The First Week of April

Here is a little update with a lot of photos from the first part of April.

(Reminder: Click the image thumbnails to see larger pictures.)

First up: Baking.

Homemade pizza with homemade pizza dough. Super good.

Next up: Stanley Park.

This was a lot of fun. We drove through the park and stopped and explored one of the beaches. It closed to cars two days later. Notice in the photos that the ships all seem to be parked and empty.

A few random photos: Chocolate Face and Skylines.

Nightly: 7pm.

Every night we join in at 7pm to cheer on the health care workers, first responders, and those serving on the COVID-19 front lines. Tons of people go out and cheer and clap and make noise. Cars go by honking. And Lydia goes bonkers with a pot or pan. She has recently started to use her harmonica at the same time (watch for this on the 1SE update on the 1st of next month).

More Randomness: Matching Jackets with Brownie.

Last but not least: Ikea.

I hate Ikea. I once sent Jaynie an article about it. The store is terrible. You can’t get out of it. The arrows lead you in the wrong direction. And it smells like cinnamon buns (good!) but if you want them you have to go back to the beginning (bad!).

Anyway. I should say that I used to hate Ikea. Now, it is wonderful. Why? Because Lydia loves doing projects. So instead of it taking an hour to put something together and it being terrible, now it takes three hours to put something together and it is awesome. Super duper fun (not joking!!). Here are some pics of us putting together some things. If you are wondering where she got the pencil idea, look at the photos of her pointing at the image in the instruction manual. Fun times!!

IMPORTANT: Here is a link to watch a Good Friday and Easter Sunday message. Click it now to check it out and then please tune in if you don’t have another way to be hearing about the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord, Saviour, and King - Jesus Christ - this weekend.

Kindergarten

Today, 30 March 2020, Lydia started Kindergarten. (Interesting: Using your computer dictionary, look up kindergarten and see how the definition varies based on the country.)

Last fall Lydia began pre-K at Clapham School in Wheaton. In the USA the school year is based on your age on September 1st. In Canada the school year is based on the calendar year and since Lydia has a November birthday she has advanced to Kindergarten! This reminds me, though in the opposite direction, of when I used to fly airplanes and travel westbound passing through different time zones at a rate of more than one per hour. Yes, time travel! It is how I have stayed so young. Speaking of when we used to fly airplanes, if you missed yesterday’s post you can find it here.

So today was day one of Kindergarten. And, as big of a news event as that should be, this was an even bigger day than that. Here is Lydia with her Kindergarten teacher!!

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All of us are very excited about this and so far it has been great. All ten hours of it.

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Seriously though, we are all very excited about homeschooling and have a great support team to help us along the way. That being said, your prayers are appreciated. (This is the serious part of the post.)

Here are some photos of day one of Kindergarten. Starting with morning cinnamon rolls, of course, and ending with Lydia’s pen-pal work.

We also went on a photo walk today. During the walk, I would not lead us down the cliff into the sinking-death-mud-trap near the river that was created during the rainstorm last night. That’s how I was able to capture these photos.

After a quick recovery, here is Lydia turning her frown upside down.

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While out walking today we found a lot of painted rocks, which we of course call treasures. There is some type of FB group here that paints rocks and sets them along the paths. Lydia has enjoyed taking photos of the rocks. Unrelated but also in the exploration category, there is a marshland here created by a bunch of beavers that have cut down some of the trees, blocking the water flow. We see lots of animals in and around the water and sometimes we even see a beaver swimming around in the water. It is a fun area to explore. Here are the rest of the photos from today.

Social Distancing

Like the rest of the world, we have been adjusting to the new normal of Social Distancing. We have been able to get out multiple times a day and explore the paths near our new home in Fort Langley. It has been a real blessing to land where we did and to be able to get outside without violating any government restrictions. Lydia’s classmates from Wheaton are all under stay at home orders in Illinois, so Lydia was able to join a Zoom chat the other day which was quite funny.

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Below are some photos of some of what we have been up to over the last few days. (Click images for gallery view.)