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.

Snow Day - not today

We did get a wee bit of snow after Christmas. Just enough to go tobogganing.
(click to embiggen)

I stayed at the bottom of the windy hill while Abi and Robin made several trips up and down.  After Robin realized (silly Robin) that he was a wee bit too big for the toboggan, he would follow Abi down.  Correction, first he tried to stay ahead of Abi, and ended up causing her to crash into him a couple times before he realized that he was causing more harm than good.  I was simply laughing and shaking my head below.  In the last photo she ended up in the grass - the perfect stop if you ask me.  As for there being other people walking up the slope that Robin thought to 'protect' by running ahead - I'm sorry, but you have to expect this on a tobogganing hill. Half the people there kept walking up the middle of the slope anyhow! Sheesh.  There sure are a lot of foolish families.

Is Winter finally arriving???

Flurries outside the window tease us with the prospect of winter.
We've had a very warm season in southern Ontario this year. We've been without snow since December. It was a very green Yule. Many of my indoor flowers are flowering - even the geraniums I brought in from the garden. The parsley was still green and I cut some to dry yesterday - just in time! I never expected to be harvesting herbs in January! lol But the parsley just kept growing through the winter. I would have cut some earlier, but I had nowhere to dry herbs during renovations.
It doesn't look like the snow is here to stay yet. It should warm to above zero again for a few days, but perhaps we'll have a blanket of snow in a week (looking at weather forecasts). I'm sure Mother Earth would appreciate a blanket of snow so she can rest.
Maybe we'll have snow just in time for the neighbour to take down their inflatable snowmen which have been sitting on the green lawn forever.

Monkey was spayed today and I pick her up tomorrow. I called and she is doing well - not that I expected worse. I was a little concerned because the vet office (not my usual vet) tried to recommend additional proceudres such as blood testing and fluid checks - which would cost an extra $110 or so. I declined, never having used such procedures before (or heard of them). They also require post-surgery medication, which I've also never seen required before. Unfortunately, I can't decline the meds, but they're only $15. Still... seems odd to me that I've never encountered this before with several cats and several vets. I'll be asking my cousin and sil about this next time I see them.

Ooops, time to pick up Robin from work!