Modelling for Len Gibbs

We had an amazing opportunity today! The photographer who took photos of Acacia with Nathan for the Homecoming sculpture was hired to also photograph 2 kids for the painter, Len Gibbs, who will be painting a picture to use as a fundraiser. Len asked the photographer if he knew of some good models and he recommended Acacia because she did so well as a model for her Dad! Today, Caleb & Acacia went down to the beach with Nathan & I and posed for Len's paintings. They were absolutely thrilled because he paid them $20 each and Nathan & I were thrilled because this is a very successful artist nearing the end of his painting career and using our kids-and he promised us a signed print! His signed prints go for $650 and his originals for around $7000-so it is an amazing honor to have him paint the kids. I don't know how much these prints will be sold for this fundraiser. Len was thrilled that the kids were so used to being photographed for art like this--as all artist's kids are-and took a whole bunch of extra photos of Acacia playing in the waves while the professional photographer took more photos of Caleb. He said he got enough work to keep himself busy for the next year, but this would probably be one of his last paintings. The funniest part for me was when this nearly 80 yr old artist was tromping through the water getting his own photos of Caleb while his feet were getting soaked! Then they suddenly got me up there as the "Navy wife looking forlorn as the ship pulls out of the harbour" and I decided that after 10 minutes, it really is harder than it looks! How do you look forlorn when your husband is trying to make you laugh and the photographer is telling you not to look like you're concentrating? Anyway, it was a lot of fun and a beautiful day and we love his work. Afterwards, Len's wife, Betty, invited us in for juice & cookies and we got to look at their art all over their walls and a book of Len's work and some huge doll houses they've built. We never know what's around the corner!

Homecoming Update...end of June

Nathan has worked on both the sailor and the little girl a bit to have it ready for a couple of photo shoots for advertising for the fundraising. The little girl does actually have a head-I'm not sure what happened to it for the photo! She'll look much better next time I update!

Nathan's also working on an eagle that he will cast in bronze in the next couple of weeks hopefully. It's an edition of 10 and he'll be thrilled to get it done as he's been working on it for a year in between other projects and hopes to take it to a show in Whiterock in July.

Charis's Firsts

Our baby girl is not such a tiny baby! On June 13th we discovered she can sit up by herself. We have no idea how long she has been able to do this, but we tried her on the bed and she was really good and sat up balancing for a good 5 minutes. Now that we know she can do it, she's been practicing and is now quite a good sitter!

We've been waiting for a tooth for weeks now as she's been a bit crankier than usual-but she was still voted 'easiest baby in the nursery' at church by the nursery staff! Today I discovered that it has finally pushed through-one little tooth on the bottom!

Visit to Aldergrove

We have ventured away on our first little holiday with 5 children under 7 1/2! We went to Aldergrove and stayed with our faboulous cousins, Glen & Christie and their 3 little girls, Lydia, Chloe & Becca. Our kids just love playing with them because they know how to play 'Narnia' really well. We did notice one difference between our kids though. Caleb asked 9 yr old Lydia about a poster she had in her room. "Who's that?" he said. "You don't know who that is? She's just the latest teen pop sensation, Hannah Montana!" Caleb didn't seem to be that impressed...but we sure thought it was funny. There was some discussion overheard about how Disney took Winnie-the-Pooh and wrecked him, but other than that, they agreed with each other on all things and even treated us to a little dramatic presentation of Cinderella similiar to how Christie and I used to put on skits for our parents a few years back! Levi, the Duke nearly decided the glass slipper fit him best and spoiled the ending, but did succumb to management from Cinderella experts, Lydia, Acacia & Chloe. We had a fantastic weekend and Levi nearly cried as we left "I'll just miss my cousins so much!" We had such fun at the zoo, the beach and then finished off with a trip to the Vancouver Aquarium to see the 8 day old baby Beluga whale.

Beaver Expedition, Homeschool Update

We have been working on a beaver study with another family. Caleb & Acacia have very excited about it. We read "Paddy the Beaver" by Thornton Burgess, got library books out and read facts about beavers, watched the beavers actually inside their dam on the BBC Planet Earth, and put together our first lap book-which is a thing you buy off the internet where you get a template for making a sort of 3-D report from a file folder (I got it from http://www.handsofachild.com/ and I was a bit leary at first but it was money well spent for the learning & enjoyment we got out of it) Our final beaver wrap-up was a visit to the famous & fabulous Neighbor Bill's place up in Ladysmith where we tromped around his amazing property and looked for signs of beavers. We could see their dam from far away but couldn't get close up-beavers are smart animals for keeping inquisitive children away! When I first told Caleb of our plans for the field trip, he said "That's what I would love to do! I never even thought of that, but I bet if I did, that would be one of my best wishes!"

The day of the expedition was HOT, but we had a marvous adventure! After a large picnic lunch under a shady tree, we tromped all around, and I'm sure people miles away could hear the excited screams of "EVIDENCE!!! I FOUND EVIDENCE!" Thank you so much, Bill & Bianca, for allowing us to come and have something to remember in the category of "There was some really great stuff we got to do even though Mom never let us go to REAL school!" Here's a poem Caleb wrote just off the top of his head-I just typed as fast as I could and didn't change anything or add anything:

The Beaver

By Caleb Scott
At the age of 7

Where you see them fall there you can find him
Where he is going you will find paw prints
He has thick fur and has a tail
But when he hacks down his trees
He’d rather use his teeth!
He builds and builds and builds
Mostly at night
So when I went looking for him
I found evidence
From the Beaver
Who came around at night
wherever we went
Marty, oh Marty
With his vision
Thinks he saw him
With those webbed feet,
He went a-swim
With a tail for a warning
Then when danger comes again,
He slaps it down again!

The End

Beginning Clay work for the Dad & little girl

Nathan's been working mostly on the Dad because they are planning to have a newspaper article in this Friday's paper for Father's Day-a push for selling bricks! I'll try to post the article when it gets in...but the last couple of articles have been 2 page spreads, so they're too large to post on the blog! Did I ever mention that every single time I've been featured in the paper, I've had to pay for it?...not that I'm comparing! Maybe that's why I keep having children-just to get a little attention!

Mid-June update on 'The Homecoming Sculpture'

Nathan has been working hard on 'The Homecoming Sculpture' and has finished sculpting the little miniature that will be cast in pewter and sold as a fundraiser for the main sculpture. He is now working on the Dad.