Male and Female He Created Them

We are bird watchers in this house...not serious ones, but we do enjoy their activities around our house.  This lovely couple came to visit us the other day, so I had to share these pics.  The male might be incredibly red, but man oh man, does her beak ever stand out!  God has created such beautiful things for us to enjoy!

The Flowers Are In!

I have been enjoying the opportunity to work in and among the blooms at the greenhouse these days, and as a result, I have also brought several of the beautiful plants home with me.  Last night after work, my trusty muscle man helped to cart home from the garden centre several bags of compost and peat moss.  We gave the garden a nice layer of that and then I went to work filling in the spaces between the perennials with annuals that I brought home from work.  I took some shots of some of the additions to the garden and will have to post some more later once things fill in.  I love this time of year!

Eye-Spy a Taylor

This lilac is turning out to be one of the best additions to our garden.  The aroma right now is UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Track and Field 2010

It's that time of year again! Track and Field was held this past Thursday, May 20th, at Nelson Stadium. Taylor started the day off bright and early before the rest of the gang because she wanted to run the 1500m. She came in first and is going on to regionals for that as well as well as a couple other events. Levi and David gave their best efforts as well and came home with some ribbons and stories to share. Levi will also be going on for some of the events...details to follow in a later post.

Visit From "Auntie Karen"

We had a wonderful visit from our "Auntie Karen" on May 11th.  Karen "adopted" our family when we lived in Lindsay, so she became known as Auntie Karen.  She stopped in for dinner and a visit during her recent trip to Toronto.  We enjoyed a few hours together catching up and enjoying each other's company. 

Duet Practice

Amber and Taylor are playing a duet today for the senior's tea, so we thought it'd be fun to make a little video to share. Keep in mind this is rehearsal. They are hoping the real gig will be flawless...and if it's not, no one will care. We told them to just have fun with it and if you mess up just smile and keep going.

Eye Spy a Blue Jay

Our little man David is very much into the Eye Spy books right now.  We are enjoying the bed-time "let's do a page or two together" time.  I started it with David when he was sick last weekend, but it seems to have carried on and even Dad is getting in on the action. 

On another note, it was grandparents day at Trinity Christian School yesterday, and both sets of grandparents were there to visit the kids.  Mom and Dad came over after grandparents day and when dad had a nap I went to the Christian Book store and Dutch store with mom.  After dinner, we ventured out to King's Christian Collegiate to enjoy the musical, "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown".  The cast and crew did such a great job.  I had tears running down my face at more than one part...not b/c it was so sad, but so very funny.  It's so great to laugh, isn't it!?  Humour is a wonderful part of life.

Our bird feeders were cleaned and filled last weekend, and the finches were quick to come around, but the larger birds have been hogging the food and keeping the finches at bay.  Oh well, we enjoy watching them all and I love trying to catch some pictures of them. 

As I type, Rick is out shopping with the gang.  It's Mother's Day tomorrow, so I did lots of yawning this morning and pretended I didn't want to go out on this particular shopping trip.  I wonder what they are doing?  Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

Exciting Baby News!

We are praising God for the arrival of Ken and Dana's little Benjamin Simon Huizinga.  He was born in the Welland hospital yesterday, May 3rd, at 9:53 am, weighing 7 pounds.  I think he is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  God is so good!  Everyone in this house can't wait to meet him in person.  I had the privilege of visiting mom Dana today and taking his picture.  We are praying that all the difficulties he is having right now will be straightened out and that he'll be home very soon. 

Sunshine After the Rain

What a beautiful morning!  We got blasted with wind and rain through the night.  It was great!  We really needed the rain and what a difference a little shower can make on the world.  Everything is incredibly green this morning and even the new sod in the back has just greened up so fast.  Caught a few picks of rain drops on the flowers this morning, one of my favourite things to capture, as well as the fat, guilty, tulip-munching, four legged, furry creature who has been enjoying mine as well as the neighbours' gardens.  He is guilty as can be.  You can see on the picture all the tulips he has munched right down.  Bad bunny!

This poor baby has a hang-over from the rough night...

Sunday Afternoon at the Park

Burloak Park was the location for today's outdoor activities.  David had fun looking for beautiful rocks along the shoreline and I sat there until I got too freaked out by all the spiders that were crawling in and around all the rocks...yuck.  I was hoping to sit there and read, but that didn't last very long.  The eight-legged creatures were a bit too much for me.  The kids enjoyed a little batting practice until the old baseball fell apart, and we watched the rainy clouds race across the sky.  David and Amber did a little tree climbing and I didn't get much reading done.  We didn't get any rain while we were there, but I believe the weather man says it's coming. 

Awesome rain clouds moving along

Family out for a Sunday Swim

Rick says that it's not fair that the keeper of the blog gets to choose which pictures go on, and since he took so many of me while I was up to bat, I thought I'd post at least one of myself just to keep him happy.

Little monkey and big monkey in the tree

One of hundreds and hundreds of spiders enjoying the warm weather.