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.