Evelyn 6!!

 Where is time going! Jumping on from Matthew's 11th we making cupcakes for a 6 year old!

 Actually Melanie did all the work. :)

 Fresh strawberries as per the birthday girl's request.

 Classic irritated Evelyn look. :o

 Evelyn still offers her help in the kitchen, and thinks sitting on the counter is acceptable.

 She loves books, and will let anyone read to her!

 Her siblings love her too! Daniel made Evelyn a wooden cruise ship. Look, it's Opa and Oma's cruise ship!

 And a combo gift, the wardrobe from Nathan, Doll clothes from Melanie, and hangers from Matthew to spoil this child!

 On a separate day that week we went to a very big indoor playplace and Evelyn got to enjoy running around and jumping to her heart's content!

 The pit of squishy cubes was not easy to climb out of, especially with both your socks still on!

 (there was a very stinky gross stash of them lost in the bottom, apparently)

 There was a climbing wall too, kinds fun to try...but scary!!

 There were several levels of difficulty, but we stuck to the basic one. Just to see what it was like!

 The bowling alley was a pain. Half the alley wasn't working at all, and the ones that did had gimpy setups that you couldn't change. But we rolled a few balls anyways (gotta get our entrance fees worth of items tried! ;) )

 The laser tag area was fun to play grounders on (but the tag equipment...that was a joke!)

 We had lotsa fun zipping around!

 Evelyn was too small for the harnessed climbing wall (and wouldn't want a stranger roping her up anyways) so she enjoyed the mini one in peace.

 She's a monkey all right!

Everyone was happy when Evelyn got an influx of Lego people. She loves to hoard all the people, and does more play and less building...her siblings don't feel it's fair for her to keep all the minifigures! (finally, a gift that made everyone happy :p )

We are thankful for Evelyn. She might be taken to be a quiet reserved person, but don't be mistaken! She is also full of spunk, energy, ideas, fun and NOISE.

End of winter

 The skating rink ice wasn't really smooth or perfect, but useable anyways.

 Icicles! (tastes a bit like shingles!)

 skateboards on ice...interesting

 Checking on Mom

 We had some company during spring break and enjoyed the sliding hills together.

 At this point our chickens still  looked good (now they have bald patches and are ugly)

 Excuse me, can I have some privacy when I'm laying?

 Our "apartment" got taken over by go cart pieces. At one point it smelled like gas all through the house. Feels like home, I guess.

 Playing with melting snow, the sliding saucer and containers from the recycling

 Matthew heading to the coop with scraps to keep the chickens happy

 A bleary day calls for a board game.

We moved the water into the coop after having some traumatizing trouble with predators (presumably rats who disappeared later--eaten by mink?). The rooster, we're sure, is less than intelligent, as the weather is cold...why get your toes wet when it's freezing? Besides, that's not nice to drink after.

 Evelyn loves books!

 The fort survived the winter...the tarpaulin roof had to be rolled up as it liked to get loose on the corners and flap wildly in the wind.

Matthew 11

 Long ago Matthew had a birthday, which we celebrated by going to the tank museum off somewhere distant. The weather was snowy and people were warned to stay off the roads. A church event was cancelled. But we had winter tires and no traffic to deal with...so we went anyways! (The roads weren't bad, it's mostly just hype...and traffic)

 The tanks are not small! There was a guy in the museum (who were working on a display) that came by a few times and gave us interest bits of information. When he wasn't around we reverted to asking Nathan questions. He had lots of interesting info too!

 A large number of these tanks get ridden in the summer, once they are restored. Too bad we're too cheap to pay for a ride. ;)

 We also tried on the clothes they had in a trunk.

 Oh, and the guns!

 Matthew got to pick out a model tank too, which had a motor that worked (for two days I think).

 It was fun putting together -- his first model!

 Someone made a joke, and Matthew's typical response is "that face" which is like a scrunched up grin. ;)

 He spent some quiet time in the piano room playing songs from the book of praise.

 Sounded very nice!

 Waiting for coffee...and then time to open presents! :)

 Melanie made a wallet for Matthew. An old purse of mine, repurposed!

We are very thankful for the years we have been blessed with Matthew in our family! He has matured a lot in the last while, and is turning into a responsible hard working young man. His is our faithful chicken keeper, and really does a great job looking after the birds! He has a great sense of humour and remains, over all, a very easy going guy.