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.