Elfcapades Mid-month Recap

The elves have been busy these past few days! Whether it’s bringing in the Christmas books, decorating the felt Christmas tree, filling up the gratitude jar, raiding advent calendars, reading Christmas books, hiding themselves in luggage, hosting movie nights, sneaking into nativity scenes, stowing away in boots, moving the playroom into the sunroom, watering the Christmas tree or decorating the bathroom door, they’re always finding new projects around the house. Elf madness!

Pre-Christmas Christmas in Langley

Saturday morning we hopped on the ferry and headed over to Grandmaman and Grandapapa’s place for the annual event of the season, the Tousignant Christmas Party! The party was a blast, as usual, and it was great to catch up with tons of friends and family.
The next morning, we did brunch at the Newlands Golf Course, where, in addition to the great food, there was face painting, balloon creatures, cookie decorating, live music and an appearance by Santa, who was deposited on the green by a helicopter (much to the annoyance of the golfers on that hole). Brunch was a big hit for everyone involved, so look for us again there next year.
On our last full day on the mainland, we headed into Vancouver for the Christmas Market. The merry go round at the Christmas Market was a big hit for the kids, while the adults enjoyed bratwurst, beer, schweinshaxe, pretzels, beaver tails and kettle corn. The next stop was Stanley Park for Bright Nights where we walked off some of our lunch calories, checking out the light displays, and we finished up with a ride on the train.
We had a fantastic visit, and even though our ferry was cancelled this morning due to high winds, it gave us time to write this blog post! We’re considering this our Christmas appetizer in preparation for the main course in a couple weeks!

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

The perfect (as in both Patrick and I agree on it) Christmas Tree? Check!
Cheesy Holiday Playlists echoing through the halls? Check!
LED outdoor lights that were supposed to all be the same ‘white’ but aren’t at all? Check!
Freshly fallen snow? Ha -thought we weren’t gonna get that in Victoria? Check!
Massive pile of Christmas cards we’ve made but have not yet mailed? Check!
Another year of midnight scrambling to create elf mischief? Check!
Packing up for the second most important event of the holidays (I think some kid in a manger stole first), my parents’ Christmas party? Check!

Halloween in Arendelle

If you’re not up on your Frozen trivia, Arendelle is the kingdom in which the events of Frozen take place. Our Halloween also took place there, as Isabelle, Elodie, Michelle and myself toured the neighbourhood as Elsa, Anna, Olaf and Sven, respectively. We had a great evening touring the neighbourhood with a bee, Cinderella, Iron Man, a My Little Pony and Elmo, and the candy haul was as legendary as the costumes.

Mothers Day Postponed

Because Michelle was working on Mothers Day, we decided to move it to the next sunny day that she had off. That day was today! We headed out to the U of A Devonian Botanical Gardens for a family stroll. We checked out the Japanese Garden, the butterfly garden and greenhouses, and walked along the lake. We had an awesome time just relaxing in the sun, and here are the pics to prove it. Happy Mothers Day, Michelle!

Elodie turns two!

This afternoon 7 little girls took over our house, giggling, playing, running (and for Kit, jumping for the first time!) eating grilled cheese sandwiches and rainbow cupcakes and decorating cookies. Thank you to Matt and Shazma for Elodie’s birthday dress, to our friends who helped make today really special and to all of you who sent birthday wishes to our special girl. It was a great day.

Happy Birthday Elodie!

Today our Edmonton baby turns two! Michelle has put together an amazing selection of photos chronicling the last two years, and with all that we’ve fit in for that short amount of time, no wonder she seems like she should be almost three instead. Elodie is extremely excited about the event, and for days now she’s been giggling with joy every time we talk about her birthday party. On the itinerary today is friends, cupcakes and cookie decorating, so we’re sure she’ll have a blast. Happy Birthday Elodie!

Enjoy the pics below, from Michelle attempting to ellipticate Elodie out into the world, to adventures in Hawaii, Jasper, Barbados and more!

Rainbow Cupcakes

Big day tomorrow: Elodie is turning two! She is currently very into rainbows (thanks to a signing time song she wants to sing over, and over, and over again) so we decided to go with a rainbow theme for her birthday. Earlier in the week we made a giant rainbow with our handprints and then I saw an idea on Pinterest for rainbow cupcakes. I and, lets be honest, everyone I told about my plans, including Patrick, was waiting for a hilarious “nailed it” post showing my ridiculous attempt at multi-coloured cupcakes but guess what? They actually look (more or less) like rainbow cupcakes!

Art Gallery Night

This week Isabelle has been asking the same two questions over and over again: Is it Elodie’s birthday yet? (that will be Saturday) and, Is it art gallery night? Well, Art Gallery night finally came and, after driving us crazy all day asking if it was time go yet, and insisting we all wear fancy clothes, she proceeded to abandon us for her friends the moment we arrived… I thought this didn’t happen till at least age 7? Since we lost our tour guide, we were grateful that all the projects were labelled with the kids names and it was pretty cute to see all the projects on display. For some reason the girls have also decided to do funny break dancing/rapping poses whenever we try to take their pictures which is why they look so ridiculous.