What keeps us busy

Very far from family and all things familiar to us, so what keeps us occupied? Let's start with John. As expected much of his time spent at home is taken up by studying.
Of course there is always time for video games with Aiden, pillow fights with the kids and watching a little Iron Chef with Tamsen, but the latest distraction is an old addiction. He is back in the world of salt water aquariums. A break from studying often consists of browsing the forums and working on putting together this small nano 6 gallon aquarium. So far it houses only salt water and live rocks but there are plans for a small anemone, a pair of clown fish and some corals.












As for Tamsen, she decided to take up knitting. John says it's an old granny thing to do, but determined to learn she headed out and bought some knitting needles and some yarn, got on line and started learning. She found a pattern for a very cute little toque online and even though it was probably not the easiest project to start with, with a little trial and error this is the finished project.
Tamsen has also always loved making her house look like a home and right now in order to achieve that, we need some things on our walls. While visiting her brother and sister inlaw before moving she saw a very cool piece of art work on the wall. It was a bunch of beach rocks carefully placed on some cardstock forming the shape of a square. It had been made for them by a friend of theirs. Tamsen borrowed the idea and ran with it. She obsessively collected rocks, shells and sand from Massachusetts beaches and this is the outcome.
Aiden would play Mario cart all day if we let him, but we don't. So he can often be found playing with cars, reading, colouring and playing with Abby (sometimes playing, sometimes bossing her around). Since the kids also need some art work on their wall, Tamsen decided he should paint a picture. Thinking that he would just quickly spread some paint on the canvas Tamsen provided a few colours of paint and a variety of brushes. It ended up taking him two days to very carefuly cover his canvas, and we all think the outcome is great.
Last but not least, what does Abby do? Well, she spends most of her day getting into things she shouldn't or tormenting her brother. We must say though that she is extremely cute, keeps us laughing and can be very sweet. Last week she found her swimsuit and decided she wanted it on so she brought it to mom, handed it to her saying "uh, uh, uh" (good thing mom can understand her). So here she is running aroud (with the swimsuit over her pj's) giving us a fashion show.
And here is a very cute picture of her just hanging out with a shark.