12/19/2011 ~ Playmates & Cake pops

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Mommy was hormonal, so instead ot trekking out for a playdate, we rescheduled and had friends in.
The boys made a picture for Jangles the Elf.

I tried my hand at Cake pops (with lollipop sticks)

A finished cake pop for Brooklyn to celebrate her Brother's birthday

Braden's birthday ~ A pressie from his friends

Big debate over the pronounciation.  Ninja-go or Ninjah-go

Boys assemble Ninjago and Lily works on homework

Almost finished!

12/18/2011 ~ Sunday

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Chillin' in their jammies this morning.

Griffin and Dad playing Angry Birds on Lily's Ipod

Oh the important lessons to be handed down to our sons.

Lily's device, getting removed tomorrow and replaced with a new variation.  (Ignore the pizza dough!)

Paul assembled a few things so the kids can use it right away on Christmas morning.

This puppy is surprisingly tricky to assemble.  Definitely a two parent job when it comes time to pull the elastic rope around.

12/17/2011 ~ Christmas Picture with Santa 2011

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Lily told me how her teacher mentioned that if anyone heads to Upper Canada Mall for pictures with Santa, to pay the extra couple of dollars and order a "fastpass" online.  You print off your pre-paid ticket at home and line up in a separate line than the mall lineup.  They alternate one family from the mall lineup, and then one family from the fastpass line.  It meant that instead of lining up for what appeared to be a two hour wait, we were in and out of there with photos in hand in about ten minutes.  I felt like I stole a cookie from the cookie jar!  Best kept secret on earth.  And the greatest part is that our picture didn't turn out half bad!  No terror Claus this year. 

The pre-photo in house mayhem

My little lovelies with a wonderful (realistic) and nice Santa

Can't blame Claire for being terrified of this Terror Claus last year.

12/16/2011 ~ Spirit Day Assembly & Haircut

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I took a vacation day to accomplish a few things today. First I dropped the kids off at Kiss N' Ride for school. Started my day with a trip to polish off the stocking stuffer shopping. Then we hit Tim Horton's for a coffee to start my engines and a bunch of berry muffins for the kids to have as an after school snack attack (Lily's request). I had a haircut appointment and took off the dead ends but tried to keep all of my length as I'm working toward my DayZero goal of donating my hair for a wig for a Cancer patient by the summer.  It has to reach 12 inches in length before it can be donated.  Claire and I ran to Sears to pick up a catalog order and hit McDonalds on the way home. Then I put her for a little nap. When she woke, we went to the school about 40 minutes earlier than we really NEEDED to be there. I signed in at the office and strolled around with Claire. We saw Lily at recess and her friends swooned over how adorable Claire is. Then we went to Griffin's Kindergarten pen where all the boys were yelling for me to pass them the basketball that went over the fence so I passed it to Griffin and he beamed from ear to ear. I don't get to do these stay-at-home-Mom kind of things very often. I loved it. Next time I hear a SAHM vent, I might throw up a little bit in my mouth. Getting to volunteer in your children's classroom, that's the stuff dreams are made of in my world. Claire and I made our way to the gym where we got front row seats and I took a few pictures of the gym murals while she made friends with a baby girl a year her junior, but bigger than Claire. Griffin's class was parked directly in front of me, so I couldn't really see his face for the performance but it was so great being there. Lily's class was centered in the room and I got great footage of her dance. My camera wouldn't focus when she was at the mic to introduce the kindergarten performance but it's burned into my memory. Griffin's class wore their pajamas and Santa hats.  They held gingerbread men that they made and sang a Christmas song.  Lily's class tried to dress like Pioneers.  They have been doing a grade three unit on pioneers and performed a traditional pioneer dance.  She did a great job. Proud day to be a Mommy today.

12/15/2011 ~ Christmas Concert Evening 2011

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Lily still spends Wednesday lunch hour with the Primary Choir.  Next year she'll graduate to the Junior Choir.  Tonight the school held their 1st Annual Bake Sale and Christmas Concert.  We hit the bake sale first and I spent my time feeling phobic about eating someone's random baking.  Imagining a kid sneezing in the bowl but Mom was too invested to throw the batch out.  Not for me.  So we settled on some chocolate chip Christmas trees that I'm pretty sure were made out of Pillsbury dough because I saw the recipe for that on the container.  Just enough for Lily and Griffin to have one each.

Then we hit the gym and Griffin hung out with his pal while Claire squished a gooey brownie in an effort to eat it.  But I left the diaper bag in the car so I was hoping my dishwasher hands were dry enough to absorb the oil in the absence of wet wipes.  Then Lily's performance started and I was grinning from the cuteness.  Her last song was created by Mr. Stanley in his last year of teaching.  He was ispired by Jack Layton's Letter to Canadians and it was moving.  I had to choke back tears.  Lily teases me that I love Mr. Stanley.  She knows I have a weakness for guys who play the guitar.  He's retiring this year, and will be missed.

12/14/2011 ~ No More Nar Nars

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Claire's in her 29th month and I'm a somewhat closet nurser but honestly, it's just more stressful to have to endure advice from folks who have no nursing experience to begin with.  In terms of feeding your children, do what you can, believe in what you do and make the most of what you've already got. Love this article.  But this week the time has come and Claire is weaned.  I started to believe I'd never see the day, but it has come.  I know that in Western culture I'm considered some sort of extended breastfeeder but I really don't look at it that way.  There are many parts of the world that nurse well beyond 2.5 years old.  It has always just felt more natural for me to feed my babies my own milk, than the milk of another species.  In the end, my ability to do that is thanks to my ability to be here with them.  Without that, it would have been impossible.  So yes, by Western standards I have pulled off the marathon of nursing and I'm proud of that.  But Claire did not self-wean as I have long read about.  I led the process and she was basically down to sleep related nursing anyway. As a replacement for nursing, Claire has asked to hold pieces of my hair while she falls asleep.  Tonight I asked Lily if she minds laying with her to see if she would accept Lily as a substitute for me.  It worked!  Five minutes later the little ladies were sleeping soundly and Claire slept through the night.

This is the end of an Era.  Lily nursed for a little over a year.  Griffin nursed for 2 years and 4 months and Claire nursed for 2 years and 5 months.  I feel relieved that it is over, but it is bitter sweet.  Some of my most precous moments of bonding and togetherness were as I nursed my children.  Nursing turned out to be a gift to us both.

12/13/2011 ~ My First Bakepops!

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My bakepop pans arrived!   They're like Bakerella's cakepops but instead of crumbling a baked cake and mixing it with half a tub of icing then forming the balls in your hand,  you doctor a cake mix and bake it in a pan that shapes them into balls for a lighter consistency.
Naptime today was dedicated to my maiden bakepop voyage UNTIL I got a surprise visit by the carpet cleaners. Forgot I made that appointment months ago and bakepops over cooked while I was running around moving furniture out of his way. Since they were not totally charred, I decided to still use some of them to get some practise dipping them into melted candy chocolate to decorate them.  As it turns out, they were a huge hit with my family after all and I must have had a case of "baker is her own worst critic" going on. 

And the best part is that my carpet is FRESH AND CLEAN! 

Sleeping Beauty.  She is 4 days into being fully weaned from nursing so I am letting her fall asleep in front of the tv to distract her from the changes.

Can't believe that the carpet cleaning man woke up this sweetness just 20 minutes into her nap.

Red Velvet bakepops with Chocolate candy coating and Christmas Nonpareils

She really focused on eating the nonpareils off the top

Lily is addicted.  Straight up addicted.

Even Griffin liked it!  And he is not a big dessert guy, he's more of a beef jerky man.

The first bakepops I ever made.  *Sigh*, I love a goal that comes to fruition.