Karin's first Birthday Party

Tasty blocks.

Chris the birthday boy and Karin, still trying to figure out that block.


....happy birthday to you....happy birthday to you....



Awesome cake!

Big kids and moms got their choice of eggless vanilla cake or good old chocolate cake. Big brother Matthew (green shirt) did a great job helping his mom bake, decorate and make loot bags for the birthday guests.

Karin and Chris really enjoyed swishing the tissue paper around.

Karin attended her first birthday party this week, I think she had a great time. I know she was at Chance's birthday party but you know, being the birthday boy's sister, she had to be invited, haha. This party was more geared for babies as the birthday boy was turning one year old, I think the pared down version was more enjoyable for her. Chance was also invited and he also had a great time playing with the older brothers of the birthday boy and other guests.

As we were leaving, Chris & Matthew's mom jokingly sobbed "I can't believe this year went by so quickly!!" and I think that really got to me because later that night while doing the dishes, it was me in tears thinking about all that has happened this year. I am going to be a right rotten teary snotty emotional mess come January. Sniff, sniff.

Dear Santa

Snow snow snow

No pictures of this, but we've gotten a good douse of the white stuff. Spent a good portion of the afternoon playing outside with Chance and a neighbour's son who spent the afternoon with us.

I've been going to the pool that is a block and a half from our house on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Chance and Karin go into a little babysitting room they've got set up and I swim laps for about an hour. The first morning Karin got quite upset and so I've learned she can handle that amount of time before freaking out. She did just fine the 2nd time around and today she was just starting to get cranky as I walked into the door. It feels great to get the regular exercise and super convenient. I just wish that I was a stronger swimmer for all my time in the pool....oh well it will be good training for when Cam and I go on vacation in the spring.

We are going with a group of friends to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. We booked our trip 3 or 4 days before there was a natural gas explosion, which killed 5 Canadians. The news tonight did a poll and asked whether this explosion affects whether people would consider traveling to Playa Del Carmen or not: 43% said no, but 57% said yes. I have mixed feelings.

The resort we have booked at is not a typical beach resort, in that it is actually constructed on a rocky portion of the coast. There is a man-made shallow, protected, sandy lagoon that you can swim in, and this is encouraging for me (I'm a sinker, and slightly prone to panicking in deep water with rocky/weedy bottoms), although I was a bit saddened at the fact that we won't be lazing on lounge chairs staring out at the Caribbean....oh well. Let's face it, if they sent me to the Sahara dessert with no kids and booze, I'd be happy. :P

My first portrait

Chance drew a picture of me, the house, and Grandpa's new boat at playschool. I have some guesses about the others in the picture too. I just howled with laughter and then realized I was crying too because I was touched he had drawn a picture of me!

Playground Drama

We have several parks in the neighbourhood. Chance has names for all of them to tell them apart: the tire swing park, the green park, the dog park, the car park and the merry-go-round park. His favorite being the latter, we frequent this park often. Last night we were out for a walk to said park and bumped into neighbour friends with kids and they decided to join us. They avoided the merry-go-round park (which their kids call the bouncy bridge park) because their smallest one took a spill off one of the playground structures last year. But she is a big girl now, so the merry-go-round/bouncy bridge park is open game now.

Anywhoo...there was a bigger girl there, about 7 or 8 years old, much to Chance's delight. He loves older kids. He is constantly trying to impress them. He had been in the merry-go-round for quite a while with the girl when a second older girl arrived, maybe 6 years old. This girl also wanted to impress the bigger girl and insisted they go faster and faster and faster and then have a contest to see whether anyone could still walk "properly". Meanwhile, Girl #2's dad and I struck up a conversation, he wanted to know how we liked the neighbourhood and whether they should move here. During this conversation, Girl #2 decided it was time to get off and check everyone's walking ability...only she wasn't feeling so good after all that spinning and tossed her cookies next to the see-saw. I felt bad for her, all I had in the stroller were kleenexes and gummi bears. She and her dad left after that.

Rant

I am so mad. We were nearly sideswiped on a busy road in Calgary by a woman with long brown hair in a light grey BMW with a burned out front headlight last night. She was talking her cell phone. When I turned around to get a good look at her, she was picking at her mascara.

I don't know what I'm going to do, but I do know I'm going to do something. Write a letter to the Herald, look into petitions to abolish cell phone use while driving, SOMETHING. This has happened so often to us and people we know. Shame on Alberta for not treating this issue with more respect.

Halloween 2010

What a busy Sunday it was! We had a great birthday party for Chance on Sunday afternoon, he had a lot of friends come & I think everyone had a good time. We played Monster Bingo, Musical Chairs with Halloween music (Monster Mash, Thriller, Ghostbusters, etc.) and bashed in a pinata that Chance and I made over the course of the month of October. We had a Transformer cake (Omega Supreme -- very Eighties, thank you Retro Channel). We ordered pizza for supper and then went trick or treating with Chance, Karin got left behind with Gramma Jo and Grampa Phil. Next year she can go out with the big kids. We teamed up with some neighbours so Spiderman Chance was joined by Buzz Lightyear Landen and Delaney the Monkey. He came home an hour and a half later with 4 pounds of candy. 4 pounds!!!

Pumpkins were carved with a "superhero" theme this year: we had Spiderman, Batman and Ironman (everyone thought it was a Transformer).


We didn't get visited much though, and we were warned of this. Because we live on a busy street, families tend to stay within the centre of the neighbourhood. So we got 11 little "spooks" as my neighbour calls them. The last one was a little tiger that took home the remaining helium balloons from the party.

Everyone waiting for the cake to be cut.

Love this one - he looks happy.


"Mmmmmmm!!"

Chow Time.

Poor Blue Monster - he really got whacked around. Eventually we had to switch to a baseball bat because the play broom wasn't doing enough damage. He was done in by a 22 month old girl (Fred's daughter Pebbles).

Musical chairs. Optimus Prime won the game (the Kitty gave him a run for his money though).

Chance trying out my witch's claws.

The Haul.

Our pumpkins! We had so few visitors that we burned them in the living room -- we might as well enjoy them!!

All decked out for Trick or Treating! I painted his face so that his mask wouldn't get in the way, also I decked him out with reflective tape and bike lights that I got from a cycle shop.

Cowgirl Karin didn't really know what to make of all the action.