Getting ready for Christmas - Part 2

There never seems to be enough time to get things ready for Christmas but we did manage to tick off a few things on our list such as making a Gingerbread train.
We had a train left over from last year so we decided that we would tackle making it one evening. Well it wasn't so bad except that i don't think everyone was really committed to building it and the icing was not cooperating very well. Daddy decided that it needed to be runnier so he added some water but then it was too runny so mummy added some more icing sugar. Me, well all I really wanted to do was eat the candy! After some grunting and some veiled threats that we wouldn't do this train next year we (meaning mummy) finally finished it.




We also fit in a little skating party and my cousins even came along with mummy, daddy and me. I needed to teach my cousin Craig how to stop so i thought a little game of tag would be the best teaching method. Not sure if he ever did manage to stop but it was fun anyway. Mummy had to teach Meagen how to skate too but I'm not sure if her method of "helping" is endorsed by Skate Canada! Tessa already knew how to skate cause mummy taught her when she was little so she helped hide stickers.


Daddy also felt the need to show his skating skills but he ain't no Kurt Browning, maybe more like a Toller Cranston wannabe!

Christmas sure does involve lots of fun things to do

Slide and crash and burn...

Last Tuesday, Mommy had an awesome idea. There was fresh snow on the ground and it was our first chance to go tobogganing down our favourite spot, the driveway. Our driveway is a cool curvy hill that ends down by our bridge... that's where the trouble all started.

Everything was fun while Mommy and me cruised the driveway together in one of our sleds but then I had a thought: What if I rode solo??

Well, after some consideration, Mommy decided I could try sledding by myself, with some precautions. So, we went halfway down the driveway so I wouldn't zoom so fast, then she put me on the little slippery surfboardy sled with the handles. I grabbed on for dear life and off I went.

It was sooooo cool zipping down the bottom part of the driveway all by myself but just when I thought I'd be stopping, the sled had another idea.

At the end of the flat bottom section, beside the bridge, there's a steep embankment about 20 feet long that drops down to our creek. My sled, and Newton's laws of physics (which Daddy promises to explain to me someday), decided I should explore the embankment that day. So, over I went, dropping from Mommy's sight. Later, she'd say it made her feel nauseous... I think that means happy. Lucky for me, my sudden highspeed acceleratation was cut short by some soft friendly branches, rocks and blackberry bushes before I made it to the icy creek. Boy was I lucky!

Mommy called Daddy to tell him the exciting news and we all met at the Emergency Room to celebrate. A nice doctor wrapped me up in a blanket and gave me three presents he called 'stitches'. It seemed nice enough until he said he was taking them back in a week. That made me cry! Daddy said we could go out for lunch to celebrate some more and I had a chocolate milkshake; nothing else... but Mommy and Daddy didn't seem to mind.

The next morning, my left eye decided to sleep in and he didn't open very much that day. He musta been tired. Daddy said I looked like Rocky after some guy named Mr. T smacked him silly. Anyway, I still think tobogganing's fun and I can't wait till next time. I hope we get to celebrate again. Mommy says we'll try a different hill.

Tree, tree oh glorious Christmas Tree

We went and picked out our Christmas tree a few weeks back and our excurison had a few bumps involved such as trying to find a phone battery, having lunch and having a dead car battery. When we finally did get going again we had a nice drive up to the tree farm and eventually picked out the best tree there.
I got to help chop it down and help push it over and then we got to take it home and decorate it all up.
We decided to move the tree this year since we are having family over for Christmas dinner and so now it stands nice and tall in a special spot. After daddy got it all centered in the stand we got to put up the decorations which is my favourite thing to do. .
Mummy told me I had to be careful and i really was cause I didn't break one ornament (I did unfortunately erase my message from last year on my 2008 ornament which made mummy sad) I'm getting really good at putting up the ornaments but not so good at spreading them around, I like to put them all together so that they have friends.
I also like to put them really close to the bottom of the tree so the cats have something to play withSo now we are all ready for Christmas and mummy has even put tempting presents under the tree but since i helped with the wrapping I know that none of them are for me. So hurry Christmas, cause I've been a good boy!

Getting ready for Christmas

So mummy tells me that Christmas is just around the corner and i have been getting very excited. So excited that mummy had to buy me a advent calendar cause I just wasn't understanding how many 30 days was and i was getting a little peeved that it wasn't Christmas yet (note to parents... don't tell them about it till the night before).
One of the traditions that was started when I was a baby was having my picture taken with Santa Claus. I have never cried when I have seen him but some years I have been a bit leary of the old guy cause well I only ever get to see him once a year. But this year was different, I went up and sat right down and told him that I would like trains for Christmas and that I have been very good (I had to check with mummy on that though). Now mummy and daddy have a very nice picture of me this year and I'm actually smiling.
Another thing that we try to do is write a letter to Santa and since I'm not that great at printing, we have emailed Santa a letter and guess what? he wrote back and told me that I have been a good boy and that he knows that I want a train and that he had to finish making all the toys so that he could deliver them on Christmas eve. Oh I can't wait!

Yesterday, we went to my Auntie Kim's place to make a whole bunch of Christmas cookies and I got to help. I helped roll out the gingerbread, sugar cookies and shortbread, put my thumb in the thumb cookies, ate raw cookie dough, licked icing off my fingers when they got too close to the cookie, piped on some icing onto the gingerbread men, dumped a whole bunch of m&m's on the gingerbread and then ate 3 cookies and a wack of candies.

Boy that was fun and now I really can't wait for Christmas and all the cookies to come out.

Tricks for Treating

Otherwise known as racing your friends to the houses for candy!

So last week was Halloween and it was a very exciting time. On Friday we carved our 4 little pumpkins and 1 bigger pumpkin that we grew in the garden. Mummy was surprised that i didn't want to stick my hands into the pumpkin and pull out the guts since i really like getting muddy outside. I really just wanted to cut the pumpkins but am still not old enough for that job yet so instead I just made pictures on the pumpkins for mummy and daddy to carve.
Then the big day arrived on Saturday with us going to a party at our friends house where there were lots of new toys to explore and scary foods to taste (scary in a good way).

Then it finally got dark enough for us all to don our costumes and traipse around the neighbourhood in search of the best candies. We saw some really neat houses all decorated up to scare and lots of pumpkins.

When we finished, mummy, daddy and I went to visit my cousins, and my grandparents so that i could show them my costume and so i could pick up the special treats from them. I really like Halloween and have already told mummy that I want to be a dog for next year.

When there are leaves you gotta play!

I have been bugging mummy for the last week to let me go out and rake up the leaves to play in but it has been way too wet till yesterday. So with it being dry yesterday it was the perfect opportunity to have a playdate with the leaves.
Mummy and I raked them into a big pile and I buried myself in them and then my Auntie Kim and Uncle Frank arrived and guess what? They couldn't find me till I jumped out and scared them!
Hopefully we will get more leaves and more nice weather and I can make an even bigger pile to play in. I like Fall.

Willow Farms and Pumpkins

So we discovered a new place to visit thanks to our friends and this place is really fun. It has everything a kid would like (well except it's missing a sand box). It has slides, swings, forts, animals to see and feed and lots and lots of pumpkins to run thru and pick out the best ones.
Last week we took our second trip to Willow farms and met up with quite a few of our friends. As usual it was a challenge to get all of the mummys to cooperate and face the camera to get the best picture. When it was our turn we showed them how the pros do it and ta da..... here we are! (minus Charlie who was being camera shy)

I managed to find the perfect pumpkin and mummy has told me it may be a challenge to carve. We picked out one for Grandma & Grampa too so maybe I'll go and carve theirs for them too.

Before the rain we had sun & we had Whiterock

Sofore Fall officially kicked in to the weather that we all know we had a few nice days of sunshine and one last trip to the beach. Except this was no lake beach, it was the ocean or more precisely, Whiterock.
We met up with our friends Rebecca, Olivia, Damien and Avery and we brought along our friend Kelly. We spent the morning looking along the sand (okay not so much sand but seaweed) for some whole shells. There wasn't much to look at cause the tide was still in, but we did see lots of crab shells.
We didn't do any swimming except for Kelly who was brave enough to venture into the stinky, salty water in hopes of finding a special shell.

After we had a little picnic we took a stroll or more like a run along the pier. But of course just running isn't all that fun so we added some spying! I told mummy that there were fish under the pier and she looked and said oh yes there certainly were. So Olivia, Damien and I had to look every few feet to see if there were more fish. You know what? There were tons of little fishies swimming by the posts trying to stay away from the bigger fish and the seagulls. Well then mummy really looked and said wow there actually were fish and I wasn't just seeing reflections in the water. Silly mummy!

Well as you all know running can be exhausting but we managed to run all the way back down the pier and then we got to have a gelato across the street as our reward for exhausting our mums.

It was a really nice day but I have a warning for all my buddies. When you tell your Nonna that the shells that you brought home are clean and can be put in your fish tank for Robbie the fish to play with, make sure she hears your mum say that they are just rinsed and not actually clean. RIP Robbie!

First day of Fall

So yesterday was the first day of Fall and it was also mummy's birthday. She tried to convince me to sing Happy birthday to her but by the end of the night i managed to sing only the "Happy birthday to you" part. I am much better with making up my own versions of songs and singing them.
With summer being over it also brings the start of new activities to do throughout the year. It started off with school starting again. We are going back to Little Mtn. Strongstart and are hoping to be able to go 2 days a week cause on Mondays we get to go to the Library and Wednesdays are gym time. When I showed up at school the first day there were a few new things but mostly there was a brand new computer there just for kids to use. I haven't taken the time to try it out yet cause of course there are the toys to become reaquainted with (I think they missed me).
I also started my swimming lessons again but this time with a new instructor - a girl! I like her but mummy says the jury is still out on how well she teaches. Mummy says that she is not teaching me anything new and she is afraid that she is making it too easy and that I need to be challenged or at least worn out.
then on Thursday evenings I get to skate again with mummy and all the other little kids that get lessons from her. Last week was the first class and I had fun showing off my talent to all the other boys and girls who seemed to like just sitting on the ice or in chairs. I tried to convince them that skating was fun but I don't think they were that interested.
Of course now that it's Fall it also means that mummy is gone in the evenings teaching skating and I get to spend time again at my grandparents houses. there are even changes happening at their houses. My Nonna got a new puppy named Sascha and she really likes me and my messy face. I have been helping Nonna train her puppy by showing her how to sit in the chair for pictures.
At Grandma and Grandpa's house i got new sand in my sand box and more new toys to play with outside. Now I can entertain myself for hours diggin and burying. We also have 2 girls and their dog visiting my grandparents so I am trying to make friends with them and see if they like to play in the sand too.
So I have my days and nights full of lots of fun things to do and we haven't even started the really fun chores at homes such as house painting, shed building, tree planting, garden digging, burning more blackberry bushes and cleaning up the creek beds. Sounds like the fun is just beginning!

August activities

Wow the summer has just flown by and now it is the first day of Fall. So where did it go and what did I do you ask? This is how the last half of summer went.
Well you already know we went to Prince George to visit my uncle and that was fun but it was a very long drive.
Then because mummy said last year that she wants to camp more we had our 2nd camping trip of the summer. This time we went to Ross Lake just up from Hope and we had lots of people camp with us.. Not only did my aunts, uncle and cousins come, but our friends Kelly, Rebecca and their kids and another friend of my aunts with her 3 kids.
We even had my cousin Meagens birthday up there complete with a cake baked in a box oven. the only real downer to this trip was the fact we couldn't have a campfire and we really could have used one cause boy were there lots of mosquitos. We still had fun though cause we got to go canoeing


play at the park, have smores and run thru the woods making lots of noise


The rest of the summer was spent at home doing stuff at home (planting trees,re-decking the bridge, picking veggies or playing on the playground) or hanging out with friends and family.

Now it's time for all the fun Fall activities to start

visiting Uncle Dave

So mummy has a brother that we don't get to see much cause he lives in Prince George and works on the railway. So we all decided to make a family trip to visit him and share some fun. I must say that it was a very long car trip up but luckily mummy was very prepared as she bought a DVD player and brought along some movies for me to watch and i got to sit in the backseat of my aunts truck with my cousins who are always entertaining.

Now the start of our trip didn't head out too smoothly with the backpack falling out of the back of the truck onto the off ramp of the highway but luckily we noticed it and mummy ran back to get it before it was squished. Then we made quite a few stops to tighten the tarp cause Auntie Leasa was worried we were going to lose more luggage. After a few more stops for food, dog breaks and gas we rolled into Prince George just after midnight and very tired. Of course you couldn't guess that from the way that Meagen and I acted when we got there. Mummy said it was like a sugar high gone bad! Anway we had a nice visit, we had a big slumber party sleeping on our air mattresses went shopping, went to the train museum

went swimming and best of all had a birthday cake.

I like my uncle Dave and I'm sure i impressed him with my endless amounts of energy (okay some of it was negative energy but hey whats a few outbursts between family).

Auntie Leasa says we need to make another trip up there for Thanksgiving, maybe this time daddy can some along.