Author: Heather

Cherish the small things

Sometimes in the midst of horrible news we are reminded to cheish the small stuff.  Today provided just such an opportunity.  Katrine finally landed her axel.  A very big deal for our girl as she has been working towards it for quite a while.  We chose to celebrate with a family outing for frozen yogurt with multiple toppings.  A time to laugh and smile together while marking a success brought about by hard work.  To the families affected by this newest batch of horror, my heart goes out to you.  To the rest of us, let us remember to treasure the time we have with our families even more.

Thornhill Fun Skate – Part 2

Today it was back to Thornhill Community Center.  This time to cheer on Elspeth.  She woke up super excited that it was her day to skate.  That excitement lasted until about 10 minutes after she got off the ice.  Then she was tired (as you can see in the photos).  Once her snack kicked in she was back to her happy self.  She was also quite pleased to have a new ribbon for her board…although, she did object to the fact that it was not pink. She also competed in a new skating outfit because she actually grew out of the one that I made for her (see post on Winter Glitters from January).  I think that she looks right cute in this dress though.

 

Thornhill Fun Skate – Part 1

Our first visit to the competition was Friday for Katrine.  So, this is her post.  She had a lot of fun and came in fifth.  We were very proud of her (as you can see in the photo).

At dinner, she drew a picture of herself skating in her dress for the judges.  It was pretty cute.

Back to the arena tomorrow morning for Elspeth’s skate.

Sensory Progress!

When Elspeth first came home she was bombarded by new experiences.  Some she embraced while others inspired distrust.  Textures were one new experience which she was quite weary of.  Walking in mud or even puddles….hmmm, are you sure?  Dig in this sand box?  Look of concern.  Stick my hands in this water table….well…maybe.  Playdough?  Oh, this is squishy.

Paint was a particular concern.  Especially if it got on her figers.  That would result in whines and hand waving to request that the offending speck of paint be removed immediately. Well, we have progress.  As you can see, our little girl now loves to paint.

She is also not so concerned about the location where the paint ends up. (Take a close look at her eye lid.  That streak is my favourite.)

To top it off….We Have Finger Painting!!!!!!

Happy times!

Someone is trying out Highland Dance

Yep, it is that time again.  The time to try and convince a child that Highland Dance is the best kind of dance ever invented and on top of that, it is obviously the most fun choice of extra curricular.  If that fails, at least Elspeth will now be able to claim that she took dance lessons like mom, grandma and Great Grandpa…and look cute doing it.

Easter in photos

Easter Morning:

Easter at the Zoo:

Look!  Elspeth in motion!

Here is our Elspeth at 3 and a half standing beside her 14 month old cousin.  Hmm, we really are short.

Lions Club Egg Hunt

Saturday dawned to two girls ready for another day of fun at their grandparents.  My dad is now a Lion and his group had organized a community event in the form of an Easter Egg Hunt.  Last year we were unable to attend but this year we were up there, dressed and ready to go.  The event did not disappoint.  Both girls had an excellent time.  As you can see, they not only spent even more time building memories with their grandparents but they got face painted, met the Easter Bunny, hunted for eggs and got a huge chocolate bunny each!

My dad and two of his girls

He and the other Lions had placed 4, 000 plastic eggs in the field.  Within four minutes all of the eggs were claimed!  Within those four minutes, there was a lot of smiles and giggles as the kids tried to fill their baskets.

Grandpa and Katrine played a little game of basketball….sorry, eggbag with the eggs.

One highlight for Elspeth was finding two “peachy” eggs (That is now her favourite colour.  She insists that anything orange is peach and will stand her ground when told that they are orange.)

My two little bunnies

As you can see, Katrine was much happier meeting the Easter Bunny than Elspeth. Elspeth did happily accept the chocolate mini eggs and then promptly asked her dad “Who inside the bunny?”

 

I would like to say a special thank you to the Victoria Harbour Lions club for a well run and extremely fun event.  The girls had a wonderful time.

Good Friday in the Sugar Bush

This year we had the opportunity to spend a chunk of Good Friday helping my dad at the sugar shack.  Both girls enthusiastically helped but I think that Katrine’s level of excitement was a bit higher given that she actually understood what they were doing.  They are already on me to whip up a batch of GF pancakes so that they can use the maple sirop “that they made”.  Let me take you through our afternoon.

1. We arrive at the bush and are greated by rows of tapped trees.

2. Stop in at the sugar shack to get the fire started, take a nice close look at the equipment without the usual layer of steam and collect our buckets.

3. Okay, the troops are ready to go.  Off into the bush to check which buckets are full, collect the sap into our pails and the haul it back to the shack.  In total we collected about 13 gallons (45 litres) of sap.

Katrine tried to do it all by herself but then the red pail got to heavy and then mom had to lug it about while she continued to fill it up.

Katrine took her big sister duties quite seriously.  At every stop she would check the various buckets and leave the one with the smallest amount of sap for Elspeth.  As you can see, Elspeth still needed help but she gave it her all.

4. Then we went to look at the swans, geese and ducks while it was being boiled (not the actual sap we collected but shh don’t tell my girls).  By the time we came back there was some sap ready to be poured off.  This is the first time that the girls have ever got to see this part of the process.  Usually when they visit, Grandpa is boiling water for tour groups so that they can see the process regardless of how the sap has been running. Anyways, they got to see how it is poured through a strainer into a large container and then bottled.

That is my dad filling the sirop bottle.

5.  Topped the whole experience off with some hot chocolate and a homemade turkey dinner.