Busy in the Kitchen

Yesterday was a busy day in the kitchen. I made shortbread cookies, a loaf of Zopf (swiss bread) for our volunteers B-day, a blackforest cake (also for Marcel), cupcakes, Anis cookies.
Katie was a big helper/supervisor and was quite taken by the thought of the birthday cake. Kept asking about blowing out the candles and about getting her Strawberry shortcake DVD for her birthday (she saw it in the closet the other day). I guess 3 year olds do understand the whole birthday thing.
Blueberries for snack. Need I say more

My office where I do my e-mailing, blogging, and scrapbooking. Or at least I try to.

Pancakes and Other Fun

The morning before I took the girls up to the farm I thought having a special breakfast might be nice. Katie requested pancakes with Chocolate chips. As you can see, Katie really enjoyed the "healthy" breaky. However...
...Katie's enjoyment didn't come close to Maya's.

Yup, Maya loves her food, all over.

BUSY GIRL

Once back from her holidays at Grosi and Grosvati's Katie didn't waste any time getting busy again at home. She emptied Daddy's hamper in the office and then dragged it to the living room.

She had some issues of getting into the collapsable hamper

but after a couple of tries finally suceeded.

It didn't take long until the hamper took its revenge though and toppled Katie over again.

But, so much fun was had she took it all in stride and moved on to the next thing to conquer.

Night Off!!

No pics today, since I don't have the kids!! and who wants to see pictures of me anyway?
So after a busy weekend, I packed up the kids this morning to take them to my parents for a couple of days. We have a full team meeting tomorrow in Toronto most of the day so it wouldn't have been a great idea to try to take the kiddies along. So now I'm not only able to participate fully in the meeting tomorrow, Jeff and I also have the night off. The plans are to go out for dinner and then do some Christmas shopping (I love our PC mastercard which provides us with just enough PC points to do most of the Christmas shopping we have left to do). I'm so looking forward to a quiet, uninterrupted, unmessy, feeding only myself kind of meal!!! I do miss the girls already though. Pathetic I know.
Oh yeah, on the way home from the farm I just had to stop at the spinery outlet store in Listowell where they just happened to have a sock yarn sale. So Sarah and Mel, you got a pair coming eventually. I got some Christmas orders I need to work on first, but after that it's your turn.
Anyway, gotta go, have a date to go to!!

A few moments

It's been a while since I had the time to sit down to blog. Life has been too busy and too mundane to write much. Now Jeff is gone for the day hunting, both girls have a nap and I have a few minutes before I have to get ready for our Moms small group that meets at our house Fri afternoons, plus I told Katie that we'll bake some Christmas cookies when she's done with her nap. Then in the evening we have a group at the mission that I'll welcome and do the intro etc.

Anyway, here are some pics.

Our two volunteers Andy and Marcel are doing a great job with the girls and are a wonderful help with all the mission work. (They cleaned the mission house to get ready for the group this weekend)

Our newest toy. One of Jeff's cousin had this vanity for us. Both girls love it. Katie saw that there's a switch and asked where the music was. I told her it's not working anymore. Smarty pants replies "Maybe you should go and get some batteries". Lucky her we were planning to go grocery shopping that day anyway, or in Katie's mind "battery shopping" she kept reminding me that we need to buy batteries.

Tuesday night is games night. We have Uncle Marc here for supper and games, and then he spends the night and volunteers on Wednesday. We always like having him around.

Piercings 101

Before I tell you about Katie's "piercing", I'll just share a quick glimpse into our potty training stage. Daddy introduced Katie to some quality, educational material to read while she's waiting on #2. If she learns from him, she'll be sitting for hours;)

NOSE "PIERCING"

All by herself, Katie discovered an alternative use for the links we use to keep cupboards locked.

The side view

And the attitude to go with it.

Marshall Family Christmas

I know it's early, but we've already had our first Christmas yesterday. We gathered like every year at Jeff's aunt and uncle in Fergus. Can't beat a potluck dinner - so many things to try, but the downside is that even if I don't try everything, I still eat too much.
The girls both had their share, but I think they were a little distracted by all the people and the wonderful Christmas decorations. Both girls are fascinated by the christmas lights. Not sure if that makes me want to put mine up early, or wait until the week before Christmas. Too many things for little hands to get into.

Katie was still a little bit unsure about Santa, but has been told that he has gifts so she did ok. Maya on the other hand started crying as soon as I attempted to get her near Santa. When I sat on Santa's lap with her it was much better. I guess the gift "bribe" doesn't quite work on her yet Everyone got these funny Santa earmuffs. Surprisingly Katie left them on quite a while. Her and Daddy both are enjoying watching Santa hand out presents.

FISHBOWL

A fun game put on by one of Jeff's cousin and his wife. Everyone grabs a ribbon and then on the count of 1,2,3...

everyone goes fishing, pulling on their string and untangling their gifts. Lots of fun. Thanks again David and Rachel.

Visitors

Our old neighbours from Elmira came to visit for the afternoon and supper today. The Daddys went hunting and the Mommys got to visit and play with the kids. Much fun was had by all.
I know a lot of people don't let their kids jump on the couches, but I figure there's a lot worse things that they could do and so far they've always played together nicely when they play on the couch.

Weehee.

Maya and Norah are sharing a snack. They are only 4 months appart (pretty much the same as Max and Katie). I'm sure they'll continue to have lots of fun together as they grow older

The two little ladies and moi.

Lasagne for supper, enjoyed by all, but most visibly by Maya ;)