Len's #46

We celebrated Len's birthday over all 3 days of the weekend!  The kids had a PD day from school, but since Kaleb had the MTC, Len worked.  However, since he's working from home he still got to choose the menu for the day.  He had croissants and hot cocoa for breakfast, quiche (from our favorite bakery) for lunch, and nachos for dinner!

I love my man!

And these kiddos sure love their dad!

I splurged and joined in on having a slice of his amazing birthday cake (on a diet and have lost 21 pounds so far!).  It's bad that we live so close to this bakery though.

Make a wish!

It was a vanilla cake with a layer of strawberry mousse and a layer of vanilla mousse, and worth every calorie!  He also talked to his 3 brothers, my parents, and Noé.

On Saturday, we drove out to Kemptville to hike through the forest.

Crazy cool mushrooms growing on this tree.

Look closer and see the millipede!  We saw thousands of them crawling along our trail!  And there were just as many mosquitoes eating us alive.

Pretty flowers in the distance.

And this howitzer tank was hanging out across the street from where we had lunch.

I HIGHLY  recommend Fat Les's.  I only ordered a small poutine, but I took a bite of Len's burger and want to go back for my birthday!

He ordered the Boss Hog.  It was a 1/4 pounder with pulled pork, fried onions and onion rings, pickles, bbq sauce, and smoked cheddar cheese.  Perhaps THE BEST burger I've ever tasted.

These purple night sky galaxy flowers were so beautiful!  When we got home we watched Somewhere In Time.  Now I'm really itching to get to Mackinac Island!

On Sunday, I finally remembered to give him his gift (I just wanted to make his birthday last longer!).

He got The Rose of Deseret.  It's a book of poetry written by his great-great grandmother.

The inside of his card says to, "Fiesta until you Siesta."  He definitely did that!

Pikachu Girl

Ali's Pikachu dress arrived and she was so happy!

She loves Pikachu!  And scrunchies!  She also had half a dozen on each ankle, but she had to take them off so they wouldn't cut off her circulation, eek.  She's my retro-80s girl!

Elder Reil in the MTC

Elder Reil entered the Home- Missionary Training Center (HMTC) on June 2nd.

I'm so pleased with the young man he is becoming!

I hope he gets lots of opportunities to share his testimony with the people of Mozambique.

He's back to studying via Zoom.  However, his university days were about 6 hours long, and now his days are about 12 hours long online.  He's working hard!

He's learning how to teach the gospel and speak in Portuguese in district 10-D.  There are 5 elders, 2 sisters, and 4 teachers.  He's learning with Elders Butikofer, Livingston, Gold, and Marshall, as well as with Sisters Martinez, and Grow.  His teachers are Irmaos Stephens and Pettit, as well as Irmas Mace and Daines.

This crew will be serving in Mozambique, Angola, Portugal, and Boston, Massachusetts.  I pray each one of them will have a wonderful mission experience!

Gavin's cupcakes

Gavin had a Young Men activity to decorate cupcakes.  I baked them up for him (he had school) and got blue frosting for him.  There was also some leftover purple frosting from the macarons Kaleb made.  He didn't like using the decorator tips, so he used a knife instead and some chocolate chips.

Voila!  20 cupcakes to enjoy!

Heart Attack

Len and I took Macy on a little neighborhood walk one evening and when we returned home we found three of the cute Gagnon sisters giving our door a heart attack!

It was on behalf of Brianna, my ministering sister.

And it made me smile big!

It's June!

June brings the end of school and the beginning of my favorite season- summer!  I love playing in the sun and water- either at the beach, a lake, a pool, or a waterpark, I love them all!

June is also when we celebrate Leonard's birthday and Father's Day.

I like the view!

Soon we will have backdoor neighbors!

Ali's #7

Our little Ali was about to turn 7, so we celebrated on Victoria Day!

She chose the menu for the day beginning with pancakes.  We made them pink and purple and added whip cream to make them extra birthday special.

For lunch she wanted to make animal toast again.  She made more cats- a momma and her kitten.

Gavin made some dogs.

Teague made a monkey.

Hiram tried to make a frog, but then he said it was a water fountain with a water splash, ha ha!

We played an M&Ms game, went on a neighborhood walk, stopping to play at all 5 parks we passed.  Ali chose taco salad for dinner, and cupcakes for her treat so we got some vanilla ones with purple frosting and red velvet ones with cream cheese frosting and mini oreos that made us think they looked like soccer balls.

SEVEN!

Her cupcake gave her an extra gift- look at her purple tongue!

Time for her real gifts.

We got her a Pikachu stuffy and a Pikachu dress (that hadn't arrived yet) and 10 Fancy Nancy books.  The Camerons gave her the big Cloe doll.  The Wildes gave her a ladybug towel, cat purse, and a jewelry box filled with clip-on earrings.  Lucky!

She loved everything, but especially her Pikachu.

Macy was so intrigued with Cloe.

Can we be friends?

We also had a Frozen movie marathon.

Her actual birthday was 2 days later.

After school we played at her favorite park, and watched more Olaf movies.  She also talked to Noé and all of her grandparents.

Kaleb also made homemade macarons, seriously so good!

Happy Birthday Ali Cat!