A picture for Bubba!

Here we are with our Christmas crackers and just finished our dinner!  Hope yours was good.  We enjoyed our day and I just realized our kids had a total PJ day!  Good for them. 

Every year I joke that after Christmas dinner I am going to start taking the tree down but I am never really that serious.  Except this year my husband took me up on it - don't flame me here.  It just works for me, doesn't mean that it has to work for you.  I like the tree to be down on the 26th or 27th of December as I want to start the New Year off being organized and not worrying about when I will have the time or energy to deal with all the Christmas stuff. Plus I like the fact that the Rhino is home to help as I can't take down the tree by myself.  We got the kids to bed and the next thing I knew Rhino was bringing up rubbermaids and I will admit I was a bit surprised but thought why not!  It was so easy to do without kids "helping" and asking for snacks!  We were done in 2 hours.  It was easier that putting everything out.  Now we can just hang out and relax.  Again it just works for me!  As an added bonus I got to rearrange a few things in the house.  Maybe I'll take some pictures tomorrow...

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick pop in to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!  I hope Santa is good to each and everyone of you.  To Bubba in Ontario I hope your day is filled with good movies and excellent sound!  I know ours will be.  One particular movie is calling my name .... Frost/Nixon.  Can't wait to watch it!  Is it wrong to tell a slight fib on Christmas Eve.....only slightly kidding Bubba!

To my other friend in Ontario I hope you are enjoying your family!

To my friends here I'll be thinking of you!  And hopefully seeing you over the holidays!

Cookies and more cookies!

Sunday found us in the kitchen for what seemed like all day.  We started off making Peppermint Chocolate Popcorn - seriously so good but you can only have a little!  Then we made coconut drop cookies - not my favorite but the Rhino was remembering his childhood.  I'm pretty sure his Mom makes better ones than me!  And then the grand finale for the Princesses - sugar cookies!  We made 2 huge batches and one batch of royal icing.  Princess Belle had fun decorating them with her Dad.  Poor Miss Cinderella had a horrible headache.  It wasn't pretty.  Even after vacuuming a couple times I am still finding little balls all over!

Only 2 more gifts to wrap - can anyone guess who wrapped ALL the presents this year (except of course their own?!).

A sampling of the sugar cookies

Are you ready for Christmas?

It's the most wonderful time of the year....!!!

I'm done making all my crafts (except for 2 little flowers) so I can put the glue gun away finally!!  Between making wreaths with October Moon and doing a "few" projects on my own I went through almost 300 glue sticks!! Yes you read that right 300 glue sticks!!  I bought a low temp glue gun and I do believe it helped but it still hurts when it is searing onto your fingers.  Here's a sampling of what I made.  Since I've been getting my craft on the housework has fallen off  so I better go work on that.

Cupcake Wreaths - I may have got carried away!



Flower on wreath



Headbands and barrettes

The Tradition Continues...

Every year we receive and have for the past 14 years a beautiful fresh wreath from Rhino's Aunt and Uncle in Nova Scotia.  Every year I always hold my breath and wonder if it will come. And this year it even came early.  It is such a great gift and it smells wonderful!  Thank you Auntie K and Uncle C!!  We love the tradition!

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Good Eats (for the most part!)

Miss Cinderella had a cultural feast at school today.  The quantity of food was unbelievable.  There was enough for about 135 students, volunteers and staff  PLUS  left overs for each class. Each child was to bring in a dish that represented their cultural background.  Haggis anyone?!  Actually it was brought in. And yes I passed. There was also something that looked like p**p on a stick.  Safe to say I passed on that too. I wish I had passed on the what looked like fudge but turned out to be dates.  I still cringe when I think about how awful it was.  Miss Cinderella stayed on the safe side and loaded up on cheese and cookies.  Can't say I really blame her.  She definitely gets the picky eating thing from moi!

There was a slight miscommunication between the Princess and I as I was going to bring in tea sandwiches to represent England however she drew up the flag from Nova Scotia and thought I would bring in something from Scotland.  Ummm....thanks but yeah I'll pass.  So I made the sandwiches as planned and as the Rhino said (in Scottish accent)..."well they are made from Scottish eggs".  I am glad that I made the sandwiches as there was a lot of cookies and desserts to be had.

Our egg salad and cucumber sandwiches (pronounced with Scottish accent)!



One happy Princess!



A birthday and a party!

What a weekend...it felt like we were hardly home at all!  It was Rhino's birthday on Friday so took him out for a great dinner in the evening then we went and did a bit of shopping thanks to a discount coupon from Bubba.  Gotta love a Bubba that has connections!  Earlier in the day both girls went to the same birthday party and both brought home a 9" round cake so we had a lot of cake to eat!  With 2 cakes already in the house there wasn't really a need to make a cake for Rhino.  Or maybe that's just me being lazy. 

Saturday the girls had their usual activities then we went to Alice In Wonderland at the university.  It was amazing to see you could tell a lot of time and resources went into it.  The talent of all the dancers was great.  After that we went for dinner out again (no wonder my waist line is getting thicker!) and then I almost finished my Christmas shopping thanks again to the coupon from Bubba.

On Sunday the girls were invited to a Christmas party and we had a great time again - they served a nice turkey dinner for lunch and the kids quite enjoyed the "atmosphere".



Just Rhino's coffee (I promise!)



Yes, that's right the party was held in a pub!!  Now if this wasn't exhausting enough after the party we went to our friends house for dinner (see why my waistline is getting thicker!).  I might actually need another weekend to just get caught up and rest.

Our Skater!

Miss Cinderella had a great time at her very first skating "competition". Miss C just started skating lessons in September so she hasn't had lots of experience, but she really likes going to do it.  The evening started with Uncle M and his girlfriend K coming for dinner, plus Grandma.  Then we all went to the rink to watch the competition.  It was interesting to watch as we had a very casual attitude about it because I didn't get the memo about hair and makeup being done!  The best part for Miss Cinderella was the skating dress.  She loved the dress and didn't want to take it off.  The actual receiving of the medals was pure chaos but we managed to survive that too.  A good lesson was learned that night that sometimes life isn't fair but we just move on. 

This will never happen again!

The Rhino's birthday occurs early in December and it is the rule that the Christmas stuff goes up after the birthday.  But...this year I broke the rule. Sometimes it's fun to break the rules! And to my shock and amazement the Rhino seemed okay with it.  After all, he was the one to lug up the tree in parts.  Yes, we have an artificial tree and yes we like it very much.  But it is heavy....it isn't a job that I could knock off on my own in 10 minutes and hope that no one would notice!  The kids were super excited about everything and now we can just sit back and enjoy the season. And also my Uncle in Ontario can now sleep at night knowing that I have a tree up!  Besides what else can you do when it is -25?!



Muffin tin advent



Our tree

Basket done by Princess Belle

I LOVE IT!!

After a little (okay a lot) of discussion with the Rhino about lighting over the cupboards look what he surprised me with!  It's just temporary to "see" what it looks like - but I LOVE it!  The best part is we already had the lights in the basement!

Do you have diet?

EVERY single year we give away pop usually coke sometimes pepsi it just depends.  This year I actually had a dad come back and ask if we had diet instead.  Ummm....let me think about that for a moment...oh yeah NO!!  What happened to take what you get and be done with it?!  Hey, I'm sure kids gets lots of candy that they don't like but let's just move on. So, no sorry I don't have diet because I am not a grocery store.

I have to admit this was a very stressful Halloween for ME.  Lots of tears and discussions occurred about who was going to go out with who.  In the end it all worked out but getting there wasn't fun.  I have great memories of me just going out with my dad and maybe sometimes a friend came along.  Why do kids think they have to go with a zillion friends?  Just go and have fun! 

Princess Belle's pumpkin creation

Here comes trouble!

Here comes more trouble!!

Trunk or Treat

We had a great time with our friends tonight at Trunk or Treat.  It was a lot of fun to dress up as a family!  The Rice family did an amazing job of doing a haunted house.  I've never seen so many Halloween decorations as they have.  I am sure they must need a storage unit for them!  As we were leaving to go to the party a neighbour offered to take our picture - it was the best picture as a family that we have had taken ALL year. How sad is that!?  It may actually be used for our Christmas cards that I will really send out this year!  We had fun at the dance which ended way too soon as the fire department came as the alarm went off because there was so much fog in the building!  Ha our friends know how to party!  Also, the Rhino and I won  for the scariest couple.  It must have something to do with the fact that I can't wash my hair - that one needs a separate blog post.  But to those who know what happened I think it is getting better now.

Let's Dance!

Best pumpkin I've ever seen

Oh look the fire department came to the party how nice!

Ghouls Night Out

On Friday night we headed out with my  best friend and her family and we went to Ghouls Night Out.  We had so much fun!  I've never been to the park at night and it was awesome.  They did an amazing job of everything!  We will definitely be going again next year.  Even the weather was great. 

Hanging out in the trolls home

Birds and more birds!




4 sweet ghouls and a ghost in the background! Scary stuff!

  





Princess Cinderella's Birthday Party!

We had her birthday party at the Humane Society and it was a really neat place to have a birthday party. We got to go behind the scenes and see where some of the animals first come into the system, we got to see the operating rooms and have a special visit with a guinea pig and a hedgehog. Did you know that a guinea pig purrs like a cat?! The hedgehog wasn't so friendly as it is nocturnal and had to be woken up to come to the party.  He was kind of a party pooper as he just wanted to hide under his towel!

We got our cat Belle from the Humane Society and the girls always talk about that so this was a perfect place to have a party.  Our leader was Jenny and she was excellent she thought Princess Cinderella was so nice to her friends and told us this group of girls was the best behaved she had ever seen!! 

So between washing dishes still, a birthday celebration, an over nighter (sleep over where no sleep occurs!) and going to see the girls friends at their  Primary  Performance it was a busy weekend!

Alexis the purring guinea pig



Performing surgery on a dog!






Got dishes?!

I thought it was strange that the dishwasher just stopped running - but hey maybe the kids added a dish or whatever. Things stop running all the time, right for no apparent reason?!  I was even smart and checked the breaker - but neglected to look up at the ceiling on my trip to the basement.  No problem I'll just hand wash the dishes after lunch.  Not looking up at the ceiling is actually a big problem.  Miss Cinderella ran down to the basement to get a ball to bring back to school and the next thing I know "Mom my socks are soaking, the carpet is wet and it's coming from the ceiling."  I knew right away it was the dishwasher that just stopped running.  As I am running down the stairs I am having my self  talk "why didn't I look up when I went down" and "it can't be that bad".  Wel,l hot diggity 3 ceiling tiles are soaked one is ready to fall and the carpet is beyond soaked.  I yell at the kids to bring me some towels.  The insulation is very wet - good thing it absorbs a lot!  Of course can't get ahold of Rhino.  Ummm....better call a neighbour to help.  Thank goodness he came and we turned off the water and power to the dishwasher.  Took down all the ceiling tiles and removed the insulation.  Rhino comes home and he takes out the dishwasher and guess what the pump fell off  and was just hanging there!.  We still have a warranty on my Kenmore Elite dishwasher so he called the service number and I can hear him say "just let me get this right you want to know how I will be paying if this isn't covered under my warranty.. um.. I would think this better be covered under warranty as this is crazy".  Sears comes on Tuesday so I'll let you know if it is covered under warranty.  Meanwhile, I washed a lot of dishes last night it took almost 2 hours.  My kind neighbour felt sorry for me and brought over a lot of paper plates, bowls and cups for me to use! Wish me luck for my dishpan hands.

This made my day!

I really love these and can't even begin to imagine how much work they involve. 
Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn5L3gsCHgQ

Re-connecting

Hello!  Hope this post finds everyone well.  These are some pictures of my Mom and Princess Belle for a long lost Uncle in Ontario. 

These are some pictures from our last big vacation in April we went on a cruise to central america and then spent a week in Orlando.  It was really nice and warm weather a great break from the cold weather we usually have in the winter.  Enjoyed it lots and would love to go on another cruise.

Happy Thanksgiving!



Hard to see but Miss C's left cheek is green!

 Boy what a week this was - I definitely don't want to re-live this one!  On Wednesday Miss Cinderella had oral surgery and on Thursday Princess Belle got her braces on!  Both girls have been slowly recovering.  Miss Cinderella was and is still very sore but now at least she can eat.  Princess Belle is having a way harder time with food as she has a "bar" on the roof of her mouth and everything gets caught in it.  Thank goodness for a best friend who will do a "yop run" when asked!! Milkshakes and yop have seen us through several days now.

2 days after surgery and lots of cheek swelling!

I know you all are dying to see this - the dreaded bar!

My Mom was also a lifesaver and she had a small Thanksgiving dinner for us which was great!  It was a real treat and also a break.  Enjoy the rest of the long weekend!  I even managed to get my Halloween decorations up. 

The '80s were HOT!!

Like really hot!  I thought I was going to sweat to death it was so hot.  It must have been the leggings and sweater that were 100% polyester! What a hoot.  We went to  friend's 40th birthday party and the theme was the '80s and it was so funny seeing what everyone was wearing. One lady wore a prom dress and the bow on it was huge.  The best part was she had this from an '80s party 9 years ago.  See maybe if you do keep everything it will come in back in style again.  Rhino even managed to get his parachute/MC Hammer pants in use on the dance floor.  Let me tell you he was hot!  Last year the theme was bikers and babes so I hope they do this again next year and I can't wait for the theme. 

Where did the time go?!

Seriously it has just flown by! A quick summer recap is in order. We went on holidays to Spokane and and stayed at a great RV Resort. It was tons of fun. The weather was great and the shopping was great too. We even managed to meet up with some old friends. Miss Cinderella did a 2 week day camp that had awesome activities. We did a few camping weekends and home projects and before you know it the back to school rush. The girls have settled into school and will have their first full week this week. Now dancing and Brownies have started up again. Now just to need to get organized and start scrapbooking again and continue on that Christmas quilt.

Enjoying a round of golf



Checking each other out


First day of school


I also forgot to add in that we had 2 major hail storms this summer. This one was the worst. I managed to save one planter and I just let the other ones go. I've never seen anything like this before the hail just didn't stop.

A Little Detour

We decided to go to the Frank Slide on Saturday and take my mom. When we went to pick her up she asked if we could go to Drumheller instead...sure a little detour would be okay. It's not like the Frank Slide is moving anytime soon! Right, Rhino?!

Drumheller was having a quilt show and they had closed down a street and had the quilts hanging up. It was really nice and some of the quilts were fantastic. Note to self must get working on my quilt again. We had lunch at a place that all the locals recommended. I think they must like poor service, surly waitresses and overpriced food to even entertain the idea of eating there. Anyways, we survived and no one got food poisoning!

We then went to the Royal Tyrrell Musuem. Okay, so I knew in the back of my head that it was world class but seriously I had no idea how cool it really was. The Princesses never really got huge into the dinosaur thing but they still thought it was neat. I'm sure that boys would be in paradise. One thing that did rub me the wrong way was the number of people shoving children into the exhibits to get pictures. I guess they just didn't see the sign "DO NOT ENTER" or maybe it just didn't apply to them.

Since I also read way too much stuff in the blog land I could have had an entry for the People of Wal M*rt! I had my phone with me but I just couldn't work up the nerve to take the picture without looking super obvious. A woman had hair that looked like something out of the Lion King. It was backcombed about 6 inches off her head and then twisted into little sections and gelled into place. It was very strange! I wasn't the only person checking it out either. I am sure she goes through mountains of hairspray.

We've also started up our geocaching hunting again. We did 3 of them last night. It was a lot of fun. We found a couple in Fish Creek Park but we had to leave as the mosquitoes were so bad. Tomorrow we go to get Miss Cinderella's hair cut she wants it like her sisters. Princess Belle is a trendsetter as the neighbour also cut her hair in the same style.

And on that note when is my only blog follower going to update her blog?! I know you are busy but I check everyday!

Fun in the park

We had a great time at Prince's Island Park today. For the summer months there are street performers at the park. Both Princesses were picked to help the Magician. Princess Belle with a card trick and Miss Cinderella with a magic ball trick. The magician told Miss Cinderella that if she caught him touching the balls that she could pick a prize - either a balloon animal or a $5 bill. Of course she picked the money! Smart girl. In the end he gave her the money and the balloon. But Miss Cinderella didn't really understand the concept of the money as it was meant to get the crowd going to give him money for his performance. So at the end of the show she wanted to keep the money. It was quite the discussion and she did end up giving him the money back but with the promise that we give her $5. Oh boy!!

I was so grossed out as the Magician blew up a skinny balloon to about 3 feet long and then proceeded to shove it ALL down his throat. I have no idea where it went but it did go down. I could hardly watch it.

Both Princesses were a bit sad as neither passed their swim lessons. Interestingly enough nobody else in the class passed either. The front crawl is always the hangup for both of them as they both do a very looong slide glide and have trouble maintaining the pace. Definitely we will have to practice this summer.

A good deed

For the second time in her life Princess Belle has grown her hair out and then cut it off for donation. She has decided that she will do this until she is a Grandma and doesn't understand why everyone doesn't do it! I'm sure this will change once she becomes a teenager and wants to have highlights. We are so proud of her. She loves her new do and for right now it is perfect for the summer.



In other news the Princesses have just finished another great year at school. For some reason since our March break the time has flown by. It went so quick. Today I had the pleasure of going to lunch with Princess Belle's awesome teacher and another lady who was a superstar classroom volunteer for a great lunch. The weather today was perfect but the mosquitoes are crazy this year - lots of water and now some really nice weather is a recipe for really hungry blood suckers.

We finish our swim lessons tomorrow and I am excited and after we plan to go to Prince's Island Park to see the summer street performers again. Looking forward to it!

What a Crazy Weekend!

This weekend was the Princesses dance recital it was a bit crazy. While applying mascara all I could think of was Toddlers and Tiaras! But in the end they looked great on stage. Oh I would love to show you the pictures but alas pictures are not allowed. No sirree, but you can buy the video for a mere $37.00. Both Princesses were in the Saturday show and then Princess Belle was in the Sunday show. The day went forever...seriously it was a 8 hour adventure. We dropped her off at 1:00 for a dress rehearsal and then she stayed until the show started at 6:00! The show was great but it really did seem like a James Cameron production as it finished at 9:00. Like I say it was a loooong day, I was tired! The next day my mom was having day surgery and so I had to be up very early in the morning to take her. Man I wished I could have slept in but I did manage to come home and sneak a nap in before the kids came home.

We have been having crazy wet weather here - I love all the mushrooms in my yard. The Princesses are having competitions to see who can find the biggest mushrooms. At least the rain is better than the snow! I am sure that we will be able to mow the lawn soon once all the rain stops. The one upside to this is the teenagers behind us won't be on the trampoline at awful hours. I was woken up at 2:15 on Saturday morning and couldn't figure out where the voices were coming from. Maybe that wasn't worded right it kinda makes me seem a bit crazy so maybe we'll just move along!

My Super Wal store officially opens this weekend and I know this makes me a shopping loser but I am excited. It will be great to have everything all in one store. Very convenient...plus I love all the new stuff they have. I only wish that they still had fabric. Speaking of fabric thanks to my mom (who can sew anything) I have a great new faux roman blind hanging over my kitchen sink. It makes looking out at the rain a little more tolerable.

Beautiful!

Thanks to digital everyone takes a million photos, right?! We seem too and we never delete them even though they are crappy and we would never print them but still we save them - you know just in case! We take A LOT of pictures in our house but it is slowing down as the Princesses get older. While uploading and sorting (well trying to) all the photos out I "discovered" this photo. It just took my breath away. It made me realize that Miss Cinderella is growing up. How did this happen? In some ways it seems like just a blink of an eye and in other ways it has seemed like a long time. I just got lots of photos printed and want to do something special with this photo as I just love it!

The Princesses have their dance recital this upcoming weekend and I am sure we will have lots of great photo opportunities. Everything is coming to the end - dance and school. Let's hope that our weather improves and that we feel like summer soon. Everything is super green and lush now - so let's add the sunshine. Only 20 some days of school left....the panic sets in! Better get some scrapbooking done soon!