This and That

Swimming

Hello again.  Hope you're surviving the heat!  We've had a couple of super hot days, but have discovered that now that our girls are old enough to go swimming with us, the pond on the mission property makes a wonderful swimming hole. 

  Both girls love to go to the pond, perferably with Otto and Lukas along, but Mommy and Daddy will do if the guys are not around. As you can see we all wear life jackets as the pond is really muddy on the edges and we actually have to use the canoe to get to deep enough water. Maya still wants to be in physical contact when we swim, but Katie is quite happy to do her own thing. We have both girls signed up for swimming lessons this summer so I'm sure their skills, and Maya's comfort level will improve dramatically.

Canning

Summer time means processing time. Over the last couple of weeks we've dealt with Strawberries (freezer Jam), Red currants and Black currants (Jelly)

 Yesterday our new neighbour from downstairs and Michi our newest addition to the family (Michi is one of the german volunteers who will finish off her stay in Canada with us) helped us make black currant Jelly.  We started by picking the berries, boiling it down to make juice and then make the jelly from the juice.  Thanks to Nikki's thinking we also discovered that the otherwise yucky blackcurrant juice is quite nice when mixed with Sprite or Gingerale.  We ended up with 20 jars of jelly and 3 little bottles of juice left over. 

The week earlier Michi helped me make red currant jelly.  It's been really neat to work with these two young ladies and being able to teach/share a bit about canning. 
Our zucchini are growing like crazy so before Michi leaves (end of the month) we'll probably make some zucchini relish, and maybe some pickle beets.  We'll see how things grow.

Too much fun

To make things easier for Uncle Marc to go swimming in the pond (it might be too hard to try to climb into the canoe from deep water) we bought a rubber dingie (sp??) to float him past the weeds and into deep enough water.  Of course we had to blow it up first and the girls just loved playing with it.  As you can see they got along very nicely and they played for a long time quite happily with "the boat".  Unfortunately we have a very curious girl (Katie this time) and she wanted to find out what would happen if you poke it with a knitting needle.  Well... let's just say that what was left of it would not float Uncle Marc.  I think Katie learned an important lesson and Walmart gets to sell a second $10 boat.

Sounds of Switzerland

So every 3 years the swiss choirs all over north america gather together for a competition and a grand concert during a 4 day weekend.  This year the local choir was the host and planned the grand concert at the Center in the Square (one of the largest stages in North America - seats just over 2000).  Mom, Dad and I were asked if we would play the alphorns during the concert.  We've been practicing for months and I think we did a pretty good job.

 After the concert we were happy and relieved.  The tickets were sold out and from the comments I received from the audience they all really enjoyed it.  On Sunday morning I was the guest speaker for the ecumenical church service for the participants of the Sängerfest 2012.  I was nervous, but again, based on the comments I think I did ok.

Potty training?

 Yes, that is Maya sitting on the table trying on Katie's underware.  She has been much more intersted in going potty like a big girl, and wearing UNDERWARE- not diapers.  She did pretty good for the first couple of days, but doesn't seem overly concerned if she wets (or solids) herself.  I think we'll do pull-ups for a while until she learned herself when to go potty and doesn't just wait until I tell her to go, or until she's wet.  We'll try that and see how it goes.  With Katie we rewarded her with Smarties, but Maya doesn't really care so we still have to think up a reward system that means something to her.  Ideas are welcome.

Cooling Off???

 Yup, I've got crazy girls.  Both of them on different occasion have dug up winter hats, mitts, and scarfs to play in.  Mind you it was 30+ degrees outside.  Go figure.

I must say though they both look pretty cute.

Playing Nicely

Don't ask me why, but it seems that there is a direct co-relation between the length of time Katie and Maya play together nicely and the mess they make.  Rarely do they play together without making a big mess somewhere.  I guess I shouldn't be complaining, but I sure hope they'll learn to play without the chaos.  If not, I think I'll still prefer the chaos over the fighting and whining.

So that's us in a nutshell.  July will be busy (as normal) but I hope that I'll update at least once a month or so. 
Blessings to all of you.