On the move…
Just over 4 1/2 months old, Wilhelmina is changing so quickly…
It is amazing to think that we will soon have a crawling babe…
First snow storm of the year…
We got our first snow storm on Wednesday and the boys have been having a blast… They have been spending hours in the snow, yesterday going out in the morning, coming in for lunch and then heading out for a few more hours in the afternoon and coming in when it started to get dark…
having them outside gives me a little more energy to get a few things done in the house or just relax with some quiet time of my own.
Here are some pics from my little snowmen… (we got a little more than 30cm in my area, so a bit more than a foot)
Of course having this snow means that the tractor comes to clear our driveway which in turn is the return of “snowy mountain” in our front yard… which at its peak, is usually about twice the height of the accumulated snow fall…
In the past it has looked like this…
2 years ago…
last year…
The boys can spend hours sliding and falling and hiding in the big pine tree etc…they can’t wait for more snow now!
More Drawing…
Colin is truly the little artist in the family. He draws pretty much every day and when he starts he doesn’t stop…
He loves white paper and because I don’t print much we don’t have much scrap paper so I found some 100% recycled paper at the local “Bureau en Gros” (Staples)… It is a bit off white, but perfect for printing for me and drawing for him…
He doesn’t like crayons much, nor wood pencils… his favourite are markers and every few months I need to buy more because he uses them so much… I found out early on not to skimp with the markers. When he draws, he gets the hands of an artist. Crayola is the best washable marker 😉
Sometimes his drawing are inspired by things he has seen or watched but more often they are straight out of his imagination…
Like this Lava Monster…
Or Harry Potter next to a Tornado Monster…
This one here is a Clone Game, the clones have targets that the Droid needs to shoot…
Often his drawings are a bit hard to make out because once he draws something, he often then animates it with a marker. So the magic coming from Harry Potters wand will literally wipe out the Dementor…
At the end of most days our kitchen table looks like this… Drawings from the day scattered all over…
(the pile in the back was from the day before)
When Simon gets home, he often spends a few minutes explaining his favourite drawings of the day…
a little time to touch base for both of them…
Trimming the tree…
Though DH and I are both Atheists we do celebrate the holidays. For us, Xmas is 100% secular having roots in pagan traditions… though technically we could find another name for it, or not do it the same day etc… we like what we have made it for us…
For me, the magic is the holidays is the lights glittering in the long dark nights, the crisp white snow, getting cozy in our home, sharing time with each other, baking and making the house smell good, watching holiday cartoons and listening to music, sharing gifts and seeing the magic of the holidays reflect in our children’s faces.
On Xmas eve we have a long standing tradition of having people over for a Fondue supper… Often it is my mom, Simon’s mom, sometimes Simon’s Sister and sometimes various other people. What is great about a fondue supper is that there is little preparation and a long time at the table talking and sharing a meal.
The boys are getting so excited… in the last years we have had Playmobil calendars counting down the days to Xmas, everyday you get a little box to open which completes a scene…
(OK, OK, I added the mom with the sling 😉 )
last year one of them became part of our playmobil toys while the other got put away again for this year. Instead of buying another this year since each of the boys wants to do something, I found a tree that is perfect for the occasion. Though I could have made one easily, the price was good and I just don’t have the energy for such a project at the moment…
So we have been gearing up towards the holidays, counting down the days… The lights are up outside, and Sunday we trimmed the tree…
Holiday Cartoons in the background, and hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows…
All done up…
I love the ornaments in our tree… most have a story… all make me smile…
You can see a closeup of my some favourites on Flickr if you click on the pictures below…
Khéna's birthday in pictures…
Making decorations the day before…
and birthday hats the morning of…
Grandmaman (Simon’s mom) brought over a game for the boys to play…
hungry, hungry frogs!
Two of the gifts that we gave Khéna are kitchen/food toys so we brought the toy kitchen in from outside and cleaned it up… both Khéna and Colin had a renewed interest in it and spent quite a bit of time making tea and other treats…
Here are some of the decorations that the boys made the day before… Paper chains are so easy to make and look so nice and festive around the house…
Cake time!! I made my favourite Chocolate cake recipe… (the corners got accidentally squished but no one cared but me)
Khéna was so excited at blowing out the candle and us all singing the birthday song…
Yay!!!!
The two Grandmas with the boys… (my mom is on the left)
Looking at one of the new gifts… (Xavier picked this one out)
Playing with his new Helicopter…
It was really a great day…
The boys played and had tons of fun with their two grandmothers here, we ordered Pizza and had cake and all the presents were perfect for Khéna and we know that he will enjoy them for a long time to come…
It was just a perfect day altogether…