Daily Drivel

Mommy's Day morning at Charlie's Nursery

Each year at Charlie's nursery they do a Mommy's Day morning. I've been to a few now with Noemie who went to the same nursery where Charlie now goes. I think I missed Charlie's last year as it was in the afternoon and I had to go pick up Noemie at school. Luckily I made it this year as I only found out about it yesterday and I was really unwell overnight. So glad I went as it was awesome! 

The kids had practiced saying something to each of their Mommy's. All the other kids were too shy to speak so Charlie went first and did awesome. So cool neither of my kids have stage fright. After they all did their thing we did some painting and origami which was fun as well.

Now back home to relax until school runs start again!

A Time to Dress Up

Two weeks ago N's school had French Week as their theme. They got to eat various French foods like croissant, green beans (?!?) and whatever else and the last day of it was to dress up in a French theme. So of course 24 hours before the fact N informs me she'd like to be a French Artist. She had pretty strong ideas of what she might like and a beret was one thing she wanted for sure. So, lucky for her I can knit super fast and have a small yarn shop in our house to choose from. The next morning this is what I had ready for her. Hand knit beret, handmade little neckerchief, an old shirt of mine paint splattered, a homemade paint palette that had to sit on the radiator for 22 hours to dry in time.... she was thrilled. The moustache was her own request despite the fact I said she was a girl artist. She insisted that ALL French people had a moustache so I went along with it.

A week later, N asked me to make her a sun costume for her role in the school play for her class. It was all about the solar system and she was assigned the part of the sun. I googled to see if I could find a ready made one but they only had one to fit infants. Luckily I found a tutorial on how to make one myself so I ordered all the supplies and got to work. Lots of cutting of felt, using my sewing machine for a change and this is what she wore. She was so excited and looked so cute. Afterwards though she donated her costume to the school's costume wardrobe which was awesome as it'll get more use and it means I don't have to find space to store it. If Charlie is the sun in his play in 2 years from now, he can wear it again. Otherwise I'm guessing I'll be making yet another costume. 

Next week they have yet another dress up day for Book Week. This Momma is done with costume making for the time being so I've ordered one. Stay tuned for photos of what she is going to dress up as.... I'll post the pics within this year, I promise. 

Happy New Year... a tad late!

So my Dad pointed out to me in an email last night that it's been a LONG time since I last blogged and that my last blog entry was something along the line of "oops it's been a few days". Well now it's been a few weeks. I have to admit that I forget about this blog as I tend to share photos and stories on Facebook instead as most of the people I know are on there. It's so quick and easy there as well. 

Anyway, since the last time I blogged a lot has happened. Our sweet little Henry and Coconut both died last week. We think they caught our flu bug that swept through our house, wiping out Noemie, Charlie and myself for a week. Kirk was spared somehow, probably by being at work all the time. What I didn't know was that Hamsters and other small rodents are susceptible to human illness. Considering they went from perfectly fine to dead within 36 hours of each other, the only thing I can think is they got our bug. Poor Noemie was distraught as Coco was the first to go. Charlie didn't seem overly bothered by any of it. We held a little memorial service on Saturday and buried them under the kids' fairy garden in our back yard. 

It felt strange not having a little critter running around in a cage so on Sunday, Noemie and I went out and bought a new little friend. This one the kids named "Boogie Dancer". Yes, that's her name and it sort of suits her as she is SO fast and boogies around her cage. She came out last night for a while so I stared for a while. And this morning when Noemie came down, she was still up and running around. Poor Charlie on the other hand has yet to see her other than in photos and videos. 

I've got so many photos to share from Christmas and such but knowing how lazy I am, I doubt I will ever get around to it. Let's see how long it takes until I next blog! 

Oops! Missed a few days!

The blog got pushed to the back burner during the last few days of the school term! Combine that with me being pretty darn sick, I've had not very much energy in general. N finished school until January today. On the last day of term they don't have to wear their uniforms so she got to wear some of her cute clothes along with a Santa hat of course. 

Two nights ago "we" (mainly N) decided we should make cookies to take in for her teachers. I agreed, seeing she only has 3 teachers in her classroom. The next day she wanted to make a list of who was getting cookies. We ended up with 14 teachers!?! Her class teachers, her art teacher, her music teacher, her club teachers, the headmistress, the caretakers who man the school gates... and N's definition of baking is "I'll lick the bowl when you're done, Mommy". So I baked. Then baked some more. And then more. Three different cookies and then she helped me package them into the gift boxes we had. And then labelled them. It was all worth it though as the look on her face as she delivered them to the classrooms was just adorable. I'm thrilled she's into Xmas as much as I am and that she loves to give to people as much as I do. 

Yesterday (Tues) was N's year 1 school choir performance. I took C out of nursery early and then K met us there for the 30 minute performance. It was lovely but hopefully next year they will get riser steps for the kids as no one could really see anything unless their kids were in the front row. They didn't seem to have much consideration for heights either so we had loads of tall kids at the front. In any case, it was nice to listen to and I got one photo of her before the kids started singing, etc. 

She is also in her school choir so they did a special little performance in the middle of the overall show. She's been practicing her songs at home for the last few months and is really loving all of it. Of course I've had to bite my tongue quite a bit as the songs are all about Jesus and such. Fair enough as she goes to a Christian school and it IS choir and a Xmas performance. But anyone who knows me at all will understand why it's hard for me to bite my tongue when she is singing about something that I feel doesn't exist. I want her to make an educated choice about religion rather than going along with it because that's what the school teaches. Then again, she's 5 so there's plenty of time to deal with it later I suppose! 

Last but not least, Elfie has been super busy getting into all sorts of mischief. It's sad to know he'll be heading back to the North Pole in 2 weeks time. Which also reminds me, I have a large knitting project that needs to be finished by Xmas.... best get a knit on then! 

Day 9: Getting a head start on the pancakes or waffles the kids like to make each Sunday morning. He's not nearly as messy as Noemie (according to Charlie) as he's only spilled a tiny bit of flour on the kitchen counter. He also had flour on his face and clothes. 

 

 

 

Day 10: I think he thought he might get to scooter to school with N. Unfortunately we weren't scooting to school that day. Besides, we don't have a reflector vest or a helmet in his size. 

 

 

 

Day 11: Playing some Xmas music on a Thomas the Tank Engine guitar he found in the playroom. Sitting under a poinsetta which was a lovely gift from a good friend. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 12: Trying to steal some cookies out of the massive bag of cookies we took into school this morning. I'm pleased to report he was not successful at stealing anything! 

 

Advent Days 7 and 8

Here's Elfie on days 7 and 8. On day 7 we found him cruising around in style in Strawberry Shortcake's convertible. Hopefully Elfie has a drivers license!

This morning he was in the fridge. I swear we've never had to childproof in our house with the kids or even the cat, but this little elf appears for 25 days a year and he's getting into all sorts of places! I'm guessing he was either thirsty so was trying to get into the kids' juices or he was homesick for the cold North Pole. The kids were getting a bit worried about him as they couldn't find him anywhere. They checked all the bedrooms, the living room, family room and even the bathrooms. Then they checked the playroom and kitchen and still nothing. Then about 15 minutes later Noemie wanted a juice so she went to the fridge to get one and discovered Elfie. She gave him cuddles to "get him all warmed up". 

We've all caught the horrible cold bug that's going around so lots of sneezing, coughing and spluttering going on in this house. Hoping we all are better so we can enjoy our time off without any ailments! Kids went to a birthday party today with K so I stayed in and enjoyed a blissful 3 hours of peace and quiet on my own. 

Stay tuned for what Elfie gets up to tomorrow! 

 

 

Missed yesterday but got some cute photos today!

There was no time to blog yesterday and I've succumbed to the cold that Charlie has had since the weekend. Noemie has come down with it also.

K and I had our parents night out last night with the teachers as well, from Noemie's class. We didn't last long though and got home at 9:30pm! We're so pathetic, lol! I don't drink though and K was super tired so we decided to come home rather than stand around some more. 

Yesterday, Elfie was being good for a change. He was a little noisy in the middle of the night with his piano recital which I heard. Luckily the kids sleep through just about anything. I'm really impressed by how strong Elfie is. He managed to put a box up on the piano bench and then climbed up on top of it all! And of course, playing along with is usual grin on his little elf face. 

 

Charlie had his nursery nativity play yesterday. Noemie and I went but unfortunately K missed it as he was stuck at work. It's the first time he's ever missed one of the kids' shows and though I didn't tell Charlie that Daddy wasn't coming, he apparently told K last night that he missed him as he wasn't there. Poor little guy was so excited about his show. We ordered the DVD though so at least K can watch it next week sometime. Charlie was so enthusiastic and really enjoyed himself. We had fun watching him perform as well!

Next week Noemie has her Choir performance so Charlie will leave school early to come and watch with us. Hopefully K can make it for that show. 

Last but not least, Elfie this morning. It was really cold overnight so I'm guessing he wanted to take a bubble bath to warm himself up. I think he was a bit confused though as he was in a bowl of marshmallows this morning so not sure how warming that was for him. He also didn't have a book to read while "bathing" so I guess he decided to doodle on the marshmallows instead. He is such a silly little guy! 

 

Elfie the Mischievous Little Dude

We all came downstairs in the morning and this is what we found. Elfie had somehow managed to get into my yarn stash and was clearly having some fun. He must've been bouncing off door knobs and kitchen cabinets though as he was suspended in mid-air with one end of yarn wrapped around the kitchen door and the other end around a cabinet handle. What amazes me is his permanent grin no matter what his predicament. 

The other thing we considered is perhaps the memo about  joy and excitement of the season has not yet reached Mimi kitty. She is grumpy at the best of times but I'm guessing this time of the year makes her even worse? The kids soon rescued Elfie and in the process of freeing him, Charlie got a bit tangled up.

The last thing we need is for Charlie to get any bad ideas from Elfie. Maybe it's time I sent a letter back to Santa discussing Elfie's behaviour rather than Elfie reporting back about the kids' behaviour? 

Will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow! 

3 posts in a row!

I'll admit I've done all three of them today though, just dated them according to when we took the photos. Let's hope I manage to keep this up for every day this month. Heck, maybe it'll become a habit again.

I had Charlie home with me today as he has a nasty cough that started over the weekend. He was grumpy yesterday and today he had a quiet day at home with me. He seems to be doing a lot better and isn't even coughing as much tonight as he was last night. He has his nativity show on Wednesday so I don't want him to be sick and miss it. Even Noemie is leaving school early to come watch :)

Finally Elfie has moved away from the snack cupboards and rifling through my dollhouse furniture. I'm trying to convince myself and the kids that he was trying to be helpful and help us add more ornaments, perhaps was even checking out the top to see if it was ready for the star topper. The kids are pretty sure he was being naughty again.  

The good news is that the magic seeds from Saturday grew into something sweet that made the kids happy this morning when they went to the kitchen to check. Clearly Santa has a lower expectation of kids' behaviour than I do, as I'm not entirely sure they were THAT good this weekend... or perhaps my two are pretty darn awesome and Santa has seen some majorly naughty kids in his time? In any case, I'm going to ask Santa for some magic seeds for Xmas myself. Imagine planting a seed and having chocolate appear 2 days later!

 

For now, I better get to sleep. Can't wait to see what Elfie gets up to tonight while we're all asleep!

Oh Christmas Tree!

We went out after lunch to pick our Christmas tree. I can't actually remember ever getting a tree this early. Usually we wait until the week before Christmas and then we're decorating it on the 23rd or something and then I take it down the day after Christmas. This year the kids asked to go ASAP so off we went. 

Charlie wanted one that had a label on it with "4" on it. He thought it was the tree's age rather than it's height. Noemie was looking at either super big ones or super small ones. I found one that I loved and really wanted. It was well balanced, the right height and I fell in love with it. The kids weren't convinced but it didn't take me long to change their minds. I told them that it was the perfect size for loads of presents to go under the tree and for all our decorations we have. The presents did the trick and off we went with our new tree. 

We left the kids to decorate however they wanted. It may have been a bit of a mistake as they don't yet hang the ornaments properly onto the branches so some fell off. Charlie managed to break two of them so there was a lot of tears as he felt so bad. Luckily they were inexpensive ones so no harm done. Charlie spent all day blaming anything that went wrong on Elfie so of course the broken ornaments were Elfie's fault. I'm guessing this is what would happen if he had a younger sibling as Noemie blames him quite often for things she's done.  Noemie lost interest after a while as she was hungry but Charlie kept going for quite a while. Kirk and I will definitely need to give them a helping hand one of these days. 

One person for sure that we can't count on for any help? Elfie. He is such a mischievous elf. We found him like this when we came down in the morning. On a slight sugar high, or perhaps he'd crashed by this point, but in any case he made a bit of a mess. Crumbs everywhere, sugar candy all over the table and I dread to think what he was watching on the iPad! 

Someone please give me back the last 6 weeks!

I honestly have no idea how time goes SO fast these days. It feels like Charlie's 4th birthday was a few days ago but I know it's been nearly two months since then. I always thought I'd have more time once the kids were both in school most of the day but it seems like I'm even busier these days. 

It is my favorite time of the year however. Christmas and all the fun and silliness that comes with it. I'm not religious at all so that aspect of it means nothing to me. I'm all about the commercial aspect of the holiday ;).  I decided to make the kids' advent calendars this year which wasn't a bad idea in itself... only that I didn't get around to working on them until 3 days before we needed to use them. I managed though, somehow, to do both of them in time. The kids seemed pretty excited but they may have been thrilled with paperbags labeled with 25 numbers. 

They have 2 other advent calendars this year as I just couldn't make u my mind about what I wanted them to have. So they have it all. A chocolate one each and a Lego one each. Yes, they're spoiled but that's okay. They make Christmas so much fun with their excitement and enthusiasm. 

With December 1st came the return of our Elf, Elfie (we are all about unique names in this house, but Elfie did sound better than Bongy which is what Charlie suggested). Elfie returns each night to the North Pole to update Santa on the kids' behaviour. The naughty and nice list is updated daily until Christmas Eve when Santa sets off to deliver his presents. Elfie this year was on our dining room table, sitting on a dollhouse sofa he found in a drawer and he came with a letter from the big man himself. 

 

The kids went into the family room and somehow managed to miss Elfie. A few moments later, Noemie turned around and we had lots of squeals and excited pointing "Elfie's here! Here's here! I found him! All by myself!" followed by what's now known as her "I've found it" dance. It's pretty good considering she usually is so uncoordinated. 

Here's Santa's letterhead. Along with the letter came some magic seeds and instructions for what the kids needed to do next. 

 

 

 

The kids had to plant the magic seeds in a bowl of sugar and then sprinkle them with salt. They had to do this the next morning as well and were told that if they didn't behave, the magic in the seeds would disappear and nothing would grow. I'm getting the feeling Santa is less picky than I am about what he calls good behaviour, which is probably a good thing for two over excited kids.

Check back to see if anything ended up growing....