It's PG Day

It's so hard to believe 2 years have passed since Peter and Gaëlle were able to physically join our family. They were in our hearts for so much longer than that, but the reality of family life with 2 little kids is certainly no match for the dreaming and longing for their presence. They have brought so much joy to our lives.

This is just a little of the craziness and joy that they exhibit every single day. Dressing up madness from last week.

And we will keep the day low key to an extent because of their struggle to handle large events, but we did have a special meal complete with a coconut lemon cake. Yum. We love you and thank God for the blessings that you add to our lives.

What a year it's been

Gaëlle What a Year It's Been Peter What a Year It's Been I came across this great printable for the kids at a blog called 30 Handmade Days. Peter and Gaëlle were thrilled to fill it out and to take a look back at the year 2011. As you can see Gaëlle has set herself the huge goal of "BALLET". She may need a little bit of assistance with that but I'm sure if she continues to remind us of her goal, it will become reality. Peter didn't put down his favorite book but since then, he has decided "Captain Underpants" are his favorite. Such a 10 year old boy!

Winter fun

  

We’ve had a crazy winter with some nice cold days followed by some unseasonably warm days. Last Sunday was one of those warm days. I was itching to go out for a run, so Kaylin and Robin took Peter and Gaëlle to the Oval to skate and it was just perfect.

Of course Peter was all pro and it was all about the speed. It’s fun to see him attack the ice and just go. Love it. And we love the Oval. Thanks Halifax.

Christmas Part 2

I’ll just finish off the holiday posts with a couple more pictures of the 2nd Christmas. When the girls and I got back from NJ, we had a couple more presents to share with the kids and a couple of finds from thrift stores. The Fancy Nancy doll and books are treasures found by Grammy. Fancy Nancy was a bit of a theme and Gaëlle loved it all.

  Peter loves art and he was thrilled to receive several art books and activity books. He sat right down and started creating. It’s quite fun to see what he comes up with and he is more than happy to show them off.

But I think the excitement is finally over. School starts tomorrow and things should get back to a routine. I think we all need a bit of structure so it will be good.

Happy New Year

 

This year we ended up with a quiet New Year’s Eve. We briefly talked about something bigger but we opted for quiet and low key. We had an evening of “make your own subs” and even had a couple of big kids join us before they headed out for the evening.

We couldn’t forget the “make your own ice cream sundae” and Gaëlle certainly got into the spirit of it all. Fortunately her mouth was as big as her eyes and she was able to finish her bowl.

  We never have to worry about Peter finishing his bowl. He can put away the food.  Subs and sundaes on New Year’s Eve is a tradition I grew up with. Through the years, we have celebrated both ways; big and small. However, we always manage to fit in the subs and ice cream even if occasionally we have it on January 1.

 

Now that Peter and Gaëlle have joined our family we have started a new tradition; Haitian pumpkin soup. This is our 2nd year to celebrate on New Year’s Day with Soup Joumou. It requires a bit of preparation but is basically a beef stew with a twist. This is a tribute to Haitian independence when newly freed slaves consumed the soup which had previously been forbidden by their French owners.

We spent a little bit of time in the afternoon playing some games; Bananagrams and Fancy Nancy. As you can tell, some of the adults were not very enthusiastic but ironically won the game.  But don’t worry, there will be more chances to play if Gaëlle has anything to say about it.

Road Trip

 

As soon as Christmas was over, the 2 older girls and I drove down to New Jersey to visit my parents and spend some time in New York. It was a much needed and valued break.

When we arrived, my parents had a 2nd Christmas for us complete with stockings.

And fun cozy slippers chosen by my dad. Too cute. 

Kaylin spent some time going through my grandfather’s old records. There are boxes of them, but we only asked Grampy to haul out a few. He had an extensive collection, of which my dad has kept a portion.

Of course, my mom cooked up a storm for us. We hit a few thrift stores but don’t have photographic evidence of that. 

And we broke out the new “Bananagram” game.  Emily is definitely the queen altho the rest of us held our own.

New York was packed full of people, but we managed to make our way over to Rockefeller Center so we could see the skating rink and the huge tree.

The girls started off at the World Trade Center and were impressed by the new building. 

I just thought I would throw this in to prove that I was indeed on this trip. My only photo.

We also made it to a Broadway play. This was completely different from most of the plays we’ve seen as it was operatic. But the talent was amazing as always.

I’ll just end with a picture of the girls in Times Square. Again, completely packed but totally fun.

Christmas 2011

The Baking: I personally didn’t have the desire to do much baking this year and yet we still managed to have lots of baked goodies and we made some great memories in the kitchen.

And let’s just say that Kaylin stepped up to the plate and was so patient with Gaëlle. Because let’s face it, when Gaëlle is in the kitchen the only thing we hear is, “Can I do that?” “Can I help?” Over and over and over again.

She got to help with the legendary “Pink Stuff”. We like to tease Josh about pretty much the only holiday dish he used to eat until he grew up a bit, but the truth is that we all look forward to it.

 The final product. Maybe it’s not all that impressive but we have fond memories of the family that first served this to us and we can’t have a holiday meal without it.

Kaylin continued her kitchen magic on Christmas Day and for some strange reason, Gaëlle temporarily lost her interest in “helping”.

The Fun: It was such a joy to  have the family together and all in one place. The days leading up to Christmas were busy and we didn’t get to see each other daily, but we did have some laughs when we were together.

  

 

Christmas Day Hits: It’s hard to narrow down the day to just a few moments but we had fun with some of our new goodies.

 We start off our morning with stockings and this year we had a guest who provided some hilarity. Love the head scratcher.   We had a few rough moments earlier this month when Peter realized his expectations for Christmas were not going to line up with our family ways. However, we talked them out and today he did great. I was so proud of him and his enthusiasm and his great attitude. Believe it or not, Josh did not get LEGO for Christmas. This was Peter’s present. However, it seemed just a tad beyond Peter’s abilities and interest and so being the caring loving big brother that he is, Josh sacrificed his time and found himself putting together the big Star Wars LEGO set. Ah, memories.Peter doesn’t spend a lot of time playing video games but he got a couple of new ones and after the LEGO marathon, he just had to settle back for some Mario.

Gaëlle was thrilled with her new craft sets. She obsesses about a few things and one of them is “lip gloss”. She calls it “Lips”, as in “Mom, can I have some lips?” So she was pretty excited to get her own lip gloss making kit.

She also did great today. The excitement was really too much for her at times however she managed to keep it together and also did so well at showing her enthusiasm and pleasure with her gifts. When I put her to bed tonight I praised her for how well she did and she just beamed.

Probably the most loved gift of the day was GUM. Josh gave everybody gum with their presents. Peter was the first one to open a present from Josh. When Gaëlle saw 3 packages of gum she let out a “WOW!” Her face was just stunned. She sat back down and in a few moments she asked for her gift from Josh. Yes, in addition to a hand puppet, there were 3 packages of gum which she promptly opened. By 9:45 she had already eaten 5 pieces. We figure she’ll go through a package a day.

Merry Christmas.

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth

Probably no need to comment on this. Gaëlle lost another tooth this week and is just pure cuteness.

Here's a flashback from the past when Kaylin was the same age, at the same time of year, and missing the same front teeth. So cute.

Potatoe Love

Some people are just so efficient when it comes to all things domestic. Now that I am not getting home until 5:00, I need to be that person. I already do my meal list for the week and I try to get it all ready the night before but I'm not always successful. That's where I need some good ideas and this is one of them. I followed a link to the following post and was inspired by the ideas. I took away lots of ideas, but so far our family's favorite is the double stuffed potatoes. I take a 5 lb bag of potatoes and bake them in the oven. Then I cut the potatoes in half and scoop out the cooked potatoes. Add 1 block of cream cheese, entire package of cooked bacon crumbled, and 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. Mix together and restuff the potatoes. Wrap each potato in place in freezer bag. Instant meal. Add a salad, fish, leftover meat and we're good to go.

A great Christmas link about the best toys

I read this post and thought it was so true and perfect for this time of year. I have such fond memories of Kaylin as a little girl and all her creative play. Any time we finished a box of cereal or purchased something that came in a box she would ask, "Can I have that box?" And she would take the box and spend hours in her room creating villages. If there was Styrofoam, she hit the jackpot. But after a while the room would be overtaken by boxes and Robin would be known to come in with garbage bags and then tears would ensue. But that didn't stop her. The requests would continue to come, "Can I have that box?" And the village would be created all over again.