Twinkle twinkle

C and the two Js went to Alight at Night at Upper Canada Village with a big part of the extended family. Unfortunately Katie was feeling awful, having spent most of the day in bed, so she and I remained home. The boys took a wagon ride, saw the lights and perused the entries in a huge gingerbread house contest.

Thank goodness it washes off...

The Avon roll-on soaps seemed like a good idea at the time...

Mini-vacation

We stayed in a hotel this trip, one that featured a pool and a hot tub. The hot tub *almost* made up for how uncomfortable the bed was :)

Boxing Day

For Boxing Day we left early early to drive to Nana's house! Look at the pile of gifts, it was taller than sweet little Maya!

All of the kids (little AND big) got terribly spoiled :)

Merry Christmas

From our home to yours

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve morning at my office, which traditionally throws a children's party for the kids of employees on Christmas Eve. The kids decorated cookies, made crafts and had a visit from 'Santa'.

Afterwards, we wandered across the river to papa's office for lunch and to enjoy the kids Christmas activities in his large complex, and were surprised and delighted when he was able to leave at noon-ish (we expected he'd work the whole day). Made for a lovely, calm day.

A quick stop in at a cousin's Christmas party before heading to the church rounded out the day.


The kids both sang at Christmas Eve Mass this year, and having sat through a good many of the rehearsals I'm shocked at how GOOD it was! It was GREAT really! The kids sounded angelic, the adult choir lovely, and it all went without a hitch (except that Katie had a tummy ache, but that didn't stop her from performing, or eating the candy that they gave the kids afterwards!)

A favourite tradition

I love gingerbread houses. I'm not Martha Stewart, so I don't bake them, but I get a kit every year and let the bits go wild. There's something so satisfying about a wee house made entirely of cookie and candy! In all honesty though, they generally get tossed in the garbage after Christmas. And I'm ok with that. The fun is in the making after all :)

Seasons Greetings

Trying to take pictures of the little boogers for this year's Christmas card. They're cute, but they're tricky to photograph. One refuses to smile, the other is all about posing. But I did get one I can use. In the interest of keeping my Christmas cards a surprise, here, instead, are some outtakes.

Hold me closer Tony Danza...

Katie and I went to the ballet today with two other mom and daughter pairs.

Beauty and the Beast

She loved it (I did too). Was a very simple staging, and the audience was full of little girls, all dressed up of course. So sweet. I looked over at her at one point and she was on the edge of her seat, completely engrossed. She really understood it, and that's saying a lot because ballet is often not easy to understand.

(Then on the way home she told me that the male lead had a 'jiggly butt'. Hehehe, not quite the same thing I noticed about him, but close...)

The tree is up

And the season has 'officially' begun. We never put the tree up before December, it's one of C's 'rules', so when the tree finally goes up it's well and truly Christmas :)

Bookworm

This makes my heart sing, it's all finally clicked and he's reading for pleasure (what you can't tell from this picture is the TV is on, but he's paying no attention to that, he's instead absorbed in a book... a chapter book!)

A swap

I love online swaps. There's something liberating about making things for other people who you don't really know - you get to work outside your comfort zone with pretty much no fear. Cool :)

I made this little quilted place mat for a Flickr swap. It's unlike anything else I've ever made, and I love it. The appliqué was cut by hand out of black cotton fused to steam a seam, then sewn to a pieced background (the idea was to go for a sunset look).

It's currently flying all the way to the west coast. I hope it makes it there soon!

Smudgy sky

Sunrise, November 25th

My little Guide

Katie officially moved up from Brownies to Guides tonight. That's further than I went in the organization (I enjoyed Brownies but was way more into gymnastics). She's still really loving it, I'm glad for that.

Baptism day

We didn't have the little ones baptised as infants, for many reasons too boring to get into here.

The kids attend a Catholic school though, and learning about Catholicism in religion class, and watching their classmates receive sacrements, they began to express a desire to be baptised themselves. We started preparing in August, and today was their big day. It was low key, 6 kids in total who for whatever reason found themselves in situations similar to ours. And it was beautiful. Afterwards the deacon rang the church bells to announce the occasion to the community.

I'm glad it happened this way. I think the kids will be more aware and more appreciative of the church having made the decision to join themselves.

Morning Glory

Sunrise this morning - Nov 14

Generations of crafty

My paternal grandmother was crafty. More than crafty really, incredibly artistic. She did wonderful drawing and illustrations (including some beautiful pieces on birch bark) she sewed, she knit, she crocheted. She was amazing.

A while back my dad found this in a box of her personal items that had been untouched since before she passed away in 1999. It would have been written in the early 40s. Howard was my grandfather, Bunny was my grandma. I think it's simply incredible, not only was she crafty, she was sly and funny and a decent poet.

I miss her, and I'm proud to carry on the 'crafty' for another generation.

(Click on the picture to see it large enough to read the poem and enjoy the drawings)

Happy Hallowe'en

Despite snowing overnight and early on Hallowe'en day the day turned out fairly well. It was dry-ish by nightfall, and while it was certainly cold it wasn't snowsuit weather. Still, the kids didn't even do an entire block before they were tired and begging to go home (of course, being in a rural village our 'blocks' are fairly large). in total we were out about 45 minutes, and the bits each received a fairly good sized pile of candy.

Eligible bachelor...

He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror and said "I'm so handsome, everybody would want to marry me". I think he's inheirited my sense of humour...

Milestones

The exciting milestones are so much more bittersweet with the last child.

Wookie lost his other top front tooth. In a few weeks he's going to have a pair of giant chicklet teeth, and probably will look way older. As exciting as it is to watch him grow, it also makes me sad, he's my last baby.

Picture Day 2010

They're not all that 'fancied up', but it was raining (AS USUAL!) and it was also pizza day (brilliant planning that). K tells me that they took pictures of the sibling sets together, in addition to the typical school pictures. Should be interesting to see the proofs...

Girl Guide cookies

It's that time of year again...

(I am a bit miffed though, it was the friggin' FIRST meeting of the year and already they have us shilling cookies. Ridiculous. So far we've had to help the kids sell 3 boxes of chocolate bars, scout popcorn, apples and now cookies, and it's only October 6th. Going to be a loooooong year...)

Frog stack

Some little friends we fished out of the pool. The two big ones were stuck together like that in the pool, while being fished out and in the bucket, guy has a good grip. Michele thought it'd be funny to put the little guy on top - middle frog was NOT pleased by that and chirped loudly to complain, eventually bucking the little one off.

(What can I say, we're easily amused)

Candy Corn

Ready for October (thanks for Aunty Elizabeth, and Target - why are there no Targets in Canada???)

Canning...

The last of the summer tomatoes from my garden, will be ketchup du maison when it's done simmering...

Hello Fall

Enjoying the first bits of fall colour at Mer bleue.

Scrappy Mug Rug - completed

Another swap :) Can't help it, these are fun. This is a "mug rug", basically an oversized coaster designed to hold your coffee mug or tea cup and a little snack.

It measures about 4.5 inches by 8.5 inches and is made from two foundation pieced string blocks in a variety of green and blue fabrics with a punch of red.

Somehow it almost looks Christmassy to me. Maybe I should make another for Santa's milk and cookies?

Weekending

Labour Day weekend. We spent it at the cottage, I still wasn't feeling 100% but the pace on the island is so laid back I knew I'd be just fine.

The wind blew and blew and blew, we lost power for most of the first day. The waves were huge by lake standards, but the kids were undeterred and played until they were blue, then dried off, knocked back hot chocolate and were ready to go back in.

Not exactly perfect Labour Day weather, but a great weekend nonetheless.

Day is done

Gone the sun

DQS9 received

Ohhhhh I love this!!!! I can't believe I didn't see it in the pool, it's the most gorgeous thing (and Tina it could not have come at a better time, I soooooo needed this wonderful pick-me-up today!)

Seriously sucks

It appears I have Fifth disease. Most people get this as children. I am not most people. My coworker contracted it after an outbreak at her daughter's daycare and, well, I guess we share more than a cube wall. My head aches so much, I'm exhausted, and now the rash.

At least it's short lived and self-limiting. It just sucks right now. Wonder how many of my kids will catch it...

First day of school 2010

Grade 2 and grade 4. Little J was actually really excited though there was no way he was going to smile for me...

DQS9 complete

My entry for the Flickr Doll Quilt Swap #9.

The piecing is pretty good if I do say so myself, and the quilting isn't bad either. I stitched a few lines of silver filament through the dark grey squares to give a chain impression, gives it a lovely subtle sheen. The binding, however, is not great. I've really struggled lately with binding and I made many mistakes on this one. Oh well, hopefully that will be overlooked by it's new owner...

Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine!!!

Lookie lookie lookie what I got!!!!!!!!!!! It's my anniversary/Christmas/birthday 2011/birthday 2012/birthday 2013 present....

I'm just waiting for the battery to charge... and reading (skimming) the manual...

More s'mores

I don't eat 'em, but they love 'em.

Gappy

After being loose for more than 4 weeks it finally came out. It had to be 'helped' a bit, we had corn on the cob for dinner and he was wincing every time he took a bite because the tooth was so loose it was stabbing his gum... so he let me pull it for him.

He has been a slow teether his entire life. His baby teeth were slow to come in, they've been even slower to come out (he's 7 and this is baby tooth #4 to come out). His big brother was the same way though.

shizz-opping!

Fabric is really, really fun to buy, and really, really hard to get at a decent price in Canada. So I do most of my shopping online. This is my latest acquisition... it's not quite as bad as it looks, these are mostly precuts and were mostly on sale.. can't wait to cut into these puppies!

Little J

He's such a booger. He wanted me to take a picture of his pool-slicked hair, but it rapidly became a giggle-fest.

Good thing he's cute :)

Chokecherry jelly

Making chokecherry jelly. Set up the big boiling water canner on the Coleman stove outside, which was good for not heating up the kitchen, but not so great for keeping the jelly hot while pouring it into the jars...

First batch turned out great. Next batch I think we'll do inside...

Vacation

Just a little getaway.


A Friday departure to the campground where my parents have their trailer.


A LOT of rain.

A day trip to Mississauga for Krispy Kreme doughnuts!


A quick visit with Princess Maya.

Some swimming fun.

A drive down the highway and a ferry ride to the cottage.

More swimming fun.

5 days in total, but wonderful days all.