Rebecca is five years old today! We were lucky to have visitors from family, including Janice and Reg (Pop and Nan) and cousins Ocean, Summer and Doug and Sabrina. The first part of the day involved running circles outside and playing with Willow and on the tree fort. We then made some chicken wings, ribs on the campfire and of course, a rainbow coloured cake.
Rebecca was serious about her cake!
Abby was excited as well. Needless to say, the cake didn't last long!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeqHyGAjmpk
Merry Christmas from all the MacDonalds! We hope everyone has a great holiday with family and friends. We're thinking of our family and friends here and far away during the special season.
Some photos from the last couple of days:
Rebecca sitting with a new cousin, Daniel.
Here's Dad about to accept a punch from Kungfu Santa (Travis)...
Abigail on Christmas Morning.
Rebecca practicing her ferocious roar on Christmas morning. She had lots of practice with her cousin Calum last night.
We're passing on our congratulations to Krista and Kyle Beaton on their recent wedding. Kyle and Krista were married on a field overlooking Mabou and the Beaton homesteads, but it was also land owned by our grandfather years ago. It was one of the most scenic and unpredictably funny weddings we've attended. Thanks to everyone for the great time. (and Lawrence for the photos!)
Since the end of September, we've had lots going on. First, on October 2nd, Abigail celebrated her 2nd birthday with friends and family. We had visitors from both families, Gramma and Grampa MacDonald,
Nana and Papa Deroche and other friends and their kids. Sheena had the novel idea of having little gifts for everyone, which made for quite a fun and all inclusive party!
The Cape Breton MacDonalds also visited for the weekend of Abigail's birthday. Besides the party, we had a couple of walks through the woods and on the trails nearby our house.
The leaves had just started turning colours at the time and the girls loved to explore the fall colours and different shades of fall.
Last weekend, Kris and I met in the Memramcook area of southeastern New Brunswick for a little Thanksgiving weekend bike riding. Specifically, we biked around the peninsula of the Beaumont area, which is surrounded by the Petticodiac and Memramcook Rivers. We had a whole mix of riding during our 22 kilometre day, from gravel road to technical up and downhill trails. It was an interesting place to bike as one moment you were in the forest, the next you are a steep embankment away from fast flowing rivers into the Bay of Fundy. It was our first time taking a trail from a book on mountain biking in Atlantic Canada.
This week, I took a vacation and Sheena and I spent the last three days painting up a storm (literally) in our house. We finally had the chance after some long needed new house renos to put paint on our walls. We have half the house done so far and half to go! Wish us luck. (The wall colours in this photo had to be redone due to, well, the fact that they caused blindness!).
Over the past month, we had the opportunity to visit Cape Breton and go to two weddings. In July, Shauna (David's cousin) married Marc in Mabou. The weather was exceptional and the girls had fun getting dressed up to see all the 'princesses' of bridesmaids.
In September, and during the 'Earl' weather event amid a long power outage, heavy wind and lots of rain, Leanne (David's Cousin) married Shawn in West Lake Ainslie. This time Sheena was visiting in Halifax, so I had both girls to this wedding. Both loved watching the wedding, eating popcorn and thankfully not noticing the strong wind moving the old church back and forth. Between the wedding and reception, the rain had stopped, but the wind was too much fun not to enjoy with the kids.
We also had a little gettogether at my uncle's place and Rebecca and Abby enjoyed picking tomatoes and carrots.
Congratulations to both couples, Shauna and Marc and Leanne and Shawn, best wishes for the future!
After almost seven years of refusal, Sheena finally made me macaroons (or as the Deroches contest 'Hermits') for the first time with raisins. I feel like my life is complete. Thank you Sheena, I think I'll bronze them.
