Victoria Day at the farm

Terry and Holly invited the brothers, sisters and families out to their farm on the Sunday of Victoria Day weekend. Holly has made a gorgeous yard area for picnics and such with a firepit and little "brook" with a bridge, a gazebo and a cute little fish pond. It is nice and relaxing to go there and enjoy nature. Our family was all there except for Jason, Sandra and the boys, who are on vacation on the west coast. Holly had bought a HUGE bottle of bubble soap and some big and little blowers (or whatever you call them) and the kids had a ball blowing bubbles. Papa even got in on it and showed them how to sweep it through the air to get more bubbles. They played with it for hours. It is hard to see the bubbles because of the trees, but there were lots. I didn't put all the pictures I took on this blog, as there were so many. Lucas took my camera at one point and went for a walk. He took about 25 pictures. He is really a good little photographer and some of the pictures are really neat. (Jen may have some on her blog as well as more farm pictures) Dale took his kite and flew it for the kids. It is a stunt kite, so he tried new manuevers and had quite a crew watching and helping him launch it again when it hit the ground. It was good to visit with the rest of the family. I think Jason, et all, and Mike, Lisa and Glenn were the only ones missing. Mike and Lisa stayed in the city to be with Glenn who is still in the hospital. We missed Dad a lot, as these Victoria weekend bbq's were something he really loved. But his presence was felt. Of course it isn't a bbq without roasting hot dogs. This was what I called the "trinity" - Jodi's stick for roasting hot dogs for all three kids at once. It worked good, too. We also had Cory's bbq to cook hamburgers and of course everyone pitched in to provide salads and desserts. It was a good spread and we ate well. And it wouldn't have been our family bbq without a peanut scramble. Between Lynn and Terry, there were tons of peanuts! The kids love to run and pick them up - even some of the bigger kids still love getting in there to body check each other to grab the most peanuts! Right, Jen, Jessica and Caleb? It was fun to watch the new generation get in on it. Lucas, Joshua, Christopher,Bethany, Aislyn, Rhyder, Erin and Chase had great fun. Little Elora is too small yet, but maybe the tradition will continue and she can join in next year, as well as Cory and Jo's little one who is expected in October. We had a gorgeous day for the picnic - which wasn't always the case. So many got rained out. Thanks Dad for the neat tradition and fun we can have as a family.

After dark it was time for the sparklers. There were so many that even the adults got to play with them. This is Erin and Bethany with their sparklers. They loved the sparklers and kept asking for another one.

Lucas, unfortunately, as well as Mark and Terra's daughter, Aislyn, burned their hands on their first ones and were sort of out of commission after that. It was fun to watch the kids and the grown-ups playing. After that, we watched the fireworks that Dad had left with Terry after a rained-out bbq. They were very pretty and loud and even though the cows weren't impressed, the rest of us were. It was a

wonderful conclusion to a great day!!!