Family Day in Ontario

A few years ago the Ontario Government decided that we need an extra stat holiday-which is great, except maybe that they put it in February. Oh well, it's not like it mattered to us since it was actually an extra busy work day for us. We had a group at the mission (the second one this weekend) and Jeff and the guys were at our neighbours milling some of the wood they've beeen harvesting from the mission pine plantation.
BUT it being a holiday meant that Jeff's Dad wasn't working either so when Jeff invited them to come spend the day (Dad - help with the wood, Mom - play with the kids) they were able and willing to come and join us.
The following is what kept Mom W, the girls and I busy for the day.
First off we started with a tea party. Always a hit with the girls!

Then the girls got to do some water painting. Grandma brought a book for Katie and I still had one left that Mel gave us for Maya. We were quite surprised at how well Maya did.

They did pretty good sharing the water, but as with anything else, after a short while they were all done and ready to move on to other things.

We all had lunch together (left over Chicken soup from our Latino group we had on the weekend) and then the girls had their favorite dessert.

Ice cream cones. Thank you Sarah for bringing these over when you came to visit in the summer. The girls love them and they are just the perfect size!

After lunch Maya went for her nap and Katie got a special treat. Watching a show on the "TV Player" our travel DVD player we bought on our trip to New Brunswick in the fall. She also liked to pose her fingers at the bottom of the screen like on a keyboard and she would tell us that she's working on Uncle Chris' computer. I guess your computer made an impression on her, Chris;)

After the show Katie helped me make my dessert for our team meeting on Tuesday. Peacan Caramel Cheesecake Bars curtesy of Kraft magazine. It was delicious!

Grandma came into full action after that by putting on a puppet show for Katie. Grandma was very creative and captured Katie's attention for quite a while.

It was an interactive puppet show so Katie got to give hugs and kisses to the animals.

Then it was Katie's turn with Mr. George. She was telling us all about Mr. George's day at school. Very funny and imaginative.

After Maya's 3 1/2h nap!!!!! she joined in the fun, but then ran away with the puppet (her nickname is Swiper for a reason). We let Grandma back out from behind the couch and it wasn't long after that Katie captured her attention again.

This time Grandma was reading a book to her. It was a 60 pg chapter book with only small pictures on the pages and mostly text. She sat with Grandma for almost an hour listening to the story. I was quite impressed with both Katie and Grandma for sitting and reading for so long.

Maya on the other hand....

Maya was getting into trouble again and again. She likes to steal the mouse from my desk...

...pull the CD's out of the rack and swipe other items of the shelf...

...but most of all she likes to play with my laptop. She can open windows that I didn't know existed, nor how to open them. Who knows, she might become some computer whizz some day. But for now I'm just glad both girls are in bed and I am done for the day. Maybe I'll get a chance tomorrow to write a post about our fun time outside we had today.

Anyway, I think we'll call it an early night tonight and go to be before 10 p.m. so Good Night everyone.

Birthday and Tea Parties

We are all feeling better at our house. Not 100%, but definitely better.
Sunday evening we had a short-notice birthday party for Jeff with his parents and Marg from downstairs. We'll have to make up for the missed Mandarin dinner with my parents some other day.
36 years old, 11 of which I got to spend with Jeff as his wife. I am so proud of you and so glad to be part of your family and your life!

Maya tackling her piece of cake. She's doing better every day using cutlery. Katie just ate the icing and the ice cream - but that's not a big surprise for her.

Both girls got matching PJs from Grandma and Grandpa who spent the last 2 + weeks in Florida visiting Jeff's ailing Uncle. It was so nice to have them back and the girls were soaking up all the attention they could get.

Today Katie wanted to have another "Hot Chocolate Tea Party) Which involves mostly eating marshmellows, sitting in a big girl chair and sharing some warm hot chocolate with Mommy.

Katie put up quite nicely with my taking pictures all the time, but she wanted her turn and take a picture of me. I guess for one of the first pictures she's taken it's not bad. As Jeff pointed out both eyes are in the picture, so I guess that's an improvement of the first picture she took that didn't even have my head in it.

Maya sporting piggy tales. She looks like such a big girl! And she climbs everything and her reach is getting much bigger. My baby is gone! :{

Katie and I played the memory game (a matching game at this point), but Maya wanted to play too so today it didn't work so well. I enjoy being able to play games with Katie while Maya naps. Next year I can take the time that Katie is in school to play one-on-one with her. It's crazy to think that in just over 1/2 a year Katie will be in Kindergarden. That's a whole new stage in life!! We'll see how it goes.

Another Day

Role reversal! Maya is very proud to use a spoon. She's still learning and sometimes has trouble keeping food on her spoon, but she seems to love eating like the rest of us.
Katie is still not very eager to use utensils and apparently is still quite comfortable getting spoonfed.

My little girl is growing up so fast, but spagetti still gets the better of her.

SICK DAY! After Jeff and Katie've been battling a cold for the last few days, it has spread to Maya and myself. My cough keeps me up at night and slows me down during the day. Maya's low grade fever and cough is really keeping her down. She's been sitting on the couch, barely moving all morning. For those of you who know Maya, staying still for 5 min is a stretch when she's well. Sitting for hours is NOT her style. We hope she'll feel better real soon!

Katie is enjoying the fringe benefit of a sick sister by enjoying WAY MORE than her normal share of screen time. Mommy is enjoying the quieter, much less busy morning. Made some bread for lunch and will work on addressing envelopes for our newsletter and do some reading. We're glad to have a slow weekend.

Jeff's B-day is pretty much pooched though. We had plans to go to the Mandarin with my parents and Uncle Marc - without kids- but that's gonna have to wait. Plus I haven't had any energy to think about birthday gifts. Maybe Katie and I will bake a cake this afternoon.

Happy birthday to Danae as well!! Present is in the mail, but I was told it probably won't make it on time.

Baking with Grosi

Relatively short notice we decided to go to the farm for our weekend off. It was nice to get a bit of a break, have time for a nap, share coffee time, not have to worry about planning for or cooking meals, play games and have some good conversation.
The girls loved playing with Grosvati and working along with Grosi.
When we arrived Grosi just finished a batch of Nidelzeltli (caramel type candy) and both Katie and Maya were very interested in challenging Grosvati's role as "spoon licker"
Maya had no qualms about climbing the stool and reaching for anything within her grasp.

The sugar/caramel covered spoon was her price possession and she worked on that for almost 1/2 h. It kept her occupied so the little sugar she actually got off the spoon was worth the break from her very busy explorations of Grosi's house.

On Saturday Grosi made some Zopf (special braided sunday bread) and both girls were busy helping.

Katie got her own piece of dough and played with it the whole time Grosi did the braiding and working with the rest of it.

She ate quite a bit of it too, but her main aim was to make a "snowball cookie". We got her to compromise with "snowball cookie bread", but that's as far as her concessions went. She was in the cookie business!

Helping Grosi decorate the buns. The results were very yummy and worth the "cheating" as far as healthy diet goes.

Maya's story was a little different. It started out harmless with just a small piece of dough and at that point it was still safe to be within arm's reach of her.

That "safety" quickly diminished as she got into the bowl with dough and extra flour. Apparently she likes to eat very floury dough - by the hands full!

And then she stuck the whole bowl on her head. Luckily she had emptied it mostly prior to the dump, but she still managed some dough in her hair. Well, it was bath day anyway!!

Lots of fun was had by all.

Going Outside

It's a beautiful February Day, we finally have a decent amount of snow. The girls just finished a good afternoon nap, I got a lot accomplished while they were sleeping so I figured we'll head out and see what Daddy and the guys were up to in the bush.
Watching as Daddy pulls up with the tractor.

"Daddy!!!" I just love the way the girls get excited to see Jeff.

Sarah, this is for you. I'm in the picture but hiding behind Katie;) Well, not really, I do find that I'm usually the one taking pictures so I thought since Jeff was there he should snap one of his girls. That wagon comes in very handy, but it does get pretty heavy. With both girls I'm probably pulling close to 100 lbs.

So, on the way home I took the much easier way. Maybe not approved by the more cautious people out there, but definitely a lot more fun.

Katie got to hang out with Daddy while Maya and I rode in the wagon. Perfect.

Our home and the Liebenzell Center.

Our backyard, and if you zoom in you can see our dog barking at us.

Then we played a little in the burried old playground tube. Lots of fun.

I almost got stuck in there, but the girls enjoyed it.

We ran out of ice cream so I guess Katie is filling the gap in her own way.

That would be one ginormous icecream cone!

And this is why it takes me half an hour to get out the door. 10 min to convince myself that it's worth the effort and then 20 min to get everyone dressed and ready to get out the door. I'm sure that once the kids are old enough to get dressed themselves, the fun vs. work meter moves decidedly in the way of fun. Right now it's mostly to the work side of things.

It was totally worth it though and the girls should sleep well tonight as Jeff and I head to small group.