Category: Mom A

And even more holiday fun

I hurt my back a few days ago doing …who knows what.  It is slowly getting better but the fact that Elspeth is in a “carry me, hold me, hug me” phase is slowing the process.  That aside, you all know how much I love Christmas so hurting or not it was outside for some holiday fun this weekend.

Saturday afternoon saw us heading out to the Community Safety Village for their holiday celebration.  Everything was going good until Elspeth saw the horses wearing Santa hats.  I don’t know if it was the live horses or that they had the hats and she couldn’t reconcile horses with Santa, but she literally climbed up everytime they turned a corner near us.  We are calling it good for bonding but bad for the back.  Aside from that, the girls had a lot of fun decorating cookies, doing crafts and listening to choirs.  We ended it by visiting with Santa.  This visit was a landmark.  It was the first time that Elspeth (who talks about Santa all day) did not freak out when she saw him.  It is the first photo we have gotten where she is not in tears.  If we can get our scanner working I will post it but until then you will have to take my word for it.  We ended the day driving home into the sunset.

Greeting us on our arrival.
An angel....maybe
Before seeing the horses.
The fierce, scary Santa ponies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today it was off to church.  Katrine was thrilled because it was the Sunday school PJ party where they watched Little Drummer boy while eating cookies and hot chocolate with marshmallow (just one big one).  Elspeth did not spend that much time with me in the baby room because we were in the bathroom.  I had forgotten how much fun potty training can be for young ones but who am I to argue with a girl who is determined to be like her big sister and get into underwear (one less diaper is fine with me).  Then while Elspeth was napping, Katrine went to decorate a gingerbread house with her Grammy at Longos.  I think that they did a great job.  Much more patience than I would’ve had.  Katrine actually wants to save it, uneaten, until after Christmas day which is fine by me because we have mounds of candy canes to go through first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend.  Two weeks today is Christmas Day.  Can’t wait. Oh, I almost forgot.  We had Elspeth out on single blades this week.  She can stand! Then she tries to run and falls.  I think that we may need to put the cage back on her helmet.

 

May in Review

May began with a trip to Niagara Falls for a reunion with Katrine’s orphanage “sisters”. We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge; which is absolutely awesome! Katrine had a great time splashing around in the wave pool and playing with her friends. She also like the kiddie water slides once she saw some of her friends going down them. She was really impressed with the falls and just wanted to stay and watch them inspite of shivering. On our way back home we stopped at the Botanical Gardens and Butterfly Conservatory. Katrine loved the butterflies. I was actually able to get one to land on me!! Others got them to land on their hands while I had to settle for my shoulder…oh well. We had a lot of fun wandering through the gardens and looking at the spring flowers. One of the highlights was when Glenn and her found some frogs beside a wee pond.

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Looking at frogs.
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Perched amongst the cherry blossoms.
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At the wave pool.
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By the falls.

Glenn’s birthday was over Mother’s Day weekend and we were lucky enough to have my parents staying with us so we were able to go out with some friends to celebrate. On Sunday morning we went with my parents to visit my nana and enjoy some treats. Nana is doing quite well for 95. In the afternoon, we had Glenn’s family over for a barbeque. It was fun seeing everyone and a special way to combine the festivities of the weekend into one. I got a lovely card from Katrine that she made at daycare (it made me cry) and Glenn got my favourite photo of Katrine and I from last weekend blown up and framed. I have included it below.
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This past weekend, we journeyed down to London to do the Tomlinson family birthday thing. We spent Saturday at Storybook Gardens. The kids had a great time playing together and climbing the various play structures. Katrine’s favourite part was riding the carrousel. On Sunday, we stopped to visit another one of her orphanage “sisters” and her adorable new baby sister. The girls had so much fun playing with Thomas and making necklaces, that Katrine didn’t want to leave and come home. Today, we planted our garden. The soil is excellent and it has us believing that this might acutally be the year that our vegetables grow (we never got much at our last house). We planted beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and cabbage. Katrine got to wear her cute Dora garending gloves and helped to plant the seedlings and then water them in. Hopefully our local wild bunnies won’t eat everything on us.

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Katrine and her cousins
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Helping Baba!

Easter Weekend Fun!

Katrine began gymnastics classes on Thursday. She had a wonderful time. They got her up on the balance beam and trampoline which she thought was fabulous. They also began to teach her how to do a cart-wheel (she has been asking for a while but neither Glenn nor I can do one). Our favourite part? She left the class exhausted and slept like a log that night!!
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On Good Friday, we went up to visit my Nana (she’s 95!). Katrine was excited as we haven’t been able to go and visit in a while as they have been under quarantine. We sat around visited and enjoyed ice cream sundaes. Much to Katrine’s delight, Nana had managed to get Katrine a small egg full of jelly beans which she devoured after polishing off her ice cream.
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Sunday morning began with Katrine searching through her Easter basket to see what the Easter bunny had brought. The fat pencils were among her favourite items. (Yes, our Easter bunny likes to bring non-candy items). Then it was time to run around the living room searching for treats which the fluffy gift-giver had hidden. Then she had to sample some with a sigh before beginning to draw with her new pencils. Next, we went to visit Glenn’s dad and mom. Katrine is feeling some Grandparent withdrawal because she hasn’t been able to see her Attwood grandparents as often due to Glenn’s dad’s surgery. Anyways, visits are a huge hit with her. She insisted on taking her Easter bunny purse and stickers as well as some “homework” as she likes to call her connect-dot-sheets. Well, she entertained everyone with her gymnastics exercises and songs. Plus, she managed to scam some chocolate off of her Grandpa. After consuming some more chocolate, it was time for turkey dinner. We were lucky enough to have Glenn’s mom join us. We were going to have gluten-free rice krispies shaped like carrots but the green gummies that we had set aside for the leaves had mysteriously vanished. Hhmmm, a hungry Easter bunny or a little girl?
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Easter basket booty

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Today, Easter Monday, Glenn had the day off and we drove out to Puck’s Farm in Nobleton for their egg hunt. It was a wee bit cold but we all needed some fresh air. She had fun looking at the baby animals and going on pony rides. However, the highlight of the day was, by far, finding the small plastic egg and then trading them in for more candy.

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Sigh, just think. This coming weekend we are having a Pirate Third Birthday Party complete with candy and a treasure hunt. I think that our family will sail through the rest of this month on a sugar high.

Been busy…

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, we’ve been busy getting ready to move into our new house. Actually we’re getting ready to take possession of the new place and do lots of fix-ups. New windows, new and repaired flooring, and lots of painting and cleaning will be the order of the day from October 3 until we move on October 25.

In the meantime, we managed to find time to go to the Kite Festival. We really had a good time, and wore Katrine out. She did get to fly her first kite though (it didn’t stay up for long).

We were also in and out of London last Saturday for Charles’ 4th birthday. The indoor playground was a blast for the kids, and we were sure that Katrine would sleep the whole way home, but no… 15 minutes was all she needed. Of course she looked spaced anyway.