"Kind of like a hen with a tail"

That's Gavin's description of this picture he just drew. :)

I think it's so fun watching kids' drawing skills emerge and develop! I remember the first time Gavin drew a stick person (well, a loose rendition thereof) - it was so exciting to see something other than scribbles on the paper! Now when he sits down to draw something (which isn't too often - he's not really into just drawing/coloring) he has a definite idea of what he's drawing and it usually ends up looking at least a little bit like what he intended. Very cool.

Guess who's walking?!?

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Only one day left...

Until Greg's Cuba trip! For those who may not know, Greg is taking a group of about 20 youth and leaders down to Cuba for two weeks on a mission trip. They will be visiting and encouraging local churches, attending a youth pastor's conference, and helping the Cuban church wherever and however they can. This has been a huge endeavour: they have been fundraising and preparing all year, and now the trip is almost here! They will be leaving Grande Prairie at 7:50pm tomorrow, arriving in Havana on Friday morning.

The team would really appreciate you praying for them as they are away over the next two weeks - Greg's prepared a prayer calendar to give people some ideas of what they will be doing during the trip and what to pray for, you can find it here: http://www.geocities.com/beaverlodgeclarks/home.html (click on the link).

As well, the team will be going through customs in Cuba at 11:45am Mountain Time on Friday. The customs agents have the power to confiscate almost whatever they want from the materials the team is bringing down, and could make the border crossing very stressful. The missionary who is accompanying the group has seen time and time again his groups get through customs with little to no hassle when they have people at home praying for them as they are going through. Please pray at 11:45am on Friday for our team as they are going through Customs!

I'm not sure if Greg will be able to call/email home while he's away, but if I do hear from him, I'll be sure to post his updates here as well!

Welcome to the 'cold' north...

Where the temperature is currently 32 degrees Celcius (90 degrees Farenheit) and the forecast calls for more of the same tomorrow.

And...it's currently 28 degrees in Havana, Cuba. Who would have thought the team would have to acclimatize to cooler weather when they arrive?!?

We have a new nephew!

Benjamin George McCauley was born this afternoon to Matt and Debra McCauley (Greg's sister). He weighed 8lbs and is a little brother for Christian (7 years old) and Julia (19 months). Christian called us this afternoon to tell us the news and then he and Gavin had a nice long talk too. :) We think they're going to have a lot of fun together in Florida this August!

The camping report

We had a great weekend camping! The kids had a great time and did really well without the comforts of home (well, without some of them...we did have power after all!).

Gavin and Greg slept in the tent the first night, which was okay except that Gavin only slept while the sun was down...which at this time of year is only five or six hours! He did go to bed earlier than that and stayed in his sleeping bag, and Greg made him lie in bed until almost 10, but he never did go back to sleep. So we all started Saturday off a little bit tired.

It was pretty windy for most of the day, but everybody congregated in a sheltered spot by some trees so we didn't have to worry too much about Abby being out in the wind. Gavin had such a good time playing with all the kids there, and he actually rode his bike down to the lake and back a couple of times with a new little friend (this is the child who's been screaming and throwing fits about riding his bike to the post office...)

Saturday night I think is best described by quoting a section of a friend's blog here:

"Come supper time, the Jones family pulled out their 27 inch TV and pulled it into the shelter. Tal had brought his amp and stereo system, and my dad nabbed a signal booster from a fellow teacher. They rigged up the antenna and sound system and when the puck dropped there were about 50 people sitting in the shelter watching hockey on a 27 inch TV sitting on 2 tables stacked on top of eachother, and listening to like 300 watts of sound coming out of 4 speakers.

I know what is camping and what is not. But I am making an exception.

THAT is camping."




:) So that was Saturday evening. That night we decided to put both the kids in the trailer, and I covered up the east-facing windows to try to avoid a repeat performance of Friday night. Except for Gavin waking up screaming that he had to go to the bathroom at around 11 (which of course woke up Abby too, although she was asleep again by the time we came back from the bathroom), they both slept ALL night until 8:45! Greg and I slept in the tent and I was actually warm that night, so we all slept better.

Sunday we woke up to light rain, which meant we had our church service under the picnic shelter, but soon afterwards the sun broke through and we enjoyed a huge brunch of eggs, pancakes, sausages, bacon and more cooked on various people's grills, campstoves, and the wood stove in the picnic shelter. I must say the food is always the best part of church campout! After we had digested enough to be able to move, we packed everything up and left for home around 2:00.

It was a great weekend and we will definitely do it again! Gavin is at a great age for camping - he's old enough to play with the other kids without needing to be supervised at close range all the time, and of course everyone loves to hold a baby, so Abby was often off with one of the 80-90 other people who were there. Greg and I were able to have a good time visiting and playing with friends as well.

Abby visiting with the ladies

Gavin eating his first s'more!

A-camping we will go!

It's our church's annual family campout this weekend, and for the first time since we've been here we are camping for the whole weekend! (Other years we have gone out just for the day on Saturday.)

Friends of ours have graciously lent us their trailer, and we've been getting lessons in how to use all the various parts (fridge, stove, pump, sewer tank...) and we're heading out tomorrow! We're pretty excited, and maybe a little nervous - we haven't done any camping with the kids yet. We know Gavin will have a great time playing outside with all of the kids, and hopefully Abby will be on her best behavior!

We will be at Moonshine Lake (near Spirit River) and we'll be home on Sunday with a report on our first camping experience as a family and lots of pictures!

Boys and mud

Boys will be boys!! Gavin had a little friend over to play yesterday and when I went outside to ask what they were doing, they both grinned up at me and said "making hot chocolate!" By mixing water and sand, mind you. ;) They made quite the cooking crew, Gavin sitting on his bottom right in the middle of the expanding puddle of water they were making, stirring their concoction and then commanding "More sand!" and Devin would run off across the yard to fill up the jug with more sand from the sandbox. I fleetingly thought of telling them they couldn't play that anymore because of the high Mess Probability, but really, nothing was burning down and they were so happy, so I let them be. (I haven't yet checked to see if there's any sand actually left in the sandbox!)

I'm a sucker for a *boy* in a suit!

Gavin's been asked to be the ringbearer in a wedding next month, and this is what he'll be wearing - white to match the groom's tux. I ended up buying it on eBay rather than renting because it costs the same to rent a kids tux as an adult one!! So I bought this for probably less than half the cost of renting, and we can always resell it afterwards. I can't wait to see Gavin all dressed up!! Abby's got a beautiful fancy white dress that she should fit into now, so I think once we get the tux I'll take the kids for pictures in their fancy clothes!

P.S. I'm taking bets on how long it will stay clean...do you think it would be appropriate to have him standing in the foyer in his Spiderman underpants until the moment it's his turn to walk down the aisle???

Like mother, like daughter. :)

It's a can of Diet Pepsi, if you can't tell. ;) And yes, I've heard all the stories about how dirty the tops of pop cans are...I'm, uh, developing her immune system.

Our kids look alike - Part 2

Remember how alike our kids looked at five months? Well, not much has changed! Here's similar pics of both of them at nine months - Abby's hair is fluffier, and Gavin's not really smiling in his picture, but I still think they look pretty close!