Category: Mom A

While looking into what is going on at the CNE this year I came across an ad for Horsecapades.  Most importantly it is FREE.  Now who can turn down free activities?  In this case it was free-tastic!!

 

 

 

 

The girls got a chance to ride a mechanical horse (which is as close as they will get to riding a horse for a while).  Elspeth was ready to go until she learned that one of us would have to hold onto to her because she is so small.  Katrine decided to name her horse Blackie.

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a couple of educational displays about horses (with the exception of a section with general farm activities – hence the pig photo cause they were so very cute).  Elspeth was quite pleased with her horse hat and pretended to be Baby Horse for the rest of the day.  Katrine enjoyed looking at the life-sized insides of a horse display and was thoroughly grossed about by the section on horse parasites.  The girls also got to touch and feed various horses.  I think that the Minature Horse named Pablo was their favourite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight was definitely the horse show.  What gorgeous creatures.  They both loved the unicorn being ridden by a fairy.  Elspeth enjoyed the lasso and trick riding portions while Katrine enjoyed the horse races and musical poles (aka chairs) game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We topped it off with some peddle sulky rides.

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!

Last night we took Glenn’s mom with us on a festive outing downtown to the Christmas Market.  We went last year but thought that it would be a nice family outing which it was.  The lights are truly beautiful and all of the snow last night made them even more so.  Imagine walking along to the sound of christmas music amidst a swirl of snowflakes as lights dance in the breeze over head.  Oh, and there is a huge tree and tons of festive decorations.

We made a family visit to Santa before ducking inside for much needed hot chocolate.

A little bit more walking took us to a chocolate shop.  What a heavenly smell greated us as we walked in.  If we hadn’t already had hot chocolate I would have stood in that super long line for some.  Instead, we saved our pennies and watched the machines making chocolate.  Mmmmm.

Oh and a head update: the tape is finally off of Elspeth’s head and it is looking much better than when the tape was on.  Just a pink line.  Yippee!