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!