The search for snow

We had to drive all the way to Lake Louise yesterday to find some snow, so we had to make the most of it.

We all went cross-country skiing,


We tried out our new snowshoes (thanks, Gramma!),

and we skated by the ice castle at the Chateau Lake Louise.


Rustle, who has been missing snow for at least 3 weeks, was thrilled with the snowbanks.

Christmas Photos

We have pictures! Real, honest to goodness, up to date pictures!




Unfortunately, they are a couple of days after Christmas, and no excited ripping and opening are involved. Just a couple of girls in their jams by the Christmas tree.



This last one is of the stuffed kitty Santa brought Alison. Apparently it also came with a giant smile.

Christmas Update

We had a lovely Christmas, tree, gifts, food.... all the good stuff. Gramma and Grampa arrived safely, with even more presents, and the girls and the puppy were ecstatic.

And on the blogging front, I have good news and bad news. We are the proud owners of a new digital camera, complete with MPEG capabilities. Yippee! We are also the proud owners of a lame computer and camera software which are currently refusing to work together. So until they start cooperating, I am still resorting to old fashioned methods of updating my blog with photos.

Which means no Christmas photos for a while yet, sorry.

Directions for Santa

What do you do when the fireplace is in the family room and the Christmas tree is in the living room? Why, leave a note for Santa, of course.

Christmas Presentation

Sarah's class put on a show for the parents on the last day of school. Sarah and a friend planned to sing two songs together, as well as performing 3 numbers with the whole class. Now, Sarah has a history of being shy, especially about speaking in front of strangers, and we worried she might not be able to go through with it. And, to top that, she and Samantha chose to sing Nellie Furtado's "Turn Out the Lights," which is a tricky song to sing with a lot of lyrics.

Well, the worries were for naught. Sarah and Samantha did a stellar job, almost getting all the words right. Unfortunately, the sun was glaring in Sarah's face, and it took me a while to figure out why she wasn't facing the audience. The French Christmas song they sang was quite sweet, about Christmas not being something found in stores, and Sarah was even part of a small group of 5 kids who sang a prelude to one of the class songs.

Sarah and I are very proud of her performance.

Santa letter

Sarah has at long last written her letter to Santa. In it she asked for 1 or 2 Tamagotchi, a cell phone, and a digital watch. I immediately nixed the cell phone, which she promptly deleted from her list, and questioned why she needed more Tamagotchi (she got one from her birthday party a week and a half ago!)

Unfortunately, this list doesn't match the verbal list she provided a while ago, and I'm not so sure Santa will be finding these new items in stock. Hopefully, should Santa have to make some substitutions, Sarah will be ok with that.

The Mook went over the Mountain

We were a skiing family at Lake Louise yesterday. Sarah continues to impress her coaches with how hard she tries and what a great little skier she is. The head coach told a very proud Dad that, "Sarah was rippin' down the hill."

Alison (a.k.a. Mook) skied with her parents. She went all the way to the top - up the Glacier Chair and the Top of the World (over 10 000ft/3000m length, 2800ft/850m vertical) and skied all the way down the other side, back up the Ptarmigan chair, and all the way down again (except for the part where she was tired and cranky and convinced she could no longer do it, but she did it anyway).

So for this feat, I composed a little ditty entitled "The Mook Went over the Mountain" If you know "The Bear went over the mountain," then you are familiar with the tune. Her song goes like this:

The Mook went over the mountain,
The Mook went over the mountain,
The Mook went over the mountain,
To ski down the other side.

She skied down the other side,
She skied down the other side,
The Mook went over the mountain,
and she skied down the other side.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Hooray! Sarah is 8!

Yes, I am aware that the big birthday event took place 3 days ago. Sarah's birthday is December 15, yet here I am, writing about it on the 18th. What is up with that?

Well, let me fill you in on the activities around here over the past four days.

On Thursday, the big Birthday itself, Sarah got to sleep in an extra 20 minutes, had French toast for breakfast and got a ride to school. I met her at school with a special lunch - Chinese Food, took her home to eat, then we went back to school where I volunteered, helping her class make gingerbread houses. We picked up Alison from the babysitter's, ordered pizza for dinner, then got ready for skating. After skating we came home, blew out a candle in a two-bite brownie, and opened presents. Slightly late to bed.

On Friday after school, we went to a party at the neighbours' house, then we were off to the Alberta Ballet production of The Nutcracker. It was lovely, but very late to bed (Alison fell asleep with 15 minutes to go.)

On Saturday, the girls got up early to go to Alison's gymnastic class. It was bring a friend day, and Sarah was the friend, mostly because I didn't want to go picking up kids at 8:30 on a Saturday morning. They got home and set up for our Christmas party, then hosted lots of kids until about 9 p.m., a good hour after bedtime. But, as Sarah put it, "It was the time of my life."

And then up again early this morning to make it to Lake Louise for ski lessons at 9:30. Sarah actually fell back to sleep on the stairs as we loaded up the last few things in the car. However, she grinned non-stop once on the hill.

So basically, we have been busy lately. At least it's all been fun, and Sarah is getting early training on how to extend birthday celebrations from one day to at least four. I am teaching her well!

The last day she's seven

Some pictures of a younger Sarah on the day before she turns 8.

......her second birthday.......

.....her fourth birthday.............her sixth birthday.

Christmas Parties

Tis the season for lots of parties. Alison went to her Sparks Christmas party and came home with a lovely new ornament for the tree.

Sarah had a Brownies Christmas party last night, but we haven't seen the goodies she made yet. I wonder if there won't be a surprise under the tree. Hmmm.

Bob's work Christmas party was also last night, so we went for a lovely meal and conversation. Bob often talks about how smart the people are at work, and it turns out they are quite witty as well. Makes for a fun time.

We have an open house to attend on Friday night, then we are hosting one ourselves on Saturday. Its a busy festive season, that's for sure!

Sleepover Party

Sarah had a sleepover birthday party Friday night, and I think I have just recovered enough to talk about it now. She had 6 friends over and at least three girls got no sleep. Fortunately, I was not one of them, or it would be another week until I recovered.

They did make some lovely Christmas crafts: gingerbread houses, stockings, and glass ornaments. They also gave the karaoke machine quite a workout, particularly the microphone. At maximum volume.

We still haven't finished cleaning up. Sarah had another birthday party to go to Saturday, and we were out for dinner afterwards, then on Sunday she had her first ski lesson with the Lake Louise Ski Club. (She loved it, by the way, and we'll get more info on it through the week.) So today, after school, and after homework, the vacuum cleaner is going to get as good a workout as that karaoke machine did.

Ice Princesses

The girls have had their official skating portraits taken. They are both working very hard and getting better every week. Sarah has long ago passed my skating skills, and Alison is well on her way. We are in negotiations to add another hour of skating to Sarah's weekly schedule, starting January. Busy girls!

Look out olympics!

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Alison and I attended a student-led conference this morning. She is quite a capable little girl. She easily managed all the tasks and did them all in French. I was very impressed.

Her teacher says she is doing very well, and there are no concerns. She even gets along well with others.

So, all in all, I have a couple of brilliant girls here. Lucky me.

Born to Write

Alison tells me she was born to write. Here is a contribution from the writer herself:

Snowy
By Alison

Go Snow Go Go Go
Snow Snowy
Snowy Go
Snowy
2397985

Letter to Santa

Alison has finally gotten on her letter to Santa Claus. It has taken some time to convince her to do this, and it took even more to get her to include some niceties and not just list her wants.

So her list is quite simple, actually. She wants a stuffed cat (to go with the 8 million other stuffed animals in the house - "But we don't have a cat!"); a Fairytopia puzzle, which I'm not sure they make - good luck with that one, Santa; and a game, which Mommy suggested because Santa already has that in stock.

Don't see that last item on her list? That's because she quit half way through and told me to finish it. She won't even put the part about milk and cookies on it, and was not at all nice when I tried to get her to finish it. Doesn't she know that such behaviour will get her put straight onto the naughty list?

Report Card Day

Sarah brought home her report card today. As a super star, she did very well, especially in the section about her attitude and cooperation in the class. She also excelled in music and math. We won't get into the spelling part though.

Alison did not bring home a report card today. We have a student led conference next week to find out about HER attitude.

Christmas Lights

An old story, but a good one.

Sarah and I were driving home from skating lessons and looking at the lovely displays of Christmas lights in the neighbourhood. One house was well lit, and caught Sarah's eye.

"Look at that house, Mommy," she said. "They must really want Santa to come."

When we moved

Since my digital camera is still out of commission, I've searched the archives for some photos that received limited distribution.

These pictures show the girls reaction to our new house in Calgary. Sarah is hanging by the door of her new bedroom, and Alison is jumping for joy in the breakfast area. I think they like the new house, don't you?

Puppy in the Snow

If only we could bottle the pure joy Rustle feels when he gets into the snow.

He runs, he jumps, he rolls, he leaps, and he bounds. He is even learning to catch (and eat) snowballs. He has a hard time waiting the 2 seconds it takes me to make a snowclump big enough to throw at him (darn dry Calgary snow), but he is learning to sit and wait because a snowball is a HUGE reward.

It's a dog's life.

Toothless Wonder

This is Alison's missing tooth. It's teeny, it's tiny, and it has created a large gap in her smile. It fell out last night, just before bedtime. Just in time to put it under her pillow and collect a whopping $2 in exchange for the former chomper.

We hope the tooth fairy enjoys the teeny, tiny tooth.

Lake Louise

We went for our first day of the ski season today. There was a World Cup race on and we got to see some racers, as well as ski down the mountain. Lots of fun.


This is a picture of the girls on the gondola. We only went up the gondola once today - its a long way down the entire mountain for Miss Alison, so we just went back up the chair for our subsequent runs. We stopped to watch the end of the racing, and Sarah noticed that the gondola had stopped running. We were glad we weren't on it then.

Then we got home and found out that the gondola had yet to restart. They waited until 5:30 to start lifting people out. We are REALLY glad we didn't get back on it!

Hopefully they'll get that all fixed up before we go back next weekend.

The Goblet of Fear

Sarah and I went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last night. It was lots of fun, but even though we had read the book and previewed a scary scene, Sarah was still quite upset a couple of times in the movie. First, in the exaggerated dragon scene, which didn't match what either of us had imagined, and in the scene she had already watched on the internet.

Alison, on the other hand, was upset that she didn't get to go, so I took her to Chicken Little today. Frankly, I found that much scarier. Being a Disney film, I had to explain why one of the parents was dead, and I had a kid on my lap while aliens blasted characters into dust.

It may be some time before I have the energy to take these two to a movie again.

Princess Party Pictures

The pictures are in! The old film dependent camera has done us proud, and we can now share the joy that was the Princess Party.

Here is Princess Alison.


The ladies cast a magic spell to become Princesses.

They played games...

did crafts........


and ate cake. Yum!

Sarah update

Since we haven't heard much about Sarah lately, I thought I'd confirm that I have not forgotten her. We may notice an abundance of Sarah posts around her birthday, too.

Sarah is still lovely and smart and playing with her friends as often as possible.












Here is a beautiful picture of Sarah and Rustle on the first day of school. (Yes, that is Alison sneaking in at the window. She didn't get to go until the next day.)

Happy Birthday!

Well, our little girl is 5 years old now. She says she only feels a little bit different. No outwardly visible signs of change, even though she is a whole hand now.

She had a big day - so much so that she was tired by 12:30, and ready to sleep on the chair at the restaurant where Daddy took her to lunch. But she got a second wind when we got home and Greg was ready to do a puzzle.

She had all her favourites for dinner - shrimp, salad and ravioli (all separate, they don't taste good together, apparently). Blew out a candle on a brownie, and then we pulled out the big time excitement - presents.

Alison took in quite a load of loot. She was quite pleased with all the beautiful clothes, trying on most of them as she went. She played a lot with the Barbie, the prince and the horse (once Mom could get it all out of the packaging), played a tune on the xylophone, and took some pictures with her new Bratz digital camera.

All in all, a great day for Alison. She'd like to thank Gramma, Grampa, Nana, Papa, Mary, Ed, Lucas, Jack, Sam, Susie, Wojtek, Alex, Mackenzie, Mommy, Daddy, Sarah and of course, Rustle, for helping make her day special.

The last day she's four

On this last day of being four, a little birthday retrospective of the littlest lady of the house.

Poise and Elegance

This is Alison practicing to be a princess. Beautiful, isn't she?

Next step - a FLAT book to practice her posture.

Princess Party Part 1

Alison had a lovely princess party this afternoon, with 7 little princess friends. It was lovely, the children had tons of fun, and the loot was more than generous.

Photos of this glorious event will be delayed a few days due to the damage done to my digital camera by the princess in question. The old-fashioned, film-dependent camera was pulled out of storage, put into action, and we must now await the results.

We should only be sitting on the edge of our seats for about a week. Thank you for your patience.

The incredible growing puppy

Looking at Rustle now, you must think, "Hey, that is a large dog!"

But it wasn't always that way.

May 2005 - 2 months

July 2005 - 4 months

October 2005 - 6 months - Check out that tail!

The best laid plans

Sarah had big ideas for her Halloween costume this year. She was going to be a bat - no, make that a VAMPIRE BAT!

So, crazy woman that I am, I set about making a vampire gown, cape, and got some wire and panty hose to fashion kid-sized bat wings. We bought vampire fangs that had a special compound to mold to Sarah's teeth for comfort, and black hair spray for the extra spooky effect. Then we found a hairband with perfect little bat ears.

But the ears weren't comfy, the fangs weren't comfy, the wings (attached to the cape) bugged her. The hair band, you guessed it, wasn't comfy. The black hair spray was stinky, and faded.

But at least the gown fit.

Would you get on this bus?

Everyday I send my children to school on the 7:41 bus. Usually I am running ahead, flagging down the driver while two girls straggle behind.

They think they have the best bus driver ever. I'm pretty sure they do too.

The bark is bigger than the bite

I know dogs chase sticks.

I know dogs chew sticks.

But I don't think Rustle knows that this log might be a bit big for him.

Buh

"Mommy, how do you spell, 'buh'?"

"Buh isn't a word, honey. What do you mean?

"How do you spell, 'buh'?"

"'Buh' as in what, honey? Buh-loney, buh-loon?

"'Buh' as in 'buh-bye.'"

Are we having fun yet?

This is Sarah playing (?) with her friend's Tamagotchi. She says that it's fun.


I'm really not seeing it.

An announcement

Alison has been quite a prolific writier/artist lately. It's gotten so she can no longer just give me a masterpiece, but must also formally announce it.

Where are the girls?

So what do you do if your puppy is a bit hyper and chasing you around the kitchen? Why, hide in the cupboard, of course.

No more cone of silence

Today is a day to celebrate . The stitches are healed, and no longer must the puppy sport the evil cone of silence. Bring on the giant rawhides!

However, he will always have the title "Neutered Male" on his official documents.