Friday, 30 July 2010

The Tree house!

A while ago I posted about our trip to Papa and Nina's house in Indiana. Now that the tree house is painted and officially done, we will now post pictures of the tree house Joel and Papa built in a beautiful maple tree.

First I will give you a tour: starting from the ground going into the tree house and then I will show you what it looks like from the outside. After that you will see the final result, painted and trimmed!

So first, you start here, a white ladder:


Walk up the ladder into the middle of the four tree trunks. There you will find a black rope ladder (you can see it on the left in the picture above.) Climb up the rope ladder. Don't bonk your head on the trap door!


Once you get through the trap door, remember to close it so you don't fall through! Straighten up and this is what you will see. To your left:


This is the princess porch. Notice the arched doorway. You will see the porch a little better later.

Straight ahead and slightly to the right you will see this:


This is the main deck/porch. There you will find a rope and bucket for all your hoisting needs.
Behind your head and to your right are large windows.

If you are an adult you will notice this in front of your face (If you are a child you may have to look up a little):


This is Joshua's tower. You will see this better later from the outside. There is a small ladder to the right to climb up.

Here is another photo of the tower:


Yes, those are skylights in the roof above the kids' heads. You can also see a bit of the ladder in this photo.

Well, now that you've seen the inside, would you like to get down and see the outside? Turn around and squeeze yourself through the trapdoor, go down the rope ladder, but stay there! Don't go down the white ladder, there's a more fun way to get down to the ground:


That's right! A slide! So since you can see the princess porch in this above photo I will show another photo for you, a little more close up:


If you circle around the tree clockwise you will return to the white ladder. But above your head will be this:



I have added these next two photos for added visual understanding and to see how high off the ground the tree house actually is and how tall the maple tree is:




On the left is Papa and Nina's house. On the right is a willow tree. A little to the left of the willow tree you will see the tree house. That is Papa walking away from the tree house. Gives it a bit more perspective doesn't it?


After we left, Papa painted the tree house a barn red with white trim and shingled the roof:



Let's give Joel and Papa a standing ovation for their creativity and hard work!!

A side note for those interested: they used conduit (sp?) for the bars in the railings and windows.

Monday, 26 July 2010

Preachin', Walkin' and Livin'

Joel had the opportunity to preach a sermon at church. The sermon is titled "An Undivided Heart" and is from the book of Haggai.

Madelynn has been starting to stand up on her own and has taken a few steps already. Of course it's impossible to get it on camera. But here is an attempt for the "standing on her own" bit:



Joshua is at Papa and Nina's this week. He'll be returning Saturday. We all miss him but we know he is having a great time.

Rachel is in love with raspberry picking. We are trying to get enough to make some jam. Quite difficult, but we are halfway there!

Lots of stuff has happened here in our town/community. It is quite heavy on our hearts as we grieve with the people who have suffered loss but we are still focusing on Jesus and the cross, knowing that He alone has hope through suffering.

As of the typing of this post, we are still living in the same house. Nothing new has come up. But nobody seems to be buying this house either, so we take a day at a time, trusting God to show us where to live next in His time.

We are eagerly awaiting a visit from Nana and Grandpa (Joel's parents) in a few weeks. They are pulling their camper all the way here! (It's a 24 hour drive) We haven't seen them since Thanksgiving last year! (That's Canadian Thanksgiving, which would be the beginning of October)


Thursday, 15 July 2010

Vacation Time!

All last week we were visiting Papa and Nina (my folks). We stayed over a week and had a blast. It was hot (average temp that week was mid 90's F and high humidity), but we tried to make the most of it. I sat in front of a fan most of the time (my folks don't have AC), but Papa and Joel built a tree house (way cool pictures to come! stay tuned!). Nina and the kids had a blast with the sprinklers, the garden hose, playing with the kitties, munching on veggies from the garden, going to the grocery store to cool off (I'm serious), and oh so many other fun things.


Joshua and Papa grinding coffee (yes, that's a hand grinder, it's over 20 years old and works great!)




It seemed like Papa and Nina really bonded with the older kids this time around. I hardly saw Josh all week! He was usually out watching Papa or playing with Nina. And Rachel warmed up immediately, giving Papa a big hug the moment she stepped out of the van upon arrival. The only good pictures I have of Rachel involve the tree house, and I have promised Joel I would not post any tree house pictures yet. You'll see why later. So here's some great ones of Madelynn in the baby swing.





Madelynn became more clingy once we arrived. Whenever Mommy was in the room or in sight she demanded to be held. If I wasn't around, she was fine and she let Papa or Nina play and hold her. Well, it turns out she was teething. She received two more teeth towards the end of our visit, to make a grand total of eight teeth! Madelynn is actually still there, at Nina and Papa's house. The four of us (five with Bean Sprout) are home now. Nina will be bringing M back here to our house early next week. Don't tell Joshua this yet, but he's next in line! Nina will drop Madelynn off and return home with Joshua for a week or so! (Isn't summer vacation fun?) (Nana and Grampa: don't worry, he'll be back in time to see you!)

We all miss Madelynn but we know that she is in good hands and I'm so glad my parents can enjoy this special time with her.

I must also mention another part of our vacation. Joel and I (w/o the kids) were able to travel a few more hours to visit our friends Joshua and Stephanie! Hurrah! We had a great time with them and it was so great to see Claire and Sophia and how they have grown so much. Joel had the opportunity to sit in on a few morning classes with Joshua and we both saw where Josh is learning to roast coffee. It was refreshing to catch up with them and see where they live and work and play.

So that's all for now!


Wednesday, 14 July 2010

Summer Strawberries

A few weeks ago we five (six with Bean Sprout) packed up and headed out to a Strawberry Farm. It was beautiful weather, 80 F and sunny. The heat wasn't too bad, it was 4:00 in the afternoon. We began our picking with gusto but with several breaks throughout the adventure.

Joshua picked nearly a whole ice cream pail himself! Rachel had about 5 strawberries in her bucket, and Madelynn was stuffed full!





We came home, and after the kids went to bed, Joel and I stayed up late freezing some berries and mashing others to make jam out of later.
A few days later I made several pints of rhubarb strawberry jam and regular strawberry jam. So yummy!



This next photo I'm just adding on for fun. Rachel is a great big sister and helps feed Madelynn:

Sometimes Rachel begs me to let her feed Madelynn!


Monday, 21 June 2010

Madelynn's First Birthday

Here she is, the Birthday Girl! She turned ONE:

Eating pizza for supper.


Oh Madelynn! Over here, yoo-hoo!


Happy Birthday Madelynn!!
Yummy apple pie! (Gluten Free of course!)


One of her birthday cards, this one from Great Grampa and Gramma E.


The pictures below are just for fun:

She's just sitting there looking cute. No actual riding yet. :)


Peek a boo!