I'm a little late writing our holiday letter this year, but I must admit I did enjoy stressing less about getting it out before Christmas! We hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday this year.
Looking back, I realized at the beginning of 2016 we still had one in diapers (if only for overnight)! It seems like ages ago. Rachel has come so far, and seems so much more grown up and capable now!
January got us off to the sleepy start to the year that it usually does. The girls resumed their swimming lessons, and Laura continued her drama classes and practicing with her 'mini' cheerleading team for their competition in February. Grandma and Grandpa Maitland came up for a visit after her competition for an early birthday celebration for Laura and myself. Laura received the video game 'Mario Party' from Santa, so she wanted to have a Mario-themed birthday party, which was a lot of work, but a lot of fun! She, too, has grown so much this year - her reading has improved markedly and she just seems so much more mature and socially capable. People are constantly remarking on what a lovely child she is, and we are inclined to agree. [wink]
We were involved in various homeschool programs in the spring: sugar bush tours and science classes, etc. Easter weekend we had dinner at my mom's and celebrated my Aunt Pat's 80th birthday with family in Hamilton. Laura lost her first tooth exactly five and a half years after it came in.
Although we had been casually looking for a new house outside of town for the last year or so, we started looking much more seriously once the snow was gone this spring. We replaced the flooring on our second floor and did a few more upgrades here and there around our house so it would be market-ready. Unfortunately, the housing market in this area is difficult for buyers right now, and we still have not found what we are looking for (or weren't quick enough! Here's hoping 2017 is a better year for that.)
We tend to get busier as the spring goes on - lots of little friend's birthday parties, and at the beginning of May we celebrate Josh's and Rachel's. Rachel turned four this year and we had a cute Teddy Bear Picnic party for her at the park. We also surprised her with a trip to Great Wolf Lodge (an indoor water park in Niagara). We were fortunate enough to have both Grandmas be able to come out for Mother's Day brunch this year, too. For our ninth anniversary Josh and I snuck away for a few hours to try the Timber Challenge high ropes course at Blue Mountain. It was certainly a challenge, but a really fun afternoon together (and a bit scary!). At the end of May, and after reading the books, Laura and I used the tickets we were gifted for our birthdays to see 'The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe' in Stratford. We enjoyed the one on one time with each other and made some fun memories.
At the beginning of the summer, Laura started playing baseball. Rachel graduated nursery school in June - an emotional milestone for Mama, for sure. We certainly miss the staff there and the program they run; they were fantastic. Josh had two gigs with his band in three weeks. Things started to get busier! The girls sold lemonade a couple times at various yard sales this summer and made some good cash! Father's Day weekend we visited StoryBook Park. There were lots of end-of-school-year parties and birthday parties and good bye parties to attend.
The first week of July, the girls attended a dance day camp, which they loved. It was weird for me to have a few hours completely to myself that week, but I managed to get through it! [wink] The following week we went on the "Girls' Annual Geography Lesson", as I have started calling it. This year we travelled to each of the five Great Lakes on a road trip with my mom. We visited various family and friends who hosted us for a few of the nights, and we also spent two nights on Mackinac Island, where there are no vehicles, just horses and bikes. It was quite a unique and memorable experience! We made our way back home through Sault Ste. Marie, Manitoulin Island, and Tobermory which were incredibly beautiful. We sure were excited to see Daddy by the time we got home, though! He had been working hard every night recording several different artists he had the house to himself. Later in the month, he also recorded the first annual Live & Original artists from a competition put on by the Town of Collingwood. It was a big project to take on while working full-time at his regular job, but the Town was impressed with his work and have already asked him back again next year. We hosted another Japanese student for a few weeks through the summer, and kept ourselves busy entertaining her, camping, visiting the zoo, etc.
Rachel started music lessons in the summer, and we had lots of park playdates with our friends that we only usually get to see in the summer.
In September, Josh escaped up North to his buddy's cabin for a week to record their band's second off the grid, solar-powered album. They set out to accomplish eight songs, and ended up doing twice that much! He had an awesome time, and when we came to pick him up, the boys performed a show for us on the dock. So much fun! After that we headed out to Brighton for Cousin's Weekend 3.0 with the Maitland branch of the family, and the following weekend to Toronto for cousin Ellery's birthday party. Laura also resumed her music lessons and cheerleading for the fall.
The first weekend in October Sam and Ruth came to visit and we had a really awesome time at Blue Mountain's 'Community Day' where all the zip-lining, rollercoaster, and mini-putt were free for locals! After the very hot summer we had endured, we were grateful for the cooler fall temperatures and enjoyed more hiking and outdoor activities. Later in October, my sister and her wife had their first baby - my first, very own niece! The girls are very excited about their first FIRST cousin! They are still living in Halifax, so we didn't get to meet her until they brought her home for Christmas (an agonizing wait for me!) For Halloween this year we dressed up as The Wizard of Oz. Daddy was the Tin Man, Mommy was the Scarecrow, our dog, Chester, was the Cowardly Lion, Laura was the Wicked Witch, and Rachel was our Dorothy. We even borrowed Grandma's little dog to be our Toto.
In November, we celebrated my mom's 60th birthday by driving down to Florida for a whirlwind trip to Disney World. We had a fun but exhausting trip - five days is not quite enough to cram everything in! Once we arrived home, everything was basically in full swing for Christmas. We enjoyed celebrating Advent again this year with our elf, Buddy, and had a lovely holiday with both my and Josh's sides of the family. Now that we are all rested up, we are looking forward to what the new year will bring us, and we hope you all are too!
Happy New Year!
Dec. 1 Buddy the Elf returned this morning, delighting the kids with a game of Hide & Seek. He left a series of clues for them, leading to his hiding spot...
Well hello again Laura and Rachel,
I hear you have been excited for me
to come back this year -
but you'll have to find me first!
This is your first clue,
you'll find the second clue
in the downstairs bathroom
#2: Aha! You found it!
Collect this candle and
look for clue #3 on the TV stand.
#3: You found clue #3! Collect this candle
and look for clue #4
under Rachel's bed.
#4: Congratulations!
You found clue #4!
You will find clue #5
where you get your forks.
And don't forget the candle!
#5: You have done a great job
finding all of the clues, girls.
The last place you look
is where you'll find me:
somewhere in the kitchen
that's warm and light...
#6: You found me!
I knew you girls liked Hide & Seek! *elicits giggle from Laura*
Now that I am here,
I will join you for Advent
to remind you about Christmas Spirit.
Today, you can take the candles you collected
to the First Light Festival
to kick off the holiday season.
Love, Buddy
We went over and met Grandma to see the First Light Festival, and watched her choir perform. They light over 5000 candles; it was really lovely.
Dec. 2
Good morning Laura and Rachel!
I know you have been excited for this,
so let's put up the tree today!
Love, Buddy
We didn't actually get time to put the tree up until the next day because we had to pack up and get on the road for Laura's cheerleading competition. The girls were happy to finally be putting it up when we did, though!
Dec. 3
Laura and Rachel,
Spend some family time together today
cheering on Laura at her
cheerleading competition!
Love, Buddy
We had lots of fun cheering Laura on at her competition, and her team won first place in their division!
Dec. 4
Hi Girls!
I had lots of fun
playing with your toys here!
You should consider
sharing some of them with
kids who don't have as many! Love, Buddy
The girls did a good job pairing down their toy collection, specifically a bunch of stuffed animals! (Hooray!)
Dec. 5
Good morning, Girls!
Why am I in a boot, you ask?
Well, last year we learned about Hannukah,
and this year I would like you
to learn about Siinterklaas
and Saint Nicholas Day.
Love, Buddy
Because Buddy wasn't really on the ball, we had to go to the library to learn about Saint Nicholas Day today. There wasn't much material we could find about it, but I was able to find a blurb in one book about holidays in December. I sat with Laura and read it to her while Rachel paid no attention. Laura paraphrased it afterward to Rachel, and then we put some oats and a carrot in our boots that evening (you know, for Zwarte Piet to take to Saint Nicholas' horse) and he left them some new puzzles and some treats!
Dec. 6
Hello Laura & Rachel Today is the day to let the Big Guy know what you would like for Christmas! Love, Buddy
After being very excited about their surprises from Saint Nicholas and Zwarte Piet, the girls wrote their letters to Santa. Laura did a very good job sounding out and spelling all the words in her letter, only needing a little bit of help. We took them to the post office to mail when we were done.
Dec. 7
Laura and Rachel, Let's have some fun with Rudolph noses today! We'll make some Christmas treats to give to your friends. Love, Buddy
The girls really enjoyed making these treats to hand out to our friends, and Daddy commented that we were like little elves at a Reindeer Treat Factory. Mommy did the cutting, Rachel drew/ coloured the faces, and Laura wrote "Merry Christmas" on the back of each of them. It was fun!
Dec. 8
Good morning, Laura and Rachel I dreamt of ghosts last night - just like in 'A Christmas Carol'. Perhaps you should read up on it today. Oh, and I have tickets for you to go see the play tonight! Love, Buddy
We unfortunately incurred a winter storm this evening, and were seriously considering not going, as it was an hour's drive away. But we decided to tough it out and we ended up really enjoying the show - the acting and singing were quite well done! The best part was when Scrooge was hiding behind his bed curtains and peeking out nervously awaiting the ghosts and the girls were giggling so much, the whole audience started laughing with them. Afterwards, someone came up and told us that was their favourite part of the whole show. <3
Dec. 9
Good morning, Girls! What a storm, eh?! Maybe you could show some Christmas Spirit today and help your neighbours shovel their driveways! Love, Buddy P.S. How did you enjoy the show?! We didn't get out quite early enough to shovel the whole driveway, but the girls did help!
Dec. 10
Laura and Rachel,
Today is the day for painting!
Go paint some
Christmas ornaments after swimming lessons!
Love, Buddy
I usually find this activity a little stressful (getting paint in places it doesn't belong), but we actually had fun this year, and I'm really excited to see how Laura's, in particular, turned out. She painted each of us on her ornament, and I just so love her drawing/ painting style right now.
Dec. 11
Wheeeeeee! Laura and Rachel,
Let's go sledding
today as a family!
Yahoo!
Love, Buddy
We took the girls to a toboggan hill we have never been to before. Josh debated bringing his snowboard, but didn't want to dig it out of the crawl space. Anyway, we all actually really enjoyed ourselves. Josh and I did a few runs with them, but had just about as much fun watching them go on their own. They had never been down such a big hill, and Rachel especially was loving it. <3
Dec. 12
Ho Ho Ho! Good morning, Laura and Rachel! Why don't you go and visit Santa Claus at the mall today? Love, Buddy i feel like this one was a bit half-assed, but rachel was so excited when she found buddy this morning wearinga santa beard.
Dec. 13
Laura and Rachel, Today I would like you to show Christmas Spirit by spending time time together with your family. Can you think of something to do for each person that would make them happy? Love, Buddy Today is the anniversary of my second miscarriage and hysterectomy (and only 3 days off the anniversary of my first miscarriage), so I typically hold a little vigil on December 13. This year I was planning to involve the girls, too, because I think its important to talk about, and pay our respects. But, I feel like it has been thrown in my face a lot in the last week, and I had a rough night last night with all of it, so I decided it would be too much for today. Daddy suggested a day of helpfulness, so that is what we went with instead.
Dec. 14
Hello, Girls! Let's do some christmas baking today to share with our friends and neighbours love buddy We remembered that our children's librarian's favourite cookies were oatmeal craisin, so that was what we made to bring to her this morning! Then we ate a bunch.... so we might need to make some more for the neighbours! Also, today was the blood donor clinic, which I had wanted to go to. I was nervous because of what happened last time, but I also feel like I still owe a whole lot, so I powered through, and am pleased to say that I donated without a hitch! I'm a little extra thirsty, but that is about it!
Dec. 15
Laura and Rachel! I blew you some Elf Bubbles! They are un-poppable! You can use them to make Christmas gifts for your family today. Love, Buddy
Dec. 16
Good morning, Girls! I'm just getting back to nature here, making a popcorn garland. Today you are going to learn how people in the olden days decorated for Christmas with what they had! Love, Buddy This seemed like a good idea, in theory, but when the girls got up this morning, Buddy's popcorn garland had mysteriously disappeared (Thank you, Grinchy McPiggy Chester!). Luckily, his needle was stuck through the edge of his sleeve for him to "hold" it, so that wasn't consumed with the rest of it! We had a good time at the Tiffin Centre making old fashioned Christmas decorations today, though it was cold! We warmed up by the fire in one of the cabins and worked on weaving with sticks, which Laura in particular really enjoyed. Then we had some hot chocolate and our lunch before heading home!
Dec. 17
Hello Girls! Why don't you show some Christmas Spirit and bring some treats to the horses when you go on the horse-drawn wagon ride today? Love, Buddy The horses had to wait until their dinner time to eat the carrots because they had their bits in, but their driver seemed appreciative. :) The wagon ride was fun. Rachel seemed to especially enjoy it.
Dec. 18
Laura and Rachel You can run and run as fast as you can but you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man! Will you please bake me a house today? Love, Buddy Rachel once again won the gingerbread creation idea again - she wanted to build the paw patrol tower, so that is what we are doing!
Dec. 19
Good morning, Girls! I brought you some skates, today! Let's go skating! Whoopee! Love, Buddy
Dec. 20
Hello Laura and Rachel I'm standing here in plain sight but I have hidden 48 candy canes over night. See if you can find them all and hand them out today! Love, Buddy
Dec. 21
Today is the Winter Solstice: the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year. Let's celebrate the light by making ice lanterns today! Love, Buddy
Dec. 22
Laura and Rachel Let's have a family games night tonight! Oh, and don't forget about your Solstice lanterns! Love, Buddy
Dec. 23
Good morning Girls! Good luck at your Christmas recital this evening! You'll be great! Love, Buddy
Dec. 24
Dear Laura and Rachel, Tomorrow is Christmas! It's practically here! And now that advent is over, I, in my cap, will be settling down for a long winter's nap. Here is one last gift for you to remember me by. You two did a great job of spreading Christmas Cheer this year. Love, Buddy
Laura had asked for another countdown chain like the one we had last time. I wanted to ramp it up a bit/ do something a little different, so I made them this:
Rache, excited to find Marie on the chain!
Each link is fashioned after a different Disney character for them to figure out, and with a related activity for the day written on the inside. Laura has been having a lot of fun trying to figure out who all the characters are.
This is what we have been up to:
Oct. 12 Characters: Woody & Buzz Activity: Watch the Disney World promotional video
After watching the video, the girls decided they want to visit the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique while we are there to have princess makeovers. We told them they can if they pay for it. Realistically by the next time we go, they might be too old to enjoy the boutique, so I don't mind them going this time, even though we will have to find time in our schedule to fit it in!
Oct. 13 Characters: Marie & Sofia the First Activity: A gift for two fancy little ladies like yourselves!
I had picked up some Sofia bangle bracelets at the dollar store a while back, and thought they would suit for a fun little gift for them today.
Oct. 14 Characters: Princesses Snow White & Merida Activity: Make candy apples.
I thought making candy apples would be a good activity to pair with Snow White in particular. However, I have heard a lot of fail stories of other people trying to make them and how they didn't turn out, so I didn't have very high hopes. But! Martha Stewart, as always, had a great recipe and they turned out awesome! The girls really enjoyed it, and I got to throw in lots of educational tidbits, too, which always makes me happy.
Oct. 15 Characters: Ariel & Flounder Activity: Go swimming as a family.
The girls have swimming lessons on Saturday mornings, but this session is kind of a pain because Rachel's lesson is at 9:30 and Laura's isn't until 10:30. We have tried various ways to deal with the time gap, and for today I just decided we would all spend the time together in the pool. When I woke up this morning, I really wasn't feeling like swimming. I just wanted to stay cozy and warm, but I went along anyway, and ended up really enjoying myself. The pool we frequent is usually kept quite warm anyway, so all was good.
Oct. 16 Characters: Tinkerbell & Peter Pan Activity: Watch a magical Disney movie together.
Tinkerbell was probably my favourite link out of all 62 of them. :) Laura chose to watch the Tinkerbell movie today, so that is what we did!
Oct. 17 Characters: Wreck It Ralph & Vanellope Activity: Sugar Rush! Go to the candy store!
The girls and I headed out to Bulk Barn for a little treat today.
Oct. 18 Characters: Cheshire Cat & Alice in Wonderland Activity: Decorate a journal for the trip.
I am a sucker for kids' crafts. I always want to make one, too! I hadn't planned to make one myself, but luckily I had an extra one kicking around that I could make for myself too. I'm now planning to make it into a scrapbooky/journal deal of our trip. Love it.
Oh, and the kids' turned out cute, too. ;)
Oct. 19 Characters: Anna & Elsa Activity: Practice ice powers! (Ice seeding experiment)
So, I had planned to do this with the girls today, but I guess I should have tested it a bit first, because we tried it and it didn't work. :( I don't think I had super cooled the water enough. Boo. We did watch the video, though, and they still thought that was pretty cool.
Oct. 20 Characters: Sully & Mike Wazowski Activity: Watch Monsters Inc.
Oct. 21 Characters: Belle & the Beast Activity: Because Belle loves to read, they received a new Disney book.
A while ago I saw this idea on Pinterest to have the characters sign their page in the Encyclopedia of Disney characters. So I bought the book for them ages ago and have been waiting for the right time to give it to them. Today is the day! We had lots of fun looking through the pages of characters together, and Laura even read some of it herself! Who says Disney isn't magical?!
Oct. 22 Characters: Yoda & Darth Vader Activity: Make light sabers
Josh did his share of griping about "crafting" his saber, but once it was done, we all enjoyed a little glow-in-the-dark light saber fight! :D
Oct. 23 Characters: The Incredibles Activity: Watch The Incredibles
Our lovely friend sent us a package full of Disney-related items (as she knew about our upcoming trip), which contained The Incredibles movie, something Laura in particular had been wanting to see. It is one of the few Disney movies we don't own, so I had wanted to get a copy of it. The package arrived a few days ago, and I knew today's activity was to watch the movie, so much to Laura's dismay, I made her wait until today so we could watch it all together. haha
Oct. 24 Characters: Pinocchio & Bambi Activity: Receive new colouring books and pencil tins.
Laura isn't really into colouring books, but she was quite happy with her pencil tin. Rachel LOVES colouring books, so she was quite happy to have a new one. She coloured a couple pages this morning, but we are going to save the rest of it for the trip.
Oct. 25 Characters: Baymax & Lightening McQueen Activity: Make Baymax marshmallow snacks.
Daddy pretended he didn't want to make one, but happily enough ate marshmallows with us. ;)
They turned out pretty cute.
Oct. 26 Characters: Tiana & Pocahontas Activity: Make princess necklaces.
Also in our Package of Disney Awesomeness from Sarah, she sent two little Disney make-your-own necklace sets. I had already planned out all the activities on the chain (I had to write them on all the links before I could assemble it!), and conveniently enough I had planned a day to make necklaces AND hadn't purchased beads for it yet, so that was extra awesome. Anyway, the girls had fun today making their necklaces, and we got to learn about patterns and symmetry, too!
Oct. 27 Characters: Dumbo & Pongo Activity: Watch new 101 Dalmatians Sing Along movie.
When I was a kid we had a Disney Sing Along movie, and my sister and I went through a phase of watching it constantly. I have a bit of a soft spot for the Disney Sing Along movies because of this, even though they are generally kind of terrible. hahaha. This one was certainly no exception, but my girls seemed to enjoy it well enough, so I guess it's all good. Rachel is going through an extreme phase of pretending to be a dog, so you know, there's that, too.
Oct. 28 Characters: Rapunzel & Flynn Activity: Make paintings like Rapunzel.
We typically don't do a lot of crafts around the house, so this was kind of novel for them. I told them the only rule was that they had to fill in the whole canvas. I think they turned out pretty neat, and it was especially interesting how differently they painted (very similar to their respective personalities, I thought!)
Oct. 29 Characters: Lilo & Stitch Activity: Make homemade Dole Whips
Confession: I have never actually tried a real Dole Whip, but have seen all the hype about them, so I wanted to try a knock off version before we went so we could compare when we got there. After perusing several different recipes, I decided to go with Cool Whip and pineapple juice concentrate. I couldn't actually find any pineapple juice concentrate, so I just boiled down some regular pineapple juice to be a little more concentrated, and then froze it last night. We blended the tub of frozen Cool Whip in the food processor with the frozen pineapple juice "concentrate" (reserved a little of the juice to use for the float) and piped it into our glasses to create the swirled ice cream look. They turned out really yummy, and the girls thought they were great! Oct. 30 Characters: Joy & Sadness Activity: Make Inside Out masks
This was what I was intending to do today:
Buttttt, we ended up carving our pumpkins instead and didn't actually get around to making these today. The pumpkins were cute though! ;)
Oct. 31 Characters: Jack Skellington & Sally Activity: Watch Nightmare Before Christmas.
We watched while handing out candy to trick-or-treaters!
Nov. 1 Characters: Jasmine & Aladdin Activity: Make Playdough Disney characters.
The girls' interest in the chain seems to be waning a little, so, although they cut the link, they got busy with their playing and didn't actually get around to playdough today. Oh well, one less mess for me to clean! Nov. 2 Characters: Aurora & Maleficent Activity: Make edible fairy wands.
Fruit and berry fairy wands for Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather FTW!
Nov. 3 Characters: Donald & Daisy Activity: Make hair bows. Nov. 4 Characters: Cinderella & Mulan Activity: Receive new shoes (Disney Crocs) for the trip. Nov. 5 Characters: Lady & the Tramp Activity: Eat spaghetti and meatballs and watch Lady & the Tramp Nov. 6 Characters: Goofy & Pluto Activity: Watch Disney's Once Upon A Christmas Nov. 7 Characters: Tarzan & Jane Activity: Make painted nightshirts
Rachel's was possibly micromanaged a little much, and she quit half way through, so I finished it for her, but Laura did hers on her own, and I just touched up a few spots. #TypeAMom
They turned out cute, though! (And no, this activity doesn't particularly relate to the characters today.)
Nov. 8 Characters: Dory & Nemo Activity: Receive swim cover-ups.
I had bought these on clearance ages ago for our cruise and/ or this trip, so I figured I would gift them to the girls today as part of the swimming theme.
Nov. 9 Characters: Pooh & Piglet Activity: Make a picture to give to your favourite Disney character.
Laura decided she didn't want to make one, but Rachel drew a picture for Anna which was really cute.
Nov. 10 Characters: Bianca & Bernard (from the Rescuers) Activity: Talk about what to do if you get lost or separated from us at Disney World.
Find a cast member and tell them your parents' names!
Nov. 11 Characters: Minnie & Mickey Activity: Receive a pre-Christmas gift for the trip
For the sanity of us all, we gave Rachel her own LeapPad and for Laura a new car DVD player (which was really for both of them to use)
It has been an incredibly hot summer, and although we kept busy in July, I had intentionally left August more open in case we were needing to move (spoiler: we're not). And, as such, we have had a very uneventful, dare I say boring August. It has been long. And it has been hot. Slightly less hot than July, but still hot. We are crabby. We are sick of each other. And part of me wishes I was getting ready to send at least Laura off to school next week. Butttttt, we're not. Tomorrow we are going to go and officially tell the school we are homeschooling. The first time we have had to do that.
However, I'm hoping that once September rolls around, we will get back into a routine, have more activities going on to break up the day, and hopefully some cooler weather so we can all get along together again.
Tonight we picked up our Japanese student who will be staying with us for the next 2.5 weeks! The girls remember our last student, Rikako, and are very excited to be hosting again.
I will keep this post updated with what we get up to with her. :)
Today was Rachel's last day of nursery school. And subsequently, our whole family's last day of nursery school. Ever. Laura attended this school for two years, and today marks the end of Rachel's second year. That's four years for our family, and if that isn't testament enough, I really cannot sing more praises about this program. The staff are above and beyond fantastic. The programming is fantastic. I feel like we are part of a big family there, where the staff support not just the children, but the parents inside and outside the school walls. I have been anticipating today as a "going to be rough" day, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when I ugly cried while saying goodbye to the teachers. To say I will miss this place and these people is a gross understatement.
But enough about me! Our sweet little Rachie is now officially a preschool graduate! The concert was as cute as always, and although she was a little shy, she did a great job.
I guess I am officially homeschooling two kiddos now! Yikes!
😍 
