Month: December 2013

Off to the ROM

We have been wanting to see the Mesopotamia exhibit for a while and finally took advantage of this time off to get down there.  The Mesopotamia exhibit was very interesting but no photos were allowed so that is all I can tell you.  Photos were allowed in other zones so I have photos of some of them.

I love this baby dinosaur because it eventually would grow into….

…this!

Aren’t the colours beautiful?  It is however still a big bug…ugh!

Both girls got into the spirit of things in the biodiversity area.

In Egypt, Elspeth spent a great deal of time creating a personal senet game.  In the process she also practised printing her numbers from 1 to 16 with the help of the volunteer.

Katrine didn’t make a game but she kicked the volunteer’s butt playing said game and had fun doing it because he was an awesome helper.

Katrine was not sure if she would want to skate on these early Canadian skates.

One of the last things that the girls did was race wind up crickets in Asia.  The crickets were so fast that they actually hopped off of the table.

 

 

Family Fun

The last two days have been a lot of fun for the girls.  We have spent large chunks of time outside each day and then come in to relax with homemade hot chocolate and rainbow looming.  I say homemade because Glenn found an instant chocolate recipe and whipped it up before Christmas.  He melted semi-sweet chocolate and mixed it with cream and then when it cooled he cut it into squares.  You just plop some in milk, nuke, stir and deliciousness!!  As for the rainbow looming, Elspeth is working hard to  figure out how to loom a simple bracelet.  It is a bit beyond her but she really wants it.  Katrine got a pattern book for Christmas and was able to bead a bracelet and make her heart’s desire – a starburst bracelet.

The fact that her uncle and aunt got her glow in the dark elastics sweetened the deal because said bracelet also glows in the dark.  Katrine has also been enjoying using her new foot spa.  Now I love a good foot soak as much as anyone but this new spa is a bit much for me.  To me it feels…ugh but then it is not mine so I don’t have to like it.

Katrine had a lot of fun being an engine for Elspeth.

This is what Katrine did when she got bored.

Near our trail there is a soccer field with a lovely nice slope.  They started using a sled but…well…who needs a sled when you have a butt or belly covered with a snow suit?  Apparently that is just as good.

 

Here is the new foot spa.

 

The Final Christmas Celebration of 2013

Yup, that was tonight.  Instead of a traditional type of Christmas dinner we went for hot pot with Glenn’s mom, brother and sister-in-law.  It was delicious!  Maybe the two hours we spent outside this afternoon made it extra delicious, but that is another post.  Doesn’t it look yummy?  We cooked up rice noodles and some veggies along with LOTS of meat.  Mmmm.

(The one side is clear chicken broth while the other is oh so spicy broth.  Delicious when mixed with some extra garlic, ginger and spring onions.)

The it was dessert with extremely candy caney white chocolate bark…oh and Martha Stewart style sugar cookies (because the other Heather is an awesome baker) and of course, more presents.  The girls each got a bean bag chair.  I will let the photos show their reactions.

Boxing Day Snow Fun

Actually today saw us joining Glenn’s family for a great extended family Christmas celebration.  It reminds me of when I was a kid and we spent Christmas Eve with my dad’s family.  The cousins would gather together and just have fun.  I can’t recall what we actually did but I know with certainty that it was fun.  Today’s outing involved great conversation for the adults and bonding for the kids.  Some of that bonding occured outside in the snow which gave me the opportunity to play some more with my camera.  Here are waay too many photos of the girls at play.

Those are two of my favourites.  At Glenn’s cousin’s house there is a wonderfully large lawn off of the deck.  The kids got quite the speed running down the stairs and out across the snow.  At one point there was even a train waiting to sled on down.

Elspeth also enjoyed the icy playset.  Who knew that swimming on a frozen swing could be fun? (Yes, she is sitting on a layer of ice and did so for a full 20 or so minutes.)

One of the cousins shared their jumping rock and the girls embraced this concept.  I was quite surprised to see Elspeth get in on the action given that she usually needs to be holding on to a hand in order to jump off of something into an unknown ( in this case a pile of snowy grass).  Seeing her sister and cousin jumping encouraged her to give it a try and then it was hard to convince her to try anything else outside.  By the way, I love how my new camera takes action shots!

Merry Christmas

The girls gave us a real present today – they slept in!! And on Christmas Day!! It was wonderful.  Once we were up and their grandparents were up it was off to stockings.

Then once breakfast was done and we had fueled up the unwrapping began.  I will let the photos do the talking

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Finally dressed for dinner.  Not a bad looking pair!

Once they had collapsed in bed, it was out into the snow for some shoveling.  What a beautiful way to end the day.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

 

Christmas Eve

In the morning, I took the girls outside to play in the ice/snow.  We have some of those Sno*Markers which meant that they had something to do aside from slid on the ice.  They got pretty creative.  I can honestly say that if you launder snowclothes covered in this “ink” it comes right out of snow clothes.

We had picked up Glenn’s mom yesterday and then my parents joined us at our place today so we have a full house right now.  My parents got a new tree and as a result, they donated their old one to us.  Now we have  two trees.  As you can see, there are a few ornaments on the new one but that is okay, we can grown into it.  The girls talked their Grammy into helping them.

Then Katrine got roped into helping her Grandma do the prep work for the lentil soup for Christmas Day.

The work in the kitchen was no where near done.  There were sugar cookies and Baby Jesus’ birthday cake to be iced as well as a gift for Mom to be made. (Katrine did the ‘Saint Jesus’ on the cake.  Never heard that before but oh well).

Glenn worked with Elspeth to make me Candy Cane Bath Salts with Katrine as the official photographer.

(Epson salts; add peppermint oil and food colouring; stir and bottle.  Smells great.)

After dinner it was off to chruch for the evening service followed by a tour of local lights before the Santa set up began.

The girls even had their stuffies get in on the act.

Sugar Cookies Anyone?

The girls will be enjoying gluteny sugar cookies this year because I am feeling lazy and I saw this prepackaged roll-cut-cook stuff when shopping.  Insta Christmas goodies.  So this afternoon I put them and their Grammy to work.(One of the bonuses of the recent power outage is extra time with our Grammy.)

Another bonus is that I won’t need to worry about cookie calories ’cause I certainly won’t be eating these!

Elspeth’s forehead

Just in case you were wondering what all of the bandaids look like now.  We have gone from this….

…to…

It looks pretty good doesn’t it?  The morning before Glenn was able to get the bandage off Elspeth decided that she was annoyed by it.  Now, we had been trimming the tape bit by bit as it came lose.  SO, Elspeth went in to the bathroom.  Climbed up on the toilet and got the scissors which were in the medicine cabinet.  And then proceeded to trim her bandage.  She was quite pleased with herself and told us that she had cut her bandage.  We had been keeping her bangs shaggy to hid the tape so I didn’t notice it at first.  However, then I walked past the bathroom.  Hair.  Black hair scattered across the floor.  At least it is not too noticable.

Bring on the Festive Shows

This has been the week of festive/winter shows.  On Wednesday alone there were three and then the last one this morning.  It all began with a brief multicultural holiday concert at Katrine’s after school care.  The kids were quite good and obviously proud of their hard work.  Then a quick kiss and I left her to enjoy the potluck until her father arrived.  He got there in time to pick her up, walk her to her classroom and then grab a seat for her show.  All of the photos we have of these two performances have other kids in them so I will not be posting them.  That said, Katrine and the rest of the group did a fabulous job (I got to see it on video).

While those two were off at Katrine’s concert, I was feeding Elspeth and gettting her ready for her holiday concert.  Her class sang Frosty the Snowman.  The photos below are of her doing the Thumpity-Thump-Thump part of the song.

This morning was Katrine’s Theater on Ice showcase.  It was really well done.  She had a blast and did a great job.  Again, too many others so no photos.  🙁

To address the lack of Katrine photos in this post I will also tell you that the girls decorated gingerbread houses yesterday afternoon.  Enjoy.