Brooklyn's Dance Recital

Today was Brooklyn's first dance recital. The whole production was very well done and her little group of three 4-year olds were so cute performing their tap moves. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the production so I had to wait till it was over and catch her outside. Her grandfather (Cindy's dad) was also taking pictures of her so she wasn't sure where to look. These are among the best I got. Her professional dance portraits are really cute. Cindy and Rob will give me my copies when they come in to see Lloyd tonight - it's Father's Day you know :)

My Girls

Lloyd and I have been blessed with five lovely daughters and two sweet daughters-in-law. At last week's reunion I caught six of them (DIL Cindy was absent) all sitting together at a picnic table. If that wasn't a photo op I don't know what is. And they're all wearing our special MacKenzie Day t-shirts. They are, from left to right, Mary, Jenny, Sara, Avril (DIL), Amy (with Aidan) and Emily.

Falling Behind

I'm starting to fall behind on my blog entries so, because I haven't taken any pictures in the past few days, I'll fall back on one or two of the 254 from the reunion this weekend. Hope you're not bored. I love these ones of Quincey and Eloise. The first two are cropped down from a larger photo - Quincey wasn't aware that I was taking the picture. Quincey is Sara's husband and, no, Ellie didn't eat that drumstick.

Baby Coming

I wish I could take credit for this picture, but obviously I can't. While Mary, Greg and Layla were here for the family reunion last weekend, Sara did a photo shoot with them, featuring Mary's 8-month pregnant belly and 4-year old (in July) Layla. I love this whole set of pictures but this is my favorite.

Rainy Day Fun

It was raining today and the day seemed long. After an excursion to Southgate to have lunch with Sara and the kids, we came home. Pretty soon Charlie and Max disappeared to Max's room upstairs. They came down about 20 minutes later dressed in their dragon and kangaroo costumes from last Hallowe'en. That kept them busy for half an hour or so, until the dragon decided he had to overpower the poor kangaroo and her baby, and the zookeeper (me) had to step in and restore peace.

Uninvited Guest

At the family reunion yesterday we were visited by a groundhog looking for food. A couple of the braver boys, 3-year old Max and 6-year old Nathan, were patient enough to sit still while the woodchuck took food from their hands and sat in front of them holding it in his little paws, eating it and waiting for more. It was a few minutes' entertainment for the kids, until, either full or scared by the growing group of excited kids, he retreated to his home.

We had the most awesome, fun family reunion today, with a belated birthday party for me. The whole family was here (first picture), with the exception of Brooklyn and her mom, Cindy. Brooklyn is doing much better and is home from the hospital but she didn't feel up to spending the day in the park with us. I'm sure we'll be able to photoshop their pictures into the picture. There's a space for them beside the rest of their family, Rob and Anson. It was great having the three out-of-town families come so we could all catch up on family news and give the cousins a chance to play together again. Sara and Amy did a great job of organizing the food, games, and prizes. Sara had a wonderful cake made for me. It was scrapbook themed and looked beautiful. I hated to cut it, but I did and it was delicious. I've got over 200 pictures to scrapbook now. It was a wonderful, happy event. Sara also had t-shirts made for all of us with the MacKenzie motto and crest on it. The group picture was taken before the shirts were distributed though.

We didn't even get rained on, in spite of it having rained earlier in the day...a great day...no drama, no injuries, nothing but fun.