Race Track

Day 2

 

Daddy brought home a really neat car. It's a Subaru. And when you pull it back, it rolls along on it's own.  Another neat thing about this car is that Mr.Mister has figured out how to take the tires off. I found him in the corner one day with his car. All four tires had been peeled off the wheels. I put the tires back on and told Mr.Mister that he shouldn't break his cars. They're not much fun after you've tried to break the wheels off or bend the axles, or pull the doors off. He doesn't listen all that well. I found him again later, patiently pulling the tires off the car again. I wondered about his thought process. It's become a thing lately to push and pull and tug at the moveable parts on his cars....until they break. We've said goodbye to a couple of really cool cars because of this mild obsession. But I digress.... Back to the neat Subaru.

Hardwood floors make a great race track. The neat thing about this car is that it goes.....until it ALMOST hits the wall. It stops just shy of the wall. Good timing or advanced built in mechanism? Who's to say.  It's really good when you have a buddy who will send the car back to you.

Even if it is just your sister who likes to pose and dance on the other side....At least she sends the car back. If she's not apprehending it for herself. Sisters!!!!!

"Yup, see, this is how it works!" she says. He's only been playing with it by himself for the past 10 minutes. I think he's got it Lil' Miss. But he's patient. He listens because he does like it when she plays with him.

It was big excitement to see if THIS would be the time that the car would hit the wall. But it never did. It was like magic. It was a great 20 minutes of fun. Then the car ran out of batteries.



 Winter Delight

 Day 1

Every year it seems that the Christmas season starts way too early!!! We barely got through Halloween and the Christmas had already hit the stores. I try really hard to ignore it. The unfortunate part is deals on Christmas decor and knickknacks usually start about the middle of November. I guess the theory is that all Christmas 'stuffs' should be in place before December 1st so one can enjoy the holidays in a state of calm and serene relaxation. (Whatever). I still try and put everything off until December 1st. The event that kicks it all off for us is the annual Winter event located in the park just down the street from us and put on by the local church group. They like to call it Winter Delight. We like to call it 'Time for a Horse Drawn Sleigh Ride'!!!!!!

 The key to getting the most out of this event is deciding just when to get to the park. The event is scheduled from  4-6pm. We got there at 3:45pm. Great timing. The horses were already making trips around the park. We beelined straight to the non-existant line up. Both kids had no problem getting themselves parked on the haybales on the sleigh. It was all very exciting!!

 It was so so very exciting that we finished the first ride just to line up for a second ride!!!!! Once again hitting the line-up when it was it was but a minimal wait. As we toured the park on our sleigh ride, it was already starting to get dark, and the christmas lights on some of the houses turned on. We waved hello to Hello Kitty and her buddies all decked up for Christmas. (Yes this is the last weekend in November that the church holds Winter Delight in the park. And yes, people already have their Christmas lights up!!!) After two sleigh rides it was time to hit the cookie bar. Such a chore to choose between chocolate chip, decorated christmas trees and gingerbread boy cookies. And yes, we must only choose one as there are alot of little people here will deserve cookies too. Lucky for us, as we munched away, someone spotted Santa approaching. We hustled...and we were second in line.



Time for a pep talk. Our experiences with Santa aren't all that successful. I wasn't expecting much. But Lil'Miss was determined that she was going to sit on Santa's knee this year. And she did. And promptly got stage fright. When asked what she wanted for Christmas, she just sat there shyly. In fact I'm not sure Santa really got an answer out of her. But that's ok. We'll try again another time.



No amount of pep talking was going to get the little guy on Santa's knee. But I did convince him to go up and 'yell' to Santa what he wanted for Christmas. The one thing about Mr.Mister is consistency. He asked for an airplane. Cropduster to be exact. He's been talking about getting an airplane for awhile now. I hope he gets really excited on Christmas day if he gets one. It would be perfect.

So with all bases now covered, it was time to hit the playground and go down the slides again, and again, and again, and again, and....you get the idea.  The slides were pretty fast that day. Little kids going airborne off the bottom a slide is comic relief and it's best. We were there awhile. It got darker, the park got more and more crowded. It was getting time to go home. So we posed for a couple more photo opportunities..........then Mr.Mister decided he should go on the horse drawn sleigh just one more time!!!!

                                          

I looked at the line up and cringed. It was soooooooo long. We walked over to the end of the line, I explained the art of 'waiting' to a 5 and 2 year old, and we waited. Eventually the line moved up towards the cookie bar. We indulged in another gingerbread boy and stared at the fire pit while we 'waited'.



                                          
And yes, we made it to one last sleigh ride, through the really dark park. At this point, the horse drawn tour had been shortened to accomodate the ridiculous amount of people waiting in line. Just another plus to arriving early when we did. But both the kids were happy, and we made it home without any crying or regret. We waved one more time to Hello Kitty and her friends...they were much more spectacular in the dark!

Birthday!

 

Lil' Miss had a birthday today! She's a whopping 5 years old. I can't believe it. First she starts kindergarten, and now she thinks she can just turn 5. What a girl. She got some special money for her birthday. Curtesy of Gramma. We helped her spend it last night. She's wearing her present in the pictures below. I think it was a good choice. It covers all bases. It's warm (although after tonight we decided she should still wear her skating jacket), the skirt twirls extra twirly, and it has a decent amount of sparkles on it (sooooooo important!!!). It's also got some pink on it.

 

 It's a good thing they were working on their twirls tonight.

 Looks like a little figure skater out there.

 She looks like one of the big girls out there!

 Such concentration!

This is tough stuff. She still falls down alot. I just want to wrap her in pillows before I send her out on to the ice. But she keeps getting up when she falls and she keeps trying. That's dedication for you.

 

Halloween!

 

How about some Halloween cuties? And a scary guy lurking in the background. He's our candy patrol officer. He's in charge of handing out the goods. As for the two little ones, they were in charge of acquiring their own sack load of treats. And they did a good job. Both were so excited to go trick or treating. We've been building up to this day for 2 weeks. Lil' Miss has been running trick or treat 'exercises' for Mr.Mister. He's been packing his treat bucket around, trick or treating for toy cars. Working on his phrasing and thank you's. He was ready. And nothing was going to slow him down. Not even gale force winds and somewhat chilly weather. Nor that mask. He mostly wore in on top of his head, but he was a good sport and got seriously excited when he'd recieve a treat. We didn't make it to all the houses. Some were too scary. But we did manage to trick or treat most of the houses on our route. It was so much fun.

 

 

Imagine this as we were walking up and down the street. When you watch Halloween on tv, when they show piles of dressed up kids running up and down streets on those family friendly Halloween shows, that is what it was like for us on Halloween night. So many kids, running, laughing, with parents also dressed up following behind. Most parents lugging wagons and strollers and extra candy sacks. It was awsome.



All in all, a very successful Halloween. Weather turned out great and we got to watch fireworks as an end to a fantastic night.



Christmas Tree Decorating....stage 3.

December 11

On to the decoration of the Christmas Tree.

Yes, we had to decorate the Christmas tree in stages. That's what happens when one has to work almost every day of the week.

But why decorate a Christmas tree when you can decorate a little girl? The minute we took the garland out of the box....Lil' Miss proceeded to wrap herself up in it. Garland....such fun stuff!! Mr. Mister proceeded to also get himself into a little bit of trouble. I was content to leave him dig through the Christmas boxes...until I saw a Christmas ornament 'zing' past.

Hey, everyone knows that everything shaped like a ball was meant to be thrown.......

And then I had two helpers....count them....TWO helpers helping me put on the Christmas ornament balls. Mr.Mister got right in up to his elbows with this task.

And why limit yourself to levels within your reach? By all means....reach for the highest spot you most possibly can!

Helper #1 and Helper #2 needed to stretch their arms to the highest of heights.

I also quickly learned that we would only be putting shatterproof/ unbreakable ornaments on the tree. For every two ornament balls that made it to the tree, one got tossed like a golf ball through the air (wonder who was doing that??????).

But that's ok. A tree is no fun if it's the same every year. And sometimes less is more....

Lil' Miss: Mommy, the tree is  BEAUTIFUL!

Mommy: Yes, you are right!

Such a good job you did, little peoples!



Foot Art.

December 10

What does that 2 little feet, covered in green and red paint, and stamped on a little piece of wood become? A special present from Lil' Miss to Mommy and Daddy! Lil' Miss was so excited when she came home from school one day with a specially wrapped present for Mommy and Daddy. She gave it to us right away. And insisted that we open it. I explained to her that it looked to be a Christmas present and perhaps we should wait until Christmas to open it. No, that little explanation did not go over well. There may have been some foot stomping, and verbal protest with a LOT of insistance that it get opened right this instant! 

Little kids....they have no patience!!!

So we opened it.  And discovered Lil' Miss's feet stamped to look like a Christmas tree. How cute is that????

Almost as cute as the little girl holding the Christmas tree footie art.

And of course where there is one little cutie, another always follows.....

CHEESE!



December 9

December 9

The Christmas tree decorating saga continues!!!

As you can see, the tree has thawed and fluffed itself to a very nicely proprotioned evergreen. Lil' Miss...you did a good job with that pointy finger!!!! And it smells looooovely. Fresh evergreen assaults your nose as you enter our house right now. Much better than the stale dog and poopy diapers odoeur that normally tickles my olfactory senses.

Oh yeah...please ignore that decoration at the top of the tree.  We all know how THAT got up there....and it wasn`t me.

 I pulled out the lights and started sorting strands. Every year I`ve found I have to check the lights. What worked really well one year not always necessarily works so well the next year. This year though, I decided to go with last years tree plan.  Multicoloured lights with red and white decorations and white `snow` like tinsel garland.

 First thing is first. Help Mommy sort the lights. The excitement to decorate the tree was at an all time high!!

 And this is kind of a neat opportunity to try for some neat photograph. Mr.Mister was VERY enthusiastic about playing with lights. `Wooooo, whhhoaaaaaa` `No no no!`when I tried to take the lights away from him.

 Gratuitous kiddo shots with Christmas lights!!!

 Oh Mom, I`m ready to give up the christmas lights now. But only for a bit. I want them right bak!!

And at the end of the night, we had a beautiful tree, fluffed with lights hung. Tomorrow? Decorations!!!!!!!!

Elmer Fudd says......

December 8

Who's that cute lil' guy hanging out in my back seat??????

Big smile, puffy coat, funny looking hat...

Daddy calls him Elmer Fudd. But we all know who he is.

We're on our way to skating. Because Lil' Miss...well, she a bit of a superstar right now. But more on that later. This story is all about Elmer Fudd.

 It's a good thing Mr.Mister knows how to play with his cars. And it's a good thing he LIKES to play with his cars. Otherwise I'm not sure what we'd do on our Lil' Miss activity days. Before we head out to the skating arena, Mr.Mister likes to fill my tote bag with his favorite cars. His favorite cars number in about the 20's. So we do need to narrow it down to about 12 or so. But they are little, so they fit in the bag; albeit they make the bag a little heavy. When we get to the arena, he's all set for me to open the bag so he can get in there, get them out and start lining them up on the benches.

We take up a whole bench to ourselves with this process.

Once in  awhile he'll stop and watch for Lil' Miss out on the ice. At least I think that is what he's doing. Or he'll take a time out for a brief snack. But then it's right back to playing with the cars. Keeps him busy the whole time. Skating ranges from 30 minutes to 45 minutes per session and Lil' Miss currently skates on Sunday afternoons and Monday evenings.

 Then when it's time to go get Lil' Miss from the dressing room, I simply say...Let's go find Lil' Miss! Put your cars away! And Elmer Fudd puts his cars away, two by two, into the tote bag. Then makes a beeline for the door to the stairs. Stopping only to push the handicap button on some random doorway, and then push open the garbage can to see if there is anything interesting inside. We also stop at this Snuggle advertisement on the wall....because it has the Snuggle fabric softner bear on it and the whole thing is printed on soft flannel. So we have to say hi to the bear and pet him because he's soft. Then we rush to the stars where he slowly and particularly makes his way down, one stair at a time. By this time the Big Guy has retrieved Lil' Miss from the dressing room and it's time to go home. Let's not forget the lollipop for the ride home (thanks Gramma for starting THIS tradition.....). We return the following night only to repeat the whole process over again. Oh the excitement in little kids' lives. Simple, yet satisfying.

He does look satisfied....doesn't he??????

Ahoy! Yon Christmas Tree!

December 7

Today was the day to fetch our Christmas Tree. We had to squeeze this excursion inbetween skating lessons and a birthday party. Such a busy type of folk we are!!

First we had to escape into the wild blue....I'm mean 'orange' yonder. After a few failed stops (let's just call them drive-bys. If you're selling Christmas trees, you should NOT be closed on Sunday. Retailers...TAKE NOTE!!!!!); the Big Guy wanted to get a tree that was already 'fluffed'. That way he knows he's getting a gooder. Or at least he hopes.... But that failed us as there were none of those to be found within our tight time schedule. So we stopped and took our chances in the wilds of 'Home Depot'

We made our way through the maze of washer and dryers and Christmas lights/decorations to the real tree location. Upon entry to such location we noted that....we were probably the only people who hadn't put their tree up yet. Yes, the pickin's were that slim. But our schedule was tight...do we or do we wait for another day. We do not wait. Lil' Miss was instructed to pick out the tree, and she happily stuck her pointy finger in the air and said .....

"That one!!!!" Mommy thought....'Really?????' But who is to question the Lil' Miss. The Big Guy just picked it up and hiked it over his shoulder. Then headed for the checkout.

Along the way we picked up a tree hauler....manned by two munchkins....

 Well, I guess someone has to make sure our tree doesn't fall off. And someone has to navigate the front end. Those tree haulers can be a bit troublesome!!!! And heaven forbid we destroy a washer and/or dryer on our way out!!!

 Yep, that tree is going no where but to our house!!!! Look out peeps! We're coming through!!!!!

 Big Guy....get out your wallet. These trees don't come for free. The help does though.....

 Take note that the munchkin in green is doing the manly thing by going bare-handed. It's -15 degrees celsius out today. The manly thing to do isn't always the smart thing to do. But him and mittens...well they have a hit and miss relationship. Today it was a miss....

Ok Dad....get 'er on the truck! Our job here is done. We're headed for warmer territory. Or at least Mommy is......I also think Mommy is still wondering just what in tarnation this tree is going to look like once it's unthawed..

Hmmmm......It's not looking good.......I think we'd better just hope for the best. If not...we'll just say it's the first tree Lil' Miss ever picked out all by herself!!!!

Stay tuned......

A small pictoral interlude....

December 6

Just a few random pictures....



As soon as Miss Polly came in from outside and saw the fireplace on, she walked up to it, doggie spun about 2-3 times, licked her lips and promptly settled herself for the rest of the night. She is a doggie who loves her fireplace.

Two little stinkers enjoying a cookie.

And two little stinkers enjoying yogurt before bed. Take note of Mr.Mister's appearance. Daddy gave them their baths this night.

Ho Ho Hoooo to the Post Office

December 5



There was  a special corner at the Festival of Trees. A place all set up and waiting for little kids to come in and write a letter to santa!!!!! Lil' Miss had kind of been asking to write a letter to santa for a while now, so what better chance than to do it NOW! 

But being the shy girl that she is (and she truly is! At the weirdest of times) when she got to the table to write her letter, she got all shy and didn't know what to do. I know she really really wants a barbie house (because all her friends have barbie houses!!!) but we've had a little talk and a barbie house is just too big to be in our house. So I convinced her to ask for a My Little Pony house instead. I don't think she even noticed. She was too busy trying to hide behind me from the nice ladies manning the letter writing table. Anyhow, we did get our letters written and sent off. Can anyone guess what Mr.Mister asked for from Santa?????

TRUCK!



I'm kind of hoping maybe Santa will write them back.

Perhaps I should check our mailbox to see if he's had the time to do so.



If you take a close look at their smiling faces, you will notice a blue ring around their mouths. Yes, Daddy was feeding them ice cream. Because that is what Daddy does!

Cheese!!!!!!!!!

Note: They each got a candy cane for their troubles. Lil' Miss ate hers....Mr.Mister took one lick and promptly gave it back.