Victoria Day

Today is back to work after a nice, relaxing long weekend. We've been celebrating Victoria Day for quite a while now, and it's fairly routine. Unless you're six of course. Then you have all sorts of questions about why we get the day off, who queen Victoria was, when her birthday is, when she lived and died. 

Julie and I weren't that familiar with all these stats either, but a quick Google search showed she died in 1901 and was queen of England and also empress of India for a while. Wikipedia also shows a nice portrait of her. It was generally concluded by the girls that the queen was not the best looking individual to ever grace the throne. 

That didn't stop Littlest from celebrating the day though. 'We celebrate her birthday even though she wasn't very good looking,' may or may not have been overheard. She also made everyone a picture for the occasion complete with the funny crown piece on her head. 

Keep in mind, Littlest is just learning to read and came up with this all on her own. So if you need some translation from her phonetic spelling, it's Victoria died queen birthday. Pretty impressive I thought. 

So there you have it. It's always a good idea to know what you're are celebrating if kids are involved. And also important to celebrate the less attractive monarchs too. Later. 

Biggest gets Baptized

Deciding to move from Saskatoon to Lloydminster almost two years ago was one of the hardest things we have done as a family.  We really had no intention of leaving until an opportunity presented itself.  We prayed about it a lot and door after door kept opening for us.  We really felt like God was telling us this is what we were supposed to do.  It was hard on all of us to leave our jobs, schools, church and friends behind.  

One of the first things we did after moving was find a church.  We felt an immediate connection to FBC here and have been going there ever since.  We are all growing in our faith here, but the blossoming of the girls has been amazing.  They all love to go to church.  I started teaching Sunday School during the first service of the morning this year, so Biggest comes with me for that and then attends the second service with Julie and me.  I'm pretty sure I didn't pay that much attention when I was ten, and I'm definitely sure I never took notes during sermons.  But she has a journal that she brings every week and diligently listens and takes notes.  It is pretty amazing.

About a month ago, Biggest came to us with some questions about baptism.  She talked with Julie and then with me and we found places in the Bible where it talked about it.  Then she decided that she would like to be baptized.  My initial thought was that she was too young, but listening to her talk, we knew she was ready.  We asked our pastors, she took a baptism class and she was ready to go.  

Julie's parents, my mom, my brother and his family as well as Biggest's best friend from school were all there to celebrate the occasion.  Then, just before the service started, two couples from Saskatoon showed up to surprise us.  It was pretty awesome.

While waiting to go in, Biggest told Julie that she couldn't stop smiling:

Talking with Pastor Ryan and still all smiles:

Getting ready:

Taking the plunge:

Still smiling:

A big hug:

There are still plenty of days we all miss Saskatoon.  But then there are days like this when you know you are exactly where you are supposed to be.  The theme for Sunday School this month is contentment:  learning to be happy no matter what you have.  Today's lesson was about focussing on what God has given you today.  If we spend too much time looking back at what we used to have and how things were, we will miss what God has given us now.  And I don't want to miss the gifts He's giving us now, because He is doing some pretty amazing things.

And there was cake too, which is always a reason to be thankful:

 Later.

Star Wars and Mother's Day

I have a friend at work who is a bigger Star Wars fan than me.  Crazy, I know.  It just so happens that his birthday is on May 3.  How could the biggest Star Wars fan I know miss having his birthday on May the fourth by one day?!  It really is a cruel world.  (Just to clarify for any non-geek types out there - May the fourth has become Star Wars day because is sounds like 'may the force' as in 'may the force be with you.')  It also happens that this friend loves tacos and his birthday is two days away from Cinco de Mayo.  So we decided to celebrate these three days with one big Star Wars/taco/birthday party at work.  It was pretty awesome.

Here is the Star Wars shaped snack mix:

The taco bar all set up:

And the birthday boy showing us how it is done.  A taco inside of a taco:

Julie decided to celebrate Mother's Day this year by getting two wisdom teeth carved out two days before.  Needless to say, there were no big brunch plans.  The girls were still able to shower her with their gifts that they made at school.  Their home-made gifts really are special.  Biggest had a picture frame with four holes in it that she filled with pictures and sayings.  One said, 'together, we can do hard things,' which is one of Julie's mantras.  Middlest's card even said, 'I hope your mouth isn't too sore,' and she had some very stunning portraits drawn.  It must have felt like looking in the mirror for Julie.  Littlest had a canvas with a handprint on it so we would always remember how small she was.  Pretty awesome stuff.  

The day before Julie had her oral surgery, she took the time to paint all the girls' toes:

With this being the long weekend and us not being the camper-type, we decided to have a movie night this evening.  We finally got around to watching 'The Force Awakens' with the girls.  Julie and I had seen it in the theatre, but the girls still hadn't seen it.  As I was getting ready and putting the movie in, Littlest asked if Yoda was in this one.  I said that no, he wasn't and that he had died in the last movie.  Then she said, 'That's too bad.  I miss the old days with Yoda.'  Yeah, me too.  Later.