I can't remember the last time I posted a picture of my little guy.  It feels like years.  (Okay, I checked.  It was Halloween, so 3 months ago)  Here he is in his in his sweats with his too cool sweater over top his MarioTee.  That's the beanie hat I made for him in the Spring.

The 5's have definitely been my favourite age so far.  He has some interesting ideas about everything and there is so much he can do now!  We have started him in YogaKids and Gymnastics (well, Kindergymn anyways).  He is so so so so close to reading.  I cannot wait for the day when he reads a story to me!  He memorizes songs as well and is still singing Christmas Carols (much to our dismay).  There was a jolly bearded man and Santa was his name-o.  S - A - N - T - A.  S - A - N - T - A.  and Santa was his name-o (sung to the tune of Bingo).


His class is fund-raising and he told us, "kindergarten is raising money to send to poor kids in Minnesota."  We read the letter his teacher sent home about the project and explain that they are fund-raising for poor children in Lesotho, Africa...but he sure as heck doesn't believe us.  He's adamant that they care collecting coins for poor kids in minnesota.  He swears that's what his teacher said.  

I'm glad someone is looking out for the poor kids in Minnesota.  They are so often overlooked. :p

I think I did not so bad on the costume. I made the hat and the overalls; the sweater is his.  We went to Boo At The Zoo on Saturday so it was our Pre-Halloween trial with the costume.  It was all great, except the overalls are about 8 sizes too big (even with pants on underneath) and the fleece straps stretched quite a bit (& quite quickly too).  I cut a big wide belt and slapped it on and tied it as tight as it would go.  I rolled the pants legs and did a horrible horrible hemming job.  With those fixes in place we headed out to the zoo. 

Overall the costume held up well through the evening.  the hemming job gave out close to the end, but the belt held him up.  He was definitely warm and definitely more stylish then the store bought Mario's and Luigi's.

There's the Kindergarten Halloween Party on Thursday and Trick Or Treating on Sunday, so I plan on doing a much better hemming job (I don't want to cut the material because hopefully he'll wear it next year too--or is that wishful thinking?) and maybe sewing the belt on?  We also need white gloves.  Forgot about the white gloves.  I'm not sure what to do with the stretchy straps though.

So, would I make another costume?  I don't know.  It was a lot of work and it wasn't any cheaper then a store bought one.  (although I have scads of leftover green felt and blue fleece--probably enough to make a super hero cape for Christmas) 

Super Mega Close Up!

I've got 2 metres of bright blue fleece, 1 metre of bright green soft felt, 2 internet tutorials, and a somewhat shaky plan to make this as Andrew's Halloween Costume...

Andrew loves all things Mario and cannot stop talking about going as Luigi for Halloween.  Lets see if I can do this...

Andrew's first day of Kindergarten was actually last week, but as usual I am slow with this kind of stuff.  I was at work, but Husband reported that Drop Off and Pick Up went very well.  He wasn't all that into getting his picture taken...but humored Daddy. 

I love the uniform.  Not too casual, but not over the top.  I can't believe I have a school-aged child!

Just a chance to show off my little man who is very nearly 5 in his jammies that nana bought him.

Things have been busy lately. A big whirlwind of life. We are going camping this weekend with good friends and I cannot wait to just sit down and relax. Andrew is super excited to go, although he is worried that the camping trip will somehow interfere with the trip to the UK (which is also fast approaching). I can't wait to be eating smokies over a fire and drinking my tea with bailey's irish cream. bring on the fun!

We are staying in a yurt again, which will be good because they have little heaters & electricity in case it rains or is cold. Our friends are bringing some games in case the great outdoors are not available.

Happy Spring Everyone!

A budding multi media artist? You be the judge.

I take a lot of pictures with plans of making brilliant blog posts with wonderful pictures. Generally, those pictures just sit on my camera.

Here's a sample of some of my pictures that were meant to be blogged.

Playing outside at Nana's. It was soooo cold that day. The thermometer in the background reads about -23 or -24, but that doesn't include the windchill. If you factored in the wind chill it was something like -35 that day. We took the picture from inside. :P

This is Husband on his way to vote for the very first time. I was so proud of him and so excited that he's now a Canadian Citizen and can take part in elections.

Don't you love how Andrew is wearing only a hoodie and Husband is decked out in a winter coat and toque?

In the bath a few weeks back. I can't remember what I was trying to get him to do in the bath, but it was going to be something that would have made a fabulous blog post. But, alas all he would do was grin and laugh hysterically at the camera.

We'd had a turkey in the freezer for months (like since October?) and I'd been waiting for an opportunity to cook it up. We've been trying to have my Mom over for Sunday dinners since my Dad died. I think she must be lonely, not having anyone to share meals with now. I cooked this up a few weeks back. I hadn't cooked a bird in years and years. I was amazed how golden I got the outside and how good the inside was. I made turkey pot pies and turkey soup with the leftovers. It was good. :)

This is our salad that we had with it. It was good. My mom likes regular salads.

These were my attempt at yam fries. They were fun to cut, season, and coat with oil. They were fun to pop into the oven. It wasn't fun, however, to have forgotten about them in the oven and have them burn quite quickly. :( We bought a yam today when we go grocery shopping and we will attempt to make yam fries again sometime this week.

I think that takes care of my back log of pictures. Cheers!

I'm a Public Servant so I had to work today, even though it's a Provincial Holiday in Manitoba. It was a nice, sunny, warm (for Winnipeg in February) day and it was tough being there when I wanted to be at home. We went to the nice park right after I got home. Here are some snaps!

Tonight was one of my church events. We went to "Boo At The Zoo" -- an event put on by the zoo here. It was good fun and I'll think we'll do it again next year.

Some pics of my kidlet having fun...

Well, there's many pictures I have to share today because we finally took them off the camera. :P

Starting out we have Andrew's first day of school. Husband dropped him off and snapped some pictures. I can't believe how grown up he is looking!
I can't believe that I am a Mom to a school aged child! I often wonder how and when all that happened. Here he is being silly as usual. :P I wonder who he gets that from?
And here he is sitting during circle time....protesting...cause he doesn't like sitting still. I sure hope that his teacher can handle him this year. :P



Next up we have my Round Ripple Afghans. I made this green one for my friends wedding.
I love the colour combinations that I went with (kudos to Husband as he's the one that picked them out!)

It is a green blanket for some very green people. My friends are into fair trade and organics and recycling and reusing...so we thought it fit well with their green lifestyle.
The Green blanket didn't get as big as I was originally planning so I gave them my scrap Round Ripple as well. It ended up being HUGE and will fit a double bed quite well.
I am pleased that I used up quite a bit of acrylic yarn I had laying around the house. I want to make a million more round ripples. They always end up being so eye catching!

I'm thinking that if I ever get my act together and open up an Etsy shop that this picture would make an excellent banner. Have my shop name over top it. It's got so much clear detail and shows the round ripple pattern very well.

We bought Andrew (4 years old) Amazing You: Getting Smart About Your Private Parts and It's Not The Stork a few weeks back because he'd started asking questions about where babies come from and how he got into my tummy and how he got out of my tummy.

He's been very interested in them and as a result it's been all we've read for weeks now.

He gets that he came from a sperm. He doesn't understand how the egg comes into play. He talks a lot about sperm and where sperm came from the point that he clearly announced to our waiter at supper the other day the following, "I came from Daddy's Testicles".

Awesomest moment ever.

Ever.

We are really enjoying our new camera. It takes very nice pictures. Here's a few from our Canada Day at the Carnival...