Playdate with Claire

A Christmas break play date with Rose's BFF from preschool.  I so wish these 2 were in the same Kindergarten. 

Gingerbread time

 This year we made a Frozen Castle. There was also a sled, and the various cardboard cutouts from Frozen.

Everyone wanted to eat the gingerbread after Christmas (which I wasn't planning on letting them do...), but Scout solved the problem one day by sneaking into the kitchen and grabbing it off the counter.

Suzy Homemaker

I felt so proud of myself learning how to use the sewing machine again.  I haven't sewed with a machine since Grade 7 home ec.  

This is my old sled before (old pink cover):

Here it is after with completely new foam and blue fabric:

(I'm happy with the way it turned out, except for the extremely painful finger injury I sustained using my rotary fabric cutting tool.  I thought I needed to get stitches for a few minutes until I calmed down and got the bleeding to stop and patched it up with a steri-strip.) 

We gave it a slide on the street:

And then again on a blizzard day when the stroller was impossible.  I loaded it up in the car and sledded Henry up to Rose's school.  Paige pulled him on the way back.

Annual cookie decorating fun!

A haircut for Henry

His second professional haircut.  I wondered if he would be as good at a regular hairdresser, without sitting in the car chair and watching TV.  He was totally fine, and it was way cheaper.

Extracurricular Activities

Parent viewing day at dance.  Rose was shy that I (and a bunch of other parents) were in the room watching. 

 Brownie enrollment ceremony.

Paige's jump.  Paige has been riding Annabella, a privately owned horse, and doing great on the jumps! A little too cold for Paige's liking though...looking forward to spring!

Visit to Uncle Greg's new condo

Uncle Greg's condo is right in the Distillery District in Toronto, so we went to have a look at his new place and check out the Christmas Market.  A nice sunny day of fun. 

Christmas Town!

Back in September I entered a lottery to be able to buy tickets to Christmas Town. I won and we were able to go.  It is a sleigh ride to Santa's vacation cabin in the woods.  Everyone gets one on one time with Santa without standing in a huge line.  We went once when Paige was 3 and Rose was a baby; at that time we went in the afternoon, but this time I tried to get night time tickets, which we ended up getting.  It was really cold outside, but so fun to take the horse drawn carriage through the woods in the dark.  

Before the carriage ride we had some free time in the building at Mountsberg. 

Then we waited to see Santa in a building where we did crafts and decorated cookies.

Santa and Mrs. Claus were both there and spent a lot of time with the kids.  They had a warm fire and lots of lights.  So magical, and so much better than waiting for Santa in the mall with hundreds of people.

Henry at 18 months

I have noticed a huge mental growth spurt now that Henry is 18 months. As you can see in a couple of the pictures below, he has actually started to take interest in toys.  He really likes the playmobil figures, and likes to line up the horses.  Sometimes he decides to throw them a couple of minutes later, but he is really beginning to be able to focus.  Along with that, he can focus on television for a bit.  Sometimes the girls will watch a tv show before dinner.  I'll turn it on for them (well, basically paige will turn it on) and go into the kitchen to make dinner.  Henry sometimes follows me, but other times stays in the family room to play.  I'll go to check on him a few minutes later, and often he has climbed up on the couch to watch Barbie, or whatever they are watching.

He has also started to say a lot more words.  His "mommy" and "Daddy" are very clear now, although he also says "mama" and "dada".  If he hears the front door open he says "Dada!!"

He likes to say "Mine!", and also says foot, bunny, and go. His "go" doesn't mean anything, just that he is singing the song "Let it go".

He is really interested in the fireplace, and luckily we have the one in the kitchen which is nice and high up which we can turn on.  Every time he goes in his highchair he points to the switch and asks me to turn it on.  As soon as the flames start shoots his hand out and blows out.  That means it's hot.  If I say that it's hot he then points to our candles on the table to indicate that they are also hot.  When we read "goodnight moon" and see the fireplace photos he also does the same hand motion so I know that its hot.  When I say that it's a fireplace he points to his door and says some baby talk, meaning that we also have a fireplace at home.

The cuteness factor of an 18 month old is through the roof.  I love that he's really interacting and aware of things around him. At lunch today while I was tidying up, he suddenly pointed outside and made a sound like "there it is!" When I said, "what was it?", he said "bunny!"

As the weather gets colder and we're in the house more, it's nice that he is so interested in playing with new things and doing new things to keep ourselves busy.

He is back to being fine with baths again, and not terrified:

Mad about his snow suit.

In the new jammie pants I made him:

First time walking around in the snow:

Here is Henry focused and playing.  So cute I can hardly stand it when he does this:

Royal winter fair

We wanted to go to the fair this year for the dog show, and of course the horses.  We still haven't seen a horse show as the times haven't worked, but we took a look at the stables and saw some gigantic Belgians.  Of course we watched the dog show though. 

Paige rode a mechanical bull: