Smith Family || Portraits {March 2015}

Earlier this year I was asked to take new family photos for our pastor's family; enjoy these shots I captured at a reserve in Conifer Grove.

: : Amelia : :

: : Aaron : :

: : Owen : :

: : Keith : :

Church Picnic || Cornwall Park

March 1st saw a number of people from church gather at Cornwall Park for the day. Hooray for having too much gear to fit in one vehicle; a good drive by oneself is always good. ;)

We enjoyed a picnic lunch of filled rolls and bacon and egg pie (someone remind me to put curry or something in the pies next time, okay?) and set up volleyball and swingball.

Don't you just love our net? Initially they'd tried slinging blankets over the rope between the trees, but found it was difficult to play when the ball kept disappearing on the other side of the blanket. [smile] Occasionally the ball got caught in the tree but for the most part this was a great makeshift net!

Lunch. And the barbies are ready for dinner :)

Swingball: Amelia, Keith, Megan

During the arvo more sports were played and many of us walked up the hill (some more directly than others lol). While we were walking up we found a really steep patch (the path was next to it but hey . . .) so think: "Run up, slip, slide down." Haha.

People often use these rocks to write things. Here our group made F.P.C. (Free Presbyterian Church)

We finished the day with a barbecue dinner and group worship, by which time it certainly didn't feel like summer any more. :P 

Communion - Friday

: : Bryce awaiting lunch : :

Written 13.6.12

After we arrived home from church on Friday morning, Mum received a call from Mrs. Smith inviting us to have lunch with them. Farewell to all plans of doing school work that afternoon!

: : Maria eating : :

Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Rayner made a roast (beef I think?) with carrots, broccoli, potatoes and gravy. I think Diana and Bryce were too keen to play with the Smith children to bother eating much; we older ones really enjoyed it though! =)

: : Main table : :

After we’d finished eating that, Mrs. Smith brought out a Banoffie Pie and cream, which we quickly consumed!

We talked for a while, until Mum decided we should leave. 

 : : Diana (6) and Amelia (5) : :

: : Keith (5 months) and Laura (2 months)  : :

: : Mrs. Smith and Mum : : 

The Smiths Come for a Visit



Mrs. Smith plays the piano for us

 One day during the holidays (sorry I don't recall which one exactly! lol), the Smiths (our pastor's family) came over for afternoon tea.

I must say the double choc chip muffins were, as usual, a hit! Sorry, no pics, but in fact I'm probably doing you a favour - if you saw a pic of these mouth-watering, choc-filled muffins, you might salivate so heavily your keyboard would be kinda gross...:P

But anyway, to get back to what I was writing about...



I'm not sure the ukelele is supposed to be on the tramp...!

 Nobody in our family can really play piano (Danielle was taking lessons last term, but no-one is learning right now), and Mrs. Smith is Grade 9 (!), so it was really nice to hear the piano played that well, despite the fact that she played from memory because we don't have any books her level!

Monique enjoyed Keith (4 months) and the other little ones (she loves young children).

Amelia enjoys our trampoline

Diana and Amelia LOVED playing with each other. I think Amelia has probably only met people within our church so far, and it is relatively small, so I think there is like one other girl her age (who is our cousin!). Also, my siblings were talking for AGES before the Smiths even came to NZ about being friends, going to their place to play and whatever!

Despite the fact that I was sewing, I still managed to read to Aaron (4yrs). He just loves Thomas the Tank Engine, so I got to read parts of a few books to him (haha little ones aren't patient enough to listen to a whole story!), and name the characters on the covers of the books shown on the back covers; thankfully their names were written down, or I would have been stuck!!! lol



Amelia and Diana pose...



 I think Mum enjoyed sharing some of her accumulated homeschool knowledge; it's nearly 11 years since she began homeschooling me!

And mainly, everyone enjoyed socialising for a few hours!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, um, I hadn't planned to write much...consider yourself lucky!!! haha

Bee

Meet and Greet

From 2-4pm on March 24th, all of us but Mum, Maria, and Laura, went to the de Boers' place to meet our minister's family, who had arrived from America the day before.
I was kinda sleepy, but it was nice to meet them!

The little ones were very taken with Snowy, Dieuwe's maltese puppy. (Sorry I just realised I don't have any pics of Snowy!)

And...Amelia Smith (5yrs) was very excited to lose her first tooth that afternoon! See if you can spot the gap in the pic:

Ok so I suppose I should introduce them a bit...

Mr. Smith is Texan, the eldest of 7 children, and was homeschooled.
Mrs. Smith is Canadian, one of 4 children (sorry can't remember where she is in the lineup!), and was also homeschooled.
The met through the church (The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland), and now have 4 children: Amelia (or Amy) 5yrs, Aaron (4rs), Owen (2yrs), and Keith (4 months).
You can read their blog here.