Memory Lane

Alex's post about sleeping babies brought back a lot of memories.  And today Nick finally got around to retrieving the photos we had on our old hard-drive, that have been lost to me for almost 4 years!!!!  Whilst browsing through them, I came across these adorable (if terrible quality - digital cameras were still expensive at that time, so we only had a rubbish, free one we got with our computer!) pics of my family sleeping......

Ben and daddy - at my aunt Adele's in downtown Toronto, Ben turned one on this holiday

not sleeping, but cute (if blurry!)

Ben at around 11 months, sleeping on an exhausted, pregnant mummy

They often slept mirror images of eachother!

I so wish we'd taken a better pic here, it is soooo adorable!

And finally, nothing to do with sleeping, but just cause they are so funny.....!

Au revoir Lucie!

All good things, so the saying goes, come to an end, and so the time to say goodbye had arrived.  The time has totally flown by and it seemed like Lucie was leaving us far too soon.  I did joke to Nick that we should perhaps lock her in the playroom and never let her leave (I promise I was only (half) joking Lucie!).......The kids really got to love her and we shall all miss her.

A couple of nights before she left, Lucie introduced us to La Galette des Rois.....

Calling out who should have which slice.....

Lucie does the honours.....

Ben finds the fève....

And is duly crowned King...

Then bestows the title of 'Queen' onto his dear sister Jasmine......

And then the next day we said our goodbyes :-(

Jasmine doesn't really like goodbyes, so masks it by playing around....

my quilt has been blogged about!

.....by my favourite online fabric store....Saints and Pinners - I feel so honoured :-) yay!

Baby Caleb

Introducing Caleb Emanuel George, my cousin Aaron's first baby.  It was a bittersweet moment when we heard he had been born on 15th December 2009.  Gail would have doted on him and the pleasure of his birth was tinged with the sadness at her not being here to witness it.  I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Caleb yet, but I look forward to doing so real soon :-)

Night at the Museum 1 and 2......

....times by TOO MANY TIMES!!!!

My mum bought these DVD's for Benjamin and Jasmine for Christmas as part of their present.  I didn't think I'd enjoy it as it's not really my kind of movie.  But what else are you supposed to do when housebound for 3 days straight on account of snow, and said snow has lost its appeal when you've been soaked and frozen? 
What you do is snuggle under a warm duvet on the comfy sofa with your children and watch DVD's with cups of tea/chocolate/mint tea.  So I watched Night at the Museum and actually really enjoyed it!  I then watched a little of number 2 (but was by now distracted by sleep).  The kids however, watched number 2 countless times over the next few days.  They were even able to recite parts of the movie randomly during play.....  Anyway, the movie has a big plus in it's favour.  It makes the museum seem like the most exciting, adventurous place on earth.  Now my two love the museum anyway, but as a direct result of watching these DVD's they were desperate to go back to the Natural History Museum in Oxford. It is a great, free, place to go on a sunday afternoon (I have blogged about this place before), especially when you have a visitor staying who has never been before.  So off we all went into Oxford....Nick, Me, Ben, Jas, Lucie and Godfrey.

And once again, the museum didn't fail to deliver......

First we made lion masks....

Then we got some backpacks, and went on a hunt around the museum, searching to match specimens from our backpacks to those around the museum, answering questions along the way.....

Other than that, we just had some plain FUN!

Snow FAIL!

We came......

We saw....

we didn't conquer.....

leaving already?

The story behind this doomed attempt?

As Nick had to be at work all week and didn't get to enjoy the snow with us, on Saturday he took us to a big hill near work where people were sledding. What a beautiful winter setting it was, complete with not so beautiful sub-zero temperatures (did you know that Benson - approx 40 mins from us experienced temps as low as those in the North Pole!!!???). The kids loved the walk (or rather the 'pull') to the slopes, but once there, had a change of heart and decided that sledding was not for them. It was probably for the best as our makeshift sleds (the kid's body boards and some dinner trays from the kitchen!) didn't work very well, and they would have been very disappointed if they had actually wanted to ride them down that amazing slope. So we had to give up on the idea. Nick could barely contain his disappointment. The kids, who were fast appraoching numbness, were just glad to be leaving. In fact, Jasmine actually cried she was so cold :-(

gorgeous fields of untouched snow - I was tempted to run through, but I no longer knew if I possessed any feet to do the running!

it really could have been the North Pole - we even had some Husky lookalikes :-)

So, to warm us all up and to restore some happiness to our darling children, we went to a nearby pub, with a beautiful fire (that some other family had the audacity to sit next to before we got there) and stunning views....made all the more stunning by the fact that we were now on the warm side of the glass...

Jasmine was happy once again - especially when the tea she ordered came in a whole pot just for her, and a jug of milk too!

Ben was just as pleased with his hot chocolate and marshmellows

Oh, and a lastly, a peek at the snowman Ben made a few days ago all by himself.....

Star of the week AND snow - fantastic!

Each week in Jasmine's class, one child who has done exceptionally well with helping, behaving and working hard, get to be star of the week.  And for this achievement, they get to take home 'Godfrey'.  Godfrey is the class guinea pig, and thank God, not a real one.  Jasmine had been faithfully telling me each friday who the star of the week was, and was getting a little frustrated that it was never her - despite her always making such an effort.  This week (on a tuesday instead, maybe because of the holidays), Jasmine was finally named 'Star of the Week', and I picked her and Ben up from school, with Godfrey and his diary in tow.
The idea is for Godfrey to take part in the child's life for a few days and for it to be recorded in the diary.  So first off, as it had started snowing, Godfrey had a little ride on the kids old tractor in the snowy back garden.

He then also got to have a pretend tea party, some real rice for dinner (which he duly ate all of), watch some of 'Night at the Museum 2' and then, after Jas and Ben's bath, he got to snuggle up with Jasmine.  Sometime in the middle of the night, he also got to snuggle up with mummy, daddy, Ben AND Jasmine, as our lovely children invaded our bed!

By evening, the snow was coming down really fast, so I snapped a few photos.....I have joined the photography club at work and our theme is 'Winter', so I wasn't going to waste the opportunity!

the sky above

our lane

Then we woke up to the good news that school was closed for the day (and I got to work from home).  So as soon as we were dressed and breakfast was over, off we all piled outside.  Me, Ben, Jas and Lucie - the french student on a placement at the kids' school, who is staying with us for the month (the kids already love her by the way - she is a natural!)

We decided to knock on next door and rope in Gabriel and his spanish au pair, Lara.

Jasmine and Godfrey making snow angels

Ben's snow angel

Time to build a snowman!

teamwork....this body is getting BIG and HEAVY!

so heavy that Lara pitches in....

Jasmine looks on, drenched in snow....

now, how about that for a snowman!

french Lucie with her french snowman

we all had a laugh that the snowman is nearly as big as Lara!

but, despite all the fun, it was just too cold and snowman was abandoned for tea, cookies and central heating!