May 2016

Some events this month:

• We rebuilt the cabin at the land
• We had our first swim of the year in Gramma and Grampa B's pool
• We had an impromptu family dinner on the front lawn
• Anne rode her bike for the first time without training wheels

Daddy and Anne share a bug net to escape the mosquitoes at the land.

Anne and Max prepare for swimming in the waterfalls.

Charlie inspects the roof of the cabin with Grampa

First swim of the season

Grampa and Anne form a team to "get" others in the pool

Charlie's goofy smile

Charlie didn't manage to work up the courage for the diving board, but he did jump off of the side of the pool

Daddy looks very young with longish hair

Gramma reads a book to the four oldest grandkids

Baby Ada

Baby Tommy

The two youngest grandkids

Grampa and all of his grandkids

Anne rides her bike for the first time

April 2016

In April we went to a maple syrup festival and ran into some friends there:

Anne, Louisa, and Abigail in a giant maple sap bucket

Possibly the kids' favourite attraction in a barn full of cute live animals was this fake cow which you could milk into a bucket.

Anne had a birthday party at the start of April.  It was pirate themed, complete with a pirate ship and a treasure hunt.

Anne and Max read a clue in the treasure hunt.

Ahoy!

Pirates Charlie and Ada enjoy a book

Pirate ship

Cupcakes

Anne tried her bike without training wheels for the first time.  It was very tipsy, so we ended up taking the pedals off like a balance bike for a few weeks so she could get the feel of balancing.  When we put the pedals back on, she was able to bike successfully the first time she tried.  Now she is an expert!

A visit to Gramma and Grampa's wouldn't be complete without a tractor ride:

And some other random photos:

Charlie on his balance bike.  He can really move!

Charlie rakes leaves (which didn't fall off until the spring) with Gramma

And this is a nice photo of Anne that I stumbled upon from last year.

March 2016

I don't really remember everything that happened in March.  Charlie started preschool three days a week, which he really seems to like.  Darwyn turned four years old and had a Frozen-themed birthday party.  Anne turned five years old, but her birthday party ended up being in April (and so will be in the next post).  Also there was March break (of which I can apparently remember nothing), and Easter, where I believe Gramma and Grampa came to visit and we had an Easter egg hunt.  Unfortunately I don't seem to have any photographic evidence of said hunt.  Sigh.

Also in March, Aunt Lo and Uncle Rob got married!  AND they (and baby Tommy) even moved home to our city!  Huzzah!  

Anne in her natural environment

Charlie photobombing my picture of Anne

Inexplicably, a wild turkey eating under our bird feeder

Charlie watching the wild turkey

Darwyn's Frozen birthday party

Charlie is dressed as Anna, with his face painted like Pikachu

Anne is a butterfly

Grampa dancing with baby Ada

Charlie hits the pinata

Charlie the laser-gun-wielding Anna-Pikachu

Anne gets a loom for her birthday from Gramma and Grampa B

Anne got a new bike for her birthday from Mom and Dad

February 2016

In February, Anne's kindergarten class had an open house where Charlie and Mom got to visit Anne's classroom to see what she had been working on.

Anne drew, "A house and a sun."

"I like to build a snowman in the winter"

"This is my family at the beach"

Anne and Charlie in front of the Cheetah Anne's group built for their class zoo

Also in February, we went on a very exciting trip with cousin Casey and Josh on a train to the aquarium in Toronto.

Charlie was mesmerized by the train 

Charlie at the aquarium

Anne at the aquarium

The amazing tunnel through the aquarium

Anne and Charlie in a tunnel through an aquarium

Ditto

Mom and Anne inside an aquarium

And here are a couple of random photos from February:

Charlie and his friend Louisa

Charlie dresses up

Apparently I also missed a couple of great videos in the last post from our trip to Florida: