christmas guests

We have been having too much fun to take time out for our blog...since everyone took off for Gruyere today and Liam and I stayed here to have a snooze, I have a few minutes to post. Grant and Leanne arrived here on Christmas Eve and we have been enjoying their company since that moment. They rented a motor home and are traveling around and braving the cold to soak up as much as they can during their time over here. Their perfect, sunny Brisbane weather sounds too good to us and we can't really understand why in the world they would be so excited about skiing, sledding, iceskating and sightseeing in this bitter cold! Leanne at the piano, playing some good old Waltzing Matilda...

The boys and their ongoing comic fest

Kaydon and Sheldon

Tialyn

Kim and Zoé

Kaioa

Tiana

Scott and Florence, Chantal, Kailee, Emily and Rhyan

Steve and Allie, Emma and Liam

Kid's table

Grant reading a Phantom to the boys

Sheldon

A visit to Dylan's classroom

These pictures aren't really sharply focused, but I didn't have the heart to delete them because of that! We are having some trouble with the little camera but anyway, here they are. We were invited to dinner at Dylan's classroom and it was a fun evening. He was really proud of all of the things he had accomplished and loved building a tower with Ralph, one of his favorite areas of the room.

Liam's Potty Train

When Hannes was a little boy, to encourage him to get interested in life without diapers, we told him that we would take him for a ride on the train as soon as he was potty trained. Three potty trained boys later, this special event has somehow been christened "The Potty Train". And it makes sense really, a train ride as a reward for being potty trained now being called the potty train. So Saturday Ralph and the boys took the train up the hill from our town to a mountain town where we go sledding sometimes. There was also a visit to the music box museum which they said was really interesting. One thing Liam was looking forward to was going potty on the train and was very disappointed that this particular train had no potty. Mom got to spend the afternoon shopping alone in town. Bummer!

Gingerbread party

Today we had some of our friends over for a cookie decorating party. It was great fun and the kids decorated for a long time then went outside to play in the snow. The cookies looked great and the kids were really creative! It has been snowing all day as well as last night so Kim and kids opted to stay home.

Where are all of you??

I am getting the feeling that all of my blogging buddies have abandoned their blogs for FACEBOOK! Come on you guys, I miss you.....and I have deactivated my facebook acct in favor of blogging...I am a retro lady I guess.

Zoé's birthday bag

Zoé doesn't know it yet but she is getting a new meeting bag too for her birthday. I just finished it and I think I like it almost better than the other ones. I am thinking about rounding out the flap at the bottom for a more feminine look. We have been invited for a birthday brunch on Saturday morning and then a visit to a museum of the 'senses'. Sounds fun!