Turning Double Digits -- Thankfulness

Thankfulness -- Spring Break edition

50. Opportunities for Creative Expression -- Desiree and Elijah took an art class where they each got to paint a picture of our cat, Socks and make a clay sculpture of her too!  

The kids had fun and were very pleased with their results!

51. Turning Double Digits -- Elijah has hit the big 1-0 and is now in the double digits!  We celebrated as a family on his official day, but his party with friends is still to come.  This year's theme is Big Hero 6 (and that's Hiro on Elijah's hand).

52. Scootering in a Torrential Downpour -- Elijah got a scooter for his birthday and because it's no fun to scooter alone SURPRISE -- Desiree got one too!  To make things even more fun, Ernie and I spent our future birthday money and got scooters for ourselves too. 

On our second scootering trip a man walked past us and said 

"The family that scooters together..."  :)

~❀~ Chelsey ~❀~

Still Holding Hands -- Thankfulness

Thankfulness continued....

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly 5 years since I last wrote a thankfulness post.  I have been incredibly thankful, even though I haven't posted about it...

45.  The Little Free Library in our neighbourhood.  We have been trading books and enjoying the walks, bike rides and scooter trips to check out what's new!

46.  "A Thousand Years" and this Littlest Pet Shop video:

Desiree (11 years old) found it and played it for me.  Desiree was lost in the woods last summer and this video reminds me of that...

47.  Still Holding Hands...  Our family went to the store the other day and on the way back I was holding Desiree's hand and told Elijah to hold Dad's hand when we crossed the street.  As we walked up our street my husband went on ahead and Elijah held Desiree's hand.  It's sweet to see a 9 year old boy who will still hold his Dad's hand, but especially sweet to see my two kids still willing to hold hands...

48.  Sleeping Through the Night -- Elijah has been having scary nightmares lately, but has made some progress on sleeping through the night.  I've told him everyone wakes up in the middle of the night and he just needs to remind himself to "Roll over and pick a new dream".

49. Looking at Old Photos from past Thankfulness posts:

~❀~ Chelsey ~❀~

Getting Near Deer -- Thankfulness

Thankfulness -- Summer vacation edition

39. Camping!  This was our first camping trip in 4 years so it was really special.  We found a campground where we could play horseshoes, ride a zipline (even the adults tried it!) and spot chipmunks (bottom right picture of Elijah).




40. Spending time with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa -- We don't get to see them very often because they live so far away.  We were able to see them a few times -- once they even came to the campground to visit us there! 

41. Making S'mores and listening to the kids sing the S'mores song:







"Graham cracker, graham cracker, chocolate bar.
Sitting 'round the campfire under the stars.
Marshmallow, marshmallow sticky and sweet.
Put 'em all together and you've got a treat."  (Veggie Tales)

42. Pony Rides

Elijah picked Princess and Desiree picked Snickers.  The kids were thrilled with their ride around the campground and with getting to feed the ponies afterwards.

43. Visiting Grandma, Papa, Uncle Daniel, Uncle David & Karlee, Great Uncle Bryan and Grandma's kittens. 

44.  Getting near deer






My parents' backyard is often visited by deer.  It was amazing to see them (and for the kids to see how close they could get!)


~❀~ Chelsey ~❀~

Fishing off the Balcony -- Thankfulness

More things I'm thankful for:

34. Vacation Bible School -- the kids has a blast at Space VBS this year. Now that Elijah is four, this was his first time participating officially (and not via the nursery with me) so it was monumental for him.

Unfortunately, the first day when I attempted to "let go" a little and let Elijah go with his group and teacher without me, he ended up outside... alone... He finished a robot craft and then was told he had to leave it there. Poor Elijah didn't know he would get his robot back at the end of the day... After that I shadowed his group for the rest of the week. Maybe I'll let go next year...

It was great watching my kids and all the other kids learn about God and about creation! I especially loved the singing time and love hearing my kids continue to sing the songs they learned there.

35. Boating on the lake in our inflatable dinghies. We went out two by two -- boys in one boat and girls in the other and then Desiree and I watched as those boys flew across the lake thanks to Daddy's muscles. Desiree commented a time or two about it and I told her clearly she had picked the wrong boat to go in if she wanted to go fast.

On the return trip it was even worse because the wind was against us. I honestly wasn't sure if we'd make it back to shore without being towed by a motor boat. But -- we finally did! The silver lining is that Desiree learned a lot about rowing through first hand experience (when I needed to take breaks) and the lake was so beautiful.

36. Watching the kids practice fishing off the balcony. Desiree (6) had one particular amazing cast that landed her fish weight right in the neighbour's tree! Daddy said "Kiss it goodbye", but Mommy (that's me) climbed the fence and then the neighbour's tree up to about 15 feet and rescued the fish weight. Interestingly, climbing that tree worked more muscles than the 2+ hours rowing out on the lake did?!?!

37. Fishing for real at the lake. Now this was technically a horrible day because Ernie had a meltdown (due to his stroke symptoms) and didn't actually fish with us after all, but if you look at the pictures it looks like we've had the time of our lives... Parts were great. I fished with the kids and rescued snagged hooks (although Elijah didn't get the benefit of a real hook due to age and impulsivity!).

Desiree's attitude impressed me most of all. After saying all day "I'll be so disappointed if I don't catch a fish" she left the lake saying "At least I got to feed a fish!" One tiny 3 inch fish nipped her bait off the hook and swam away...

38. Matching outfits. See in the fishing trip pictures how Desiree and Elijah have matching shirts? I love matching outfits...

I know some people are upset when they find out what they're wearing matches someone else, but not me... When I was growing up my Grandma would make matching dresses for my two cousins and me. We'd plan intentionally to match. Being an only child for 11 years I think it was important to me because it symbolized belonging.

PS: At my wedding, my mom and my mother in law unintentionally had matching brocade dresses in two different shades of blue. Thankfully both of them are like me when it comes to matching and they thought it was so neat (and funny) that they matched!!!

~❀~ Chelsey ~❀~

Spending Time with Oma -- Thankfulness

The continuation of thankfulness...

27. Desiree "reminding" us that it was the birthday of her stuffed cat, Meows. We went to an event at a farmer's market with face painting, hot dogs, corn on the cob and watermelon (all free!). We called this event Meows' "birthday party". Maybe your family doesn't celebrate the birthdays of stuffed animals, but we do and we have great fun doing it!

28. Desiree's reaction to finding rhubarb at the produce store: "Mom!!!! Come and see!!!! They have rhubarb!!!" She was ecstatic! We also grow it in our backyard, but mostly pencil sized. Desiree, Elijah and I made a rhubarb meringue when my parents were here for a one night stop over on their way home. My dad loves rhubarb, but his reaction was quite subdued compared with Desiree's.

29. Being given a baby butterfly to take home from school. The class had hatched butterflies and when it was time to let them go this one wouldn't fly away. I carefully carried it all the way home and protected it from the wind. We took pictures with it and then let it free on a snapdragon plant in our backyard -- never to be seen again...

30. Time with "the cousins" -- my cousin, her husband and their kids who came from Alberta to visit for a couple days. My kids have never met their first cousins so these third cousins are quite a big deal! They had water fights, played Wii and we all had a trip to the water park together.

31. Going to the school's Beach day -- it was dreary and windy, but good fun still. Elijah crying as if his heart were broken when he saw a dead crab with no legs... Elijah yelling excitedly when he saw a live crab in the wild for the first time (that's his expression in the collage). Me convincing the kids that it was okay to catch them!

32. The little girl in the center of this photo from Ernie's 36km run. We asked her dad to take a photo for us so we wouldn't have a person missing from the picture and she automatically ran into the picture. How cute is that? She figured if her dad was taking the picture she should be in it!

33. Ernie's mom, Oma, coming from Ontario for a long-awaited visit and to see Ernie's run. It had been two years since we'd seen her last so the kids (now 4 and 6) were super excited. While she was here she gave me a tutorial on my sewing machine, baked all sorts of goodies for us, learned how to play Wii, gardened with Ernie and went for a hike at the river with the family. We all miss her now that she's back in Ontario...

~❀~ Chelsey ~❀~

Listening to Echoes -- Thankfulness

One Thousand Gifts Continued...


18. Elijah's excitement at seeing a moving train up close! He kept saying "I always wanted to see a train for my birthday!" (which was in March lol)




19. A Wii Fit workout -- the only kind I do... (and haven't done in such a long time prior to this workout).

20. Watching Desiree on her hands and knees hollering down a storm drain and listening to the echoes.

21. All the amazing animals that God has made! -- like capybaras which are the largest rodents in the world.

22. Going to the zoo for a Family Fun Day and taking the train while we were there:


23. Desiree and Elijah collecting wood bugs / potato bugs / tank bugs to bring to school in a jar with holes in the lid that Daddy banged for them.

24. Reading a book about a family living during the Depression Era ("The Booky Trilogy") and remembering to count my blessings because finances could always be worse...

25. Our first visit to the outdoor splash park this year. The kids had a blast sending Desiree's crocs floating down the little creek and chasing after them.

26. Pre-teen boys who are kind enough to share a few of their water balloons with my little on-lookers.

~❀~ Chelsey ~❀~

Bringing Home Worms -- Thankfulness

One Thousand Gifts continued...

11. Elijah's Mike Wazowski (from Monster's Inc) impersonation when trying to get his sister out of bed. Yelling at her "WORK OUT THAT FLAB THAT'S HANGING OVER THE BED!" Of course he doesn't know what flab is and so sort of garbled his way through that part of the quote, but aside from that the impersonation was great...

12. Watching Elijah and Desiree play with the pet snails they found in our yard -- naming them, racing them, swinging them on the swing.... If you click on this picture you can see the snails as they approach the finish line.


13. Me teaching Elijah that it's okay to pick up worms. He rescued a big one from the wet street and carried it home to our garden.
Bringing home snails -- No. Bringing home worms -- Yes.


14. Explaining "Amelia Bedelia" books to Desiree as she reads them -- especially the part about getting the bread to rise...

15. Doing a favour for someone when I haven't had opportunities to lately: walking Desiree's classmate and her brother to school while their mom is out of town. Desiree pretending that she and Mia are sisters as they run down the sidewalk on the way to school together.


16. Watching "Dreamer" for Friday Family Sleepover night. The kids loved it (even though it wasn't a cartoon! lol...) and my husband and I enjoyed it too. Elijah(4) describes his favourite part: "Did you know that the girl actually was helping the family by taking popsicles and helping the dad's horse by feeding it?"


17. Chocolate covered almonds that my husband bought unexpectedly. Expected chocolate is great, but unexpected chocolate is always better.

~❀~ Chelsey ~❀~

Playing Demolition -- Thankfulness

I had a journal four years ago or so where I kept track of everything I was thankful for. I didn't number them though -- so I'm not sure how thankful I was numerically speaking.

I decided I would 'count my blessings' and keep track of my thankfulness:

1. A loving God who offers me small, unexpected blessings every day if only I would notice them.

2. My husband, daughter and son -- "our family".

3. Desiree(6) making a recipe from her Littlest Pet Shop book: "Berry Sweet Treat" -- yogurt, berries and cherries.

4. Granola which we added to the recipe for that "crunch".

5. Attending a kid birthday party with my kiddos.

6. Playing with them at the playplace -- crawling through tunnels, squishing through spots that adults shouldn't go and getting air off the slide.

7. Elijah(4) dressing himself consistently with his pants on backwards.

8. Juicy cherries with pits to chew on and spit out.

9. Dark chocolate. Chocolate because... it's chocolate and dark because the rumours are it's healthy and that sounds true to me.

10. Playing demolition with Elijah and a tower of blocks. He's such a character player/creator that he's never played demolition before!


~❀~ Chelsey ~❀~