Six - The aftermath

Abi enjoyed a wonderful weekend of celebrations. Friday she celebrated her birthday with her classmates at school. Sunday she celebrated with friends (mostly classmates) in the afternoon and family for dinner.  It was all very exciting and exhausting (for the parents - us).  You've already seen her "six years old" photo.  Here are a few of the celebrations:

First Cake

Second cake (with family; made by Corey)

Reading each card; most were handmade by her friends

Plenty of gifts

More gifts after dinner

Crafts with the kids - melted bead suncatchers. These are Robin's and Abi's

Build a snowman (blindfolded) with the kids

6 against one

Roar!

Now a keyboard is taking over my corner in the living room. Guess I have to move into the tea room more fully.

Great piles of snow! Neighbour wanted a picture.

A gift from Spring.

Abi is delighted that the snow is finally ready for making snow people! An entire winter with great piles of snow that we could do nothing with except move it out of the way (and curse at it).  I  hear there's going to be an entire village of snow people out there. We may need more carrots.

Six

Six. Today.

Five. Saw Disney on Ice with her daddy (on her birthday as a surprise) and

 went glow bowling with her friends.

Four. At Steckle Farm in KW. Note the absence of snow.

 Three. Big party fun.

Two. Brunch with friends.

One. Big party with family and friends in Ontario.  Fairy themed.

 Birth day. First photo.

Newborn cuddles with momma

 Joy of the Father.

Birthday on the Farm

We celebrated Abi's birthday with her friends at Steckle Heritage Farm.  It was a gorgeous day and the kids had a great time seeing the animals, playing games with an event coordinator (ie, we didn't have to do anything except serve cake, etc) and making a grass-head craft.
Abi was delighted to have her friends around.  Sadly, it's probably the last time she'll see many of them.

cute miniature horses

young cows. there were plenty more animals too - rabbits and chickens and sheep, etc

Crafting with her BFF (from daycare, who she never sees, but they both talk of the other frequently)

Abi's chosen party snacks - apple slices and strawberries.

Abi and I made this. Guess who put the sprinkles on.

Did I mention it was a beautiful day?  Most days around here have been grey, or raining, or snowing, or just snow on the ground. 
It was a great venue for a party.  We already knew it was a great wedding venue from a friend's wedding this past September.

Old and New

Abi is 4 years old today. Where do the years go? She was disappointed to learn the part (with cake, friends, etc) is not today - despite having been warned of this for weeks.  In her mind birthday = party. And cake. We've got a party planned on Sunday instead at Steckle Heritage Farm with her friends. And cake.

This morning found me digging through old cards and letters as part of moving preparations.  I've decided it's time to get rid of those shoe-boxes full of cards and letters. I had quite a few pen pals from moving as a kid. Plus I kept a few of my school notes and such. That's one box. The other boxes are, literally, every birthday and holiday and valentine and graduation and wedding and farewell... well you get the idea. A lot of cards.  There's a few other items like old awards, etc.

It's a strange juxtaposition to be celebrating my 4 year-old's birthday (so young, and a whole new chapter of my life - as mommy) and looking back at my younger years and relationships.  It's time to declutter... I really don't need those old letters and cards any more.  Another project, for another day, will be to go through the album upon album upon albums of photos (I was diligent in placing my pictures in albums) and slim my collection down to 'memories' in a few books.  I really don't need every party picture, every concert pic, every zoo and animal picture, every flower arrangement...

This is why I like digital pictures and scrapbooks now.  I can take the bazillion pics, and just preserve a few in a book. My scrapbooks are more pictures than fancy-add-ins, but they tell a story of our life. Well, mostly of Abi's life right now.  But there is the scrapbook of our wedding stuff, the one I made of Robin's mom's life, my trip to Germany, etc.  One day I'll probably make an "anniversary" book for Robin and I.  Abi's books already include a lot of family pictures because I want her to be able to remember family and friends when we are not close to see them.

Abi-licious

Just some recent (yesterday) Abi stuff. Because.

Abi and her BFF George - wearing his new "bling" made by Abi. Poor George... he was a pretty good sport about it.

She was full of dancing-energy - as she often is.  Video follows.

That is all for today. Back to packing while Robin bakes a Sugar Pie for tonight's potluck.

Santa santa santa

We attended a second Santa Claus parade this past weekend.  Alas, it was a rainy, rainy evening. Only a fraction of the scheduled floats made an appearance and a few townsfolk.  But Abi and her friend had fun. We parents enjoyed it too, but not nearly as much as the kids who didn't seem phased by the downpour of rain.  A benefit of the shortened parade is that we didn't have to be out for too long.
Luckily, Robin had also prepared a couple thermoses of hot chocolate and a fresh mini batch of cookies.
We've taken to baking mini batches of cookies lately in the toaster oven.  It's great - fresh cookies whenever we want.  It started with some store-bought dough, on a whim.  Now we make our own cookie dough.  AH, the joys of having a toaster oven again.  We hadn't planned on getting a new one (the old one died not long after moving to this house), but there was a great sale and our region recently switched to time of use rates for power.  In the Winter, that means peak costs are during the dinner-making hours and breakfast. (7-1100h and 1700-1900h.)  A toaster oven saves a lot of energy!  It's great for the basics like toast, or baking up some perogies, a small batch of fresh-from-the-oven cookies, little quiches...

Oh, but I was typing about Santa.
So today Abi and I ventured out to the mall at the far end of town.  She was excited to see Santa.  She dressed herself up in a nice dress.  We trimmed her bangs.  We popped into Zellers on the way to see Santa so she could have nice white tights (rather than the argyle pattern - since all of her current hand-me-down tights have bright designs) for the photo.  She spotted Santa as we made our way to the ladies room to change and she was eager to see him.  She loved the fairy garden surrounding Santa.
And then I was entering our information so Santa's elves could email our (thankfully) free photo to us and she decides she doesn't want her picture taken with Santa.  I sat with her (unprepared for a photo myself!), but still she refused to even look up or smile.  The kind elves did their best.  And luckily there was no lineup before or after us at that hour.
This was the best of the bunch.

Happy Holidays.

Pete Bear

This is Pete Bear - aka Baby Pete.
This is Abi's favourite toy.  And I have no idea why.  I bought "Pete" (then Ian...) when I was a teen, at a garage sale, for 25c.
I thought he was cute and classic looking.
I made him this bonnet. It was one of my first crochet projects. I made it up as I went.

It's shaped perfectly to fit Pete.
Pete is old. He was old when I got him. He's older yet.
Now, when Abi was born I made her this sweet little bear with dreams that it would be her favourite teddy.

This is Miss Kaylee Koigu. (Kaylee from Firefly; Koigu from the expensive yarn used.) It was also one of my early knitting projects - when I first learned about LYSs.
Later I knit this doll. Her name is now Sophie (after a friend made at the airport).

For a while this was her favourite. But Sophie does need her arms fixed. And somehow Pete interceded.

Why the name "Pete"? Good question.
The first Pete toy was this Groovy Girl.  It was the first of her toys to receive a name.  Most of her toys don't have one. Dolls are "girls" - and NOT "baby".  If someone asks about her "baby" she'll look at them like they must be crazy because clearly the doll isn't a baby. She'll then correct them that it's a girl. And doesn't have a name.

One day as we were driving to daycare, with this doll which was a temporary favourite, I asked (cheekily...) if the doll had a name yet.  Much to my amazement, she came back with a name. Pete.  I laughed.  She didn't understand why I thought it funny.  I figured she'd forget. But no, the name stuck. Pete was the name of her daycare provider's husband.  I knew they would find it hilarious.

Her daycare provider had also given her this baby doll, which was another temporary favourite.

It doesn't have a name.
But none of these toys were ever long-term. She was always fickle with her favourites. Until Pete Bear.
I laughed when she named the bear Pete. Once again, she was not impressed that I should find his name funny.  It's his name after all!  Of course, what I found funny was that she would name a second toy Pete.  She's tried naming even more toys Pete, but I've explained how confusing that will become.

That's the story of Pete Bear.

Halloween

once again, Abi delighted in Halloween. The costumes, the treats, the running door to door (to door to door...), the jack o'lanterns, the decorations, the scary monsters. Yes, she adores the scariest houses.

She also enjoyed designing her own jack o'lantern. She even carved some of the eyes.  (The next day she added the tattoo.)

She really wanted to pose with her pumpkin - for many pictures.

As for dressing up, she chose to be a pirate. Pretty cute pirate. Cheeky too.

Hope everyone had a fun, safe and a little-bit-scary Halloween.