Christmas

 We had a very nice Christmas, but we didn’t take many pictures. These are the only three I took: 

Linden wearing two new dresses over her pajamas, while playing with her new magnetic dress-up set,

and Maren and Linden figuring out Maren’s new marble run. 

I got a few in the days leading up, including the kiddos playing a Rudolph memory game:

And fun with a failed gingerbread house:

The big news today though is that Jeff and I got our boosters, and Maren got her second dose:

Here’s hoping that next Christmas means travel and visiting. We miss you all ❤️

Pajama day

 Friday was the last day of school and daycare before Christmas break. Saturday we had a pajama day. 

We popped popcorn in the fireplace in the morning,

And danced our sillies out before bed:

We have made three kinds of cookies in the past two days. Jeff and I both have final exams to give in the next couple of days, but despite work not being done yet, we are in the holiday swing 🎄

Painting hat

 Today was our first sledding day of the season. It was sunny and bright, and warm but not so warm that the snow was melting (just below freezing). It was perfect sledding weather. 

 

Later in the afternoon we had hot chocolate with little pink minty marshmallows (Dandies brand, I highly recommend), and it was deliciously wintery and festive. 

And I have to share this picture of Linden. She insisted that she needed to wear this cat-eared toque to paint, because it was her “painting hat.” ❤️

Christmas begins

 

The tree is up. We have started our Christmas countdown. We are definitely not ready yet, but Christmas is coming!

Vaccinated

 Maren got first shot yesterday:

We are happy :-) We will be even happier when she gets her second shot and when Linden can get vaccinated too. 

This has been a weekend playing, starting to think about Christmas, and celebrating American Thanksgiving. 

Linden has also been sick. Yesterday and this morning she even had a fever. Two negative Covid tests, but still a sick toddler and that is no fun. She seems like she is much better this afternoon and evening though!

Hugs ❤️

 

Nope.

 The other day I asked Linden to get dressed and this was her response:

Also, I took some photos of our pumpkins after Halloween:

The one on the left Maren carved all by herself!

Happy Halloween 🎃

We had about 250 trick-or-treaters that started showing up at 4:30 PM. We were busy busy busy, especially with two little trick-or-treaters of our own. This was the only picture that we got this year:

And here are a few from carving pumpkins:

Earlier this week it was also Jeff‘s birthday, and we made an awesome cake. Vanilla with milk chocolate buttercream frosting  (vegan of course).

Definitely no shortage of treats around here :-)

Cookies

We had some spooky cookie fun this weekend:

 

Halloween is just around the corner!

Pumpkin pie

 Today we celebrated Thanksgiving. Americans reading this may recall that in Canada Thanksgiving is a Monday in early/mid October, not a Thursday in late November. And it is acceptable to have your Thanksgiving meal earlier in the long weekend, say on Sunday, like we did. We had a pretty traditional dinner of stuffing, cranberry sauce, mushroom gravy, roasted carrots, mashed potatoes, and soy curls (in place of turkey). Then for dessert pumpkin pie, whipped cream, and homemade ice cream. Everything vegan, everything delicious. 

Happy Thanksgiving from us to you!

Fall

 Now that it is October, it is definitely fall here. The mornings are chilly, but the afternoons have been quite warm. We still have a couple of hot days to look forward to this week (29C/84F), but things cool off to highs as low as 14C/57F soon after that. 

Yesterday we had a lovely fall day, raking leaves in the morning, and eating apple pie in the afternoon.

One of our colleagues has both a one-year-old and an apple tree. We gave her a rocking horse that our kids have outgrown, she gave us a big bag of apples, and yesterday we made a pie. It’s a little hard to tell from the picture, but we could have put about twice as many apples in. We had the apples, but Jeff’s hands were cold from chopping (the apples had been in the refrigerator) and I was impatient so we ended up with a half-full pie. It was delicious though 😊

Work has been busy, neither kid has been sleeping well, and we are pretty exhausted, but we are enjoying life reasonably well anyway. 

Six!

 Today Maren turned six years old.

We had a small party for her. Four of her friends from school were supposed to come and because of a miscommunication we ended up having only three. It was a lot of cake for such a small number of people, but it was definitely a fun time.

It was beautiful weather today, so we were able to have our party outside. It is hard for me to believe that my baby is six years old!

Busy and tired

 I am busy and tired. So today you get a few cute photos 😊❤️

Giraffe Daddy

 Maren is really starting to get creative with her drawings. 

A self-portrait from today:

And an absolutely amazing picture from about a week ago called “Giraffe Daddy”:

It’s my new contact photo for Jeff on my phone, so I see it every time he calls 😄

Firsts

My mom was able to visit for the first time in two years. The last time we saw her was when we were in Oregon in January 2020. Linden was still a baby then and Maren was still a preschooler. My mom was only able to come visit for about a week, but it was so so great for all of us to see her. 

The day that she left (Wednesday) was Maren‘s first day of first grade and Linden‘s first day of day care. After three days of daycare Linden has her first daycare cold, and as of this afternoon has had her first Covid test. 

Jeff and I just finished the first week of fall semester. I am sick with a weird ear thing - my ear is not infected, but there is fluid buildup that isn’t improving and now I have a semi-urgent ENT referral. 

With all this going on we are pretty exhausted. Here’s hoping for the second and third weeks to settle down 🤞🏼