Wise men and sailors

This past week was full of Christmas activities and programs for the kids.  These were two of the favourites from the week.  First, Kindergarten was not part of the whole school musical that ACS put on last week, (which was amazing!)  So, the Kindergaren class put on their own little Christmas program in their classroom.  Each child had a part in the story and a little 'verse' that they recited.  They did a wonderful job telling the Christmas story and singing their songs for us!

Owen was one of the 3 wise men.  Doesn't he look wise!! :)

Kendra also had several different Christmas activities in the last little while but her dance recital was a highlight for her.   She attends Everybody Dance Now studios and is in a Ballet/Jazz class.  This is a little quicker than the straight ballet class from last year, which suits her just fine!  The theme of the recital was 'Tropical Christmas'.  Her class of dancers were all dressed up like little sailors.  They looked pretty cute!

Our 'sailor' did a fantastic job dancing!  We were very proud of her!

Birthday #2!



It was time for another birthday in the deWolde household with the youngest member celebrating her 2nd birthday!  Wow - I can't believe that it was already 2 years ago when she arrived, just in time for Christmas!  Here are a few shots of our day!

The morning pose - Happy Birthday peanut!

 

  As a good older sister and brother, Kendra and Owen were more than willing to help Jocelyn open her presents, read her cards and figure out her toys for her!

 I went with a 'Farmyard' theme for her cake as she loves anything with animals right now and the sounds they make.  (Thanks howdini.com for the tutorial!)

A fun day!  Now on to Christmas!!

Happy 5th Birthday!

 Today was Owen's 5th birthday.  Oh, the excitement in the house for the past few days, waiting for this day to arrive.  Really, is there anything bigger than turning 5 years old?  and having your birthday fall on your kindergarten day?  and having a party afterschool?  (Do you think the 5 year old was tired by the end of the day?!)

The morning began with opening a few presents from Mom and Dad.  Lego had been on his list and he was VERY excited to see this!

Still one of his favourite things to do is to play with his cars, so a racecar cake was requested.  I had made him one a few years ago, but didn't want to do the same thing again.  So, off to the internet to find a different one.  This is what I found.  I pretty much followed the instructions exactly as they were on the website. 

Then after school, it was party time in the gym.  There were 9 boys from his class and they had a great time playing and eating!

Happy Birthday Owen!  Hope it was a great day for you!

Living Room Wall - Before and After

Once we had our family pictures done, I wanted to do something with them, other than have them sit on the computer or on a disk.  So, I searched a little on-line and found a few sites with ideas on how to display family photos. I had also been wanting to paint the back wall of the living room too and this gave me a reason to.  Actually, I really want to paint the whole house but I don't think that is  project I will undertake by my self!    I decided to paint the back wall the same colour as our entrance.  (I'm cheap and had half a can of paint left!)  Then I chose 8 pictures and developed them into 8x10's, mixing colour and black and white.  I put them in plain standard frames and arranged them on the wall kinda like a puzzle.  I'm happy with how it turned out! 

Before

After



 This is another idea that I tried out.  The pictures are 4x6 size.  This might end up somewhere in the basement as there are probably enough pictures of us upstairs! 

"Happy Trick or Treat!"

And the night of Trick-or-treating is over for another year!  We'll see who they want to be next year!

Pumpkin Patches x3

'Tis the season of Pumpkins!  I really do love this time of year.  There is so much colour everywhere and if the sun is shining, it isn't too hot.  The air is crisp and just feels refreshing.  It is also the time to check out the local pumpkin patches.  Both of the older kids had field trips with their classes so I figured I would take Jocelyn for her own little 'field trip'.  I also needed to buy some apples for my first attempt at making applesauce! (which actually turned out very well!)  Jocelyn wasn't as interested in the pumpkins as I thought she might be but I did manage a few pictures for the scrapbook!

At first she wanted nothing to do with those big orange things!

Eventually I did get her to sit on one!

After a little bit, they were kinda fun!

The red tractor was much more fun for her than the pumpkins!

 Owen had his Kindergarten field trip to Willowview Farms.  This was a great place!  It is free to go to and you can pick your own apples, which are delicious! 

Owen and his buddy posing in front of the wagon.

Listening very intently to the farmer explain everything they needed to know about apples!

They were each allowed to pick a mini-pumpkin.  Owen was not very impressed that they couldn't take a large pumpkin!

Sitting with his best Kindergarten friend!

 Finally, it was Kendra's turn to go on a field trip.  The Grade One trip is to Aldor Acres, close to Fort Langley.  It is also a wonderful place with lots of different things to see and do!  In Grade One, they are allowed to choose any pumpkin they want, as long as they can carry it!  Kendra was very concerned that it had to be a good one to carve her face into!

The perfect pumpkin!

Smile!

Posing with 2 of the friends in her group.

The best thing about this place, according to Kendra, was all the animals there!  There were cute little bunnies that the kids were allowed to hold, or at least that's what we thought.  We were informed later by one of the farmers that they were for the adults to hold and for the kids just to touch.  What is the fun in that? :)

A very calm and large horse that Kendra loved petting!

Overall, fun trips for all the kids!  Carving out the pumpkins we took home will be next!

Family photos

Here is a peak at the family photos we had done a few weeks ago.  Having these done had been on my wish list for a while.  A happened to come across a photo session done by Sharalee Prang for a wedding and LOVED the pictures that she took.  After checking out her website and other family sessions that she had done, I knew that those were the type of pictures that I wanted!  She somehow managed to capture my family and all of our personalities perfectly!  We are not very good at 'posing well' for pictures so it was great to be able to just let the kids play and explore and have her worry about taking the pictures! 

Paper Mache Pumpkins

My kids love to go to school and I am so thankful for this.  So, when last week came around and there were a few day without school due to the Teacher's Convention, I decided to find something to do with the kids to get them excited and give them something to do instead of asking me how many more days until they get to go back to school!  So, paper mache pumpkins was the chosen craft.  Kendra was beyond thrilled as she has been asking for probably the last year to paper mache a balloon and I have just always been able to come up with some sort of excuse why it "just wouldn't work today"!  Here is a quick rundown of what we did:

Start with a balloon and position it on a bowl.  Hide behind them while your mom is trying to take your picture!

Rip up lots of strips of newspaper and mix together the paper mache mix.  there are lots of different 'recipes' for this but I just used equal amounts of flour and water with a few squirts of Elmer's glue added.  Seemed to work pretty good!

Use half a toilet paper roll and tape it to the top of your balloon to make the pumpkin stem.

Dip your strips into the mix and apply them to your balloon.  Or, as Owen decided, have you mom do it for you because you don't like getting your hands dirty!

After sitting for a day and drying, apply a second coat of newspaper strips. 

For the final layer, use paper towels.  This gives it a rough texture and makes it easier to paint over later.

Paint.  "Pumpkin Orange" paint from the dollar store worked very well.

Decide on a face for your pumpkin.  Draw on with pencil and then paint black.

And voila, pumpkins that won't rot to display on your mantel, happy and proud children and a mom who doesn't have to hear "When can we paper mache a balloon?" again for a while!!