dundurn castle

The 25 Days of Christmas continued...
This weekend we took the kids ice skating on Saturday, which was great for the kids, but not so nice for my feet! OUCH!
On Sunday we went on a tour of Dundurn Castle. All decorated for a Victorian Christmas circa 1855. It was beautiful! I am amazed at how many details the girls remembered from our tour.



You can see the girls teeny tiny at the base of the columns at the front doors of Dundurn. We will definitely be going back again!

i ♥ faces - "sweet dreams"

May I present my beautiful nephew Jack.....



I ♥ Faces theme this week in Sweet Dreams...I bet a lot of the photos will be of babies this week. They ARE a little easier to catch sleeping. Check out the other entries at

gingerbread men

Our 25 Days of Christmas is underway!
Day 1- The girls got new pjs and we started reading Judy Moody Holly Joliday.
Day 2- We watched the Polar Express with egg nog and candy canes.
Day 3- We read 2 more chapters of Holly Joliday.
Day 4- We made gingerbread man cookies....



The girls had a lot of fun with that activity!



Notice the green and red nail polish?


Now we get to eat them!

the santa claus parade

All bundled up waiting for the parade to start last weekend!





Here comes Santa Claus!

another count down

The girls got the typical Advent Calendar with the chocolates, and we are doing the 25 Days of Christmas as a count down...but last year I found and painted the cutest count down ever!



We put 2 candies inside each little door. So now the girls get the chocolate one in the morning with breakfast, and the candy from the snowman in the evening. Lucky girls!

it's beginning to feel a lot like christmas!

I came across the BEST idea ever from a friend's blog...
The 25 Days of Christmas...sort of an advent of activities for the month of December. The whole point is to spend a lot of family time together. I love it!
I am only doing the 24 days of Christmas...we are going to stop the countdown on the 24th....I figure they are going to have tons of extra special things on Christmas Day!





We opened the first envelope tonight, "Put your pjs on and come back out to the living room to read the first chapter of Holly Joliday"...(a Judy Moody chapter book that we will read a chapter at a time throughout the month) At first the girls weren't sure why this was special, but I think I built the activities up too much....once they got their new p.j.s that were laid out on their beds to kick start the month, and had the first chapter read to them, they really liked the extra attention....

Some of the other activities the girls will have to look forward to are:
-make a Christmas tree ornament
-eat dessert before dinner
-tour Dundurn Castle
-drive around to look at the Christmas light....don't forget to take along hot chocolate!
-go to the Festival of Lights in Niagara Falls
-make peanut butter and bird seed covered pine cones for the birds
-play a board game in front of the Christmas tree
-make gingerbread cookies
And if the weather actually gives us Winter at some point this month, we will also go ice skating and tobogganing at night and make a snowman together.
I am REALLY looking forward to all the fun we are going to have!
I wonder what we will do tonight?

I ♥ Faces - "We ♥ Tooshies"

Another photo challenge....this picture has already been up on my blog before, but I love it for the We ♥ Tooshies theme. How can you take pictures of bowling without getting a lot of tooshies in the shots?



How many haven't used this position at some point when bowling? Classic kid stance!
Check out the other entries at

I ♥ Faces - Sun Flare

I have been following I ♥ Faces for quite a while, but have never had the nerve to enter their contests. Well, I decided to bite the bullet and give it a shot! (excuse the pun! ~ that actually wasn't intentional)
This picture was taken in September on one of the last really warm evenings. I was actually trying to capture a silhouette, but managed to get a bit of sun flare. I love the calmness of the picture....considering 2 seconds before Abby had been flailing her arms and chasing seagulls! But when I look at this picture, it is exactly what the beach is to me....dipping your feet in the chilly water, squishing the wet sand between your toes and listening to the calming sounds of the water lapping up onto the shore....ahhhh



This is definately a technique I want to play with some more...
Check out the other pictures in the contest by clicking on the I ♥ Faces button!

a last look at the nice weather...miss you already!

Now that most of the pictures I am going to take over the next few months will contain snugly sweaters, hats, and scarves, I thought I would post a couple of pictures reminiscent of the warmer weather! Although I am totally grateful for the extended, slightly warmer weather we have had this fall, and dare I say, I am actually looking forward to a bit of snow, I already miss the days of tank tops and bare feet......hurry back!

...and the costumes

Finally, the Halloween costumes! We tried to go out in the afternoon to take some really good pictures, but when we got to the location, the girls said it was too cold and refused to give me 5 minutes....which is kind of funny because later that night trick or treating, it was freezing! And they had no problem going all the way around the block! They both promised me that they would dress up again and we could go out to take more pictures, but I think now that Halloween is done...it's done! Now we are onto Christmas Wish Lists. So this is the best I've got!







I think Emma may have been born in the wrong decade! She was totally 'digging' the hippie costume! And the 'whatever' attitude Abigail was able to pull off...man, am I ever in trouble with that girl! (But people knew she was dressed up as Avril Lavigne!)