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.

Teresa's First Lost Tooth!

I had mentioned on Facebook about a week ago that Teresa had a loose tooth and we kept track of it until today at church Cara noticed that a tooth was coming out underneath it.  As such Cara got out the gauze and tore it from her gums.  The tooth fairy (which she doesn't believe in due to some stupid Arthur book!) shall not visit our house tonight as she wishes to show it to her best friend Grace.  As I type Cara informs me that Teresa is ridiculous as she is practicing saying words to make sure she can still enunciate properly...

For those keeping score at home and involved in the numerous pools, the first tooth out was the lower right central incisor.

Yup, that's a tooth.

And a hole in toothline

1 down, 23 to go.

Teresa Climbing

Much to my surprise in one of our late September jaunts into the park Teresa showed great interest in climbing the big pine tree, and climb she did!  I was stunned how high she made it...

Just playing around...

The ascent

Look up, way up!

Right up there now, at her highest point.

My little climber!

Teresa's Birthday!

Wow, how time flies. A month ago now was Teresa's birthday and I never got around to putting up pictures of the event. We had a small gathering with family during the week and a birthday party with a few school friends on the weekend with Sarah coming in for a visit.

While the gatherings were small, Teresa thoroughly enjoyed her party and Sarah's visit. Teresa got from us some art lessons at the WAG which she has begun, a bottle rocket launcher from auntie (which is currently under repair!) and she received a crayon maker with her great-grandparent's money.

All the girls playing dress-up

Craft time!  They got to make their own leis.

Margaret decided to play on her own.

Grilled cheese & a tea party!

Gift time!

A true Yost picture.  Sarah caught mid-flash!

Opening...

More gifts...

TINKERBELL BARBIE!!!!!!

Hello cutie pie!

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!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all!  Off to my third gorge of the weekend, and figured I would show off the girls' handiwork from school.

Teresa's card from school

And the inside...

Some of Frances' fine work from pre-school.

Shutting it Down 2012

Well, it had to happen a little earlier than I would have liked due to Teresa's birthday party, an early Thanksgiving and Cara's allergies.  This is the first time I can recall not being out at the cottage for a single day in October due to the early long weekend, but in a way I feel fortunate that I did not wait until this weekend to shut the cottage down as we are presently having a mini-blizzard here in Winnipeg.

Shutting the cottage down is my least favourite day of the year and likely is Cara's too, albeit for substantially different reasons.  This year though Cara didn't want to come up as the cottage has been setting her allergies off horribly and with so many other things were going on during the September weekends I only got to go out for a day but I got to bring out the two older girls and Rowdy.  Everything went off without a hitch, and I even did a bit of plumbing without too much swearing!  The four hours I got to spend on the front beach with the girls and Rowdy was wonderful, but as always a certain melancholy remained...

Regardless, here are some of the highlights of the day...

Frances is channelling her inner Auntie Pearl me think...

Teresa drawing a wonderful picture of a lady made of shapes...

Teresa had to suddenly go to the washroom, and the closest one was already shut down for the season. Thusly, we meandered to the new washroom all the while Frances insisted on butt scootching her way down the "sand hills" of the boardwalk.

Teresa discovered a bone from the Lake Winnipeg Monster!!!

Cara and I listened to the girls when they insisted that they would not swim.  Ooops.

And Frances follows suit

Playing on an island.  Rowdy had a heck of a day, as he got swim and chase a ball for over four hours.

One last sunset.  No bugs for this one!

A last view of the cottage with the moon overhead.  This is likely the last time I will need to poly the front door come fall...  Sigh...