found the black snake which we come across annually....and I'm sure we came across other things that week...can't remember.
We kept the bunnies for a while...but let them go a safe distance away from our property once they got too old to enjoy eachother's company.
soft, fuzzy baby bunnies!
Near the end of May, we went to a highschool graduation for our friend Zoe (who also happens to be the exact same age as Jessica- birthday twins!)
 They did such a good job with the ceremony; and we had a good time celebrating with them.  

siblings making music!


so sweet
my younger siblings helped demondtrate ''Juice of Barley, which they did perfectly
Zoe and her parents


birthday twins and friends
This year's Memorial Day party at our friends' was rainy, but that didn't stop us from having a blast! First, of course, we got absolutely drenched in the consistant downpour, then when we were a little more on a dry side trooped inside and ate, sang patriotic songs and played guesstures. 
(oh my...whoever knew me 5 years ago never would've imagined that I would end up finally loving games like that! :) )



This one was too cute not to post!
An interesting team: My enthusiastic Dad, reserved sister and brother, and...me! I missed my card....Alexandre did fine. Elodie did her best with her word ''nap'', but a confusion began when the audience guessed ''sleep'' and our Dad, thinking that's what the word was began vigorously acting out his own word! Oh my...We laughed over Elodie's expression in the video we took of it..




spending time with friends
an advertisement for Stately Steps which I snapped on an instant's inspiration that night.

....And THAT was our May...or what we have in passably enjoyable pictures! :)
I can't believe I'm still 'way back there....we had such a splendid June, July, August...I want to share about each of them NOW! :) But I, as you may have noticed, have barely been taking online time!

Have a great AUGUST then. :)







July 18, 2013

Jeremy & Darcie....preview


July 6th 2013!


I can't believe it's already been almost two weeks since the wedding of Jeremy and Darcie! We were so blessed to be able to attend this special wedding of friends of ours! I look forward to sharing many more pictures in the future! It was such an exciting and joyful day....just think! It's happening! My friends are getting married!
It's just amazing to see how God works in people's lives. May He be praised!!!

country girl!
Darcie and Jeremy


June 22, 2013

April 2013 dance practice with friends


I can't possibly cover our entire April in just one blog post, since we took a trip to Canada which lasted ten days...you don't have to be a whiz at math to get an inkling of how many photos we ended up with...5 cameras (8 photographers), over a thousand miles travelled, ten days together with nothing better to do but smile for the camera...and to top it off, a beautiful wedding of friends! So don't blame me if it takes me a little longer to start sharing pictures from that part of April!

Besides our trip, the highlight of April was a dance with friends! Although the last dance of the season is always a little bit sad, it was a fun night- of course.
 (you were about to imagine us all moping about, weren't you?)

 We did mostly, if not entirely, International dances since that was the theme of the upcoming ball...but we also did a new one entitled ''Irish Washerwoman'', which became an instant new favourite! :) And ''Ship's Cook'' is always great. We also did ''Circle Waltz Mixer'' which I find delightful since I love waltzing! (and...even teaching my partners who don't know how to!) and of course..''Duke of Kent's Waltz''!

preparing to learn ''Irish Washerwoman

My sister Elodie took many of the pictures you will see in this post...I think she took all the portrait-ish ones!



Duke of Kent's Waltz


Andrew...with what appears to be a small fairy flitting around behind (Or through?) the tripod


Ashley, Micaiah


:)

I love sepia pictures! As you can tell, since that's how I edit many of them!
Darcie and Jeremy

A dramatic pose. Looks like a dramatic play...
My Dad plays volleyball with intensity
boys lining up before speed volleyball
Miciah sneaks a tasty morsel of apple before the game commences

Meghan shares a tragic tale....I just thought this pic. funny, Meg! :) 
Hope you don't mind. 
Tim was a little tired....
if you look closely, you can see a ghost of a ball behind his front foot which explains everything about this picture. you're welcome!

some people have energy far into the night!
L-L and E playing with a favourite breed of puppy- Australian Shepherd! which was brought by other friends. I love the expression of my sister which is almost like the puppy's!

Okay...since the 10th-21st of April was filled with travelling and Canada stuff, this post will conclude .....NOW!

..Until next time, friends!

Have a great day!

(with the rainstorm that we had today- today being June 22nd I think- I call today fabulous. There's nothing like dancing in the rain! :) )