What's up with Glenn, Heather, Katrine, and Elspeth
The girls will be enjoying gluteny sugar cookies this year because I am feeling lazy and I saw this prepackaged roll-cut-cook stuff when shopping. Insta Christmas goodies. So this afternoon I put them and their Grammy to work.(One of the bonuses of the recent power outage is extra time with our Grammy.)
Another bonus is that I won’t need to worry about cookie calories ’cause I certainly won’t be eating these!
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!
And so we the school based celebrations began this week with a gingerbread cookie party at Elspeth’s before&after school care. The kids had painted signs and made glitter centerpieces which were really cute but I forgot to get a photo of one (naughty mommy). I did however make sure that each child of mine had a cookie, knife, icing and WAAAAY too much candy for her own good.
 Here is Elspeth and her creation. She actually ended up eating quite a bit of her cookie this year.
This is Katrine’s cookie. He is a Cyclops gingerbread man. Can you guess what she is reading a lot of right now?
First, for those wondering Elspeth is basically fine. We are still waiting for the bandage to come off so that we can see what type of scar she might be looking at.
Okay, Christmas!
This past weekend it was off to Christmas on the Farm run by a local church. The girls really enjoy it. This year Elspeth was quite interested in their live nativity (which is pretty darn good). One of the wise men had “golden” chocolate coins.
Once the nativity play had been enjoyed (and we were thoroughly frozen), it was off to the craft zone in the barn. This year’s craft was a cute folded Christmas tree held in place by a jube jube.
We topped the evening with a wagon ride to look at all of the fabulous lights. A very cold evening but festive fun.
Well, I can now say that I recommend opting for stitches over glue when given the chance. Elspeth seemed okay until Saturday morning. That is when there was some blood on cleaning. Again today. She is being a trooper but it hurts as her hair is caught in the tape. Guess we are heading back to the doctor’s. Sigh. On Wednesday she wrote a note to her teacher explaining what had happened. It is very cute. Makes me smile.
In amidst all of the drama there have been good things as well. Yesterday the whole family went to see the pantomime Peter Pan. It was hilarious for both the kids and adults. Top that off with time spent with cousins, uncle, aunt and grandparents and you have a great time. A great early Christmas gift.
This afternoon was the annual Advent Craft Dinner at church. The girls LOVE it! They spend time doing crafts and being part of the church community. Top that off with dinner, ample dessert and a family centered worship service and it is a sure fire success. A great way to kick off advent…well, that and their Playmobile calendars.
The evenings work…aside from the cookies which disappeared in a flash.
And so, November is going out with a BUMP….CRY!!
Last night Elspeth managed to fall out of bed and into the corner of her dresser. We are still not sure how she managed to hit the dresser because there is quite a gap between the two but manage it she did. Glenn and I were woken up by a loud bump and crying. At first we thought that she had simply fallen out of bed and then Glenn noticed that something was running down her cheek. So, into the bathroom we went where there was light. Goodness me, it was no little cut but a nicely bleeding gouge.
Off to the ER we drove. I must say a special thank you to every single house that had their Christmas lights turned on so late into the night. Nothing helps a hurting little one feel better than distraction and they did the trick. The staff was excellent but as it goes with ERs we were stuck there from 12:30 until about 5:30. Elspeth was a trooper and only cried when the doctor actually was gluing her gouge back together. Poor wee thing came home and slept until 10:30 and she is the kid who hits 7:30 when she is sleeping in! Before falling asleep she announced, “I am a brave girl.” Yes my pet you are indeed.
Waiting for the freezing to kick in.
Right before the gluing. She is ever so done now.
Last weekend we put up our tree and got the decorations out. I love Christmas. It is still a magical time. Perhaps because I get to re-experience it through the eyes of a child. The girls’ favourite ornaments are those which we made upon coming back from China. They love the fact that an ornament actually has them on it.
We were suppose to go up to my parents for their local Santa Claus parade but the weather was against us. Instead we spent a quite weekend at home. The girls played in the snow and we saw our local parade instead.
Here is my favourite float. I would never have thought of turning a recycling truck into a gingerbread house.
Yup, the season has already begun in our house. I have my nails painted red. There is festive music on the radio and I have broken out the Christmas socks. It is the most wonderful time of the year!!! 
Actually, I was a bit surprised about the music thing. Pleasantly surprised but still surprised. I mean, we are not putting our tree up until next weekend during the Santa Claus Parade. I was even more surprised to see that Bass Pro Shop already has their Santa. Well, visiting Santa at a place where you can finish up some Christmas shopping and do some activities sounded like a great way to fill a Sunday afternoon so off we went. The girls wrote letters to Santa, played with bows and BB guns (Katrine has now added a pink BB gun to her wish list…can you say NOT gonna happen. That said, Katrine was much more successful hitting targets with the gun than foam arrows. She killed the floor again with the Nerf arrows but hit the bird, bear and raccon targets with the toy gun. Elspeth successfully hit a duck with her arrow…with a LOT of Glenn help that is.) and of course visited with the big guy. It was a big day. This year Elspeth allowed Santa to lift her up for the photo!!! I had to stay near by but it is the first time that I am not actually in the photo. A happy mom today.
The girls loved the mailbox with the talking reindeer beside it.\
Sometimes a girl just needs Baba’s help.
Here is your first set of Halloween photos. On Monday, Katrine celebrated Halloween at skating. With us getting home late and me forgetting to have her put it on her to do list, all that was dug up on Monday morning was a pair of devil’s horns in the dress up box. Well her coach came to the rescue with these cute ladybug accesories. Katrine had a lot of fun and came home the proud owner of clapper hands (yeah, not candy!!).
Elspeth’s Halloween skate was this evening. She was super excited to wear her penguin (also known as Mimi which I still don’t understand) costume. She thought it was fun that her coach was dressed up as a piece of bread and jam. “Like a snack.”
Yup, we combined many fun things this weekend. It was busy and lots of fun.
We started the weekend with some leaf fun. It is really nice that my parents get so many leaves at their house because we don’t have that many at our place. Plus my parents got free labour as the kids raked and raked…of course all of it was for nothing after they started jumping into their pile. Fun!
That evening was our family Thanksgiving dinner. Mmmm, turkey and all the fixings meant full tummies. The next day we took the kids to the Marsh so that they could work off the previous evening’s dinner as well as work up an appetite for more food. You see, October is a double birthday month for our family with Elspeth turning 4 and my sister in law 40. We finished the weekend with dinner with Glenn’s brother and sister in law where there was more cake and a brand new calico house which is being used with the new sweetie cart, train and rowboat also received over the past few days.
Here is how the sugar shack looks without all of the snow.
More leaf time and some net fishing with her uncle. All any of the kids caught was weeds.
My mom had made up some adorable cupcakes. Coupled with the 4 candle we had one delighted kidlet on our hands.
Okay, random cuteness to end it all.
Elspeth made a Thankful tree at After School Care. Apparently she is thankful for us and candy. (Hence the sweetie cart for her calicos)
Plus, Katrine landed her double toe which meant a trip out for frozen yogurt.
Still smiling over all.
Hard at work crafting
A little while later she was getting done so I added a bandage to Aleigh’s head. That distracted her.
If you can’t read Elsepth’s sentence, she has decided that she needs a Hello Kitty camera and is quite set on it.
Even pretended to eat her.
Pre-dinner gifts.