Guy Fawkes Day

November 5th is Guy Fawkes Day, also known as Bonfire Night.  There are firework displays and basically just a fun time, all because of a man called Guy Fawkes and a number of other Catholics back in 1605.  When James I, a Protestant, became king in 1605, a small number of Catholics protested by planning on blowing up the Houses of Parliament.  Luckily an anonymous letter was sent, giving a bit of warning, and the plan was foiled.  Guy Fawkes is the famous protester, as he was found with the barrels of explosives, waiting to light the fuse, when the cellar was checked.

Nowadays it's referred to as Bonfire Night, when there are firework displays and basically just a fun time for all. Unfortunately the fireworks have been canceled in our village tonight due to bad weather, so we'll go to a different display this weekend.

Helena has been learning about fireworks and "Guy Forks" all week.  Here's her rendition of the story:

Harvest

Canadian Thanksgiving was last week, American Thanksgiving is next month, but we've been celebrating Harvest for the last three weeks.  Harvest was originally a time to celebrate all the food that had been harvested but since the agricultural side of the country is much smaller than it used to be, it's mostly a time to be thankful for the food we have and to contribute food to those who may be in need.

Helena's school celebrated it by having an assembly to see all the food the students had contributed and to discuss where it was going to go.  The above photo was taken when Helena took her mandarin oranges and spaghetti sauce up - it's actually posted with a bunch of other Harvest photos in the entrance of the school. We've now celebrated it at two different churches, where we had a typical service about being thankful but many many flowers. Harvest is seen as one of the 3 big holidays for church flower arrangements (my friend the flower coordinator told me that!).



So we did our own Harvest activity, seen above.  We all took turns writing down things we are thankful for and then sticking them to our dining area wall.  I was amazed at how much our kids enjoyed it.  Can you guess which color was Benjamin's?

Christmas with Rob

On Christmas Eve, John ran an errand and when he returned home, Uncle Rob was with him.  Helena was so surprised and so happy to see him!  Since his sister adored him so much, it took all of five minutes for Benjamin to love Uncle Rob just as much.

It was so great having him here for Christmas Day.  This is our second year celebrating in our home, which we love, but having family to celebrate with us made it just that much better.

The highlight presents around here with pillow pets and Benjamin's train set.

There was a lot of time to just play, read, and snuggle with Uncle Rob.

We took a trip up to the Lego Land Discovery Centre one day.  They had constructed all the famous buildings in and around Toronto.

Rob's highlight of Lego Land was building a faster race car than all the kids' who were racing theirs.  Helena loved everything.

Rob and John took an afternoon to go see the Toronto Marlies play hockey.

Rob also cooked some delicious dishes, like Pad Thai and apple pie.  Every night was game night for us adults.

It was such a nice visit.  Come back anytime Rob!

Events of December - before Christmas Eve

It was a fun month for us, one full of special activities.  Scroll through for a quick synopsis!

 

Allan Garden Conservatory Christmas Open House - They had wagon rides, which were lots of fun, and apple cider.  This was the first time Benjamin had tasted apple cider, and once the liquid touched his lips, he would not take his mouth off the cup except to ask for more.  We obliged, and I believe he had four cups. 

Christmas books kept Helena busy!

During a visit to the mall, Helena asked to have her picture taken in front of every single gigantic pink reindeer!

 For the most part, B-boy was a terror around the manger scene but I did observe him doing something other than destroy it a couple times.

We had snow, and lots of it, for a few weeks before Christmas.  It was all gone by the 20th, which meant this was the first non-white Christmas of my life.

Why would anyone walk on a cleared sidewalk when there's snow to tromp in?

Of course the traditional sugar cookie decorating happened, with Benjamin asking if he could eat a cookie each time he decorated one.  When I finally said yes, he happily scarfed it down, and then proceeded to no longer ask but attempted to take a bite of every cookie when I wasn't looking.  He's a clever one!

A trip to the Toronto Christmas Market in the Distillery District.

Helena was an angel in the Christmas pageant again.  Here she is with her good friend Holly.  Notice her socks - they're Elsa socks.  She asks me if she can wear them every day.  When the answer is no (which is more often than not since I don't have a washing machine), she asks if we can do laundry.

Benjamin and I were invited to visit Helena's preschool to make gingerbread houses.  It was fun to see her in that environment with her schoolmates and her teacher.

Happy Halloween!

Third year of a rainy Halloween, but also third year trick or treating with friends!

A Father's Day Donut Spree

Besides "great dad", a very appropriate title for John is "donut lover."  For Father's Day he asked to go to all his favorite donut shops and get donuts.

 

He started out at Country Style with a Boston Creme donut.  Helena & I also got donuts.  Benjamin was offered donuts but after eating a large snack in the church nursery, he wasn't interested.

After rest time and lunch, we headed out for more.  This time Benjamin was more than happy to help eat Daddy's Cherry Crueller from the 7 Eleven.

Next stop - Loblaw's Grocery Store, where John & Helena shared a raised sprinkle donut.  I had a SKOR donut.

By this time, we were all feeling a bit sugared-out.  We stopped at the local off-leash dog park, and the kids had a ball.

Before we left the park, John mentioned that the best sweet potato fries in the city were available just 2 blocks away, but we decided to stay the course and hit the last donut shop - Tim Horton's.  Unfortunately we were not able to find the elusive chocolate dipped Honey Cruller (this was the 3rd Tim's we searched at) but John was happy with a double chocolate donut.

I forgot to take a photo with the chocolate donut, so John posed with my TimBit (NOT a donut hole) but had to be really ribbed before he'd take a bite.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my donut lover of a husband had had his fill of donuts.  Mission accomplished.

The World's Toughest Job

Have you seen this yet?

It's a pretty great description of the job.  Usually it's not quite as hard as it sounds and there's a lot of joy found in the job, but it is a lot.  

My mom has done the job for 36 years and I don't ever remember hearing a complaint come out of her mouth.  Plus, out of the billions who do it in the world, she's the best one of them all.  

Thanks for being my mom, Mom.  I appreciate you so much. 

Valentine's Day

Breakfast was supposed to be delicious XOXO waffles.

 

But this is how almost all the waffles turned out.  This new recipe obviously won't be used again.

Luckily there was enough waffle that worked to make one x and one o, just enough for the one for whom the XOXO waffles were designed.

The kids and I spent the day playing, cleaning up, reading, coloring, putting umpteen heart stickers everywhere, and helping this little guy walk around the apartment.  Less than a month ago he started to crawl and he's now taking short walks around while pushing his music table.

John came home from work with flowers for me & Helena.  Here's our official 2014 Valentine's Day photo, taken by Helena.

We ended the day with Chocolate Fun-due (as H calls it) and Finding Nemo.  Helena's prayer that night was "Dear God, Could you please make that movie shorter so that I don't have to keep saying 'Is it almost over?' and 'Is it almost over?' and 'Is it almost over?' And thank you for Jesus.  Amen."  (And we only watched half the movie!)

All in all, it was a great day.  It made me very thankful that I have a wonderful family that loves me even when my plans don't go as planned.

Happy New Year!

With the start of a new year, came the start of a new family tradition. 

Breakfast at Starbucks - a necessity for this mom on New Year's morning, as her hubby is in Florida for the Badgers game and our coffee pot is broken.

We spent the rest of the morning & early afternoon with friends that have moved.  While their new place is less than 4 miles away, it's much much farther than the previous distance of 2 floors.

Christmas is coming!

Snow began to fall yesterday and it's so beautiful!  

I do hope it sticks & that more comes before the 25th.

 

Our church's Christmas pageant was tonight.  

For some reason, a pageant always puts me in the holiday spirit!

Can you find Helena?

Happy Halloween!

From our friendly pig and tiger.

Daddy's Day

This year we had to rename Father's Day to Daddy's Day, as we couldn't get Helena to understand that Daddy was her father, not Papa.  

 

We had a great time celebrating.  John asked to go to a Scottish or Irish restaurant with live music, so we did!  (I love that he knows what he wants to do for his holidays.)

Most people don't go out to eat to a pub at 5, so we had the place almost to ourselves.  This was great, since Helena eventually felt brave enough to dance along with the music. 

Our traditional breakfast in bed concluded with the opening of Helena's card to her dad - a candy bar card!

John, you are a great father, even if Helena doesn't realize it :)  She loves her daddy so much, and so do I.  Thank you for all you do for us!

P.S. How can I write a father's day blog post without acknowledging my great dad too?  Dad, thank you for being the best dad I could ever have.  I love you so much.

National Donut Day

When we brought in our coupons for free donuts (with a purchase, of course) the employees of Tim Horton's looked at us a bit skeptically but did give us donuts.  It made us wonder if the coupon from Facebook was a hoax - but it wasn't! 

Telling Helena to "look at mom" didn't quite work.

So did any of you celebrate this most important holiday?

Happy Easter!

One thing John and I both love is traditions, so we're trying to get our family's traditions started now that Helena is two.  In thinking today, I realized that Easter is a holiday that allows for many traditions that do not take a lot of prior preparation and that are a lot of fun.  

Tradition #1: Really, what could be more traditional than dyeing Easter eggs?  Baked eggs, a little vinegar, a little food coloring - and we're set!

Tradition #2: Resurrection Rolls. Marshmallows dipped in melted butter then rolled in cinnamon sugar and then wrapped with crescent rolls.  Bake.  They tell the story of Jesus (the marshmallow) being put in the tomb (the crescent roll) and then after they're baked, the tomb is empty!  Helena caught on to this analogy immediately.  Yet with her attention to detail, every time we said the tomb was empty she added "except [for] angels with big wings"!

 

Tradition #3: Easter egg hunts.  Ultra un-original, I know, but I grew up searching for eggs countless times during the week leading up to Easter (which has been a very new idea to many friends I've shared it with). Sometimes my mom would put a snack in them but most of the times the eggs were just empty - but we didn't care at all because it was so much fun!  Helena and I have hidden eggs countless times in the last few days and she always loves it.  She likes to hide them as well - often the exact same colors in the exact same spots each time, like all four pink ones next to the surge protector - and then of course to help find them. Today we hid them in a park and Helena found them - with peanut M&Ms inside.  Great fun.  Definitely need to do that with friends next year.

Tradition #4: Rice Krispie Birds' Nests - Rice Krispie treats in the shape of a nest with M&Ms for eggs and a Peep on top.  Then we take them around to neighbors or friends and say "Happy Easter!"

Tradition #5: Easter Family Photo - really just wanted an excuse to put this photo up :)

Happy Easter to you all!  Celebrate that the tomb was empty so many years ago...

except for those angels with big wings.

And if any of you have traditions you wouldn't mind sharing, I'd love to hear what they are!

It is...

Not an avocado scooper, although I like the idea, Greg.

Not a prosthetic arm for a squirrel, BBS - I really hope the world has not come to making those.  Sorry squirrels.

But it is a butter curler!

My dad has one and uses it to make butter curls for major holidays.  This past Christmas, I really wished I had one, to continue to tradition and to make it all a little more festive.  

So when the kitchen store was going out of business, I asked if they had one.  They had that exactly - ONE - and the lady told me I could probably go to 20 kitchen stores and not find one at any of the stores.  I believe it, as the only place I've ever seen one is in my parents' kitchen!

from Wikipedia

Now when you compare my first attempt to the photo above, I obviously have a bit of learning to do.  I need to learn exactly how long to leave the butter in the freezer before curling, and how much pressure and speed to use to get the curls to roll beautifully.  Plus, I totally forgot about dipping the curler in hot water!  But, now we can have our butter curls for Easter.