November

So a full month has come and gone...  And here it is in a quickish nutshell...  Snow came earlish to Manitoba this year, and it stayed.

Cara walks the girls to school in a wagon quite often.  She sometimes waits for me coming off the bus and then I get to see cuteness & take pictures.

Sometimes we have snowball fights.

We had a gorgeous day in late November which I used to hang the Christmas lights (and I bought a pile more from Canadian Tire on 2011 clearance!) while the girls played outside.

Teresa enjoys playing on the pile of snow by the strip mall near her school.

Warm & cute.

A noble dog & a fine looking house.  Teresa saw the candy canes on sale at Canadian Tire when I went to look for another inflatable (I was hoping for the Tigger that emerges from a Christmas Tree, but that was 2011).  We got the Eeyore instead.

Two girls playing outside...

Frances having fun at swimming lessons.  Teresa had lessons at the same time, sadly they showed that they both had Yost DNA and they both failed...

Hallowe'en in December

Well it's been a while again.  It seems to me that from now on life will demand that the blog be done in bursts and spurts, well at least until there is nothing of consequence to blog about ("Margaret went to grade 9 today and once again told me she hated the world.  The good news is she wore something grey today instead of black.  Frances is still in Nevada preparing for her jump from 150,000 feet, while Teresa seems to be doing OK at university as she told me "all's cool").  Sigh.

We had a great weekend this weekend.  Friday the girls went to Andrea's and Cara and I tried to catch up on sleep.  Saturday we went to the Sally Ann fundraiser "Santa Shuffle" that Andrea participates in annually at the Forks.  We had a nice lunch at the Original Pancake House (Giant Apple...  Yum.), then I took the two older girls around downtown where we completed our Christmas shopping for Cara, visited the library & went to Teresa's art classes.  We took the bus home and then went out to buy our Christmas tree (we only have 3 weeks left, so we may as well get it up!).  Sunday involved putting the tree up, going to WAG for an ornament making party that involved seeing Santa and unpacking advent stuff...  I really wanted to make a post for this but realized I haven't even posted Halloween pictures yet, so I will do a couple of "Catch-ups" before I post my wonderful weekend.

Hallowe'en it is:

Teresa & her pumpkin

Frances & her pumpkin.  And yes, as any responsible parent would do I made them strip down before they hacked into the pumpkins (OK, fine, it was really Cara & I).

Costumes before Boo at the Zoo.  Teresa decided she wanted to be a vampire one day when I was looking for ideas for my costume at Value Village and Frances wanted a reprise of her ultra-cute Curious George.

Cara & Maggie at the Zoo.

We went with Grace & Gabby, the girls were happy to have the company.

Cara and I getting in the mood for the Hobbit.

Enjoying the silly mirrors.

About to enjoy the rides at Boo at the Zoo.

The girls were not the only ones dressed up this year.

The Jack-o-Lanterns all lit up, Cara's is dead and lying on its back with "guts" spilling out of it.

Frances' design

  

Margaret's as designed by Teresa.

Teresa's.  This pumpin was seriously two feet high and too heavy for Teresa to lift.

Ready to go out.  We seriously stayed out from 6:00 until about 8:30.  Teresa kept wanting to plod on and Frances was unwilling to admit defeat until the last block of the walk home, where I carried her.  We made a half-way stop to drop off a load of candy and Margaret

Margaret enjoying some of the spoils.

Margaret Munching...

At dinner today, Cara saw me feeding Margaret and she had some food around the edges of her mouth, along with some food dropped along the way as is my norm.  In passing, she mentioned that Margaret would likely be cleaner if she fed itself, so I pushed the bowl of spaghetti and the fork in her direction and said "Game on!"

The cleaning crew shows up...

I think I won this round!

And, the pictured don't do justice to the spaghetti covered pants, shirt & chair that can't be seen in the photos!

Margaret is 1!

It is hard to believe, but today Margaret has officially turned one.  No longer an infant, now a toddler (though that realistically started sooner) she has been enriching our lives with her cuddles and craziness for a year now.  In honour of her first birthday we hosted a small gathering for her yesterday, with her Godmother, auntie and grandma Friesen in attendance, and we lavished her with food and gifts.  Cara spent the last month or so knitting her a blanket, so she received that.  Soon she will be out of her sleeping sack and sleeping with her blankie I suspect.

In the long time that has passed since we last posted (yes I know I said I would be better, but there was a summer, an ongoing renovation, and three wonderful kids that occupy almost every moment of our lives until we crash) but the milestones keep coming down.  Margaret got her first tooth about 3 weeks ago.  She started walking around the same time too...  Now she chases her sisters quicker than ever seemingly enjoying terrorizing them (not that they don't get their comeuppance).

Here are some pictures from her party Saturday.

Auntie Paula & her Goddaughter.  Uncle Andy looks amused by the shenanigans.

The cake.  Outside...

... and in

Margaret seems confused / concerned with the cake...

Cake?  Why would you torture me with this?

Mmmmm....  Ice cream!!!

  

Did I mention I like ice cream?

Oh yeah, that's a happy not-baby-aymore

Her sisters thoroughly enjoyed the food too.

Mmmmmm....

One happy kid.  She ate most of her cake, all of her ice cream (& some of mine) along with a full dinner.  This kid has a career path in competitive eating.

Is that a $600 camera grandma?  Don't worry, you can trust me with it.

And a one year retrospective... Yes, it is a little long but I made it for the party to run on the TV.

Back to Grand

As anyone who knows my family of Yosts, they should know we have an affinity for (as my father likes to refer to it) Plato's Ideal Beach, located in a secret place...  Oh what?  I mentioned Grand Beach before.  Darn it.  Well, knowing that I wouldn't be able to make it up to the lake for month due to other commitments, I cajoled Cara into skipping her nephew's birthday and coming out to Grand Beach the first weekend of June.  We shall return Friday (or Saturday depending on how long Jeff's move will take).

This was planned to be a quiet easy weekend of enjoying the water.  Sadly, as I pulled into the cottage I saw this:

Really?  Come on guys.  I do not want to have to saw down 5 trees and haul them to the corner.  Cuss! Host! Tabernacle! Ah well, so I took out the chain saw and got the trees down and segmented, and then promptly ran out of gas.  CUSS!!  A bit more work on Saturday and Sunday and we solved the problem, and I inherited a great deal of firewood.  Why of course the trees blocking our view can't magically fall over like this is beyond me...  After this and a mow of the lawn we had the rest of the slightly abbreviated weekend to ourselves to relax and enjoy the sand.

Teresa is now a rockstar.  Oh yes, and she looks darling here.  Her cute poses are much improved since Pearl's visit.  Hey!  Wait a second...

Yeah.  That's a lake... Oh wait, in the middle of that picture?  That's a bald eagle!  Another tick for the weekend, along with a ton of pelicans and some spawning carp by the rocks.

Another cute pose.  I could have sworn I cropped this in iPhoto.  Blast.

More lakeside shenanigans.

They love throwing rocks into the lake.  Only once or twice have they almost brained each other or Rowdy.

The girls brought out toys and a blanket for Margaret to play with.

Now that is some quality decoration (and odd posing).  Frances' most recent "smile" looks more like she is growling at the camera.  As auntie Jackie would say "natural poses everyone".

May Long Weekend 2012

May Long weekend is the official start to the beach season regardless of the weather as we can finally go to the cottage and not have to rely on hauled water and outhouses.  This season was a special as Auntie Pearl came to visit for a longer-than-a-long-weekend.  The girls loved having another person around to read stories, take pictures, watch their general insanity and (of course) play with them.  Auntie Pearl of course obliged.  I shall let the pictures tell the story.

Saturday was a rainy and miserable day (what else could you expect from May Long?), so I hauled the new BBQ & lawnmower into the house and assembled them.  This was smart, as I didn't lose a single dropped piece!  And yes, the girls played in midst of the construction.

Teresa took advantage of all the bubble wrap to design a new dress for herself.  I see a career in high fashion for her (sigh...)

Miserable weather?  What troopers.  The addition of umbrellas really helps the situation.

Why look at me, all cute and such, surrounded by toys and the modern day children's classic (full of existential themes), "But Not the Hippopotamus". 

Come on Pearl.  You know that this picture had to end up on the blog...

Maragret spent most of the weekend trying to pull herself up on this toy...

Story time with mommy...

Our first  walk to the rocks, and the girls got to see the smashing waves.  Teresa and Frances have both gotten good at doing it on their own, though Frances often choose to ask for help.

This must be one of Pearl's pictures...  The girls enjoy the shore, especially throwing rocks into the lake.  Stupidly, I have since slid on the rocks, while trying to deal with a tired & crying Frances and a pretty sure I broke my little toe...  Sigh.

That is one wet, somewhat majestic looking dog.  Why do I have a picture of a dog?

Sunday was thankfully substantially better for weather, and we settled close to an "island" for the afternoon.  The girls had a great time, getting ice cold at times...

... so we went to the red park to warm up ... 

... where Margaret came to meet us ...

... and had her first "swim" without complaining!

A lineup of cuteness.

Monday I had to mow, so the girls went for a walk with Cara and Pearl.  I can only imagine that this ended in tears.  Whose, I am not sure.

Frances walking Rowdy.

Playing at the park Monday morning.

And what would a visit to Winnipeg be without the Original Pancake House?