Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Some new things for the new year!


Just had some of this yummy pizza for dinner with my family!  Kurt made me my own gluten free pizza that was really tasty!


We had so much fun doing our Advent activities, that I thought I might make a jar of activities that are fun to do whenever we have time and we think we would like to do something... it's modelled after the Advent calendar ideas, but not (obviously) focused on Christmas themes... so that opened it up a lot.  Included are making crafts, doing environmental related activities, physical activity, visiting local attractions, doing seasonal related activities, citizen science activities, making food, art, etc.  How do they pick?  I created boards on Pinterest for many of them, so if they pick craft making, then I have selected a bunch of things they may like that they could choose from.  Here is one of them as an example:  http://www.pinterest.com/djembefer/activities-with-kids-making-food/


I also made this family memory jar, which I found out about from Pinterest last year.  It is empty, except for it has little notepads in it.  Every time we have a special day or event that one of us wants to write about, we will write it on a card and put it in the jar.  Next New Year's Eve (or day) we will read them all :-)


We are all now watching Despicable Me 2 (which we've seen before but it's so funny) after eating some yummy chocolate fondue... cuddling on a super cold day!  


Because it is so cold, the boys do not want to go out to see the fireworks at 10pm.  We also had plans to go with another family to Fort Whyte Alive tomorrow, but again, it is soooo cold that we wouldn't get much (if any) enjoyment out of it... so we will wait for a less cold day!

Happy New Year everyone!

Leading up to Christmas

This year, like last year, we had a special advent calendar where I tucked in a special activity or 2 for each day.


The things we did each day were:

Dec 1st:
- Set up the Nativity
- Get out xmas decorations
Dec 2nd:
- Make Xmas Cards
Dec 3rd:
- Write letters/email to Santa
Dec 4th:
- Make paper snowflakes
Dec 5th:
- Make hot chocolate, stir with candy canes
Dec 6th:
- Make popcorn and watch an Xmas movie
Dec 7th
- Visit Santa
Dec 8th:
- Make an Xmas craft (these are ornaments that smell like cinnamon... we gave some to family for Xmas):


Dec 9th:
- Make Christmas milkshakes





















Dec 10th:
- Go to bookstore and pick a special Christmas book to read together
(we went, but we didn't care for any of the books... so we bough hot chocolate, and went home and read one of our own, cuddling under a blanket in the sunroom)

Dec 11th:
- read a story about the Baby Jesus
Dec 12th:
- Make Xmas or winter art
Dec 13th:
- Make a Lego Xmas decoration
Dec 14th:
- Pick an ornament at 10,000 Villages
- Decorate the Xmas tree








Dec 15th
- Drive around and look at Xmas lights
Dec 16th:
- Call Grandma and Grandpa and sing an Xmas song
Dec 17th:
- Call Nana and Bop and sing and xmas song
Dec 18th:
- have a holiday treat
Dec 19th:
- wrap xmas gifts
Dec 20th
- Take gifts to teachers
Dec 21st:
- Winter Solstice and Daddy's birthday!
- Have a pajama party in front of the Xmas tree, game night!
















Dec 22nd:
- go ice skating
(we didn't end up doing this because it was SOOOOOO cold out!  However, we had an excellent alternative:  we had bought tickets to see Al Simmons at MTYP, which was SO FUNNY, and then afterwards they got a picture with him, and a cartoonist drew pictures of them which we are framing because they are pretty cute!)

Dec 23rd:
Discover new xmas music, or make your own
Dec 24th:
- Read "The Night Before Christmas" and open one Xmas gift!




We had done this last year, and they loved it... they asked about it this year which is a great sign... so I set it up again... Every day they were very excited to find out what the activity of the day would be... this can easily be kept going each year, by just changing some things here and there as they get older.

The little one in his costume as one of the 3 kings for the Christmas Eve family service pageant...












Sunday, October 13, 2013

Fall is pretty amazing...














Someone decided to go in the water one last time on Thanksgiving:










Friday, September 13, 2013

Loving the lake in the fall

...although it is technically still summer...













Sunday, August 25, 2013

Exploring

Went for a walk to the local island... Beautiful!  The algae on the other side was gross... Here is how you can help with the algae problem on Lake Winnipeg... Its watershed is around 1 million square kms, so if you are in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, or about 3 neighbouring states, here is how you can help: http://www.lakewinnipegresearch.org/whatyoucando.html

Anyway! It is always nice on this side because the 
Wpg river keeps the water moving.








Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Checking out Grand Beach... For 30 minutes!

We went to visit some family who had their trailer at GB while they visit us at VB! We went to take a peek at the actual beach for a bit... Couldn't have been more than 30 mins... But the boys sure figured out how to enjoy that 30 mins as much as possible!

Oooo, you can buy stuff here:

Awesome sand!  It's like icing sugar, I told them... But don't eat it!

5 minute swim:


Saturday, August 17, 2013

More summer

Second dessert:
Love:
Disgruntled Face Cookie:
Friends gave me a bag of key limes... So I made Key Lime Pie (http://colorfulcravings.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/key-lime-pie/?postpost=v2#content
A very helpful video that I found before I started to juice the key limes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwjkxkeBqz8&sns=em

Awesome sandbar day on Clubhouse Beach:



Someone has suddenly decided reading is cool:

A little, hidden faerie door at our cottage: