Learning to Skate

I found some skates to buy for the kids we took them over to the outdoor rink to learn to skate. They had gone last year (at Mont Tremblant) and really liked it. Their progress last year hadn't stuck though. 

Even though it was pretty chilly, it turned out to be a good time to go. No one else was there and Jason was in his steel toe shoes so he was able to walk them around on the ice without their blades doing a number on his toes. They didn't last too long before the cold was too much and we headed home for homemade hot chocolate. Phineas seems pretty eager about learning but he has a little bit of time before that happens and he definitely wasn't keen on the cold. Loved sitting down with them and hearing all there feelings on skating over a cup of hot chocolate :).

Will be interesting to see how it goes next year! Oh, and there is only this one picture because I was trying to get video which didn't work out so well! 

Cutting Phineas' Curls

I teared up. Yep. Teared up. When those curls were cut off it felt like we were cutting off a little piece of Phineas' personality. Phineas' reaction did not help matters. When I held up those little curls to show Phineas his expression said it all. After that third picture with the look of shock on his face, he CRIED! It wasn't a tantrum cry, it was a sad cry. Perhaps all in my head that he was really that broken up about it but it was still a pretty marked moment. We were all a little sad to see the curls go because we weren't too sure if they were a permanent hair trait for Phineas or a baby hair trait. 

And as a little spoiler --- (since I am actually writing this at the end of May because I'm pretty behind on photos) the curls are looking to be pretty permanent. With the warmer and more humid weather he typically has a wave in the top with curls out the bottom and the wisps peeking out from behind his ears. It's pretty cute. But there is a hole lot more to that cuteness of his than his hair. He melts our hearts daily with that personality of his. More to come on that :). 

window

While these pictures look super pretty the facts behind them are a bit if a pain. This is our bedroom window. It needs to be replaced. Until that happens, we will enjoy the new and beautiful shapes that shimmer in the light each morning. It really is quite beautiful.

Kings Day

We had some pretty awesome butter chicken and some really awesome Galette des Rois. And even better chitter chatter around the table. I love the giggles with these kiddos. And Jason did a really awesome job with the galette des rois. We even talked about gifts for Jesus. It was a lovely evening. 

New Year's Day

We spent New Year's Day digging ourselves into the snow. Building a maze in our back yard. Playing with neighbour friends. Filling each other's buckets. Catching snowflakes on our tongues. And warming up with hot chocolate (with marshmallows!). Good day :). 

New Year's Eve 2015

New Year's Eve was lovely. A special dinner with some tasty salmon (complete with sparkly juice to toast our early new year to fireworks from another time zone) topped off with upside down cranberry cake. Upon Milayla's suggestion we each made and donned crowns or party hats. She loves thinking of little details to make us feel a little bit like royalty. And then we played some family games before heading off to bed.

It's been a good year. I shall have to write a little snapshot of the year in another post. For now, here are a few pictures of our New Year's Eve. 

Pieces of December

These are pretty out of order, but I'm just going to run with it today. 

We invited some friends from church to come carolling with us. I wouldn't have thought we would be carolling the week before Christmas in the pouring rain. But we still had lots of fun just the same. I didn't think to take a picture of our group, but one of the homes that we carolled to took this picture and gussied it up. So, you can't see everyone, but it's the best we have.

We read A Christmas Carol as part of our homeschool (we read it every year). And the kids were so excited when we finished and had a family movie night to watch the Muppet Christmas Carol. Love snuggles with these kiddos.

Atticus has been purposely trying to fall asleep in weird positions so that I will have a laugh when I come to check on him before I go to bed and so that I will take some sleeping pictures. It's kind of funny. I have taken pictures of them sleeping before so he seems to have come up with this idea from looking at some of the picture books I have printed. So I thought I should snap some photos of those cute sleeping kids that particular night. No crazy sleeping positions but they were under big masses of blankets.

Phineas LOVES sweeping. It's become a bit of a safety hazard because it is so much taller than he is, but we are encouraging and praising his love for helping and cleaning as much as possible. I sure cannot resist that happy, helping face.

Speaking of helping, while I was chopping up potatoes for dinner, he decided he would help fill another pot with potatoes for me. He was so proud and was ready to cook it up for dinner.

We also located a new dentist that is right near us. This is a pretty exciting one because it makes it a bit easier to get everyone in for an appointment without having to trek into Montreal. Also, the dentist seems really great and I think the kids will love the office (yep - love it!). I took a few stealthy pictures to show the kids as I have been for an appointment already and their appointment isn't for several more months.

Phineas has a knack for running off with my phone, I get my phone back with pictures like these next two. I've done better at leaving it up on the shelf in the kitchen where he can't reach it but then I have been known to miss calls and messages because my ringer doesn't work anymore. Oh well! I get these cute faces on my phone and on Daddy's lucky days, he gets phone calls from Phineas! On our not so lucky days, he dials numbers in our phone for Germany...

The kids figured they would give that Sinterklaas character a try (they don't remember much about him from The Netherlands) and were delighted with there little trinkets in their shoes and the carrots that had been nibbled at.

We made some pretty awesome gingerbread mean (gf!) and then we decorated. I actually had my act together pretty well for cookies this year and we made several different varieties including cream cheese mints which were a tasty surprise. Our homeschool lessons were well ahead of schedule so we took an extra week off at Christmas from formal lesson time and just had some fun exploring, learning about christmas, baking (which is really a combination of science, art and math..) and having dance parties. It was a lot of fun. And the kids really enjoyed the baking. Then we decorated plates to give to people that we carolled to, our neighbours and some secret service angel business. It was pretty fun.

Hard to believe it, but we have gorgeous days at the park for nearly the entire month of December. It was rather lovely.

And I cannot resist coming into the kitchen to find that Atticus has left me a message on the fridge. Actually, there was a bit of mom guilt behind this one because I was coming to find out why he wasn't where he was supposed to be (helping with clean up) and I found him finishing this up on the fridge. Melt my momma heart. I love that boy.

Jason stayed home with Phineas when I had to run out one day and Phineas came to the window to wave and blow kisses. That face squished up against the window fills my heart with so much happiness and laughter.

Speaking of that happy little face, here it is again a little bit soggy from our carolling when we arrived home. He's pretty happy about the whole thing.

And Phineas needs some sleeping pictures as well! Cannot forget to add those in. I love getting time with the kids and something about watching them while they sleep a little bit at night just allows all the good moments of the day to sink into my heart a little deeper and the not-so-great moments to fade away. They fill my heart to over flowing.

Just when Jason and the kids thought we were all done playing secret service I suggested the idea that we go get a treat to leave in our mail box for the mail man. Seriously, I don't know where it is everywhere else but ever since our mail system moved over to the community mail boxes our mail deliverers are working until pretty late into the evening delivering everyone's mail. So we left ours a little surprise. The kids wanted to hide out around the mailbox until he arrived, but that could have taken a while so they were content to check the next day to make sure the treat was taken. I hope it was a nice surprise in the busy Christmas mail delivery season!

Not entirely sure why I have this picture of Jason here, but it's the only one he's in, so on it goes. You're welcome, Jason :). You can even see the beginning stages of our painting and base boards in this room.

The kids were pretty excited when we arrived at the grocery store and they had one of those carts with a vehicle on the front. Milayla and Phineas were pretty excited to share it. So so so sweet.

And then our sweet neighbours invited us over for cookies just after Christmas. The kids love doing service for them and will head over with their little shovels to shovel their walk way. And Barb has been a huge help with watching the kids here and there (including helping out with the kids while we did the kids' Christmas date nights!). We have been richly blessed with some really great neighbours!

It was a good month. I love seeing how the kids get so excited about serving in whatever capacity they are able to. They have hearts of gold. Really, really great big hearts of gold. It comes so easily for them to think of others.

------post edit----
found these awesome snowy day pictures of shovelling the driveway and playing the snow with the kids. The kids love to help clear the snow. They also love throwing the snow at us :). It's pretty awesome. Its one of the golden parts of winter.