Baby Clara

4 pictures of my sister Gwyn's baby girl, Clara. Which one do you like best?

Easter weekend

Sarah's caught her parents' love of taking pictures. So we got her an instant camera so she could take pictures whenever she wants and she spends a good deal of every day doing just that. 

On Friday we went for a walk in Assiniboine Park. Here's a picture of the Assiniboine River which is only flooded just a bit.

Our little climber. She's climbing on a sculpture that is on the other side of the bridge over the river. We think they're supposed to be icebergs.

a wee little house in the park - its actually a gardener's shed but they've made it all fancy so it goes with the English Garden theme.

A good deal of the Leo Mol gardens is flooded - below are some dancing bears in the ice.

Dale took Sarah on a bike ride for the first time of the season on Friday afternoon when she wouldn't nap. She loved it and was so excited to put her helmet on.

I'm so tired but I'm not going to let on...

The rig...

Sarah made an Easter bag for craft at Indigo on Thurs...she's showing it off here. She wasn't happy at Indigo because there were so many people and kids there. She's not one for crowds. Dale took this set of pictures.

On Saturday morning Sarah opened her Easter present from Gramma and Grandpa Holm. She was thrilled with the dress (from the Philippines), window stickers, colouring books and crayons. Thanks!

I had to do a watch on Saturday at Chippawa for flood preps. We aren't officially called out but we're just getting ready in case we are. 

Dale took Sarah to Costco to do some shopping and then they went to the Officer's mess for the Easter Egg hunt. But all accounts Sarah had a great time. Her buddy Sonia was there so they iced cupcakes together - icing, gummy bears, etc and then ate it. The Easter bunny was interesting but she didn't want to go within 3 feet of him - just like Santa Claus at Christmas. Sarah fell asleep in the car on the way home.

These pictures were taken by my friend Janet (Sonia's mom).

Decorating a cupcake...

Easter egg hunting

Chocolate everywhere - in her mouth, on her hands...yummy! She loved her bunny rabbit face and was very sad when I washed it off that night.

On Easter Sunday morning Sarah had a little Easter hunt.  The Easter bunny brought her a little Melissa and Doug cart with letters/animals blocks, an Eric Carle book called 'the little seed' and some Easter eggs filled with things like hair clips, hairbands, balloons and chocolate eggs and the requisite chocolate Easter bunny. She ate some of her cereal for breakfast and drank her milk under protest - she wasn't getting the chocolate until she was done breakfast!




Did she eat part of of the chocolate bunny and save the rest? Not a chance! She ate the entire thing!

Sarah in her hairband. We're at the hair band stage of growing out her hair. Clips won't stay in her fine hair unless there's also pigtails in them so in order to keep the hair out of her eyes and the food she's now wearing the hairband. Looks cute, eh?

Sarah has decided that she's going to have a little brother, not a sister. When Dale asked her what his name should be she thought that it should be either Jet or Dick. Where in God's name did she get those two names?

Wee missy has quite the vocabulary these days - lots of sentences and complex thoughts and ideas. She's taken to my habit of saying 'hey' after sentences...a habit I didn't realise that I had until she started doing it. Its amazing what you learn about yourself when you become a parent. The tantrums have also kicked it up a notch - we think its a combination of the next phase (tantrum threes) and the fact that she isn't napping reliably anymore. It certainly makes for an interesting dinner and apres dinner time before bed. She's usually a screaming, crying mess.

Potty training continues but its certainly not a linear process. Sigh. Well - she won't be going to school in diapers!

Royal Winter Fair in Brandon

Dale had the day off on Monday so we drove to Brandon for the Royal Winter Fair. 4 hours in the car and about 3 1/2 at the Fair - only in North America would people do that kind of driving!

Sarah loved it all - the tractors - or anything with wheels including a golf cart - were a lot of fun. She had to get up to drive all of them.

There was a clown which we found annoying but Sarah thought was kind of interesting. She didn't last very long because she was pretty tired by that point. She's on Dale's shoulders watching the clown here.

There was a whole section called 'Thru the Farm Gate' which was a lot of fun. We got to see some Belgian and Percheron horses in their stalls (what huge horses!) and there was a petting zoo part so we got to touch rabbits, sheep, goats, puppies, etc. 

The sow and her 12 new baby piglets were very popular. It was hard to get in close enough to see. In the picture above you can see Dale with Sarah behind the crowd.

Sarah's almost as tall as a Shetland pony - 10 hands high. We won't worry about the technicality that they measure height in horses to the whithers...

Sarah and I went into a little enclosure and we got to hold a few baby goats (kids)! She was sure excited to be able to do that. The sheep didn't really interest her.

a puppy dog

They had a mock-up of a silo there. The kids could fill their cups full of seeds, climb the stairs and dump the seeds down and watch them go down the silo. Pretty ingenious!

Sarah really wanted to touch this ram but the ram just didn't want to cooperate.

Sarah's very favourite part was watching the equestrian show jumping. We watched for a very long time. I enjoyed it as well - its been a long time since I used to do that! She told me that when she gets bigger she's going to ride horses. Gulp. Better start saving now!