Catch up - Christmas, Birthday party, Guinea Pigs, Etc.

Well, hello blog. Nice to see you again. Did you miss me? It's been a while. I tried uploading some photos a while back, but you crashed while doing so, and I have lingering resentment about this photo upload system anyway. I may switch to Wordpress. Soon. You are on notice, Blogger.

So, let's go with cramming a whole lot of stuff into one post.

Christmas

Woah, are we going back that far? Christmas was fun -- we went to Toronto and spent Christmas at my mother-in-law's house. She didn't have a tree, so we cut our own in the bush on the way down. It was Charlie Brown-ish, but we set it up in the living room anyway, and the kids enjoyed making decorations for it.

Christmas morning was great, and my brother-in-law and his boys came over, and we all went outside to play on the grass... yes grass. It was even green. Here Daddy and the girls are playing with their new marble track.

Nanny and the girls.

Family shot.

We did as much visiting as we could (without going too crazy.) I saw some friends I hadn't seen for a long time... met new babies... it was great to spend some time with everyone, instead of our usual weekend dash down and back.

Dhara + Elora's Birthday

The girls turned 5 in February (wow) and we celebrated by taking them horse back riding at a ranch. They each invited a few friends in their class, and Hayden and Sage came out as well, so a great time was had by all.

(All except Anya. She stayed home, grounded for lying. Sigh. It wouldn't have been such a big punishment, except that she had been lying about doing her reading homework for months, to us and to her teachers at school. We were not impressed.)

Arriving at the ranch.

I like this photo. Thanks to Kyla for sharing all these photos with us.

All the friends waiting patiently.

Sage starting his ride.

Elora can't wait to get started.

Practicing using the brakes.

Dhara pats her horse.

Round and round...

The kids also got to brush the horses. This horse got very nicely combed hair -- up to about 3 feet up.

Dhara and Hayden enjoying their ride.

Happy horse riders. Almost all of them are looking at the camera.

Cake!

The breaker in the cabin kept flipping, so we sometimes had light. No heat though.

It was ok. It meant that it was easier to go back outside. :)

Here the girls are opening their presents. Can you tell?

Guinea Pigs

Sometime in the past couple of months, we got two new additions to the family. Meet Skitter and Nibbles, a couple of long-haired guinea pigs who now occupy a large amount of space in our back room.

Skitter

Nibbles

We were thinking of getting a smallish pet for a while, and had decided against getting guinea pigs (so I thought) because of the amount of space you need for them. But then DH saw an ad for two free ones... so here we are. We built them a cage out of bookshelf cages and coroplast, and glued it to a folding table (so it won't slide off.) They're actually quite cute little guys, if a bit skittish. (You can guess which one is the more nervous of the two.)

March

We've been enjoying some nice weather lately. Sheena came up to visit for a few weeks while DH was doing some work for a movie shoot that was in town. He wasn't doing much on set; just a bit of glorified security work. But he's made some connections now, so he might get better work next time.

Earthships

Lately DH and I have been reading about "Earthships"; eco houses insulated on three sides by earth, a greenhouse on the front, and self sufficient with little to no utility bills. (I like that part, very much.) They are simple enough for most people to build themselves out of old tires, concrete, and clay. They are very energy and resource efficient, typically using solar power, collecting rain water for household use, and recycling greywater for growing plants and flushing toilets.

We're both really interested by this idea of a self sufficient house, and we're doing a lot of research. Do a google search for "Earthships" if you want to learn more. It's very intriguing. maybe one day we can build our own earthship, or maybe a straw bale house. It's fun thinking about!

Renovations: After

Well, it took long enough, but here are the finished photos of Dhara and Elora's room. And, yes, of course it always looks this tidy. Snerk.

Dhara gets the top bunk. Elora tends to sleepwalk.

It's a tight fit to get the beds, wardrobes, and shelves in there, but it works.

Anya's room. She sleeps on the top bunk.

Please ignore the plaster falling off the wall. We have to patch that. Maybe around 2014.

It's an odd shaped bedroom.

DH photo bomb. He did so much work on the two bedrooms -

thank you so much, dear!

Renovations and a long boring blog post

Dhara and Elora's room before...

All the layers of paint and wallpaper coming off... bleah.

The three beds set up in Anya's room. Space was tight.

Phew! We've been working slowly over the past while (ok, 7 months, but who's counting?) to get Dhara and Elora's room finished. We had done nothing to it since we moved in, except for painting purple flowers over the ripped up wallpaper/paint splotches/nail heads etc. That room was Anya's when she was a baby, and because we moved in when she was a week old, we decided to leave it as is so as not to have paint fumes and dust around the baby. Plus we were just too dang tired. :) So the kids have been living in a not very nice-looking room for a while.

The other bedroom (now Anya's room) got renovated when she was ready for a big bed (and that took a long time... almost a year, not including building the new windowsill -- if you include the windowsill, then technically it was 4 years to finish, but whatever, again, not counting, lalalalalala can't hear you.)

Where was I? Oh yes. Then the twins showed up, so we left fixing up the room for later, again.

Well. This summer, it was about time. We made quite a mess. The ceiling plaster was falling down, we ripped up layers of wallpaper and paint (There were so many layers... Who paints over wallpaper, really?) We plastered and sanded and plastered more and sanded more and removed baseboards and made the walls smooth and popcorn-ceiling-textured the ceiling, and primed and painted and painted some more, then did touch ups and ripped out the window, and installed the new window, and built a new window sill and primed and painted that and installed a new light fixture, and painted more touch ups, and put down foam padding and new carpet and replaced the baseboards and phew, 7 months later, we were done. Easy peasy. (Hah! I'll duck now, as my significant other is sure to throw something at my head.)

I say we, but really DH did all the hard parts. I smiled and looked pretty and ate sandwiches, and pointed out what he was doing wrong. (Ducks again.)

The other complicating factor was that we had a bunk bed frame we wanted to put in Anya's room. We got it from my friend Cindy a while ago (thanks Cindy!) and our idea was to have that for Anya's bed, and the other twin bunks for Dhara and Elora, now that they are old enough. The only problem (well, one of the problems) was that it wouldn't fit up the stairs. Our house is old and has narrow stair wells, and no matter how we scratched up the paint, we couldn't get the big metal frame up the stairs. That was a couple of years ago, I think, and we've been keeping the pieces in the garage ever since, wondering what to do with it.

When we decided that we were going to replace the window in Dhara and Elora's room, we thought about bringing the bedframe in through the gap while it was out, and it worked like a charm. DH picked a good day that wasn't too chilly, and did a FANTASTIC job removing the window and putting the new one in. I love him so much. He has so much confidence and patience to try new things and figure stuff out. He's totally in his element sawing and building and using powertools and taking things apart and figuring out how to put them back together. Next I'm going to ask him to put a fourth floor on the house. :P

So the bed got brought inside through the open window gap, and then the new window got put in, so now the bed can NEVER be moved back out again. So. There's that. Unless it's sawn apart, which I guess is a possibility. When we move from here (in the far, far future) maybe we'll just sell it with the house. Then run.

I can't believe we've lived in one place for almost 7 years. That's the most I've ever lived in one place since I was a kid. I've moved 11 times in my life. Ick. (Although that's nothing compared to my sister's moves, eh, Jennifer? What did we figure it out to? 37 or something?)

Now I have to write it down to see where I've lived:

(Skip this part if you find it boring. It really is, for anyone else but me. Are you still here? I could describe the popcorn ceiling texture in detail...)

Underhill Drive (Toronto) Baby - 1 year-ish

Oxford St. (Richmond Hill) - aged 1-7 years old - 6 years

Stately Way (Thornhill) - aged 7-11 - 4 years

New Haven's Way (Thornhill) - aged 11-19ish - 8 years

Fairview Mall Basement apartment (no I didn't live in the mall --

I just can't remember the name of the street) (North York/Toronto) - 1 year

Keele St. apartment (North York/Toronto) - 2 years

Rosemount (Scarborough/Toronto) - 1 year-ish

Danforth apt. (Toronto) - 6 months

Rosemount apt. (Scarborough/Toronto) again - 4 years

Miramichi (New Brunswick) - 1 year

Main St. apt. (North Bay) - 9 months (heh, coincidence? Hello Anya!)

Ferguson St. (North Bay) - 7 years YAY FOR OUR HOUSE!!!

That sort of works out to my age. There's some time missing somewhere, I think. But it's close.

I have decided to win the lottery, and build our own house next time we move. And then that will be it. Realistic, no?

Where was I, before I got distracted? Oh yes, renovations. So Dhara and Elora are now sleeping on their very own bunkbeds, and Anya is enjoying her room all to herself, and everyone is very happy when they aren't hitting their heads on the ceiling (Anya), falling off the ladder (Elora) or pinching her fingers while swinging like a monkey from the bars under the top bunk (Dhara.)

And this was AFTER the conversation we had about not treating the furniture like a jungle gym. Sigh.

Well, if you've made it this far, congratulations (and apologies) on having to read this very long boring blog post. Don't worry, there will be a quiz. :)

Next up: A long detailed description of my belly button lint.

Despicable Halloween

We've been experiencing Hallowe'en now for over a week... and I never thought I would say this, but boy am I glad it's over. "Whaaaaat?" (Imagine confused Minion voice.) I usually LOVE Hallowe'en, but this year was a bit of an overdose. Plus the latex nose wasn't fun.

Hallowe'en #1 was with the Girl Guides last Monday. I have officially quit, but I was asked to help out with songs at the end, so I did. We had fun. :)

Hallowe'en #2 was (for me) at work last Friday. I think the idea was that we should dress up instead of casual Friday.

Hallowe'en #3 was Sunday, when the kids and DH went to the NU Residence Children's party. I didn't dress up because I had choir practice. Thank goodness.

Hallowe'en #4 was the kids dressing up for school Monday, and

REAL Hallowe'en (#5) was trick or treating and the trip to the Fire Hall.

We all dressed up as the Despicable Me family, and I think it turned out rather well. Granny Gru wasn't my first costume choice, but there are a limited number of characters from the movie, and it was either that or the mean orphanage lady. We won 2 contests with our costumes: me, at work, and the kids at the residence party. Woot!

I think Anya is tired of "cute" costumes though... she told me she wants to be an Evil Princess next year. Or a vampire. Or a zombie. Hmmm. A zombie family would be fun. :)

*Mental note: Next year, no latex/prosthetics. Ouch. The removal process is terrible. On the other hand, my nose and chin are very smooth.

Cranberry Festival

We went to the Cranberry Festival in Sturgeon Falls yesterday. The kids had a great time, and got their faces painted and everything:

Tiger

Princess

????

Dhara was happy with her scary... whatever it was.

After we visited all the craft tables, and went through the Sturgeon Museum, we walked the trails and went out to pick our own cranberries. Things we learned this time after last year:

1. Don't go at 5pm. We just made it back before dark last year. Barely. This year we went out at noon. A much better choice.

2. Go early in the season. We found so many more plentiful, bigger berries this year.

3. Go when the ground is dry. Our feet were a lot warmer this time around.

I don't mean to imply we had a bad time last year -- it's just that this year we had a much better time.

Anya in the bushes -- it was hard to take photos because of all the shrubbery

Mommy, Dhara and Elora on the boardwalk

It was dry enough that Dhara decided to lie down in the bushes when she got tired.

We got about 9 cups of berries. Not bad for about an hour of picking.

Ballet Class

The girls started Ballet yesterday. They were very excited. We took a video of the little dance they do at the end of the class, but I have to get DH to smallen it, as I don't want to load over 100 megs. Stay tuned.

Anya and Elora are on the far right, Dhara is at the far left.

And now, presented in glorious "Shaky-Wobbly-Cam", the girls' first ballet lesson. Enjoy!

First Days of School

Next up -- Dhara and Elora's first full day of school -- the jk students are staggered -- Anya had already been going for two weeks by this point. They are all enjoying themselves by now, and love their new school.