High Tea and Campfire

A couple weeks ago my sister-in-law (Lauren), Aurora and I went to a High Tea in celebration of the Queen's 60th jubilee. It's not really my thing, at all,  but I knew Aurora would LOVE it so we dressed up, borrowed so fancy hats from my mom and went. 

We had a really good time, Aurora drank about 3 or 4 cups of tea. She loved putting a sugar cube in each one (we don't generally sweeten our tea or coffee so she normally drinks tea black) and wearing her fancy new dress. She also learned a lot about who real Princesses are and what a real Queen does. 

Lauren and my brother, Mark are in missionary training and are now away for the summer in Jungle camp. What that means is that they and the rest of their class (and 2 staff couples) went up in the bush, built houses (that will be taken down at the end of 4 weeks) and live on what they brought up in order to get a taste of life in a remote location in a foreign country. They get ready by canning a lot of food (no refrigeration up there and no trips to the grocery store for those 4 weeks in fact, no leaving at all except for her midwife appointments- yes, they are pregnant :) )

I will do a post with more info about jungle camp soon. I have to wait to get some photos during the open house. There is only 1 weekend they are allowed visitors and I think it's next weekend. :) You can check out their blog here for way more information on what they are doing. They keep it very up to date (when they aren't in Jungle Camp that is...)

Here are a some photos from a hanging out with the rest of the family. Obviously Mark and Lauren weren't there (Mark is my youngest brother) and my sister Carrie, who is a birth doula, was away at a birth, but the rest of us were there and enjoyed hanging out.

 Gideon loves swinging. All the kids do really.

 My other sister-in-law, Shanelle.

 Allistair enjoying some watermelon and waiting for uncle Jon to light the fire (he insists on using a flint instead of matches or a lighter...LOL it's a bit of a family joke.

 Aurora, Elliot and Ezekiel

 It's so nice that all the cousins get along so well. They are all pretty close in age and really love playing with each other.

 Levi is close to Gideon's age, he just turned 1.

And one last silly face from Gideon. He makes the craziest faces which definitely keep up laughing!

family prints

Now that we are a family of four and our sweet boy is here, I wanted to create something with all of our hand prints on it. I love all the different sizes of our hands right now. A's hands look so big now when they seemed so small only weeks ago.

Originally I wanted a long short canvas and do all of our prints in a row, but I couldn't find one the right size at our local art store (or anywhere else that has them) So I came up with plan B which I am quite happy with actually.

So, first off, prime the canvas (the two small ones are for another project, I have quite a few on the go at the moment) and let it dry. I primed mine a couple days ago and just finished off tonight.

One blue hand print from hubby and a burgundy one from me...
Let it dry... (doesn't take too long for acrylic paint to dry)

 Paint up A's hand, remind her to hold very still and spread her fingers and not to move until I lift her hand off. Remind her again, then push down her hand. (she obeyed quite well)

Then the tricky part, getting a newborn's handprint... ya, if you've ever tried you understand. They like to clench their little fists and are surprisingly strong. I was quite successful when A was a baby and a little less so this time but oh well.

Hubby helped by holding G, we tried while he was asleep but when the cold paint touched his hand....well he obviously woke up, but still he did pretty well. Not the best hand print ever but it will do.

(sorry for the crummy pictures, it's dark out so my natural light is gone)