The North Pole

Today we had a chance to visit the North Pole! Yes, it's a busy time of year for Santa but they do make time to give boys and girls in the Lower Mainland a chance to see where all the magic happens. Actually, the logistics of getting to and from the North Pole is too much, so Santa arranged for the elves to bring the North Pole to us. They set it all up right in Lynn Valley Mall actually. It looks just like the real thing, I'm sure.

It was a super fun experience. The kids got to see the post office, where all their letters have gone to Santa. They learned how to fly the reindeer and sleigh, met an actual elf who invents many of the toys, decorated cookies at the bakery, met Mr. and Mrs. Claus, help to make some toys in the workshop and even made the wrapping paper for all the gifts. Enjoy the pictures!

 Reindeer flying school

 Chatting it up with Mrs. Claus. She reported that Santa is sleeping a lot, but that we could wake him up.

 Helping the elves to make some toys.

 A group shot in the toy workshop

 Santa needs some wrapping paper.

I had to add this last shot in. We went to a sushi restaurant for lunch afterwards. The kids sat at a table all by themselves while the 5 moms sat at the adults table. Can you believe that?!?! A first, not to mention a Christmas miracle in and of itself!

"Toys for the Naughty Children"

I've always wanted to go to the Children's Wish Breakfast. For those of you who are not from the Lower Mainland, it's toy drive for the holiday season. The idea is you bring an unwrapped toy and they put on a buffet breakfast. It was held at the Pan Pacific Hotel and runs from 6-9am. All the other years, I've always held back because it's all the way downtown and I'd never make it back in time for school. This year I decided that we'd go for since we are homeschooling and don't have to rush to be...well...anywhere! I brought up the idea with the kids about a month ago. They have different jars for different saving reasons. One of the jars is a 'Sharing' jar with the idea that this money is used for charity. When the kids get money, they split it up and put it into the four jars. I introduced the idea that mama and papa would match whatever money they had in the Sharing Jar and they could go to the store and buy a toy so that a needy child would have something to open on Christmas Day. Maddy understood the idea, Ethan needed a bit more convincing. He came around eventually and off we went to Target to find the presents. The title of this post comes from Ethan. Whenever he mentioned the toys he always said "Toys for the naughty children" instead. The phrase 'needy children' doesn't make sense to him, I guess he is still naive enough to not understand that everyone isn't as lucky as he is.

Yesterday we set our alarms to 6am and were able to leave the house by 7am. That is a record for us homeschoolers! :) The organizers did an amazing job with the logistics of getting so many people through the hotel, donate the toy and fed breakfast. The line up was very long and snaked around the lobby of the hotel. I was impressed with how quickly the line was moving. Anyway, it was a fun morning and it's something that I'd really like to do again with the kids. Hopefully by next year we'll be able to clear up the whole 'naughty/needy children' thing with Ethan!

 Standing in the line up.

 Finally made it to the front to drop off our toys.

 Sitting down to breakfast. Surprisingly Ethan didn't even eat. Early morning. He wasn't in the best of moods.

Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas visited our house this weekend. Oma wrote to tell him that they and Auntie Lyn would also be in town this weekend, so he was sure to pack presents and chocolate letters for everyone. The kids put their shoes outside the front door and we watched a video of Sinterklaas arriving in Holland while we waited for him to come. Suddenly there was a LOUD knock (read: pounding) at our front door. The kids rushed to the door, but Sinterklaas was so fast we didn't see him. Oma said she thought she saw the swish of the tail of his horse, but she can't be sure. The package was brought inside the house and the kids yelled a 'thank you' out into the night. The pictures say enough.

 Maddy loves the fancy dress she got for her Taryn doll.

 I think he likes it, but we can't tell for sure.

 

 This was Ethan's first time building 'small Lego'. He loved it and was so proud of himself.

Thank you for coming Sinterklaas! We love you!

Maddy's Choir Concert

Maddy joined the Zing! Children's Choir in September of this year. We liked the idea of her getting some musical exposure, she already loves to sing and it is a place she can make friends throughout the year (The program runs the entire year long, so kids are registered for a year at time). It has been a hit and she loves to go each week. The choir is split into 3 sections depending on age and Maddy is in the youngest RiZing group.

This past weekend was the choir's big Christmas Concert. Maddy was super excited for the concert and begged me to practice with her. I had to pull out my rusty piano skills to get the basic melody for one of the songs and thank goodness for YouTube to find the other. We practiced and practiced until she claimed that she was ready. Maddy was also very excited because both sets of grandparents AND Auntie Lyn were coming for the concert. What a treat!

Watching Maddy was so cool. It's amazing to see how confident she is becoming. The look of pride on her face was just priceless. After the concert there was a little reception in a separate room and Maddy just took off with her friends. I really love that she has the chance to develop friendships at her various after school activities. She's really coming into her own.

 This is the RiZing group. 

 The RiZing sang "Must Be Santa" with the ZingOne and Zing Two groups.

 With her friends at the reception.

DIDO at Burnaby Village Museum

Our most recent DIDO was organized by Liezel and Ed. Ed introduced us to a great Indian dosa restaurant that happens to be very close to our house. The food there brought me right back to our trip to India. Josh and I were in heaven! After stuffing ourselves we went over to the Burnaby Village Museum and carousel. It was all decorated and ready for the holiday season. It was a great day. The kids had a chance to sit and talk to Father Christmas, I accidently offended the gingerbread man and was roped into dancing with it and the kids had a great time on the carousel. A fun day all-around. Thanks to Ed and Liezel for organizing. Enjoy the pictures!

Mama's Dream Come True

Since the kids were born, I've had to put away my scrapbooking/card making supplies away. I do get the odd chance here and there when they are in bed, but who are we kidding right? I've dreamed of the day when Maddy was old enough to craft with me and that day sort of came a couple of weeks ago.

Maddy's Sparks group was having a fundraiser and needed families to contribute simple, cheap items for a craft or bake sale. I decided to make some paper ornaments that I made with my students from school one year. Maddy and I made some during homeschooling when Ethan was in preschool. Unfortunately, when Ethan came home and saw the crafts, he REALLY wanted to make some too. I told him that we could make some together to decorate our own house. I was pleasantly surprised when the whole crafting morning didn't turn into a gong show. It did help that Maddy already had experience with the craft from the day before. Ethan did really well and was really concentrating on the task for a long time.

I'm officially adding a craft room to my 'dream house' wish list!

Family Game Night

Occasionally, we get the chance to have a family game night. We've been trying to build our stock of games in the last few years. The trick is to find games that are fun for both the adults and kids. We have some standard games like Candyland, Guess Who?, Junior Monopoly and Trouble. However, I've always liked Sequence for Kids and now Qwirkle.

The funny thing about Trouble is that EVERY time Ethan plays, it's like he has horseshoes up his butt. So much so that he'll actually say, "That ok, I have horseshoes in my butt." I'm referring to the rule of having to roll a 6 to get your next man out and into the game. Strategy would tell you to move a man out whenever you roll a six because you never want to be 'stuck' at home solely because you couldn't roll a six. If Ethan happens to roll a 6 when he already has a man out, he insists on moving his current man 6 spaces instead of taking a second player out. It never stops he though. It seems that whenever he has needed it, the 6 comes up. Very frustrating yet hilarious for the rest of us.

The other night we played Qwirkle for the first time as a whole family. We've owned it since last Christmas and Maddy and I tried to play it, but I think we were playing with the wrong set of rules because the points seemed to be way too high. So Josh took a swing at it with the two kids one night and they seemed to 'get it'. The next night we tried it as a family. Let's just say that nothing beats having your @ss kicked by a 6 and 4 year old! In my defence, I did have the added job of keeping score, so I couldn't FULLY concentrate on the game at all times. (At least that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) Half way through I realized that they were really beating me to I was REALLY, TRYING to concentrate. My brain actually hurt as I was trying to find those double-scoring moves, all the while there's Ethan and Maddy singing and joking about and then scoring double points without barely trying. Anyway next time I'll make Josh keep track of the score. ;)