I'm driving

On Feb. 9th I got my learners licence.

I studied for a long time. I was really nervous, but I did good. I got 93%.

My Mom gave me my first driving lesson on Saturday. We went up to Monterra where there wasn't any traffic.

After I drove around for half an hour, I got comfortable with the gas, the brake, and turning.

I'm going to practice once a week with my mom.

Tommy Douglas

Today I learned about Tommy Douglas.

Tommy Douglas was voted in 2004 as 'The Greatest Canadian', even though he wasn't born in Canada. He beat Alexander Graham Bell, Terry Fox, Wayne Gretzky, and Fredrick Banting. He won because he is the father of Medicare in Canada.

Tommy Douglas was a politican who introduced government funded health care. When he was little his family couldn't afford the surgery he needed on his leg. Luckily a surgeon agreed to do the surgery if his student's could watch. So Tommy was able to keep his leg. When he grew up he knew how important health care was to poor families. In other countries people have to pay for healthcare.

Hiking with Chantelle

Chantelle came and spent the day with us a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful day so we took her to Big Hills Springs Park.

As soon as we got there joe climbed to the top of the rocks overhanging the picnic area.

Mandy climbed up too. Notice they both had their webkinz along for the hike.

Beautiful girl

The water was cold!

Joe and Mandy exploring

Chantelle we miss you. Wish you would move to Cochrane!!!

Katie assured me this was safe.

Art class projects

Katie and Sarah took an interesting art class at Soul Studios this year. They made some really awesome projects! First they worked with clay and made some vases. They formed the vases and etched designs in them. They painted them and then the teacher fired them. They turned out great.

This is Sarah's beautiful creation

This is Katie's fabulous creation.

Next they started working on masks. The base was 1/2 of a plastic coffee container. They did paper mache on top of the base, then painted it and added decorations. Here are the results.

Above is Katie wearing her mask.

Sarah wearing her mask. Groovy!

Panama Canal

My sister and her family are on the most amazing adventure. They are sailing around the world!! You can read about my sister's sailing adventures on their blog. http://saltyginger.blogspot.com/ You can also follow their little dot as they cross the ocean.
http://www.winlink.org/dotnet/maps/PositionreportsDetail.aspx?callsign=VA3PRY

The kids and I have been enjoying following their blog and learning about all the places they are visiting. By far, the most excitement has been around their crossing the Panama Canal. There are several webcams along the canal and we knew we may be able to see them on their crossing. Here's the link the the webcams.
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html We had lots of fun watching ships go through the locks. We even from some youtube videos that sped up the whole process. (The webcams only refresh every 3 minutes)

Here is part of an email I wrote to Julie about us watching them make their crossing.

Can you imagine the excitement in the Sparks house Friday morning? Thursday night Shane set up the PS3 so we could get internet on the big screen TV. We went to the Panama Canal webcams and book marked the sites for easy access in the morning. Friday morning we ate bagels in front of the TV. We watched 2 groups of sail boats approaching in the distance. We all guessed at whether you were in the first group or the second group. Finally we could tell. You were in the second group. We were all excited, because with the boats that went through before you the close up was of the second set of boats! But then the camera angle on one of the webcams changed. (we had 2 webcam open so we could see you from the best possible vantage point) When it changed we got a close up of the Gromit! We could read the name on the side and see everyone on deck. They flew a Canadian flag :-) It was cool to know they are friends of yours. Then we watched your boat. It wasn’t as close up, but we still had a decent view. Anyways we watched you refresh every 3 minutes. At one point we thought we saw a pink towel at the front of the ship and another time we thought we saw a Canada flag. Then as the water in the lock lowered we saw less and less until all we could see was the tops of the poles, then you disappeared. I wish I would have snapped a screen shot, but I didn't think about it in all the excitement.

Soon they will be heading to Galapagos and then a 23 day sail to Marquesas!

Uncle Jason

Uncle Jason lives in our basement. He's an expert at video games and he takes us to Dairy Queen. He plays his banjo and he's good at it. He pretends to tickle us in his mind. I like him living at our house. But the worst part about having Jason here is I have to wait until 4 o'clock to play video games with him.
That's all.

Joe

Joe's shirt

Mom and I rearranged the playroom and turned it into a sewing room. We set up our 2 sewing machines and the serger. Mom brought in the shelf with all her fabric. And we started to sew!

I found a sewing book and decided to make Joe a t-shirt first. I cut out the pattern and Joe choose which fabric he liked.

It turned out really good. Joe really likes it and wears it all the time.