Academic Milestones

 It is hard to believe, but we have a high school senior in our home this year!  We are excited for Zachary but sad for ourselves as we know that this will bring change, and we have loved being parents to this kiddo.  Can we press pause? 😂  In preparation for his graduation, we had his senior announcement pictures taken - handsome young man!

In other academic milestones, Kaleb was on the Principal's list again - holding down his perfect grades of all straight As, even in the advanced honors classes.  Good for you Kaleb, we are proud of you young man and the care that you put into learning and doing your best.

The kids in Kaleb's year that reached Principal's List - Kaleb is on the end on the far-right hand side.

The proud group of supporters

Kaleb and Kieran

Kaleb and Jackson

Kaleb and Lucas

Random pictures:

Once a year Amy does rounding at the hospital on the weekends (each weekend has a leader who rounds), and it was the finance team's turn in February, so Art and Amy headed out to the hospital to take refreshments to each department and to ask them for feedback.  It is a wonderful chance to see the hospital in action - outside of our desks, and to spend time with Art, who is Amy's finance director and one of her favorite people at work!

Having a great time!

Outdoor Education

During the 6th grade school year at FLEC, there is an Outdoor Education outing to Camp Kulaqua in which the school gets to do various activities and rotations to learn about nature and other interesting things (such as simple machines this year!).  The accommodations are in the lodges, which is lovely to have air conditioning, a decent mattress and bathrooms!  

This was Amy's first year as she wasn't the right gender for Zachary, and Kaleb was during Covid so they pivoted to local field trips, so this was our inaugural trip!

We carpooled with Kelli and Elin which is always fun to be able to visit over the 2 hour drive

We are off!

Cozy in the backseat

Between Kelli and Amy, we had 8 girls total and were put into the hotel in adjoining rooms, which was lovely as the girls were all friends and wanted to hang out together.

Our two cabins - Addison, Penny, Alison, Lele, Lily, Emma, Shane and Elin

Upon arrival, the kids were allowed to explore the camp and have free time until dinner and worship.  

The first dinner in the cafeteria was eye-opening - how do counsellors handle this during the summer - the noise is overwhelming!  The stunned facial expression below says it all.  Thankfully after the first night one's ears seem to become numb and it wasn't so bad. 😆

After dinner we went to the King's Chapel for our night-time worship.  The girls were awesome and went straight to the front to sit so that they could absorb as much as possible and participate.

Walking back to the hotel

Playing Skyjo

We had two adjoining rooms with 6 girls each.  We had combined worship time before bed so that the girls could work through their booklets.  

Evening worship

Day 2 - full day of activities, meals, and two worship sessions.  

Go-cart racing

Addi and Lele

Horseback riding

What a great memory together for this trip!

Alison, Addi, Lele and Penny

It was a bit cool one morning - lovely!

Mamas may just be a touch tired, but what a fun time!

Day 3 - Wednesday:

Night 2's sleeping arrangement included Lily, Addison and Elin sleeping on the pull-out couch in Amy's room.  The Zs (and Js) don't do sleepovers, so this is the girl's opportunity to experience sleepovers to their hearts content!

During the morning worship on Day 3, Addison was chosen to participate in the morning worship.  It ended up being a timed race between her and another boy from her school.  Addison was quite serious about winning, taking off her hoodie so that she could be lighter - and as the crowd (who weren't all from FLEC) chanted "go girl go" she raced like lightning and won! You go girl! 💗

Waiting for their turn to race

As she hits the pastor's hand to end the time - notice no more pink hoodie!

                                            

The activities for the day included power tools, rock climbing and a trip to the zoo!

Learning to drill in screws with power tools

Mom say Yech, Daughter is fascinated 😂

Climbing to the top of the rock climbing wall

Trust Fall - no fear this girl!

axe throwing

And she managed to get it to stick in the board!

Final Day - Thursday

On Wednesday night, the 6 girls decided to have a sleepover in one room, but not having enough beds, Addison and Elin stayed in Amy's room (blessed by Kelli who had to try and wrangle the other girls into going to sleep at a decent time!) - the two girls slept in a single twin bed so that they could make it into a "fort" complete with blankets around the side.  This is how Amy found them in the morning - sleeping like puppies all intertwined 😀

Each day at the beginning and end of the day, there is a flag raising and lowering ceremony.  The last morning FLEC had the chance to do it a second time, and Addison ended up being chosen to help do the honors.  

It was an incredibly great experience, so well done - so informative and interesting for all of the learning objectives that the kids were able to do hands on learning - it is definitely a "must do" experience!

Random pictures from the week:

Rec time one evening the girls made a design in the sand on the ballfield - love the creativity!

Lily, Addison and Alison

The table where they ate every day - love the fact that Alison is reading a book!

Lily and Addi throwing a ball back and forth while chatting one evening during free time

Addi, Penny, Lele and Alison

There is ALWAYS time for a trip to the camp store!

A Little Painting Anyone?

With Valentine's Day approaching, the church held its annual event and this time it was a painting experience!  It was a lovely evening in the warehouse, and while we aren't super-duper artists, we had a fun time trying our hand at painting and visiting with those around us! 

The Zs with the Mixons

All Done - isn't it so interesting to see how much variation there is in how it was painted for each?

Thanks Pastor Jennifer for a super fun evening!

In a funny moment, we realized when we got home that Karis had ripped his jeans wide open - good thing his underwear was black! 😂 Hopefully no-one noticed!

Addison also had a painting outing with her friends Lily and Elin at the U Paint Pottery location - the girls had a lovely time making their creations!

After Christmas is always a busy time with Una Voce, and we headed off to Spring Meadows church.  The songs this year are perhaps our favorite - so beautiful!

Karis and Zachary had the pleasure of going out to a Magic game - always fun for some Daddy Son bonding!

Love you kiddo!

Addison was on a community soccer team this year with XL so that she could play with girls.  The team is not a 100% Sunday game team, so she was able to play about half of the games through the season.  It was as good experience with nice girls and parents on the team.