NYE

This is it, the last day of 2010. I am sure I will take a more thoughtful look back on this year, but for now, tonight was all about fun for our family.

This is the last sunset of 2010, it was amazing... and this pic is SOOC (straight out of camera).

The night was also filled with relax time watching shows.

NYE for us is about Appy's, lots of them and they are good!

Don't forget dessert, the chocolate covered candy cane cheesecakes were to die for, and they were on sale for only $2!

After food we had a family game night, can you guess what our new favourite game is?

One challenge Cici had to do was to lie down with this block on her head and stand up without it falling off, she did it first try!

It is only 8:17 pm and our night is over. No staying up late for us. The kids joked that maybe they would stay up and us parents could go to bed. Not this year... they are all asleep, probably couldn't stay awake if they tried and we are not far behind.

Happy NYE!

Enjoying the end of December

We are in the last days of this year, it was warm and sunny, the perfect day to be outside. Where better to go than Fort Steele, go play some hockey as a family and eat roasted marshmallows!

This was our attempt at getting some pictures of me with the kids...

At least we got some fun pictures with me in it, I need to get out from behind the camera once in a while!

Drummer Boy in TRAINing

Merry Christmas

Well, at least two of the kids were excited this morning!

Actually, they were all excited and J Man's spirits changed quick...

Especially when he got to open his drum set!! He loves the drums and loves to play them loud. I will have a video of that later.

This little piggy was all that B wanted this year.. she was very excited!

Cici and B both got ipod shuffles and had them in their ears all day!

J Man got a train, a big train, a big remote control train! Video of that will also follow later.

Many more gifts were opened, lots of wii games, lots of chocolate and even a romance novel that B picked out all by herself for her daddy!

After lunch we headed out for a walk on the golf course.

oh, and my gift??? A new lens for my camera... which I played with all day.

Merry Christmas.

B's Creations

Here are some of B's creations that she made in her class this week. She doesn't want them on the tree, she plays with them instead. Maybe next year they will make it to the tree!

The Deer Count is in!

So, Kimberley has deer, lots of deer. It was novel when we first moved here, they were cute, the babies are even cuter. Then we watched them eat all our stuff. We watched them chase people and not care when you are walking just a few feet from them. They own the streets, your gardens and even big bucks will trap you in your house because they are laying on the walkway and they won't move. They have even become immune to objects being thrown at them (at least footballs and apples in our experience).

Kimberley and Cranbrook both did a deer count. We did a survey and close to 80% of people here are very concerned about the deer, so, the city counted the deer just a few weeks ago to see what type of numbers they would get, if the number of deer are in fact a problem. Cranbrook did theirs, they got 91 (I think) deer. We did ours and the paper said that just Marysville (which is the community wherethe girl's go to school) had more deer than all of Cranbrook. They report that there are 19.6 deer per square km here in Kimberley (which includes Marysville). That means that in our area of Kimberley there is an average of 19 deer in Upper Chapman Camp, which seems about right. There is a mom with triplets, a mom with twins, a pregnant mom (I think), there is a huge old buck, a younger 4 point buck, and 2 young boys with little racks. These are just the ones I know of that we see during the week around our house.

So, what are they going to do is the big question. I am becoming more convinced that reducing the deer population is a good thing. The deer are bringing in cougars which have been seen outside the school fence on occasion. The deer are too accustomed to humans, I can just about touch them as we go for walks and hey, my dad even fed a deer out of his hand. Not to mention ALL the deer poop, everywhere!! I will be interested to find out what they decide to do now that they know there are A LOT of deer here.

The deer have created some interesting and unique memories for our family. It is hard to believe we live in a town where you are so immersed in wildlife, deer, cougars, bears and even Moose which have been seen walking the streets just down the hill from us.

Beautiful Walk

Why is J Man so happy?

Because it is so nice today, sunny and warm enough to melt snow!

So, we decided to take a walk on the golf course, it was beautiful.

A Fort Steele Christmas

Our day at Fort Steele yesterday was so much fun. It started with this...

The horses even got into the spirit!

I love this picture, the guy in the sleigh with us... the smile on his face describes everything about him!

Pretty frost

We warmed up by the fire after the sleigh ride... did I mention it was free?? The fire was right beside the ice rink which the kids loved running on in their boots and playing hockey with some other kids.

Here they are in the theatre with their hot chocolate waiting for the movie Polar Express to start. The theatre is beautiful. There was a 'conductor' all dressed up taking our tickets, there were train shaped cookies to enjoy, they wore their PJ's just like in the movie, and this cute dog was greeting everyone as they came in.

They liked the movie, this was J Man's first ever movie experience and his face was so fun to watch. He got scared at some points and cuddled on me, or we left and took a break. It was such a fun memory. I love Fort Steele, they are so good to kids, as we left the movie, they gave the kids bells to bring home... if you've seen the movie you'll know why.

As we were driving away I marvelled at how beautiful everything looked all covered with snow. Combining our trip out to the bush to get a tree, and having a horse drawn sleigh ride, skating on an outdoor rink, warming ourselves by a fire and watching a movie in an theatre from the 1800's, we live in a pretty cool place. Movie's portray Christmas this way, and we are living it out!