Category: Mom A

We were thrilled to be invited back up to Glenn’s sister’s cottage this weekend.  With better weather we not only managed to stay dry but had a few more adventures.

1. A butterfly hunt.  As you can see below, not only did the girls go and find butterflies that their aunt had hung from trees around the cottage but they also had a blast decorating themselves with them too.  Gotta love a game which can be enjoyed in multiple forms.

2.  Frog hunting. Our original plan last weekend (which got rained out) was to not only go to the cottage but attend the local fair.  At said fair, the girls were going to enter the frog contest – biggest frog, ugliest frog, longest jump; before re-releasing said frogs.  You’d think that with all of the moisture it would have been easy to find two frogs.  Nope.  They were smart and stayed hidden.  So here we were with two decorated bug catchers and nothing inside (hey, two girls, we decorate everthing).  As you can see, only one litte frog (toad actually) was found.  After a brief stay in her plastic home, Toad-ette was freed.  Elspeth had a more eclectic display in her catcher.  It captures the essence of her many walks in the woods.  The only thing that fascinated her which was not included were mushrooms.

3. Mushrooms. Of course, Katrine had to go on her traditional mushroom hunt thereby introducing her sister to the fascinating world of fungus.  With a two year old the hunt goes like this:  “Mama, mushroom!”  “No, sweetie fern.”  “Mushroom!”  “No darling, dirty stone.”  “Mushroom! Mushroom!”  “Yes, that is a gill mushroom.”  Maybe it is time to show her Katrine’s mushroom photo album.

4. Haliburton County Fair. To make up for having missed the fair last weekend on account of pouring rain, we drove over to the fair in Minden on Saturday.  It was alot like the fair that we will be going to in September for my nephew’s birthday – FUN!  The handicraft and children’s exhibits were excellent.  I am always amaxed at the obvious time and effort put into the various entries.  Then you look at the children’s entries and are blown away by the creativity.  Katrine was really interested in the vegetable entries; particularly the huge zucchinnis while Elspeth really enjoyed looking at the sheep.  There was a display put on by the army and both girls climbed up onto the tank.  Katrine was blown away by all of the technology inside (gadget girl).  Elspeth got up and got scared but didn’t want to come down.  So, of course when Glenn lifted her down there was a kicking, screaming tantrum much to the soldiers amusement.  Of course, as with any fair, you have to top it off with some ice cream.

5. Fishing. Okay, if you read last week’s post, you will know that Elspeth is a speed fisher.  Mama baits hook, Baba casts, Elspeth reels like it is a race and is then confused that there is no fish on the hook.  Well, this week her aunt and Grammy found the perfect rod for her which might just allow her to final catch something…if she can manage to stand still while holding it.  She got a few nibbles but Katrine landed the catch of the day.  I will let the photo tell the tale but she was thrilled.

 

Happy Santa Day!  Have you been good?  The girls (aka Katrine worrying for both of them) are keeping their fingers crossed that they made it onto the nice list.  We also spent the last two days baking cookies to make sure that we had enough sweet stuff to tempt the big guy.  On the plus side, Katrine went to sleep super quickly tonight, or at least pretended to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Round 1:

Last night was Elspeth’s first real taste of the Christmas tradition of celebrating family.  Glenn’s side of the family got together at his sister’s house for a nice dinner, awesome cookies provided by the other Heather, gifts and family.  The dinner and drinks were a hit with the grown ups, while Katrine loved her aunt’s white chocolate peppermint bark. Elspeth spent a good portion of the beginning of the evening fretting about their small shitzu.  Now Casey is a sweetie who loves to play.  The worst thing she could possibly do is lick you to death.  Just the same Elspeth could not be far enough away from her.  All through dinner she was checking under the table to make sure that she wasn’t lurking there or climbing into my lap for comfort at the hint of a bark (great for bonding though).  Katrine is not a big fan of dogs as you all know.  When she was younger she was quite scared of them, especially big ones but upon meeting Casey her fear has become managable.  She can now tolerate most dogs and refuses to let them get in the way of her fun.  Elspeth’s reaction to dogs makes young Katrine look like a dog lover.  She loves the concept of dogs when they are wayyyyy down the block or squishy stuffed animals just not when they are alive and within a two house width radius of her.  Then terror hits.  Her eyes get huge, she tenses, scans the area, clings (yeah), uses us as physical barriers (yeah).  We have a lot of family and friends with dogs so this presents a real problem.  It is also quite remarkable given that there were free roaming small dogs at the orphanage.  We have wondered if her little scar on her leg was the result of a burn but perhaps it was a dog bite.  The later would explain her intense fear.  Now the question becomes how to help her reach the place where Katrine is with regards to dogs.  Suggestions?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elspeth relaxed once the presents began to be handed out.  Maybe because of the presents and maybe because she didn’t know that Casey was downstairs as she was so quiet.  Both girls had a lot of fun tearing into the paper.  Katrine was also thrilled to be able to hand out some gifts that she had purchased with her own allowance.  This is the first year that she had money to spend on presents and was quite proud of herself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Round 2: After a day of last minute jobs, we headed to church for family service.  Katrine was an adorable star in the children’s play.  She walked in, skipped around and then sat prettily until the end of the play.  She told me that she was glad to be a star because she got to wear a yellow headband and do a little dance.  The joys of being 7.