Week 8

Though I feel terribly sad about how our last week ended, the days prior to Saturday were pretty good overall.  It was our eighth week together as a complete family.  Here are a few highlights...though if you only have a few seconds, feel free to jump to the bottom, where I have posted my favourite three pictures of the week.

Last weekend we headed towards a local beach just outside of the city; the sand was a bit rocky, but the kids had a great time, both in the water and out.

(below)

Geoff, surveying the situation.  It was a spectacular day to enjoy outside.

Seth and Lizzie, hovering at water's edge.

(below)

Seth loved the water, but was occasionally scared when the waves crashed around his knees and sucked him further in.

(below)

All of the kids loved building in the sand and stones, but none more so than Matthew!  Here, he created a slide for himself and the other kids.   Can you just hear Seth saying something like:  "I'm the king of the castle..."

 

Another Birthday!  Just days after Lizzie turned four, Seth also had a birthday.  My tiny middle child is now a big six years old.  He could hardly believe that it was his day; he kept walking around and saying "Happy birthday to you Seth Asrat?  No, no, no."  It took some convincing.  

(below)

Because Seth loves injera, I decided to serve his western-style birthday meal on injera...with a side of berbere spice from Ethiopia (he and Lizzie shared this platter of food).  The platter was purchased in Ethiopia, from the huge outdoor Merkato market (and I bartered hard for it).  For Seth's birthday meal, I cooked chicken breasts, trout, a wild rice mixture, a three-bean dish, a roasted mixed veggie dish (not shown) and an incredible black bean/avocado/parsley/tomato salad.  It was good!

(below)

I think everyone enjoyed the meal, which we ate outside. 

Seth loves anything lemon, so I baked him a lemon birthday cake with a very lemony fresh glaze to go overtop; I must say that it was delicious, especially with a few blueberries on the plate.

(below)

Enjoying cake.

(below)

Every.  Single.  Day.  Seth asks me for coffee and/or tea.  I have about three cups of tea or coffee a week, and occasionally I give him a teaspoon full of my beverage, or let him drink the last mouthful from my cup.  But for his birthday, when the adults were enjoying some coffee with our cake, I gave Seth a very special treat...a large mug of coffee (well, half coffee and half milk with a teaspoon of sugar stirred in).  He inhaled it - drank it practically without taking a breath!  And let me tell you, it was good to the last drop for him!!  He was thrilled - it was probably one of the best parts of the day for him.  I know he drank coffee and tea in his life in Ethiopia, but I've never seen a 5/6 year old love the taste of coffee and tea.  He referred back to that cup of coffee for days.

 

(Below)

Seth with two of his cousins.

(Below)

A delighted Seth, thanking Matthew for the bell for his bicycle.  Seth watched Matthew give Lizzie a bicycle bell last week and kept asking if that bell could be for his bike.  Now he has one.  Our household is now officially and annoyingly equipped with bike noises!

(below)

Here, Seth is in the midst of opening up another treasure, from Grandpa and Grandma:  a small three-wheel scooter, almost exactly like Matthew's.  It was a banner birthday for Seth.

(Below)
Sometime in mid-week, I took the two younger kids to Tim Hortons for lunch, while Matthew played with his cousin.  I discovered that the kids love soup...something I haven't made since coming home from Ethiopia because it's been so hot outside.  Later in the week, I made a batch of homemade chicken noodle soup and they loved that, too.

(below)

Still at Tim Horton's, the kids are pretending to sleep on the bench there.  They learned the word "pretending" this week and are using it to maximum capacity.

Matthew went through one more week of intensive swimming lessons, and amongst the other techniques that he learned, the kids started to learn basic life-saving drills.  For one drill, they had to don life jackets and pretend they'd fallen out of a boat...and they learned how to help each other make it to shore and pull each other onto the shore.

(below)

While Matthew and his cousin were in the pool, my sister and my younger kids watched.  Here's my sister with Lizzie...and one of Lizzie looking rather 'hip.'

One of the boys' favourite things to do these days is to do wild jumps from the sofa in the library.  One day this week, they asked me to take pictures of the jumps they made (every single one of them for a total of 80 jumps and 80 pictures - thank goodness for the ability to delete digital photos!).  They'd jump and then immediately run over and take a look at the picture I took of them.  They easily spent a few hours doing this kind of thing over the course of a couple of days.  The wilder the jump, the crazier the look on their faces while they did it, the more they sweat, the happier they were!

(below)

Lizzie made her presence felt by lying on top of the couch from time to time...a source of never-ending frustration for the boys.  Their frustration seemed to roll right off her back, though...in fact, I think she enjoyed it!

(Below)

Brothers.

Another favoured activity by both boys last week was shooting bullets from their nerf guns onto the ceiling, where the suction-cup bullets would stick for a moment and then release.  As the bullets fell, the boys would try to catch them in their mouths.  I don't quite understand why this was so terribly much fun, but they certainly shared a common view on this endeavour, and would cheer wildly if one of them managed to catch the bullet in their mouths.  Go figure.

(below)

I think these pictures are self explanatory.  Look for the bullets on the ceiling, and the rest follows.

I also quietly celebrated my birthday this week.  We decided not to tell the younger kids, though, given that we won't be celebrating it for a couple of weeks (when I have family members coming home from vacation, etc).  But we did go for a picnic on my birthday, with a dear friend, and despite a horrid, tantrumy last half hour of our time together, it was lovely to be celebrated...even if furtively!

(Below)
We ate pizza and cookies (what a great kind of birthday lunch!), and I brought bubbles and balls for the kids to play with afterwards.  I think they enjoyed it.

(Below)

Matthew playing ball with my friend (and his) in the park after lunch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

My favourite pictures of the week:

(below)

They were as happy at this moment as they look to be in this picture.

(below)

I think this picture is spectacular!

(below)

Enough said.