Author: Heather

Easter Bunny is here! (and other easter stuff)

Originally got these ears for Katrine, but I don’t think that she ever enjoyed them quite this much.  Silly Bunny

Big eyed Bunny (“No mummy.  I Silly Bunny.”  Guess I was told)

Cute Bunny

The eggs are ready.  Decorations have been made.  Guess it is almost time to find some goodies.

Elspeth really got the whole egg decorating thing this year.  Katrine requested that we make ‘marble eggs like last year” so that she could have cool eggs to eat at school this week.  Then she went and got a high fever so she ended up eating this batch at home with her sister.

The Skating Fun Never Ends in our House

That’s right, even when we are not at an arena it is still all about the skating.  This time the girls found a box and Katrine thought that we could make it into an ice rink.  With a little bit of creativity and a lot of glue, the Attwood Arena was born.  Complete with an audience calling out cheers, tickets and medals.

Now it was time for the gala.  Both girls got in on the fun by breaking out every single toy that has skates….and a walrus!  Who knew that stuffed animals had such awesome skating moves?  The Barbie was apparently the headliner.  I must admit that her spiral was not half bad.

‘Skatey Bear’ shows off her jumps, ‘Skatey Girl’ demonstrates the ice splits move (also known as the cold bum move), “Ice Angel/Barbie’ breaks out her spiral while Walrus sits (totally different from the cold bum move due to the mass quantities of blubber involved).

Now that the show was done it was time to increase the role which our arena was to play within the toy community of our household through lessons from our resident coach….Barbie! (She really is a woman of many talents.  Never seen a coach whose skates fall off quite as easily though.)  The arena has been used by all of the Calico Critters, who interestingly enough can apparently skate in bare feet! Barbie has also coached a sheep and Katrine’s fashion doll Lily.

Big Sister Sheep is working on push together while Lily is more advanced working on a toe loop as being demonstrated by her coach.


Introduction the new and improved Skatey Girl

We have the dresses!!! (A special thank you to SamSam for thinking of us)

Got the gloves! (Finally found a pair small enough to fit her hands.  Stretchy gloves that don’t need to stretch.  Hehe)  Got the fuzzy sweater and funky leg warmers. Now I am ready to rock my shiny new skates!!!

Look! I can even go higher in these.  I am Skatey Girl!  See me fly!

 

World Figure Skating Gala in London

It was AWESOME!  I had an absolutely fabulous time with Katrine and my mom.  The skating was…well, the best in the world.  The company was great.  And then to top it all off, they even had a gluten free consession stall!!

First time that I have ever had a lot of choice at an sporting event.  Hopefully it is sign of things to come.

From the time when we turned off of the highway until we reached the arena there was great signage.  Katrine was almost dancing in her seat as we drove along.  Her excitement reached fever pitch once she saw this sign and ice sculpture. This is the sign which greated our arrival at the arena.

I was told by my brother that there were no bad seats in Budwieser Gardens.  He was right.  This is the view from our seats.  Every skater looked fabulous.

Last night Katrine made two flags for our trip.  One for herself and the other for her skating mascot “Skatey Bear”.  Both flags got quite the work out ever time a Canadian skater took the ice.

At the end of the gala all of the skaters came out for a last hurrah.  What a bunch of talent.  Their skills were fabulous.  The show was a joy to watch.

Elspeth, Glenn and my Dad?  They stayed home and played at the park.  I came home to another happy girl who had basked in her father and grandfather’s love and undivided attention.  All around a wonderful day.

Teeny Skates

So Elspeth has been complaining about her skates pinching.  It was not because they were too small in terms of size but rather that they were pinching her ankles where we were pulling them in excessively much in order to make them fit.  Time for skates with laces.  Off to the Figure Skating Boutique we went.  Check out what we brought home.

 

March Break Part 2 in photos

Today it was off to the ROM.  I knew that Katrine would love it but I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about how Elspeth would react.  A stroller for security was an absolute necessity as was her stuffed sheep.  Since I did bring those two the day played out well.  Check it out.

Favourite exhibits:

Of course they loved the dinosaurs.  Katrine thought that the embryo inside of the egg was super interesting while Elspeth marvelled at the sheer size of the skeletons.

Katrine begged to go see the rocks and minerals section.  Elspeth saw this and cried “Look Mummy!  A granola bar!”

Nature section had a mushroom display for Katrine and this giant Spider Crab for Elspeth who desperately wanted to pet it.


Girls at play:

In the medival section Elspeth’s sheep got to meet its ancient counterpart.  There was alot of Baa-ing.  Apparently old sheep and modern sheep are quite similar.

While Elspeth could’ve spent hours digging for “treasure”, Katrine was more interested in touching fossils.

One of my favourite photos is this one of the girls standing/jumping on the moon (Plus, I am almost certain that Aleigh is the first sheep on the moon.).  There is actually a piece of the moon in the circle underneath Elspeth’s feet.

Elspeth on Safari

A local mall hosted Safari Jeff again this year.  My mother in law and I decided to take Elspeth.  Nothing like seeing real animals up close to encourage more language development (oh, it is cool to see them too).  Well, we had a lot of fun.  I will let the photos tell the tale of our mall safari.

Mom, are these the only animals?  Yah know, fake bugs are the best kind.

Okay.  Me and the sheep family are ready for the show.  Bring on some animals.

She got to see this guy stick out his long tongue and eat a bug. 

Then came the super fun part – Face Painting!

Everyone else was getting butterflies, tigers or spiders.  Elspeth?  She asked for a dinosaur.  The girl had to google some suggestions but it turned out AWESOME!

Did you notice that the dinosaur opens it’s mouth whenever Elspeth does?  It was actually fun watching her eat her lunch.

Home from North Bay

After a long drive we are finally home.  The most exciting part of the drive?  Why seeing the sign for Katrine, Ontario of course?  Katrine sees her name in very few places so it is always exciting.

Have you guessed why we were all the way up north?  For skating of course.  This weekend North Bay is hosting the Make it a Date to Skate competition.  It seemed like a good idea to shake things up and get away from it for a bit so we signed up.  It was fun!  Mostly because a group of Katrine’s coaches skaters went up and we stayed together.  So it was not just about the skating but about the girls having fun.  Katrine with her friends and Elspeth playing at being a big girl.

(One of Katrine’s fellow skaters took the photos with the words.  I don’t have that kinda technology.  Looks really nice doesn’t it.  The one of my two cuties is from the pizza party last night.)

I suppose I should fill you in on the skating itself.  Katrine placed 8th for her spins (she kinda mucked one up…in that she did the wrong thing which makes it near impossible to actually win anything).  Then 2nd for elements.  Then 5th for her solo.  She was pretty happy with that place given that there were “really big girls in my group” (aka a few were at least 16).  Most important though, she was proud of her overall effort as were we.  Now a full month without competitions.  Sigh.  Notice, not without skating only no competitions.  Hey, I’ll take what I can get.