Monster Trucks

Today we had an awesome family experience. We went to the new Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Center and watched the Monster Truck Spectacular. I know most of you are probably thinking this was Marc's idea or Ben's, but no, it was me. I am a huge fan of monster trucks and any type of motorsport show. It was quite neat to watch the kids faces when the motocross bikes took their first jumps and when the ashphalt junkies (stunt bikes) did their wheelies and the riders would stand on their seats without actually holding on to the bikes. Ben loved Bounty Hounter the best and I...well, I screamed my lungs out cheering everyone on. I think my kids saw a completely different side of me today, but it was a good side...I think. I screamed so loud that they threw a shirt at us and Marc caught it. It was a great way to spend some family time...and I highly recommend it.

Lego

Benjamin is such a fan of lego so when I came across a blog named "Lego a Day" he was thrilled. Basically every day this guy posts lego men in various situations and writes little captions to go with them. They are hilarious. Ben wanted to try the same and here are the results.

Happy Mother's Day/Birthday

This is me on my 9th Mother's Day and my 35th birthday. It was quite a wonderful day. I woke up to a little treasure hunt with messages just for Mommy. Both kids made me wonderful gifts and beautiful cards. The biggest surprise was the Wii Fit...as you can tell by the bottom picture. It is such a fun game and a good way to exercise too. The whole family loves it.
After church we picked up some lunch and headed to MacDonald Park. We had a wonderful little picnic and then went for a walk. After that we headed to Birchwood Dairy for some ice-cream and then spent the rest of the day hanging out in the yard and then trying out the Wii Fit. It was a fabulous day. I am so thankful for my children, my wonderful husband and the rest of my family and friends for making this a special day.

Batter Up!

Once again this year our kids are in Interchurch Baseball and are really enjoying it. It is so laid back but a really great venue to learn the game. Ben has an awesome coach who is amazing with kids and he is really teaching them a lot.

This picture is of Ben listening intently to Coach Corrie.

Ben is in t-ball this year.

This is Hannah's first year of softball and she is privileged to have her father coaching her. She too is learning a lot about the game. We have practice times at home as a family and it has been a great way for us to spend time together. I think next year we might try a different league and be able to take it a little more seriously. Who knows?

Retreat

One of the perks of being a "pastor" in the MB Conference is being able to go to the Pastor and Spouse's Retreat at Harrison. Last year we went for the first evening but this year we were able to stay over and enjoy most of the next day as well. We visited with other couples, spent some quiet time together (so much quieter when the kids aren't around), were challenged in the meetings, ate some good food and all this in such a beautiful location. Maybe next year we'll be able to stay one more night and get the whole experience. I'm so grateful for my job and have been very blessed with this ministry. I have wonderful co-workers and an incredibly supportive husband. God is good!

Friendship Garden

This evening our family headed off to the Friendship Garden that was recently built in town. It is quite a beautiful place and will be even more so once the plants start to mature. All four of us brought our cameras and so probably looked like a bunch of freaks but we enjoyed it.

Here are my three favourite people honing their photography skills.

Some of the flowers in the garden.

Pontiac and the Potato Plants

Here is our new van. We love it and the kids are so incredibly excited about it that they don't care that it can actually take us places, they just want to play in it. We had a rather hectic weekend trying to purchase a vehicle as Marc's Honda sold on Thursday and we didn't want to go too long with only one vehicle. Friday night was a nightmare as we almost purchased a different one (quite similar to the above) but changed our mind when the battery died and we couldn't get it out of the person's driveway. I believe in signs...and that was definitely a bad one.
Saturday we decided to check out another one we had seen online and with the help of Cam and Ali babysitting our kids, we headed off to New West and returned a few hours later with our new vehicle (new to us) a Pontiac Montana. Even though it is a used vehicle it is in incredible shape and runs really well. We are looking forward to stuffing it full when we go camping this summer.
On a different note... our kids stayed over at Nana and Grandpa's house a few weeks ago and returned with decorated coffee cans full of soil. They were going to grow potato plants. With the help of our wonderful solarium, the plants started to grow right away. It has been 3 weeks exactly and this is what we now have. We put them in bigger pots today because they had outgrown the original ones. I'm not quite ready to plant them in the ground yet as it's probably bound to up and snow on us. I think I'll wait a few more weeks. Who knows? Maybe we'll actually get some potatoes out of it. Here are the pics. Hannah's is the first pot with two plants and Ben's is the second with three.