new advent tradition

Here's our newest tradition.

I splurged a little and bought this advent truck.

It has 24 drawers in it.

To count down the days until Christmas.

Our girls were very excited this morning.

With 3 girls and 24 drawers the math works out perfectly.

They will each get 8 turns opening a drawer.

Each drawer will contain a little something.

Maybe a chocolate or eraser.

Maybe a bible verse about the Christmas story.

Maybe a little task of kindness.

I only have 6 days done,

even though they don't know that yet!

The drawers are small too only 4 cm x 4 cm.

Any ideas would be great!

Then this afternoon we put on music

and they spent time painting some Christmas decorations

made out of a baked dough.

Messy but fun! The perfect day!

the unexplainable, perhaps!

Yesterday, my husband and I were involved in a spring ritual that not many southern folk might understand.
See, we live in what might be considered the great white north!
No, we don't live in Alaska or the Northwest Terrorities, but we are pretty darn close!
Sometimes when we live here, we get a pretty strong hankering for spring.
We start craving green grass, warmer weather and flip flops!
So, in an attempt to help mother nature along, we intervene in ways, that some might think odd!
I guess this ritual could be called "un-shoveling"
All winter we shovel the snow off our driveway and walkways
and then in spring, or what is spring for most people, we shovel it off our lawn.
Yesterday, we took drastic measures and used our ice pick to break it up and our scoop shovel (ie. a man sized shovel, or a shovel on steroids!) and took great scoops and spread it on the street.
We do live on a cul-de-sac, so we are not really impeding traffic.
My friend stopped by during this ritual to encourage us along, and maybe give a jab or two!
Our oldest daughter thought it was great because Dad created a luge run in the front yard!
I would have taken pictures but my arms were just too tired from all the shovelling!
Great Canadian Traditions!

won't you be mine?

i baked cookies

the girls decorated
the girls got little valentine gifts
and kinder surprises
in the package i made each of them a new pillowcase
i had the fairy fabric in my stash and just needed to use it for something
all three pillowcases sewed up in an hour
fast, easy and economical
tonight the big cheese is taking me out for dinner!

how nice....sushi! yum!

i had nothing to do with it

here is the creation oma and opa made with the girls

i had nothing to do with it

i stood back and watched

they even cleaned up the mess! gotta love that

if you get this far into the post, i do wonder....where opa's decorating skills went? did he really retire that long ago? love you dad!

tooth fairy story

when one of our children lose a tooth

everyone in our family knows the tooth goes under the pillow
in the morning there is a bit of fairy dust and a loonie

(that is $1 for any americans)

the tooth fairy is just expected

so when our daughter woke up on wednesday morning

i was in the shower and the important message was

"the tooth fairy didn't come"

"what? impossible?" panic, guilt, ah!

luckily, the big cheese and i can work under pressure

all was saved, see below

apparently when she runs late, her fees double

and papaya got a toonie ($2)

cookie decorating party

here is one of our family's yearly traditions

some years we even do it twice

almost always in fall, and often again at valentines day

we started it a few years ago, and the girls absolutely love it

it is MUCH easier now that the girls are older

how it works is each of the girls invites a few friends

we had 12 today, including my kids

each friend needs to bring a take home box, container of icing and

decorations to share

i bake up a mess of sugar cookies, believe you me, it is a mess

spread out a disposable tablecloth, cookies and decorations

their friends descend upon our house for a couple of hours and create to their hearts content

and then they take home a container full of decorated cookies to eat and share with their family

it really is a fun tradition, one i think we will keep on doing for a few years to come