Katie....

After a busy "single mom" morning routine and breakfast(Jeff had to go to Kitchener to pick up Uncle Marc early) Katie stepped into the mommy role herself and made sure that Peter Rabbit got his breakfast too. She got the bunny settled in the booster seat, got the bib on and got some food.

Very nicely she shared her cheerios with Peter

And when he was all done, she made sure he was all cleaned up before bunny could come out of the booster

BIG HELPER

Katie is starting to have to help and do some chores, well, I get her to help me set the table every once in a while. I give her the plates, glasses, etc and she puts them on the table for me.

The placement will need some work, but for not even 3 years old I thought she did a pretty good job.

UNCLE MARC

After missing last week, we were happy to have Uncle Marc at our house again today. Both girls are really warming up to him and had a lot of fun climbing and jumping all over him. Thanks for being such a great sport Uncle Marc.

PLAYING TOO QUIETLY TOO LONG...

Yup it was one of those! Maya was down for her nap, I was busy in the kitchen doing dishes and cleaning up after a rushed breakfast and lunch. Katie was playing nicely and quietly in the livingroom. Too quietly. When I checked on her this is what I found.

She had her groceries and cooking toys spread all over the living room and was pouring "it" from one container into another.

A close up of her busy work. And yes, "it" was rice that she aparently stole off the counter! All over!! I guess I can be happy it was dry rice and not cooked.

So, since she was playing happily and I still had more work to do, I just let her keep playing. The mess wasn't going to get any bigger, and whether I clean it up now or in half an hour didn't matter. It's all clean now and it's time to go cook supper. So off I go.

Filipino Feast

I think I did well, I've been blogging for almost a month and this is the first somewhat work related post. We had a Filipino group at the mission this weekend for their church family retreat. Sometimes it may be hard to figure out who's hosting who since we get invited to join most groups for meals and also some of their programs (since one of us has to be on premise whenever we have a group, Jeff didn't come to church with us, but joined them in their service)
Anyway, yesterday evening we got invited for supper. It was a feast: Pasta, rice, fish, chicken, pizza, veggies, salad, steak, ham, shrimp, you name it they had it it seemed. The neat thing was that most of them didn't use a plate, instead they had banana leaves spread on the table to serve as plates. Also cutlery was optional and knives were totally absent. We've gotten used that most filipino groups don't use knives, so we bring one to cut up the meat for the girls.

Katie and Maya both loved the corn - as you can see

..and the cake too;)

When we got back to our apartment, I had some laundry that needed folding yet. Both girls immediately proceeded to "help" with the laundry. Gotta love little helpers.

At the farm

Katie had a lot of fun with Grosi and Grosvati on her short stay on her own. Grosi was gone all morning for Bible study so Grosvati and Katie spent 2 hours "fishing". They have a little clay fish that Katie washed, dried, put in different jars with water. She used laddles, spoons and cups to play and splash water all morning.
In the afternoon after my co-worker Donna, Maya and I arrived Grosi took the girls to their friend's goat farm. Donna and I were able to enjoy an hour or so of peace and quiet.
After that Katie helped Grosi wash salad fresh from the garden.

Well, maybe it was more that Grosi washed and Katie sampled the lettuce. She did manage to completely soak her top though.

While Katie and Grosi were busy with the lettuce, and I was busy taking pictures, Maya got busy on her own...
getting into Grosvati's liquor cabinet;)

After a busy day the girls were getting ready for bed. Milk and a show and off they went.

MY WINTER SUPPLY

On our way to the farm Donna and I hit the Spirite Factory Outlet store in Listowel. A haven for knitters, and other crafty people. They sell yarn seconds for 35cents/0z. I got enough to make 5 pairs of adult wool socks, 3 kiddy pairs, and about 8 slippers and a scarf (or baby blanket - haven't decided). This should keep me busy for the next little while.

When Grosi and Grosvati were here..

After the last post I was gone for a couple of days, but I just thought I'll backtrack a bit and share some more pics of when my parents were here. It was another beautiful November day (that felt more like mid April) and we went outside for a walk and a wagon ride.
Our two guys Andy and Marcel had to dig some holes, looking for sand. Katie was busy chatting and supervising their work.While Maya was trying to help

Our family, complete with Gordie

Our girls were enjoying the ride in the sunshine

Grosi and Grosvati came with us for the walk, even though by the end of it Grosvati was sore. We're glad for every minute they can play and walk with the girls.

Nap time - Or that's what you think!

So this afternoon, after a busy morning of playing with Grosi and Grosvati I put Katie down for a nap. She often doesn't take a nap anymore, but we were thinking that we'd have a late evening so I thought I'll put her down. I promised her that we'd go for a wagon ride after her nap and so she went willing and didn't make a fuss when I put her in her bed. I didn't hear anything for the next 45 min or so and I thought she's having a good nap. I was going to take the time to take my laundry off the clotheline so I went to our bedroom and and this is where I found my dear daughter:
She was snuggled on the bottom of my bookshelf. She was awake when I walked in, but I'm not sure that she didn't actually have a bit of a nap there.

She's slept in some odd places and positions before, but I think this one beats them yet.

Playing with Grosvati

It was so nice to have Grosi and Grosvati for a visit. It has been over a month since we last saw them and Katie has been asking to go to Grosi's house for the last week.
Both girls were excited to see them and it didn't take Katie any time before she was all over them. Literally.
Watch me go!

Wheeee...

So much fun!!

It took Maya a little bit longer to warm up to Grosi and Grosvati (about 10 min, as opposed to Katie's 10 seconds). But after that she was happy playing with them.

Climbing and jumping all over Grosi and Grosvati was lots of fun for both girls.

When we were just about ready to say good bye, Mom mentioned that they could take Katie home with them since we were planning to go out to the farm tomorrow anyway. When we asked Katie if she wants to go she was all for it so we quickly packed an overnight bag and off she went. It felt kind of weired waving good bye to Katie. Usually when they stay with either set of grandparent we drop them off and then we are the ones leaving. Sending Katie off on her own was a little weird, and sad, and exciting. She is growing up so fast!!

The Bigger The Better

My new view from our bedroom balcony. Jeff and the guys built me these amazing clothelines. One is about 50' and the other 6o' long.

Between the two lines I can hang 5 lg loads of laundry.

The other great thing is that the line is so high up, that even when I hang bedsheets you can still walk, or drive underneath with the lawnmower without touching the clean laundry.

In the spring we're going to plant our garden again between the two laundry posts. That will give us the ultimate homemaker view from our bedroom ;)