A few days in Canada

We spent Christmas with Michael's family, one hour North of Toronto. If the first couple of days ended up warmer then in California, it quickly changed. Snow, cold (25 F on the hottest part of the day...), a real Christmas weather. We all enjoyed our family time. And since Santa had gotten the memo to stop by in Canada, we got to come home with luggage loaded with Lego.

The visit at Santa's

He stopped by work Wednesday night... Anastasia, for once not scared of him, asked for a dinosaur. "A real one?" asked Santa. "Nahhhhhh, a toy one", she replied. Oooof, we got scared for a minute...

Freezing

And yes, it's quite chilly here as well. So chilly that "The Princess" had to take out her hat and scarf (all handmade by Grand-Maman).

Feliz Navidad

 

Tis the season for the Christmas Carols, and Kyan's school had a small recital last night. Under the supervision of their music teacher, an imposing man with a fabulous who sings at the San Francisco opera, each class sang three pieces. The least we can say is that Kyan had a grand time at the show, even though we weren't always convinced he was singing the same sing as the rest of the chorus...

Tardy leaves

This will probably bring a smile to those who have been in the cold and the snow for a while, but here, the trees are still loosing their leaves. There are still quite a few on the big tree in front of the house, but given the thickness of the carpet of dead leaves on the sidewalk, we had to do a second round of sweeping. Lucky for me, I had a super team to help...

Dino-socks

I continued my sock stories with dragons/dinosaurs... My favorites are the ones cut in Halloween socks, they have bats and witch's hats, it makes it look all the more real...

A coat for... a princess

But we won't tell her...  I just finished this little coat in finely ribbed velvet, lined with cozy polar fleece, for Anastasia. And with pockets, mind you...

Princesses' stories...

It's official: our little princess doesn't like princesses. She said it very clearly, but specified that her good friend Whitney, she loves princesses very much... We'll just put away all these barbie dolls in their fancy sparkly dresses...

Pumpkins of the year...

Not so surprising was the theme this year: dinosaurs. I managed to sneak an owl on the lineup, though...

On safari

For the first time in years, we went to the Halloween Party organized by work. Michael and I were dressed as explorers, and the kids, our finds. It was especially funny to see all these little costumed guys jump on the dance floor...

Early morning

And since the weekend was splendid, as much in Monterey as in San Francisco, we went to the beach early in the morning. The beach was ours, the water not so chilly, and, of course, we all ended up wetter then expected...

Guests...

We were in Monterey this weekend for the wedding of a couple of friends. For the event, I had made a bunny kimono for Anastasia, and a vest (inside armadillo prints, to go with his jacket) for Kyan.

Big words

It's been now two months since Kyan started kindergarten, and he loves it, like he loves the after-school class where he spends a good part of the afternoon drawing, crafting and playing with his new friends. Every day, we bring back a whole bunch of things he made during the day, and some of his projects are quite elaborate (picture: a triceratop on an iceberg, fimo sculpture to add at the end of a pencil).

He's also learning how to read and write (in the US, you start at kindergarten; the earlier classes are pretty good, it's later that the american education goes down...). The other night, Kyan was busy making a book with dinosaurs (surprise), when he asked how to spell "Mesozoic" for the title... I first had to find out what it meant... For Kyan, it was clear, it's "The age of Reptiles". And he was right...

First outing for the Goblins

Halloween has started early this year. We went to the Discovery Museum which had a special "not scary" children party, with witches school, bat cave, petting zoo, crafts... I finished the costumes just in time, the kids having chosen what they wanted to be a while ago: a giraffe for Anastasia, and a kylosaurus for Kyan...

The pumpkins have landed...

For once we didn't wait for the last minute to go get our pumpkins. And the weather was gorgeous...

Another attempt to keep our very creative children busy, and try to contain the crafty "mess" within a shoe box... We created habitats with felt, sticky foam, pipe cleaners and pompoms, for dinosaurs or other well-loved creatures...

West Coast pony

One more opportunity for Anastasia to ride, although the look of the californian pony is rather surprising...

In big

Kyan's armadillo jacket has been a big hit on the net (more than 500 visitors in less then 48 hours, and several potential orders I'm not ready to fill in...). I did make one jacket of the same style in an adult size, special order for a woman about the same size as me. Well, now, I would very much keep it for myself...

Other beach, other fog...

Not much progress on the weather front. We went to a beach further North to look at a sand sculptures contest. Very laid-back, with several categories, and people pic-nicking between the sculptures. On the menu, several castles, but mainly sea creatures.