Brownies

This year Jillian joined Brownies.  She tried Sparks (pre-Brownies group) when she was 4 but wasn't a fan and after only a few weeks she decided to quit.  Fast forward 3 years where she has 3 good friends in our local Brownies group, including a bestie from school who changed schools this year.  Wednesday nights at Brownies means Jillian gets to see Elli at least once a week now.

Jillian with some of her best friends

Tonight was their enrollment ceremony, where the girls receive their pin, troop stripe for sash and badges they have earned so far.  Jillian is technically a second-year brownie because of her age even though this is her first year.  Between her recent brownie/guide camp experience and other badges earned, she's making quite a good start on badges for her sash.

Here I am at one of my own Brownie ceremonies back in the early 1980's

The uniforms certainly have chainged quite a bit!

But many other things are still the same...same flag, toadstool & doll, brownie promises

Introducing Jingle the elf

 

We have a new visitor to our house this holiday season. An Elf on the Shelf arrived at our house, special delivery from the North Pole! The kids were so excited. They read the letter Santa left for them and quickly got started on a discussion for our Elf's name. After tossing around a few ideas, we all finally settled on Jingle.

The kids are hoping Jingle is a good little elf who doesn't get into too much trouble.

reading their personal letter from Santa

a quick visit

Leah and I took a quick visit to Montreal for the weekend to visit with Alicia and Noah.  I can't believe this little guy is now 3 months old, he's changed so much since we last saw him at only a week old!

Alicia loved having her big cousin around to hang out and play (and I think Leah enjoyed being the oldest for 2 days).

It was a short but fun visit with my sister and brother-in-law.  They are in the process of buying a new home, I was excited to see it and walk around.  They have quite a few renovations planned so it'll look quite different the next time I visit.

Leah and Alicia on our walk to the park

Leah started out with a little stick...then found something a little bigger!

Alicia giving Noah a sweet kiss...then giving him a ride across the room

my gorgeous sister

I don't know how she manages a 20 month old and 3 month old at the same time, but I know she is doing an amazing job and I can already see how much Alicia adores her baby brother.

Noah is really smiling and laughing now!

Leah loved getting in some snuggles with Noah (even if sometimes he didn't want to be hugged)

One of Leah's highlights from the weekend, a Christmas carousel in the mall.

We rode twice...once on a reindeer, then on a sleigh.

time for Christmas cards

And that means a photo shoot.  I generally torture my children twice a year with photo shoots...one in the summer months (preferably on a beach) and one for a holiday card.  There are many other pictures taken throughout the year but those are generally candid and just taking pictures of activities.  These 2 photo shoots I do each year start out with me picking the kids clothes out (they need to coordinate after all), and begging for cooperation.  Usually this involves some sort of bribe and this year is no different.  I told them I heard about a special delivery Santa makes at the end of November (or rather, a delivery his elves make).  They are all very excited to see what shows up on our doorstep tomorrow.

This year I really wanted to take the Christmas card picture at the farm.  It makes for such a beautiful background.  Unfortunately it's so cold the horses are all inside so no random horses wandering over the fence into the picture...maybe in the spring.

My favourite pic of the bunch - the kids all have very sweet smiles here, I love how comfortable and casual they look.

Another favourite, I love the fence and pathway in the background

It was c-c-c-cold out!  After a few minutes of pictures without hats and mittens, the kids were happy when I said "let's put them on". 

This is one of my favourites but didn't make the cut because Leah isn't looking at the camera

I took this one of Leah while we were in the barn watching Jillian ride...she kept doing this pose every time I took a picture, she's blowing me a kiss

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing and decorated with mini reese peanut butter cups are always a big hit (Jeff is thankful we don't have any peanut allergies in the house so his beloved peanut butter is safe).

Since we had a busy evening between gymnastics and parent-teacher conferences, Jeff picked up his own birthday meal on the way home for us to eat in the 45 minutes we had after gymnastics and before conferences.  (both excellent conferences by the way, Kyle and Jillian both have amazing teachers and both kids are doing fantastic).







Our fun new addition to the playroom.  A few days before Jeff's birthday I went and picked up his birthday gift...foosball! 

I found a foosball table on kijiji for a great price.  It weighs a ton and only just fit into the van with the legs off...but once we finally got it into the basement and set up we were ready to go.  It's a good solid table, I think we will have years of use out of it.  Kyle has already played with his friends and the kids have each had tournaments with Jeff.

she shoots...she scores!

professional cup stacker?

The other day Leah was busy in the kitchen, I heard some strange noises and this is what I found when I went in to investigate.  She had taken all our cups out of the drawer and stacked them very nicely!

awards, allergies, a tooth extraction and amazing report cards

Tuesday was a busy day for our family.  It started out with Leah and I hopping over to school to watch Jillian get an award for organization (not sure where she gets this from...it must skip a generation).  I'm so proud of Jillian, she really does excel in school in all areas!

After the award assembly I took Jillian out of school for an appointment with her allergist.  She already has several allergies including anaphylactic tree-nut allergy.  She tested allergic to hazelnuts when she was 5 but we avoid all tree nuts in general.  Lately I've been suspecting a sesame allergy because of reactions to hummus and some bagels.  Off to do a scratch test which is unpleasant to say the least.  But Jillian was a trooper and we were able to confirm she is indeed now allergic to sesame seeds.  We re-rested the tree nuts with hazelnuts still getting a big reaction and now almonds as well.  Once home it was time to order Jillian a new medicalert bracelet with updated info.  She hasn't been wearing it regularly but the doctor strongly suggested she wear it at all times now.  She has also been moved from epi-pen jr to regular epi-pen.

Leah at the dr office...so very patient as she was dragged all around today!  She did enjoy a free slice of pizza for lunch after we helped with pizza lunch at the school.

 

Kyle may not have allergies but he does have adult molars coming out the sides of his gums, not fun.  The baby molars weren't loose which meant an extraction.  The worst part really is the needles for the freezing.  And it was both sides so he had a full frozen upper lip.  While in there the dentist saw an adult tooth also coming in behind a somewhat loose eye-tooth so that one came out too (since he was frozen anyhow...what's another tooth being pulled?).  This means Kyle is now down to 2 remaining baby teeth, bottom molars which are getting loose.  It's up in the air whether Kyle will completely lose all 20 baby teeth before Leah even starts, we'll see. 

And finally it was report card day.  I'm thrilled with both Kyle & Jillian's report cards.  Jillian's is no surprise, an excellent student in all areas, so proud of how hard she works every day.  Kyle has had a great start to the school year.  I've been talking to his regular teacher along with music and english teacher regularly, things are going well and I'm very proud of my buddy and his hard work.