Friday, November 25, 2011

Manitoba Children's Museum

One of the joys of being all smartphoned up is the joy of endlessly being inundated with information. Yes this is a curse, but it can also be a joy as Cara now sends me regular photographic evidence of her and the girls enjoying their days together. Recently they were at the newly renovated Manitoba Children's Museum and they had a hoot...

Here's what I was sent...


That is one crazy & psychedelic slide...

Margaret napped the entire time.

Playing at the water table.

Using their mess less finger painting table.



And it emails you the resulting modern art.

Apparently Margaret will wake up for trains.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

My Chubby Little Cherub

There's not much to say other than to enjoy the chubby cuteness.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Catching Up...

Maraget is over two months now, and man is she ever getting chunky.  Cara will soon be taking the two mont pictures and will be making up some sort of post I am sure.

Teresa is loving kindergarten, although we need to get her tested for her hearing and eyesight (eyes passed today).  Also, we are learning about the insanity of government trying to micro-manage our lives as Teresa was not allowed to bring any Hallowe'en candy as part of a snack, and we just got in trouble for sending a fruit snack (fruit gummy things) as they aren't healthy enough.  Thanks, but I'm the parent, so butt out.  Lastly we have dealt with our first head lice scare and Teresa has been bringing home all sort of exciting illnesses...  The girls have both had the stomach flu in the past few weeks and one other horrible sickness that required us getting up at all hours of the night.  Last Sunday night at 3 am (Monday morning I guess), I got up and tried to run to get Teresa to the washroom on time and ended up kicking the bed in the darkness.  I have been limping since and I am pretty sure my middle toe is broken, of course I am ot sure because I spent time in an emergency waiting room (over 3 hours) during which time not even the people brought in by ambulance on stretcher had been admitted.  I gave up.

As for me, I'm still crazy busy with football, as we won the championship.  When you win you have more stuff to deal with after.  Losing is easier, though less fun...  After we won, we went out to Thief River Falls and enjoyed their water park for Ray & Myrna's 35th anniversary.  I have no pictures, as I was having too much fun getting wet with the girls.  I also learned that the CBSA at Tolstoi are a little more into their job than those at Emerson, no big deal, but to make a long story short I learned that  #1: Even if you have Andrea in your car, you can't use her booze limit as she is not "family" and #2: Tobacco limits are not actually duty free, you can only get tobacco as part of your limit if it has a "Canada Duty Paid" stamp on it (buying for a coworker, don't worry mom), which begs the question what the hell is the point of the tobacco exemption?

Um yeah, so here are some pictures, and some videos I have taken of the girls lately.

 
Teresa's Play-Doh version of Rapunzel

Frances & I watching skating.

I love it when Margaret falls asleep in my arms...

More of the same sort of cuteness.  I think Cara texted this to me at work...

Pics from the family photo session

Frances looking much too old

Same thing for Teresa.

Now for some videos:

Frances running like a crazy girl at skating.

   
Teresa skating a month ago.

   
Teresa skating two weeks ago

   
Teresa turning around a cone.

   
Teresa & Frances spin dancing.

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Halloween 2011

Well it has come and gone. Another sugar surge through our systems. All Hallows Eve. It was a good year, with 100% more child interest (stoked by Teresa's incessant commentary on the impending awesomeness) and an all time record for time spent trick or treating.

The day began with Teresa having a school party and Frances being dropped off at Grant Park to round out my costume. The family came for lunch (and admiration of students) and then the coup de grace. The actual act of trick or treating.

For those not in Winnipeg, it was ~11C out last night, which was awesome. Teresa went out as a witch (though went to school as a princess) and Frances and I reprised Curious George and The Man in the Yellow Hat (hence why she came to GP). I was thoroughly amused when our trick or treating that someone said to their child "we saw them at Boo at the Zoo". Apparently it's a good costume that people like.

We stayed out for over an hour, and filled a shopping bag each (not as impressive as when I was a kid as we had no bulky chips to fill it up... That said Cara and are trying to figure out the best way to portion out the crazy amount of candy. Teresa got cold first and wanted to stop, which allowed me to reinforce rule #1 of trick or treating: No skipping houses, even on the way back. Rule #2 is that walking across lawns is fine, not through flower beds... I had great fun too, as watching the kids sprint up for candy and Frances grab candy from the bins, fishing for suckers and attacking for more... Good times...

The monkey & I at school.

Frances' first pumpkin...  Cara carved it

The girls and their pumpkins...  And yes, dad, that is Teresa's design on Frances' pumpkin.



The girls and the Jack O' Lanterns.  Mine's the snowman in the bottom left.

Out and about acquiring the precious candy

The pumpkins in the darkness

The post Hallowe'en Mayhem