first skate of 2016

Wow, what a difference nine whole months makes! March 13th of last year, was the last time Anna and Sam were on skates. I remember that day, as it was Henry's seven month birthday, and the rink in front of our house melted that afternoon. We had a glorious rink last year, almost 11 weeks of skating and no re flooding, which was apparently one of the best years ever. It was cold for Guelph averages, we didn't really know anything different and just thought it was always like this. Well, fast forward to this year, and yesterday after school was our first time out skating. Anna just picked up where she left off, doing a few figure skating moves and confidently doing laps at Stew's office, and Sam, wow, he's actually skating! Last year I pretty much pushed him around on a truck using the chariot while he wore bob skates. This year, he's passed those bob skates to Henry and using his skateez (those orange things you see on his skates). He loves pushing the chairs or the chariot, and it's great to see.

Stew just came in from the first night of flooding the rink in front of our house, so we are hoping by the weekend to be skating, I can't wait!

new corners and games

The blue room got a big clean after the tree left on Saturday, and we are trying a few pieces of furniture out in different spots to give the record player its own space. There is a lot of dancing there, so it needs abit of a dance floor and room to move. We are also playing around with a few different rug options, and I'm so happy to have my globe back home. My parents got this globe for me years ago as a Christmas gift and I love it so much. The kids love looking at it, and it's coming in handy for some dinner time conversations and a new tradition we started this year (more on that later!).

Anna is currently enjoying a great game which she got from Santa. If you know anyone in Grade 1, this is THE game for them....Rat-a-Tat-Cat. It's got some great math and memory skill work, and Sam is even starting to get the hang of it. We love playing it with her, and this is the first real card game she asks to play again and again. My fingers are crossed, UNO is next!

Sam also got a great matching game from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas and he loves it. We are getting it out when Henry naps in the afternoons, and he's a pro at matching all the cards.

Sam and Henry have been getting the guitars out and rocking to some serious music. Henry just loves to sing, in fact, every time we light the fireplace or a candle he sings Happy Birthday (we just had a number of birthday's over the holiday's, so maybe he's still celebrating).

P.S - the guys requested popcorn today for snack so they ate it on the floor wearing their slippers. Anna also rocked Friday's spelling test!

anna's new smile

I can't believe I'm just getting around to write about Anna's new smile! She's lost two teeth in the past few weeks. The first one was on Christmas day and the second one was the first day back to school. So far, the Tooth Fairy has been bringing $2.00 a tooth and she's recording them in the tooth book that Heather and Steve gave her. Anna - we love your new smile, it makes you talk funny sometimes and we can already see the adult teeth coming in (sad face, gulp).

holiday mode

Ahhhh....exhale. We are on vacation, and in holiday mode around here. Lots of p.j time, testing out new sleds, reading all our new books and playing with new art supplies, welcoming 2016 with our neighbours, feeding the cows and just hanging out with friends and family. We had a marathon of visiting lots of family and friends at the farm over Christmas (and I can't believe how few pictures I took!) and it was great to see so many people. We got to catch up with almost everyone, except the Kingston crew due to a snow storm and some bad driving weather. Anna has started asking when school starts again.....Monday!

christmas morning!

We can't believe it, everyone slept in until almost 8am on Christmas morning. Stew and I were the first ones up, and after coming into our bed and asking if we think Santa had been here we crept downstairs to check things out. Everyone was very careful looking at the cookies and milk we left, the carrot as well as the reindeer food. They were also very glad to hear their elves had been to visit and left each of them a special letter and gift. Anna got the ballet slippers she was hoping for, Sam got a special polar bear and Arctic researcher, Henry got a puzzle of his favourite book Goodnight Moon (he loves the 'hush' part). They also got a number of special ornaments in their stockings, Anna got a new hair brush, Sam a dinosaur mask and Henry as small soccer ball. They also loved opening all the wonderful presents from Grandma and Grandpa. New p.j's for all three, lots of great books, Henry got a cute dog shirt, Sam got one with robots. Anna got a cool snow sculpting kit from Katie and Jacob, and Sam got a fun puzzle. We ate our cinnamon buns and socking oranges for breakfast, and enjoyed a really relaxing morning. I got new socks from Santa which I needed so badly, and enjoyed playing our new piano, Stew got a new tea mug which he's loving. We were also really glad Anna framed two pieces of her bear art from school and wrapped them for Sam and Henry. We were also very lucky to be able to give Anna a new art class, she's signed up for the Peanut Gallery Collective on Wednesday nights at the Art Factory and we are hoping she will like it.