Gingerbread 2011

Gram & Papa arrived on Christmas Eve and the boys were excited for the yearly gingerbread event with Gram.  This year she decided to try out some gingerbread trains for the boys and they were just beside themselves waiting to begin construction.

Nathan warming up his icing!

Jay with "train wheel eyes"

Gram helping Carson with construction.

Uncle Jason and Nathan building.

Gram is the expert!

Jay & Papa decorating up a storm!

Final touches!

Nathan was very creative with his decorating.  You can fortunately not see the chewed up pieces of bubble gum that he used as decorations on his train!

Jay didn't want anyone confused about who his train belonged to!

Carson was of course meticulous with his, complete with a color pattern to the candies!

Now that the houses are done we can get serious about Christmas.  From this activity we went for Chinese food dinner and then the boys got ready for bed and for Santa to come visit!

Jay's Birthday

Jay wanted a Pokemon cake.  I couldn't find one and hoped that this one would do.  Thankfully he loved it!  

 Having a birthday a week before Christmas can be difficult for parties.  We discussed with Jay that we would have a family birthday party and then in January we will have a party for him with all of his friends.  I was asked to work in Brooks, Alberta from December 15 to 18, and Jay thought it would be fun to stay at a hotel with a waterslide for his birthday.  He planned for his Birthday lunch at McDonald's and Brooks has  a great playplace.  Uncle Jason drove down for the party as well and was the official photographer in the playplace.

Nathan getting off the slide!

 As per usual, Brooks McDonald's was an adventure in and of itself!  The boys had lots of fun though.  They got Alvin toys from Alvin and the Chipmunks.  They all got Alvin's with surfboards.  The boys took Alvin to the pool later and sadly we didn't have the camera to prove it, but Alvin surfed nicely all the way down the waterslide!

Carson in the maze.

Jay peeking out of the tunnel.

Blowing out the candle after hearing the Happy Birthday song.

"Helping" Jay open presents - why do kids think that everybody needs help?

Showing off his present from Fiona!  Thanks Fiona!

Trying out the new game from Uncle Jason.

The new game turned into a mess of whacking!

 The boys love when Uncle Jason comes to visit as he always bring fun games and plays with them.  He went down the waterslide too many times to count, and Sunday morning after I had been up from 2-5 at the hospital he helped Clarke downstairs at the breakfast buffet wrangling the boys while I had a shower and tried to pack up our stuff.

Jay was obviously tired based on this position he fell asleep in!

Family Fun Night at Connaught

Nathan, waiting impatiently for the choir to sing!

Rather than having a Christmas concert this year, the school opted for a family fun night.  The kids could make crafts or play street hockey and they actually managed to find a team of horses and wagon to do sleigh rides.  The junior and senior choirs were to sing as well.

Jay waiting...

 The best way to describe the night is CHAOS!  They wanted the kids in the gym at 6:45 and the junior choir was to sing first.  Carson was so worried about missing his singing that when he finally stood up to sing he actually was doing a little dance and I had to yell at him to run to the bathroom.  He missed the first song and then we left as soon as he was finished singing so we could go home and clean him up.  Poor guy.  Anyone who knew him knew there was something wrong as he sang all the songs but didn't participate in the actions, nor did he even smile.  There are about 4 boys in the choir and 30 girls. I think he is there for the attention and not the singing!

Carson singing with the junior choir.

Santa!

I promised the boys that we would go visit Santa at the mall.  I must say I preferred last year's visit on a weekday when the lines weren't crazy alike on the weekend.  Anyway, I had to include a picture of Santa's elf.  This is at least the second year that this elf has been helping Santa.  Personally, I find him a little scary and can't imagine what the kids think.  I was surprised this year when we actually saw him smile!

 After an hour of waiting the boys got to see Santa.  Carson and Jay were excited to ask for Lego while Nathan wanted Mommy to ask on his behalf for a guitar!  When the boys first went and say on his lap, Santa looked at me and said, "I bet you are here to ask Santa for a little sister, aren't you boys?"  Mrs. Clause then volunteered that she also had 3 boys and found life quite busy at times.

Sitting with Santa

Getting books and candy canes from Mrs. Claus

Preschool Christmas Party

December come in with a rush!  Nathan's preschool party was the first Saturday in December, along with 2 different birthday parties amongst the rest of the chaos!

The band 3 Blind Mice plays every year and they bring bells for the kids to shake and sing along with them.  Nathan had fun with the bells.

The different classes got up on stage to sing.  One of the songs involves the kids sliding their fingers down the front of their noses.  It looked through the whole song that Nathan was just picking his nose!

 The next song went a little better!  I love the fact that they are learning these songs in French as on quiet drives in the van or while playing downstairs they kids will often start singing the songs and they sound so sweet.

 Santa made an appearance.  Nathan was apparently the first in line and was finished already before I even got a chance to grab the camera.  Jay enjoyed the visit!

Photobook frustrations!

So, after spending 6 hours creating a photobook on-line at Michael's the craft store.  The $15.00 purchase, thanks to Black Friday deals, costs $80 to ship to my address!  It costs the same to ship it to the Michael's nearest me, a block away.  I am so not impressed!  I tried to find out how much shipping was but of course they won't tell you until you check out.  However, they were nice enough to give me a web address where my friends can look at it!  Here it is:  https://photocreations.michaels.com//scrapbook/170183/i/1408181322168878464

I would like to suggest though that you don't try to create one of these yourself!

All Hallow's Eve

Carson was the only one who had school on Halloween day.  They had their party in the afternoon and Clarke went to the school to paint Carson's face to go with his costume.  I was on call so wasn't there for pictures and when I got home early at 4:30, Carson had already washed off his face so I don't even have any proof of the face painting.  How sad!

All through supper the boys were beside themselves in anticipation of going trick or treating.  At about 5:30 Nathan came into my office and pleaded, "Isn't it Halloween, yet?!"  We got them dressed and they posed, somewhat reluctantly in front of our Halloween tree for "pre" pictures.

 The first house!  The boys always go next door to Clara's house first.

The boys pumpkins

 Jay picked out the witch stencil and Clarke carved it.  Nathan's pumpkin came from his preschool carving night.  It was starting to get a bit moldy but made it through the night.  Carson did the ghost.  He didn't want to use a stencil, just wanted it carved!  

Coming away happy with more treats.  This lady actually asked them to sing a song to get their candy and they all clammed up and except Carson who started to sing, "I am a Child of God."  In the end the 3 managed a pathetic "Mary Had a Little Lamb" but they were well rewarded for their effort!

I just had to add this.  It is our neighbor's pumpkin, what a great idea!

Carson was very sad when the treating came to an end in time for shower and bed as it was a school night after all.  Nathan was exhausted by it all but still happy.  Jay wanted his loot to go to bed with him!  All in all, I think it was a success.