Attwood Family

Katrine is really enjoying her science classes this year.  One of her recent projects was to build a rocket ship that had to be launched as high as possible and another was to make a constellation viewer.  Of course she chose to do pegasus.  Boy was she excited to get to use power tools with her father.

A happy late Mother’s Day to all of my motherly type friends.  We kept is simple…simply wonderful that is!  I got to have a nice lay in followed by a breakfast with gifts.  Then it was time to bake.  MMMMMMM.  Gluten free of course. We made chocolate chip banana bread and my personal favourite, bacon chocolate chocolate chip cookies.  Any excuse to have bacon right.

We ended the month of April with Katrine’s birthday party.  This year’s celebration was at a local ceramic painting store.  All of the girls had a great time and it was really easy on us parents.  Unfortunately, there are not more photos because Katrine was never alone to get a photo of.  She was always talking with this friend or that; but that is a good thing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do have photos of the brownies.  No cake this year.  Instead, homemade gluten free brownies.  She was worried that her guests might not enjoy them because they are not cake.  That was not the case.  In fact, there were none left after the party for me to enjoy.  Sigh!

Well, it is now official.  The Big K is the Big 12.  Her party is this coming weekend and in traditional Katrine style there will be brownies instead of cake.  I mean, on her actual birthday she opted for a mango mouse confection.  Apparently it was delicious and was “The perfect way to end the day!”  Proud of my big’un.

Yup, one more sleep and she is twelve.  What have we got planned?  Well, tomorrow is pretty much a regular school day. Chocolate croissants, fruit and bacon will be her special breakfast while lunch is a surprise of sweet and sour chicken. Of course she still skates, but she has some cupcakes to share at skating (nut free of course).  Then her choice for dinner – fish sticks (now that is a gift to mom) followed by homework while her sister is at Sparks.  After that it will be time for dessert and gifts.  Lots of small special moments instead of big things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That said, don’t feel sorry for her.  Missy K has already begun to celebrate her birthday.  You see, she shares her birthday month with her Grandmother so the day of the finale we did a dinner out followed by gifts and cake at our house.  This cake is both my mom and Katrine’s favourite – traditional chinese fruit cake, which is acutally white sponge with fruit/melon between the layers, covered in cream.  Katrine received a book and the pair of Mickey Ears that she was not able to find when we were at Disney last year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 – Time goes by so fast.  Hopefully it will be a wonderful day for her.

 

this year was a big year for us in that it is the firt time that both girls have been in the same season finale.  They also, both had a great time. The coaches worked hard to make the practises fun and the choreography interesting.  I need to send a special thanks put to my mom for doing extensive alterations in order to ensure that Elspeth’s costume actually fit her.  It was a really nice way to start the month as all three grandparents were able to join us for the show.

 

This past weekend Elspeth had her last skating competition of the year.  She chose to wear her new “big girl” skating outfit as she likes to call it.  I am very proud of her.  She went out and had fun while we watched with her Grammy.  Plus she got to take home a silver place ribbon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, her day was not over.  Oh no, she had to head out to her second birthday party of the weekend.  This one was at rock climbing using a top rope.  The party was at a new climbing place that we went to for the first time last weekend with another friend. Before anyone asks, she climbs and I watch egging her on.  That time she tried bouldering which is climbing without the harness.  With the help of the mom who went with us, she was able to make it to the top of the small boulder wall once and got to go down the slide.  She had more success hanging around on the twister wall.  Will we go back?  Pretty much yes because she has asked to do a week of camp there this summer!

 

March drew to a close with a school concert.  Elspeth’s spring concert.  Her class had worked very hard on practising a play and a song.  They did a great job.  It was utterly adorable.  Elspeth was particularly pleased with the fact that she and I had crafted her mouse ears and tails together.

 

It has been an eventful weekend weatherwise.  Thursday evening brought us quite the storm that left our world glistening and slippy the next morning.  However, by Saturday afternoon it once again felt like spring.  Last night there was thunder loud enough to shake the house while today the winds are strong enough that random pieces of wood have landed on our path.  At least it has kept us on our toes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aside from the weather it has been a weekend of family.  After chipping the ice off our car on Friday we headed up to my parents.  My mom made some fancy eggs with the girls.  This time they put on shrink wraps.  After a most delicious turkey dinner, the girls were set to look for eggs.  That was candy round 1.  The next morning it was off to the Lion’s Club Egg Hunt.  They once again rocked their Easter bonnets (although Katrine will need a new one next year) and had a blast looking for plastic eggs to trade in for a size-able chocolate bunny also known as candy round 2.  I think that Elspeth had even more fun getting a penguin tattoo than hunting for eggs.  She was beside herself with happiness when I couldn’t get it off that night for church the next day.  My parents also like to give small gifts to mark holidays.  This year they had brought sand dollar bracelets back from their last trip.  Katrine’s matched her Easter Sunday outfit to a T but Elspeth still has some growing to do before hers fits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday morning they went to church for their very first Easter Sunday service.  Yes, them not me.  There are usually wayyyy to many Easter Lilys or Pussywillows among the decorations and my allergies flare.  Anyways, Elspeth got to sing with her Junior Choir and did a really good job.  She sang the whole song this time and actually looked up at the congregation every once in a while!  Very proud of her, and she had fun to boot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The girls decorated cookies with their Grammy while the finishing touches were being put on lunch and then it was time to head out for a walk in the sunshine.  We managed to see a duck pair swimming on the nearby marsh, so will need to keep an eye open for signs of ducklings.  Oh, and Glenn managed to get the new tire on Elspeth’s new bike (hand me down bike complete with horn and streamers but now a new tire) so she had to take that out for a spin.  Katrine used the time to finish up some home work and relax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we capped the day off with a viewing of Zootopia. I enjoyed the movie on two levels.  First, it was just down right funny.  Second, it had a great message especially with what is going on currently.  Do not judge a group because of the actions of one member. Loved it and it sparked a wonderful discussion with the girls in the car home.  Hopefully they will carry that lesson with them.  Seems like an appropriate thing to discuss on Easter.

Our spring break started off with a bang.  We headed up to my parents for a most relaxing two day weekend.  The sun was shining and it felt just like spring.  The girls had a lot of fun outside and we all relaxed a little.  Monday during the day also went according to plan with Katrine off to skating and Elspeth to cooking class….and then the plan for Elspeth’s week went all to pot when she developed a high fever.  This meant cancelled playdates and cooking classes as well as missed fun.  It wasn’t all bad though.  I did introduce her to Jem (the cartoon) and she is eager to see more episodes.  Plus, she started feeling better in enough time for some outdoor time on Palm Sunday.  Katrine?  Aside from skating, she got to hang out with friends and was an angel in our church’s youth group play for the younger kids on Palm Sunday.  And me?  I watched a lot of Jem, managed to sneek in some time with friends and got caught up on paperwork.  Nothing exciting but also not horrible.