Afternoon 'doings'

Nap time is drawing to a close in our house. T1 stopped napping the same week he turned 3, T2 is 3.5 and still needs to nap - not everyday but about every third day. Today was not one of those days but she did have 'quiet' time in her room for a while with her books, doll house and stuffed animals.

After nap time, she chose to colour a couple of fish pictures, prompted by her ice fishing this morning! Her colouring is becoming more controlled and expressive.

Then we spent some time working with our Fun Thinkers which T2 loves. T1 does too - he has the grade 3 book. I just noticed we put the 16 round the wrong way ::blush::

Afterwards we played Zingo . T2 had never played this before and loved it, so we'll play this often from now on!

From one extreme to another....

Today we went ice fishing! It's even colder today so perfect for some ice fishing. It's easy - all you need are: a container to hold the water, packing tape/clear wrap/contact paper, toy fishing rod and fish.

Fill container about 2/3 full with water, add a couple drops blue food colouring or paint (optional)
Add fish.
Tape across the top of container.
Cut hole in tape - reinforce opening with more tape if necessary.
Go fish!

I added snow to the top but only because we have plenty to spare!!

If you can't play at the beach....

Another freezing day here today, too cold to play outside due to frostbite warning. I don't mind the winter but I do love the warmer weather when playing outside is an option most days. Despite the beauty of snowy landscapes - I can't help but drool over the thought of warm sunshine, beach, ocean, sandcastles, paddling toes in the water....

I figured if we can't go to the beach - the beach can come to us. I grabbed a tray, couldn't access any sand as the sandbox is frozen shut and buried beneath a lot of snow so I raided the kitchen and found cornmeal and oats - perfect sand and pebbles/shells, some scrunched up blue tissue from the craft supplies, a few rocks to hold it in place - a few small characters and T2 and her friend K had all they needed for some beach time imaginative play....

Perfect match

I was walking to preschool to collect T2 and her friend K yesterday, when a neighbour stopped me and asked if I would like another snow suit for T2. I jumped at the chance because firstly, I love hand-me-downs and secondly, because T2's current snow pants keep falling down and are not particularly great all in all. My neighbour said she would catch me on my way home and give it to me. In the hustle and bustle of hearing about the girls' morning and helping them into their outdoor clothes to come home, then enjoying the walk with the girls in the toboggan, I forgot all about it until my nice neighbour jumped in front of me and handed me a bag. T2 was excited to see what she was getting and was thrilled with the funky coat and bright red snow pants. I was equally as happy because it was a great snow suit and just happened to perfectly match the hat I was looming for her, which I completed shortly after receiving the suit!

To blow off the cobwebs of a morning in the house, we decided to bundle up and wander to the mailbox at the end of the street. T2 was very excited to wear her 'new' snow suit and bobble hat! (busted!!!! - yes I am British!!!). I want to take the bobble/pompom off but T2 really wanted one.

Brrrr

It's super cold today - cold enough that I half expect to see a Penguin or Polar Bear in the backyard! With a possible house move in our near future (fireplace, backs onto lake, rural location, small village school, slower pace of life aaaaaaah), I have lots to do around the house. However much I want to do other things - I have to get this house ready for sale so today was a bit of a play-with-anything-as-long-as-you-tidy-up-when-you're-done day. T2 has spent much of the morning engrossed in a game involving both farm and safari. She loves miniature animals and has been collecting them for the past year. She needed somewhere to play with them so I made her a safari/farm play board by painting a board for her and she loves it.

days like these.....

It's cold and snowy again today and it makes me want to light a fire and curl up under a blanket with a good book. We don't have a fireplace in this house so this will have to do!! (we're looking at another house and it does have one - yayyy).

No theme collage

I cut a frame from paper and stuck it to a piece of clear contact paper.



T2 added the collage pieces she wanted to and then some sparkles.

I added a second piece of contact paper and T2 glued around the edge.

T2 chose to display it on the playroom window (glue stick cleans off glass easily).

We celebrated T1's 9th Birthday with G's family. Celebration number 3 follows on Saturday with a remote control car racing party with his buddies.

Button fun

After school this morning, T2, her friend K and I played with the button collection. Scooping. Pouring. Stirring. oh, and of course examining the buttons.

Trying something new

We usually wrap the Children's Birthday gifts in fancy paper or use gift bags and tissue paper. Each year I realize I didn't manage to make the reusable cloth gift bags that I meant to!

I decided to try something different this year - instead of buying paper, I wrapped the gifts in plain florist paper (which we already had for crafts) but instead of leaving them plain I chose for each package a word that describes him and wrote it repeatedly on the paper. I wished there were more packages so I could have written more words.

Hopefully he'll feel good when he sees

Awesome fun good friend loving handsome smart passionate thoughtful caring strong & helpful

This might become a tradition - not necessarily to use descriptive words but maybe words relating to achievements of the year. Next time, I won't leave it until the last minute so it looks better : )

My first baby....

...turns 9 tomorrow

I can't believe it.
He's so big, all knees and elbows when I catch him unaware and and he lands in my lap.
His shoes are size 5.
He technically doesn't need a booster seat in the car since his last Birthday and he's frustrated that we insist he still use it because he doesn't weigh much and it's safer.
He's very good at speaking French and on occasion will speak in French rather than English by mistake, even though we don't speak French.
He knows more about the Titanic than many adults.

His favourite colour has been yellow for as long as I can remember - in fact when he was about 3 he wanted to be yellow when he grew up.

He is very mechanically minded and could very well become a third generation Engineer.
He's crazy about transportation - especially planes and trains.
He is a master at Lego building.
He loves the Discovery channel.
He's a very picky eater - but he's wiling to try more things now than before.
He never fails to wash his hands after going to the bathroom (except during the night).
He loves vanilla soy milk but only Silk brand.
He detests socks and pulls them off the second he gets home.
He loves Croc season!
He insists on sleeping wrapped in fleece blankets, even in the summer.
He has bonded with Huds more than I expected.
He is easily irritated by his sister.
His favourite chocolate bar is Aero.
He and I have matching moles - exact same placement.
He is not yet embarrassed by us, his parents and has yet to refuse a kiss or hug - even in public.

He's awesome. As much as he denies it - he'll always be my baby

Things I miss about summer......

A few of the many things I miss about summer.....

Solar dried laundry - air drying it in the house just isn't the same

summer clothes

Leaves, flowers, grass and even weeds

The beach.

Puppyhood

One of the things about last summer that I am not missing!

In the summer, I'll be missing things about winter!

ABC bean bag toss

Last year when T2 was learning her letters and letter sounds, I made this from a shower curtain. I drew the circles using a plate as a template, drew the letters and coloured them with permanent markers. Either she would throw the bean bag and then name the letter/letter sound it landed on or I would ask her to aim for a certain letter. We also used it for jumping on certain letters. It's still fun now, even though she knows the letters, now she gets to work on her aim!!

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Belated bird treats

Way back when we had our first snow, T2, her friend K and I made bird treats. At the time, my computer was acting weird so I wasn't able to blog. Here are treats our birds have been enjoying while our part of the world has been frozen....

Buttons, buttons and even more buttons

I needed buttons for a craft project but didn't want them to be new ones. I wanted old mismatched buttons, in shades of white so I asked on my local freecycle group if anyone had any buttons they no longer needed. A few people had buttons they had been collecting for a while. One woman's collection was over 20 years old. I was excited to collect them, bring them home and wash them and check them out. When they were clean and dry, I picked out all the ones I wanted (a huge container of mismatched white ones - perfect!) and set the coloured ones aside. When I was small my Mum had a box of buttons - not many, but I loved to handle them and sort them. I thought my kids might like to do the same. We have buttons for threading but there's not much variety and these freecycled ones have great shapes, colours and textures. I'd like to know the history behind some of them - I wonder if my children will imagine what they might once have been attached to like I do......

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr

We had another snowfall last night and would have loved to go out and play in the snow but T2 was feeling kind of grouchy wanted to stay in her jammies so I brought the outside in to her.

It turned out looking more like a snow penguin but it was fun, Huds licked up all the puddles on the floor and we stayed warm!

Sand dough

Yesterday I made sand dough for T2. It was very easy and the results interesting for sure.

3/4c water
1/2c cornstarch
1tsp vegetable oil
1c clean dry sand

Bring water to a rolling boil.
Remove from heat, add oil and cornstarch - it will foam slightly Stir hard until foam subsides. Put back on (medium) heat for about a minute, stirring constantly until cornstarch thickens and is mostly incorporated. Texture should resemble watery mashed potato. Cool 10 minutes.
Using hands mix in sand. Blend well and knead until dough forms. Enjoy!
This dough can be baked at 120 degrees for about 1 hour.