Race for Life

I'll post about this another night...

Popping Bubbles!

This video was taken on Sunday, the 8th of May.  The girls loved running around the garden/yard popping bubbles in their cute dresses.

Country Dancing

Ellen has been taking Diddi Dance at nursery this term. So far she's really enjoyed it and came home on Friday excited to show me the country dancing she learned that morning.  It was so cute that I had her do it again so I could take a video of it.  Of course, Brenna had to have a turn, too :o)

Farm on Wheels

A lot has happened in the past month, including Mom's two-week visit, Brenna's 2nd birthday, Easter and Ellen and my birthdays; however, I'll start with our visit today to the Farm on Wheels organised by our neighborhood management team.  A trailer pulled up carrying a donkey, three rabbits, 2 lambs, the most gorgeous grey hen and her four fluffy chicks and Sandy the rat.

Up close with the rabbits

 Petting one of the sweet chicks

 I love Brenna's excitement in this picture.

 Mommy Hen and her babies.

 The girls got to feed the hen and chicks.

 Brenna loved feeding the lamb. Ellen chose not to... no surprise.

 

 Brenna confidently petted the lamb and, after a little persuasion, Ellen did, too.

 Both girls were happy to pet Sandy the rat.

 Sandy had a little climb on both girls!

 We played on the nearby playground until I deemed it too cold to continue playing.

Pancake Day

Today is Shrove Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras, aka Fat Tuesday, but in the Bolton house, it's simply Pancake Day!  Unfortunately, Jeff missed out on a delicious pancake breakfast due to being away for work for a few days.  Ellen always enjoys helping me make pancakes and enjoys eating them, too.  Brenna wasn't interested in actually eating the pancake, just dipping a piece in the maple syrup and licking it over and over... *sigh*.

I was asked a couple times today whether we ate traditional English pancakes or American pancakes.  Light, fluffy American pancakes, of course!  Britons like to make thin pancakes (crepes) and top it with lemon and sugar... uh, no.  Give me a drizzle of maple syrup any day!

Our First Snow!

Happy New Year!  Now that Jeff and I are almost over the flu, Ellen over the tummy-itis that she had and Brenna a milder version of the flu and an ear infection, our life has returned to normal this week.  We've had such mild weather this winter so far, but it's turned cold enough to snow this week.  We had our first snow this morning, but it was a slushy snow and melted almost straight away.  However, there was still enough mushy snow on the car for me to gather a bit in a bowl to bring inside to the girls.  They were so excited!  A little ball of icy snow and they were dancing around the lounge!  More significantly, this was the first time Brenna has seen or touched snow, so I had to take a video of her first experience with it.  Tonight it is supposed to snow overnight for a real snow, so we'll see what happens!

Cookies, Cupcakes and Reindeer

Since we had many cut-out cookies leftover to ice, we invited our friends Gemma and her children, Amelia and Max, over to ice the remaining cookies.

 

Our darling daughter decided it was more fun to disintegrate her cookie instead of icing her cookie, though she loved icing it the day before.

A week or so later, Ellen asked to make Christmas cupcakes. So, like the amazing mommy I am, I made her red velvet cupcakes... from a boxed cake mix! I did, however, also buy Christmas cupcake cases and snowmen chocolates, as requested.

 The finished masterpieces!

 So stinkin' cute!

On Christmas Eve the girls donned their reindeer antlers to play "Reindeer Den"... because reindeers live in dens, duh.  We dined on reindeer food (sliced bell peppers, cucumber, apples and clementines... because that's what reindeer eat... don't question it!), and read Christmas books, including listening to Great Grandma read "The Night Before Christmas" that she sent last Christmas. Snow also fell in the lounge and it was freezing cold... brrr!