So we all went to Eloisa’s 5th birthday party this afternoon. It was a princess-themed party. All of the kids were dropped off except for mine. So I got to chat with Susanna, Eloisa’s mom a little bit while things were going on. It was very low key. Relaxing party when you do it from 2:30-4:30. There was a few simple crafts for the kids to do and a very brief snack-juiceboxes, chips, strawberries and very neat princess hat cupcakes. That’s it! Talk about easy and stress free. No decorations of any kind. Edzea and Rohan AND Neve had a great time! My camera battery died at present time. Edzea had picked out the most god-awful princess bean bag chair for Eloisa at Toys R’Us. It was within our budget and she was determined to get it for her. Rohan picked her out a wind-up flashlight. Turns out she loved the chair the most!!! and her little brother couldn’t get his hands off of the flashlight! I added matching t-shirts and a sunhat for the girls-so they are planning on wearing their matching shirts tomorrow at school. They are really good little friends. They seem very like-minded so I’m glad that I like her Mom and the girls will be in school next year together too as Eloisa is going into French Immersion as well. So, we are going to start playdates with them.

Here are a few pics.

As an aside, her mom is a former aerospace engineer who was slated to go to Houston when she was 4 months pregnant to visit the Space Shuttle. She declined because she didn’t want to cause the baby stress. She has chosen staying at home with her kids over her career. I really like her!

Edzea and I did two blue runs-her first! on Saturday this week. I had to ski her between my legs on the last steep bit because it was VERY steep and I was worried that some kid would come flying over the edge and take her out. That’s what makes me most nervous when I’m skiing with her. I try to keep us on the lesser travelled runs as I don’t trust the teenagers on the hill who ski on the weekends!

I’m going to start ski lessons with Rohan on Saturday in Parent & Tot. It was so cute. He watched Edzea’s ski video the other day and I told him that he and I were going to start skiing next week…he whispers in my ear, ” but Mommy, I don’t know how to ski.” I explained that the teachers and I would teach him how! So cute! So we’re going to rent skiis for the first few lessons and see how he does. Edzea and I might ski on Sundays now. We’re going to see how next weekend goes with Rohan on his own. See if he lasts after the lesson with me at all. He’s two years younger, skinny and feels the cold! so we’ll see.

We went to the Kanata wave pool yesterday as a family. It was great. There is a warm wading pool for Neve and for the kids to come over and warm up in when they’ve had enough of the big pool!

Big news is…Edzea, Neve and I are heading to Vancouver for Easter weekend! It’s a Bumpa-sponsored event! for Mom’s 70th birthday gift. We are really excited. Rohan and Daddy will be having a boy weekend with Yose/Maria and kids at Yose’s family Cabane-A-Sucre (Sugar-shack) just outside of Quebec City so each kid gets something special that weekend.

Neve says “up” now! She furniture walks everywhere but doesn’t quite seem interested in walking yet.

Edzea and I did a painting class on Friday night. She did a wonderful painting of the Parliament buildings in celebration of National Flag day. She wouldn’t let me help at all. All of the other parents of all of the OLDER kids were drawing/painting their kids paintings for them. I wasn’t allowed to touch Edzea’s. She was practically growling at me the whole “bonding” night. She hadn’t had a nap for two days!

That’s all for now,

Oh we had Yose/Maria & kids over for dinner last night. Rohan’s nose was put out of joint. He kept asking me to find his BIG fire engine. So I went with him and got his toy engine which he told me was NOT the one he was talking about. He meant the one made out of boxes…(we are going to build him a big box fire engine for his birthday party). He thought it was his birthday party and was getting mad at everyone for telling him it wasn’t…he kept yelling “IT IS!!!! my birfday!!!”

The picture at the bottom of these photos is the cool quilt that Grandma made/brought for Rohan when she was here. We had a great visit with Grandma! Unfortunately both she and I got sick and were sick while we were in Mont Tremblant but we still enjoyed the trip I believe! I’ll post more pics of Tremblant when I have them organized better!

Here’s a clip of Edzea skiing today. She didn’t want to leave the mountain but I told her what can happen on your last run when you are getting too tired….Here’s some video from today-her last run of the day…Canadian Girl

Rohan has decided that this skiing thing looks pretty fun which is lucky because he’s taking Edzea’s spot in Parent and Tot with me last week as they’ve kicked Edzea out of the program. She’s too good! She has to go on her own with the older class now!

Haven’t written since before Christmas and am pooped tonight but wanted to add a couple of photos and updates:

Edzea started skiing lessons last weekend. We are doing a parent and tot class. It is a lot of fun and Edzea is catching on really quickly. She did not want to leave at all the first lesson day. So we stayed for 4 1/2 hours. It was +7. She was able to snow plow and do “french fries” (parallel) her first day out! Although we are now practicing snow plow (pizza) more vigourously to use for stopping, steering in the right direction etc. We’ve been really lucky with our Saturday weather-+3 this past Saturday too! It’s tons of fun and Mt.Pakenham is a nice little ski hill for beginners.

Here are a few pics. I haven’t been able to get any video/pics of her skiing as I am tandem with her at all times! so far!

We headed to Haydon’s Superhero 5th Birthday party after our lesson this weekend. Next weekend, Mathieu turns 5 too. So much has happened in 5 years!

Tim finished Rohan’s bed over the past couple of weeks. Rohan is sleeping in it for the first time tonight. He is soooo excited about it! So cute!

Neve has her upper front teeth almost fully in now too. So bottom two, top two eye teeth and now the front. She also stood momentarily on her own yesterday, twice.

Neve signs more, milk, finished, but her first word is Mama. She said it last night at 9 1/2 months. She does try to say book and she makes sounds for quack quack and moo moo. She also tries to say milk…mmmmmmmm.

I was a duty parent at the preschool today for Rohan’s Christmas party. Here are some pics of him with his teachers etc. Also, some pics from the other day outside in the backyard in the snow. PLUS…Edzea’s longest sentence to date on her own….I will decipher it for you. Santa spoke to her outside of Rohan’s preschool today and said that he saw that she was on his nice list and he’d be coming down the chimney soon. She was thrilled!!!

So, this is what she wrote today,

” I like Santa to tog (talk) to me and say the et (that) I em (am) on the nis (nice) list.”  All by herself. It’s the last picture in this post.

Tim took the kids to a tree farm today on Fallowfield Rd. He said it was better than the one last year. Smaller farm, closer to us. And one rate $60 for any tree you bought! So the kids got the horse-drawn wagon ride through the tree fields, there was a warming hut for drinking their hot chocolate, Santa visited and checked out their tree and then a bonfire to warm up at as well. The have a spinner to dry out and wrap the tree. It wasn’t we when it went up. It was great.

Here are some pics:

So, we had Tim’s party tonight despite the fact that Neve and I have both been ill. It was lots of fun and two of the other families who were going to come had to cancel due to illness. It was nice to have our small group of Yellowknifers. Kids played well, adults got to eat dinner in peace while kids played. Everything went well. Made Tim and ice cream cake as he prefers it to regular cake. SO easy to make and Edzea had fun helping me. I was the only one who dressed up like a geek (Allan and Tim came as themselves!) I got a matching shirt to Tim’s at Walmart. Enjoy the pictures:

We also attended this party on Saturday morning. I accidentally dropped and shattered Rohan’s house. He asked about his house A LOT on Saturday but then I have been able to keep him off topic since then thank goodness!

Update, Neve’s other bottom tooth popped up late last week too. Just a reminder for myself.  Some pics from the last few weeks. Gymnastics ended for the season. Skiing begins in January. Try to decipher a couple of Edzea’s new sentences: “I like to sit on Santa” and the other one is “I like to make snowflakes”. All on her own.

Made gingerbread cookies today. Rohan did not decorate ONE! He just ate. When we were finishing dinner he asked where all the decorations were on his gingerbread lollipop, suspicious that we had all taken them off. I said, Rohan you didn’t put anything on it remember? ” Oh, ” he says. We all laughed.