Snapshots of life the last few days....

Yesterdays lunch:

Watching the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade:

Our second Christmas movie of the year:

Sam playing with his cars and the great garage and ramp he built out of boxes:

Pot roast and roast potatoes with stuffing and veggies last night:

Poor Rosie has to go out in the cold to pee:

Abby baked Whipped Shortbread this week - they are AMAZING.  Today she is making Brownies.  She LOVES to bake:

We picked up a big pile of Christmas themed books at the library this week and are reading a couple each day.  This one was hilarious....The 12 days of Christmas - Canada style :)  

All this girl does is bake bake bake:

Rosie supervising:

Greek yogurt and honey:

Fire!!!!!

The children were watching a show the other day and told me they thought it was crazy as people were setting fire to alcohol and drinking it!  

They said they didn't know you could set fire to alcohol!  So I explained that you can also pour alcohol over foods and set fire to them :)  

So we experimented and tried setting fire to different alcohols over the sink to see the result.  

The best results were with Rum:

Tuesday...

Started like most days..up early...took Susannah to school.  stopped in for breakfast with Abby and Sam on the way home.  Then home for coffee.  

Abigail worked on her project for homeschool club.  Both Abby and Sam had chosen to do Gems and minerals.  Abigails was much more detailed than Sams and she did quite a bit of research and writing for hers - she printed out some display cards for her table.

We ran some errands before heading to the library.  It was a cold and frosty day.  Very pretty with the hoar frost!

At the library we met up with our friends and the children started setting up their displays - we left them to it - Abby chose to share her her table with her friend G - it was G's birthday!!  :)

Sam shared his table with his friend A!! 

 Looks like little J was keen to help set the gem stones up too :)

People had the chance to go round all of the table and look at the displays and ask questions...try things out (like pastel art)  and see how things worked.  

Then some of the children gave talks about their projects - they were excellent.

G gave an amazing talk about the live show of 'How to Train a Dragon'

After the library we headed to KQ to celebrate G's birthday.  Abby went with G and her Mom took these pictures of them at the library before they left :) 

It was a lot of fun at KQ.  We gave G the game of Spot It as it is an essential game at our get togethers lol - and I asked her if I could show her Mom how to play it - so while the children played, us adults had a few rounds - and as always it was VERY competitive.  Sooooo much fun :)  

We sang Happy Birthday and had yummy cupcakes :)  

I snagged a Johnny Depp cupcake :)  

It was a lovely day and so nice to be able to join in celebrating with our new friends :)  

Monday.....

Abigail had French class, so Sam and I sat in the Timmy's near her class and he worked on the Sudoku in that days Metro paper.  He is a little addicted to Sudoku right now, so afterwards we went over to the gas station and got him his own book of Sudoku :)  He worked in it all evening :)  

While he did math I did art - doodling with coffee:

For supper Abby and I made cheese and bacon filled potato skins:

After supper we watched National Lampoons Christmas Vacation:

And then Sam played with his magnetic drawing board again before bed:

Snapshots from a relaxing weekend

We had a lovely relaxing weekend - much needed.  It was cold and we were tired after a very busy and crazy few weeks - Kevins visit, moving house and many other things....so with Sam and Abby away, it was nice to finally stay home a lot, sleep in, relax and not do a whole lot.  Laurence worked and saw his friends quite a bit but due to some mess ups with planning, Susannahs sleepovers were cancelled.

We went out to eat and we went to the Celebration of Lights and saw the digital Christmas Tree lit at the community centre in town. It was really lovely to see Reindeer at the celebration :) 

My weekend involved wine - so all was good :)  Oh and we watched a lot of cartoons - including Shrek 4 which was FAB - I'd never seen that before :)  It was so good :)  

I got caught up with some art work and created my album for this years JYC.  

For today.....

Outside my window...blue skies and sunshine but not as warm as they said yesterday - it's -1c and its supposed to get colder this week with more snow.  

I am thinking...that I really need to get the storage room downstair organized properly.We have just been taking boxes down and piling them up but not in an organized manner - so I am never going to be able to find anything - I want everything sorted in an organized way - Christmas things together, clothes together, camping things together....

I am thankful...that the garage is almost empty now and it won't be long before we can get both cars in there - Terry is coming this week to light the furnace in there and then it will be warm too - hopefully we will be all set before the snow falls again!

In the kitchen...lots of cooking and baking.  I love the new kitchen as its a good size to keep clean and tidy - so much easier than the old kitchen - and no hitler standing over me any more :)  

I am wearing...an old cardigan with a hole in it but its an old favourite that I love :)

I am creating...a winter journal.  I am also planning my JYC.  I am also still creating our new home and thinking about getting the Christmas decorations out although part of me is in a 'can't be bothered' mood - because I have just packed and unpacked from moving so it feels like too much effort to unpack and pack up MORE stuff lol...so I think I might wait a few more weeks....but we are off to a Christmas festival this afternoon - maybe that will help get me in the mood!  

I am going...to prepare a little fun project for Sam and Abby this week - for when the snow falls :)

I am wondering...how I got so lucky with my friends - I seem to spend my whole time saying "I have such amazing friends - I am so lucky - I really DO have such amazing friends" :)  
I am reading...Barbara Delinsky's 'Not My Daughter' - I started it months ago and then got distracted and too busy so put it down - so now I want to really get stuck in!!!
I am hoping...that my meds really kick in properly this week and work their magic - I also hope that I get some good results from the blood work and tests I had done yesterday.  

I am looking forward to...life settling down and getting back to normal hopefully next week....it's been a little chaotic the last month!
I am learning...how to ask for help and how to lean on friends - and how lucky I am :)  I am learning who is there for me and who isn't.  I am learning to let go and to hold on.  I am learning where the peace is :)  

Around the house...lots of laughter.  Lots of learning.  Lots of comfort.  coziness.  Homeliness. warmth.  reading.  Family. Friends.  Love :)

I am pondering...the future

A favorite quote for today...Friends are the family we choose for ourselves :)

One of my favorite things...friends :)

A few plans for the rest of the week: birthday celebration, French class, spaghetti bridge building, homeschool class at the library, Christmas Celebration of lights, swimming, seeing Christie, climbing at West Edmonton Mall, Movies, Kidz Quarterz, 

A peek into my day...maybe swimming?  Celebration of lights, library?  No clue :)