"I Skate! I Skate!"

Tonight we had our church's family fun night event which was skating at the Barrie City hall outdoor rink. This was Kaley's first encounter with ice and she had so much fun. We thought that we would bring the sled and have Grandma pull her around in the sled around the outside. Ha ha, that happened for all of two seconds. The minute we got to the skating rink, out she came from the sled and right onto the rink boots and all and didn't look back. She had so much fun! She had no idea that she didn't have skates on her feet, she just ran around in circles saying "I skate! I skate!" We finally got a video of her saying it and I must say that it is really cute:-). She did start off with all of the proper winter clothes in order to keep her warm, but halfway through she pulled off her scarf, mittens, coat and had started on her hat and snowpants when we had to stop the removal of clothing! It was a lot of fun and afterwards we headed to Second Cup to get a cup of hot chocolate to warm us up. Very fun family night indeed! Now it is time for mommy's legs to get soar from all of the exercise she did tonight (yep I'm REALLY out of shape)!

Having fun in the snow

We got fresh snow tonight and had to go out to get the mail, so we thought we'd have a little fun. I think Baracus makes quite the good chauffeur!:-) We had fun and Kaley enjoyed her sledding fun.

Our Cooking Experience

On Wednesday night, we were making open faced sandwiches for supper. The best thing about this dinner is, of course, the homemade mashed potatoes. So, Kaley and I took on this portion of the dinner. We try and include her whenever we can in preparing dinner because of the natural learning experience that cooking is. She was such a good helper. She washed the potatoes, helped mommy peel them, and then needed her own peeler (the spoon) to do it herself! She then filled the pan with water herself and added some salt with mommy's help. She had to take a break when the potatoes were getting cut up and then whipped but only because I don't want her to know how to cut with a knife or a blender yet. I'm afraid that there might be some grave outcomes if Kaley comes across one. Who knows what she would do (Baracus look out!). She did make a great tester though! Hopefully she will gain the most of her cooking skills from her daddy, but at least I can teach her the basics:-)

Last day in Calgary

On Monday, we had to head back to Ontario after a week of fun times spent with each other. Our day had to start early by being packed and ready to head out the door at 10:30 a.m.! It was interesting how it seemed that Kaley knew that is was the day to travel home, because after she woke up, she just walked around the house looking at things, not really playing with any of them. She made sure that she had all of her things in the right place (just like her daddy) and that she was going home with the things that were important to her. We had a fun time and enjoyed our time in Calgary and had an uneventful plane ride home. When Kaley came into the house, the first thing she said was "Baracus?," but of course he wasn't home yet. She did, however, go around and look at all her toys and special things at home. She was excited to see that they were still here exactly how she remembered them. Great trip and great time.

Trip to Calgary - Day 7

Today we all got up and headed to church as a family. Mark's friend Stu from college, who was a youth pastor on the same district as us in Ontario, had moved to Calgary this past year and we wanted to see his church and his family. It was great being there and it was a lovely worship service. After church, Mark's cousin Kristin and her husband came back to the house for dinner. It was fun being together and getting to know Bob and Kristin better. After dinner, we had a nice relaxing afternoon and even had time for a bit of a Nazarene nap and more work on making cards. Kaley even decided to help out and did a great job of reorganizing all of grandma's stamps. A couple more games of Acquire were played and more food was had and we enjoyed our last night in Calgary. All in all, it was a nice day spent with family and friends.

Trip to Calgary - Day 5

New Years Day! Mark made us all Eggs Benedict for breakfast and it was delicious. He is such a talented chef. After breakfast was had, we all headed outside to have some winter fun-sledding! We had gotten an inner tube earlier in the week and tried the hill at the back of their house and had a blast. Mark and I went down with her a couple of times and she loved it. She even tried it out on her own which was great for the first couple of times, but then the third time down she ended up getting turned around and did a head first plant into the snow.

Today, when we went outside, apparently she remembered that experience because she wouldn't even go down with either one of us. She kept saying "no, no"! So, Grandma and daddy made it down one time and then walked the trail back and forth. It was really cute. Then when we got back into the house, we found out that the power had gone out. To keep busy and warm, the guys did the hot tub and us girls worked on card making.

Uncle Dave and Aunt Sharlene came over and more fun was had by all. The game Acquire was played a couple of times and Aunt Sharlene taught Kaley how to take pictures on the camera. Fun way to spend the first day of the new year.

Trip to Calgary - Day 4

Today was New Years Eve and we celebrated the last day of 2009 in style. Mark and the crew made a delicious prime rib dinner with all the fixings. Kaley started off the day reading the daily newspaper catching up on all of the current events. It was another pretty quiet day and we actually made it to 12:00 to ring in the new year!