Friday, January 28, 2011

This Week in Point Form

-The brakes on the van broke (died? went? disappeared?) on the way to preschool on Tuesday.
- The vehicle we borrowed (Thank yo AA!) wouldnt start the next morning.
- We finally looked into/asked ourselves why the washing machine wasnt draining all the water after a cycle...the answer? Bobby pins and other small bits. Check your pockets twice!
- We still do not have a microwave...our decision...a bit laziness, a bit thriftiness, a bit of -Hey, we are surviving withot one.
- Bringing in the computer today for the fix. (hopeflly...I have some qestions about how it is running that will determine if we spend the $$.) (as I type this, I copy/pasting the trouble letters in as I review)

In all this there have been some Silver Linings
- Sam and I celebrated Birthdays...cake, presents, family and friends...Yay!
- The van was fixed in a day. (yay Toytech!)
- We were able to borrow a car.
- Thank goodness for family and friends.
- No one was sick (some friends of ours had a rough week).
- A playdate was moved to a closer friends house so that the girls and I could walk over, since we couldnt drive.
- With Grandpas help, we managed to fix the washing machine ourselves ($yay$).
- I had my Get to Know Your Sewing machine class, and it was great.

We have a busy weekend ahead...Two Birthday Parties, one that we are hosting, the other we are attending. Hope you have a great weekend!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Happy 2nd Sam!

Happy 2nd Birthday Sam!

Yo are azazing. I cannot write enogh to explain how Och so...partly becase yo are so special that I do not have enogh words or stories to share...

...partly becase I devastatingly spilled coffee on the laptop last week. This dear laptop, which is a wee bit older than yoqw, works fairly well, bt we are having SEVERAL isses with teh keyboard...no Letter Before Vs and Letter Before Ns. Not good. (no apostrophe either)

Ill spend socxze tie toorrow typing soething great bt I need ore tie to copy/paste the letters I need.

A preview or toorrows blog?...We Love YoIUeqrtw...Yo are cte and cddley and or lives are so xzch rivher with yo arond. (does that last line ake ANY sense?)

Love o (a three letter word that refers to the one who birthed yoIUY)

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Broomy and Spacemen

Meet the newest member of the family...constructed entirely by Katie...Broomy! She drew the face, grabbed the broom, chose a bib and put it all together. Please ignore the fact that Broomy appears to be better dressed than the girls.
We made cookies from my new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, a Christmas present. They have chickpeas as well as chocolate chips, walnuts and raisins in them. Not bad...we all ate them. Not as good as regular cookies though. (as I preview the blog post I just noticed the BIG SHARP knife in the picture...the one right close to Katie there...see it all shiny?...please note that I most likely moved it quickly out of the way...I had just been chopping nuts and my BIG knife is my best one.)
We went to Gram and Grandpa's house for dinner last Monday, to welcome Gram back from her trip to Hawaii and Sam fell asleep in the car. We carried her in and she was still asleep when I laid her down on the chair...I took a picture before we woke her up because she just looked so sweet.
The girls and Grandpa cover their eyes waiting for the surprise...Christmas presents sent from Auntie Alli!
Happy girls...!
The girls playing in the loft at Gram and Grandpa's, wearing their new dresses that Gram brought them back from Hawaii. They're gorgeous but make me want summer NOW. (still cold, still snowing)Earlier this week Katie wanted to draw with markers so I gave her a stack of paper to draw on. Perhaps I gave her a few too many but it was keeping her busy! She was drawing "Spaceman" over and over again. Some were for Sam others for Mom or Dad or Grams or Papa or Grandpa. In the end, I thought it would be neat to cover the wall by the girls table. A gallery of Spacemen! The one different picture there is one that Katie drew for Papa before but we forgot to bring it to him.

This weekend was nice. Snowy though. It feels like we have to keep shoveling constantly. It's still -20 something though they're predicting highs of up to zero later this week...the warmth will be nice but I'm not sure I'm looking forward to that slushfest!

We were supposed to start swimming lessons yesterday, Sam with a parent and Katie in an unparented class...her first of this kind. We got there, and after finding parking (busy due to a big unrelated swim meet) discovered that the heater for their warm pool had broken overnight and the pool was too cold to use. They offered lessons in the cool pools, but it was a little too cold for our liking. Luckily we ran into our friends D and M who are taking lessons at the same time and talked them and their dad, Rob, into joining us at the indoor playground instead. Not quite what we'd planned but it ended up being a lot of fun.

We baked a bit this weekend too...tried the Fig Bars from my second new cookbook (same style as the first, all about incorporating veggie purees into recipes)...they turned out alright. I really like the filling...with figs and spinach, but wasn't too fond of the dough. I have leftover filling and might try making something else with it...sandwich cookies? Thumbprint cookies? Spread it on toast? On a scale of 10...this recipe was only a 4.

Katie has been sleeping on cushions on the floor of the girls room, in between their beds, for the last few days. She just waked to do it one night and we said yes. They've both been sleeping well, so I suppose it's ok. It's actually very cute, to see them snuggled up closer.

What else...I've been trying some exercise DVD's, since my foot isn't fully recovered and I'm finding strollercize isn't really ideal. Borrowing them free from the library is a great way to try them out. I'm doing Jillian Micheal's Yoga DVD...tough stuff! The girls watch and try to do some...they get on the hands, facing the ground and put their legs up on the couch...kind of a plank/push up pose. Very cute and they think it's fun. I will say it is convenient not having to get the girls out of the house to work out.

Hope you had a good weekend too!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Haircuts and Bowling!

Last week we went for coffee with Grandpa Ken, celebrating his recent successful hip replacement (making use of his healing time away from work).
The girls got their hair cut the next day. Sam's very first one! She behaved very well and really barely got any cut off...we just wanted to clean up the scraggly in the back. Looks much neater now!
The girls had a delightful tea party with the new tea set. Filled the pot with a bit of water and Katie politely poured tea for everyone and we nibbled on small cookies. How posh! (as Fancy Nancy would say, "that's a fancy word for fancy!")
Last weekend, in the middle of about a 30 cm dump of snow, we celebrated our friend D's 4th Birthday with a bowling party! The kids has a great time!
They even had little kid shoes!
Ben and I,of course, brought our own shoes...do you know/remember that we bowled in a league at this very same bowling alley for 2 years in a row? The first year I was pregnant with Katie and bowled right up until just a couple of weeks before she was born. Such great memories. Sam doesn't yet share our enthusiasm for the sport. She didn't even want to walk on the lane in her shoes. The party was great and it was just so nice to be celebrating the birthday of such a wonderful little guy.

It's still cold today. I'm so "over" winter. Here's hoping that upcoming birthday celebrations and maybe a slight increase in temperature make the season a little more bearable!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Some January Pictures!

Hello!
Here's a photo of the girls new play/craft/breakfast table. A Christmas gift from Gram and Grandpa. Hoping to keep crafts there instead of clearing off the dinner table every night. (PS...Katie took this picture, that's why it's so fuzzy. I have no excuse for other pictures!) =)
Katie painting the tea set she got for Christmas. (at the craft table!)
While the newspaper was out she was inspired to redecorate. She did this all by herself. With a Globe and Mail I hadn't quite finished reading. Oh well! =)
Sledding (the last day before Ben went back to work!)...we thought it was warm out...turns out that -6 is a little colder when you factor in the wind. But the girls were bundled and managed alright!
Sam REALLY wanted to go on the swings...I think she misses going to the playground.
Katie pulled Sam all the way home. We stayed out just long enough to warrant some hot chocolate. In new Princess mugs. I think when Katie says she wants to go sledding now, it really translates into "I want some hot chocolate.".

We had a big storm over the weekend giving us almost 30cm of snow in 2-3 days. Perfect for sledding if it weren't for the -30 I mentioned this morning. Stay warm!

Brr

Only popping in to say I just checked the temperature on line and it's -23. With wind chill? -31

Gosh it's cold. When we thaw I'll post pictures and stories. =)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Last Of Christmas

The last of the Christmas photos...there isn't much taken after Christmas morning since we were sick.

Here's Ben reading Twas the Night Before Christmas the night before Christmas.
Unflattering photo of me with the girls on Christmas morning. Bed head and a smile to hide how sick I was really feeling.
Happy Sam.
Katie crawling under the tree to get presents.
Neither of the girls is looking at the camera, but it looks like such a clear, well lit photo, I had to use it!
The New Year has been good so far. Katie went back to school yesterday and Sam and I went to strollercize...walking but working out at least! We had an off night the night before last, and Katie was awake seemingly all night for reasons unknown. The last two nights were better, although last night/this morning Sam was cuddled up in bed with us and it wasn't until she peed that we realized she'd taken off her diaper sometime back in her room.

Ah...Parenthood. =)