Skating with the Hurricanes

Remember Paisley's first time skating? We propped her up on the Lethbridge Hurricanes' bench for a photo (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdschroeder/4165359958)

Yesterday was the Hurricanes' family skate, so we got another bench shot, this time posing with Hurricane defenceman Reid Jackson. It's not as fun an angle on the shot, but there were a lot more people milling about this time.

Paisley's Valentine's Outfit

Paisley asked me for a new skirt for heart day. One she could twirl in. So I took her to the fabric store, and we picked out some fabric. Of course I procrastinated til the night before, but I got it done in time for her v-day party with her friends:

Paisley's first card

Paisley loves crafting... usually I set her up in my craft room with markers and her stamps and lots of paper... (we go through A LOT of paper at our house).

This morning I was making a card for her friend who's turning 2 (party this afternoon) and she decided she wanted to make Libby a card too. I'm impressed with her card making skills. I only helped her with a bit of writing, and a bit of glueing.







We did get a fat lip in the process though.

Hi, I have an announcement...

On July 4th


I'm going to be a big sister!

Christmas Baking

Following the gingerbread house on Saturday, we decided to do a little Christmas baking. Paisley was anxious to help.

Her job: roll the cookies in crushed candy cane and place them on the trays.




At one point she combined several balls of dough to make a GIANT cookie.


... and then made a snowman.


Once all that was done, we watched the cookies bake.


We're saving some for friends and family, but we also sampled them (including Paisley's giant cookie).


Tamara will share the recipe for these cookies in the next few days.

Gingerbread House Building and Decorating

We decided this year was the year to start making gingerbread houses. :) Paisley's really into helping with baking and decorating (and building and fixing), and pretty much everything. She's also very into posing and saying "CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE"













She was very good about using the candies as building materials rather than eating them, too. We snacked on leftovers when construction was complete.

Skating party

Today was the annual U of L skating party at the Enmax Centre. This was our second year going; you may remember seeing photos of Paisley crying while skating, sitting, and visiting Santa last year.

Plenty more smiles this year. I'm convinced it's the skates:



We continue to work on the finer points of skating:






She's showing improvement with her balance and comfort on the ice every week. Of course it always ends up with "carry me ... go fast":



No crying for Santa this time around, but she was still pretty tentative:



And for good measure, Tamara took a nice photo of Mark and I, the CanesCast guys, at centre ice by the Hurricanes logos:

Ready for Tea

Friends

While in the BC Lower Mainland post-Mexico, Paisley and I took a road trip to visit some friends just south of the border. I've known Katie for almost 2 years now, via an online community, but this is the first time we actually met IRL (in real life).

We had such a blast.

Our girls were instant friends:











And Katie and I really enjoyed our visit:



And little Luke was adorable, and such a content little guy:



It was a great day! We went shopping at Joann's (so jealous of all my US friends), and Katie had picked me up some crafty stuff before the trip, and even let me ship an order to her :). We left a couple gifts behind too...

Corn Maze and Pumpkin Farm

When we were in the BC Lower Mainland, following our Mexico trip, Dara and James took us to a pumpkin patch. Paisley loved it... and has been talking about pumpkin patches ever since. I let her choose 2 small pumpkins while we were there... one for her and one for Grandma









I've noticed that no grocery stores seem to be stocking pumpkins this year... so we found a farm that has a cornmaze and pumpkins, and thought we'd get our larger pumpkins.

There was a petting zoo.. but Paisley wouldn't go near any of the fences:





Then we did the mini hay bale maze:


Then into the large corn maze. We let Paisley lead for the first bit.









The goal was to reach the tower:







Paisley got a little tired of walking:





Rosy cheeks and bright nose:



They don't let you go right in the pumpkin patch.. we had to choose our pumpkins from the mounds of them in the barn.

I picked one, Josh picked one, and Paisley picked another one:


Then at the check out, they said it was 3 for $1, so we got a couple gourds too.

Pumpkin carving on Saturday!