Why, hello there! Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas! Now that this endless fall semester is finally over and I’ve caught up on some sleep, I can actually put together a coherent blog update. We’re spending a week in Ontario for the holidays; we’ve been staying with my in-laws over Christmas, and on Wednesday we’ll be driving down to Guelph to spend a few days with my family. Charlie’s 8th birthday is on Dec. 30th – where does the time go?!
I’ve been collecting pictures from some of the more significant events over the last couple of months, so there follows a quick summary of our family activities this fall. Coming soon: holiday pictures! possibly videos! You’ll have to come back (soon!) for a more recent update.
October 21st was Elijah and William’s 5th birthday. It was a super crazy month, so we didn’t have a birthday party and I didn’t even make homemade cupcakes to send to daycare… instead, they each picked their favourite supermarket theme cake, and we had those combined into one super-amazing hideously bright Spiderman and Ironman sheet cake, seen here:
Eli got to keep the Spiderman figure, which said the (distorted) words “Happy birthday from your friendly neighbourhood Spiderman!” Will got Ironman, which said… nothing, but projected a faint glow out of its hand. Both boys were delighted with the cake and their toys, which was the main idea.
The boys’ birthday came at the end of a difficult time for the family, since my wonderful 91-year-old grandmother passed away quite suddenly, and I went over to London, England for her funeral. It was a very sad but bittersweet trip, and I was able to spend time with my bereft grandfather and the rest of my all-too-distant family in England, who gathered for the occasion. Here’s one of my favourite pictures of my grandma, taken during a visit to our old house in Prospect, Nova Scotia. She’s petting Elsie, our sweet old dog, in this picture. We miss you, Grandma!
After the boys’ birthday came Hallowe’en, and I once again caved to time pressure and let them wear (gasp!) store-bought costumes. Here’s William as Batman, Elijah as Spiderman, and Charlotte as Hermione Granger of Harry Potter fame:
Charlie sorting her loot after a successful evening of trick-or-treating:
Lots of other stuff happened this fall… the kids read through dozens of books (well, the boys looked through them, and Charlie actually read them). I’m working my way through Roald Dahl’s oeuvre for the boys’ bedtime stories: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr. Fox, James and the Giant Peach, The Twits, The BFG…they’re all good fun. Here are Eli and Will looking particularly angelic and identical in their matching pyjamas:
Here are Elijah and Charlotte rolling up their sleeves and helping to prepare some delicious pizza with Daddy:
In November, we took the kids down to Old Montreal (for the very first time), where Eric took this lovely family portrait of me with the kids:
We took them down to the Montreal Science Centre to see an exhibit with life-sized animatronic dinosaurs; very impressive, a little scary, but not very interactive. However, the kids had a wonderful time exploring the permanent exhibit on “A to Z Science”, which involved various kid-friendly activities to help them learn about different scientific principles. Here are Charlotte and William, playing with an exhibit that demonstrated different types of dams and waterwheels and their effects on hydroelectric power… although they were mainly interested in playing with the water:
Elijah creating a bubble big enough to contain his entire body:
Wishing you all a relaxing holiday and all the best for the new year!
life after twins? 