Day eighty-nine

One year later -- the Bilibos were last year's Christmas present - and the kids still play with them all the time. If they get half as much use out of this year's batch of presents, we'll be doing well.

Day eighty-eight

Painting pictures with these cool paintbrushes the girls got for Christmas. I love them already because they don't make a mess. And they do make pretty pictures, which is almost as important.

Day eighty-seven

Oh, joy. We now have a second installment of the Bella Dancerella videos. The nonstop playing of Bella Dancerella Swan Lake Ballet was getting to me, I have to admit. I am not sure Bella Cheerleaderella or whatever it is is going to be much of an improvement. But it is a change! Change is good!

day eighty-six

What happens when children become chair-pushing climbers. She's been one for quite some time, and some days it really pays off.

Day eighty-five

Finally! Its Christmas! Let the fighting begin!!!! Not that there's anything *wrong* with her new red tricycle, but Ceci's Baby Alive is looking good! "MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!!"

Day eighty-four

Christmas eve at our house - decorating a few cookies for Santa.

Day eighty-three

Christmas at auntie Wendy's house - Santa stopped by!

Day eighty-two

Saturday afternoon project = painting plaster ornaments.

Day eighty-one

Write to Santa....he writes back!!

Day eighty

This is actually the same day as day seventy-nine, but its one of my very favorite recent pictures. We're playing a Christmas version of "What time is it, Mr. Wolf?"

We went to the city today to get a few things done before Christmas - I didn't take my camera.

Day seventy-nine

Most of the ornaments on our Christmas tree are handmade now. This is the first one she made (sort of) by herself - a glob of sparkly paint inside a clear glass ball. The kids were fascinated with watching the paint move around inside the ball. The mothers were 2 seconds away from a heart attack for most of it. Nothing broke, though!

Day seventy-eight

I can only do one thing early per year. So if the Christmas shopping is done in October, the Christmas cards must be done at the last minute.

Day seventy-seven

So I had my dates wrong. I'm sure nobody's paying attention enough to realize this was Day seventy-six at one time. But I forgot Sunday, so I had to fix that.


Ah, the Kitchenaid Mixer - making double (and triple) batches possible!! I'm making 12 dozen of my favorite ginger cookies for a baking exchange. The truth is, I don't care how good everyone else's baking is - I just want to eat these.

Day seventy-six

She watched Santa from about ten feet back for quite awhile but eventually decided it would be okay to go a bit closer. She sat on his knee too - but everyone's got pictures of THAT.

Day seventy-five

Letters to Santa

Day seventy-four

Stepping out for a Christmas party - I barely ever put makeup on, but I always have an audience when I do.

Day seventy-three

Lutin Madeleine - there she is in the striped shirt, in a Christmas play about Pere Noel being sick or something and interviewing the elves (lutin - elf?) to see who would take his place.

Day seventy-two

The rule of rice and Rice Krispies: Its a simple parenting rule, if rice spills on the floor, leave it until it dries and you can sweep it up. However, the opposite is true for Rice Krispies - if there is a Rice Krispies spill, you have to clean it up RIGHT NOW. Even if you're late for Mini-Franco-Fun, you can't run out and come back an hour later. Rice Krispies harden to cement in record time. They must be cleaned up immediately.

With one swift movement of her arm, she managed to propel the bowl off the island, onto the floor and splash Krispies and milk droplets over EVERY POSSIBLE SURFACE (vertical and horizontal) of the kitchen table and chairs. Every rung. Every seat. Everything.

It was a good day, can't you tell?

Day seventy-one

Oooops!

So, he wanted his hair cut. Its curly and gets kind of fluffy when its too long, so he got his sister to come over with her hair clippers. Things were going well until she accidentally left the guard off and went to trim up a bit by his ears.....

Day seventy

YAYYYYYYYY......but, NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
I thought it was the best day of my life when I saw the little bags of Christmas Mini-eggs. I can just barely survive the 10 months after Easter, waiting for them to hit the shelves again. Christmas Mini-eggs are the best idea EVER!

So I grabbed five bags of these at the Bargain store, hid one in my pocket and quietly ate them all before my kids could see. I don't share Mini-eggs well, especially when I haven't had them in a long time.

That was two days ago, and today I was craving them again so I found the other four packages, and when I opened one, I was SHOCKED to find that they are these horrid shades of green and red - I swear I can taste the dye. What was Cadbury's THINKING??

Day sixty-nine

The big girls showing off their new Christmas PJ's.

Day sixty-eight

Drinking under the table, already. We couldn't find them for supper, they were under the pool table sharing a glass of what we hope is Fresca. We know it wasn't water or they wouldn't have bothered.

Day sixty-seven

Wrapping the first of the Christmas presents this year - Nanny's Christmas party is always in early December.

Day sixty-six

"Too much babies"



We went to my nephew's 2nd birthday party today - all of the kids were racing around the house on the tricycles. Older brother Dion is trying very hard to pedal his tricycle with his brother on the seat and Annique in the basket at the back. He finally gave up in disgust "I can't do it, there's too much babies on it."

Day sixty-five

Something's wrong. I don't know what happened but there's something wrong with the hinge on my laptop. I don't like that its only a year old and its already broken. Everything works well on the inside but the speakers, this hinge and the keys seem to be wearing down. But I do like that its still on warranty - better now than a month or so from now when its not.

Day sixty-four

Cookies and hot chocolate, waiting for the girls to come in from playing in the snow. We're snowed in, and having a good day.

Day sixty-three

Not only is it day sixty-three of the 365, it is also day ONE of the Meal Plan. Last week I decided to make a meal plan for the month of December. I went through all my recipe books and made a list of things I'd like to make, then I organized them all onto a magnetic fridge calendar, and then I made up a grocery list so that I could do one big shopping trip when I went to the city for the convention. Everything was according to plan until I arrived home with a van load of groceries, to find my five-year-old in the kitchen 'washing' the magnetic calendar "because its mine, and you wrote all over it..."

So, this is Meal Plan #2. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the first one so I had to go backwards, look at the pile of groceries and try to figure out what I must have planned to make with the stuff I bought.

Day sixty-two

The tree finally goes up! And I finally stepped out of the safe zone on the camera - which works great for most things I like to do. But I keep trying to figure out how to do low-light shots like this, and the camera keeps either popping the flash, or keeping the shutter open forever until everything is blurry. So tonight, I put the dial on M and started pushing buttons, taking pictures, and adjusting again until, finally - I got something closer to what I was seeing with my eyes. Its not perfect but its a start.

Day sixty-one

Round two with the Mega-Blocks four seasons set - it is so bad that I only got halfway through removing the toys from the packaging before I finally gave up and shoved the box under the couch. Now, its a few days later and she's bored with the first half of the blocks, and its garbage day - so I figure its time to pry the rest of them out of there so the box can go to the dump.



Now you can see how truly insane this is. I finally made all of the kids stand back and I went at it with a steak knife. Even then, it took me almost a half an hour to free the remaining blocks from the packaging. WHY? WHY is this NECESSARY?!?!

Day sixty

I'm not as blonde as I might seem... actually, its Garnier Nutrisse - Macadamia #90

day fifty-nine

Its easy to make me feel important - I just need a name tag. This one amused me because the theme for the convention was "Mission: Possible" and they played Mission Impossible music when introducing the speakers, including our Premier and cabinet members. Seemed like a bad comedy sketch or something but I managed not to giggle. I have to be very important and mature with my name tag, and all.

day fifty-eight

I don't think one person needs a two-room hotel suite with a king sized bed. But I'm not about to argue if things work out that way.

Day fifty-seven

Winter is here, for sure. It had to arrive on the same day I have to be on the road. Its 30 below zero with the wind chill, and its snowing sideways. I'm so glad I got the studded tires put on this morning. Still, it was no fun driving here and I'll probably have the shakes until morning. There's my van parked and plugged in right outside my hotel room. I can see the highway from the window and all the poor souls heading one way or the other - I'm so glad to be safe and warm and off the road.

Day fifty-six

I hope there is a special place in hell for people who design packaging for children's toys. Is there a reason why so many of the SIXTY mega-bloks in Annique's new four seasons set needed to be WIRED to the cardboard? Not just around the block, but straight through?

Nothing says Christmas like 60 nasty little wires securing the parts of ONE toy to its packaging.

Day fifty five

Game Day/Santa Day!!

I don't know what they were thinking scheduling Santa Day on the same day as the Grey Cup. There was a magician, a frenzy of unwrapping after Santa came, and then everyone cleared out and headed home for the game. Thankfully, there was facepainting at Santa Day - a lot of the kids skipped usual canes and reindeer and went for green and white, or blue and gold depending on which side of the border their loyalties lie on.

Anyway, Annique's got her game face on. Its the best you can do on a two-year old to get some green and white stripes, and an S. That'll do!

Day fifty-four

Visiting my sister and my nephews - we had to get the kids outside for a walk. We brought the wagon for Annique but she was there to push or pull or walk - but NOT ride. My sister is indicating that there is a space in the wagon if she'd like. She would NOT like.

Day fifty-three

Or, maybe this is late in the evening of day fifty-two, whatever. But here we are watching The Polar Express for the first time this year. The girls really enjoy this movie, and so do I! I tell them we have to wait until its snowing to watch it - and now it is!

Day fifty-two

Mommy's little demon. After 20 minutes of trying to get a decent picture for the Christmas card, when I saw this one I finally realized - she's totally messing with me. This is not going to happen today. She knows *exactly* what I want her to do, and therefore - she's NOT doing it. :)

Day fifty-one

Ceci spinning in her Bilibo - obviously I played around in Photoshop, trying to catch the motion. If that's not good enough, I have video, too. : )

Day fifty

Yuck. But it was the only picture taken on my camera today. Not by me. This is not my thing. I keep getting startled when I go out to get something out of the deep freeze, I forget these stupid antlers are in the shed and so I usually scream just a little bit. I really hate having dead animal parts in my shed.

Day forty-nine

Short days and frosty trees

Despite the fact that we don't have snow and its the mildest November I can remember - its staying dark later every morning and the thick frost on the trees reminds me that we're getting close to December, even if it doesn't *seem* like it most days. It doesn't take long for the frost to disappear most days, after the sun comes up. But that's taking longer now. This was taken just as we were getting in the van to go to school.

day forty-eight

A hard day's night - she crashed at about eight o'clock, FURIOUS that her mother would dare to remove her fancy dancing dress and shoes to put her into the tub, and didn't quit screaming until everything was put back the way it should be - scrubbed clean but with her dress back on, shoes back on, and naked Barbie doll back in hand. I didn't even consider going through all that again to get her to bed - so she went to sleep in the dance outfit and shoes, still clutching Barbie. The shoes are two sizes too big but somehow stayed on until midnight, when I took this picture.

day forty-seven

Day two of the two-day sleepover - and the manliest thing he can find in the dress-up box is a space suit. "There's just a LITTLE bit of pink on it. Its not a girl costume!" - we really need to get some boy clothes in there. But he's surviving in a house with three little girly-girls, he just needs regular doses of Metallica, boxing, racing and James Bond on Playstation.

day forty-six

TWO SLEEPOVERS! - We have my nephew here for the weekend, but by Friday afternoon, he's already bored. I don't blame him - the girls are both at school and Annique's nonstop Bella Dancerella is wearing thin. Time to put her down for a nap and break out the Playstation.

day forty-five

Percy goes to school. You may remember Percy from his earlier adventures as a LOLcat on my other blog - and there was that skunk-spraying incident this spring. Today, poor Percy goes to school. Doesn't he just look thrilled?

day forty-four

CAUGHT! Red-handed, even. I have no idea what that is on her hands, but I thought it was funny.

day forty-three

Last year, my husband helped Madeleine with her homework most of the time, because he speaks French, and I'm just learning. She needs to learn the correct pronunciation of the words right now, and so he's a far better help with that stuff than I am. Even though I'm the one with a teacher's certificate - he's far better at that job. I had a hard time when he was off at school and I had to help with reading Paul et Suzanne, and my six-year-old was correcting my pronunciation.

Now Madeleine is helping Cecily with Paul et Suzanne. She's better at it than both her mother and her father. Its perfect because Madeleine still sounds out the letters slowly, unlike grownups who tend to rush through.

day forty-two

Kind of blurry but I liked the flame on this one, and I doused it right away because having a good steak is way more important than getting a good picture. Its mid-November, the grass is still somewhat green in the background, and I'm grilling steaks on the BBQ. That's just amazing to me - usually I'd be shovelling snow off the deck at this time of year, not running out there to check the steaks. Did I mention my Christmas shopping is done? Fall is really messed up this year, but I'm certainly not complaining!

Day forty-one

This one is blatantly stolen from my cousin, who posted it on her facebook. Sorry, Susie! I took a bunch of pictures of this, but none turned out as well as hers:


While I'm in a thieving mood, I'll steal the caption: "A barn built by my great-grandfather 101 years ago. It still stands straight and true."