Welcome to spring!

We're having a lovely blizzard this afternoon. Likely 10 cm of snow with whiteout conditions and blowing snow. Where are the robins?

Putting your best face forward

Mom is developing another artistic business to keep her even busier (retirement...what's that?). She has started a face painting business. But this is no ordinary face painting...none of those simple, one or two color butterflies and hearts you see on kid's cheeks at local fairs. Instead, the faces are works of art. When she pulled out a red suitcase (!) full of different colors, brushes, and tools, I couldn't believe it!

Faith thought this turn of events was awesome! And, since Halloween was yesterday, and she wanted to be a bunny princess, Mom showed me how to do a bunny face for her costume. (Note...my attempt at the bunny face did not look nearly as good as the picture below.)
Next, Faith wanted to have a "princess" face. So she went through the many pictures that Mom has of different ideas to choose the face she wanted. The result is below, with Mom's special flare for color of course.


...and from the other side...
Faith discovered with this face painting design what most women have learned. There is no possible way to keep your lips painted and actually eat or drink anything. Mom retouched her about three times before we had to wash off the masterpiece.

I even got into the act with a pumpkin for Halloween on my cheek.


I told Mom that her house has officially become a kid's idea of the circus, complete with horse rides from Grampa and face painting by Gramma.

It snowed!

Today was our first snowfall. As I drove home from work, I started to see snow dusting the ground in shaded spots. When I got to the daycare, the kids were super excited that they got to see snow.

When Faith and I got home, we had snow on the front lawn so we ran inside to put on her boots and grab the camera. By the time we got back outside, the wind had whipped up and it was snowing again! We snapped a couple of pictures with Faith holding her hat down on her head.

My neighbour yelled out, "Robin, so this is all your fault!"

As we ran back into the garage to escape the blowing snow, I couldn't help thinking he was right. :)

When George came home later, he brought a snowball into the house to throw at Faith. She wanted to save it, so it's now sitting in hour freezer. The first taste of winter.

Fashion sense

Back to school season means the painful process of finding clothes and shoes (oh lord, the shoes!). For a kid who wants to wear skirts and dresses every day, this is particularly difficult.

This year, the clothes part was actually pretty easy. The shoes, however, have been an ongoing saga. Faith picked out light-up (!) Barbie (!) shoes. But, part of the sole ripped off the second time she wore them. They just don't make the Barbie-wear like they used to.

So, I took those runners back to the store, and picked up two different pairs. One very cute silver pair for indoor shoes, and another light-up (!) pair, although plain this time (yippee!). The light-up ones passed muster, but the cute silver ones didn't. So another trip back to the store.
Finally, we hit Payless and found a cross between runners and Mary Janes...a winner!

Why all these problems with shoes? Well, we need inside shoes for school, and outside shoes for home/schoolyard/daycare playground, plus inside shoes for daycare.

And, Faith has one foot that's a full size bigger than the other (inherited from her dad). So, at most I can only get shoes a half size bigger than her biggest foot, because the smaller foot just swims in the shoes otherwise. This means buying shoes even more often.

Clothes, on the other hand, were easier this year. We went low key. Although, we did go on Saturday to pick out a dress for school. In the store, I asked if she liked it and she said yes. When she put it on for church the next day, however, she didn't want to wear it!

Me: "Faith, you said you liked this dress!"
Faith: "I do like it. I just don't like it on me."

OK...how can you argue with that? So, yet another thing to return to the store. Better than hanging in the closet unused.

You definitely can't say that she doesn't know her own mind.

Catching up....

OK...now that I'm starting to feel somewhat normal again, I may actually be able to keep up with my blogging now. :)

Faith started her first day of senior kindergarten today. It was just 5 kids for today and then she starts in every day next week. It went pretty well. The parents got to stick around for the first 20 minutes or so, which meant she didn't say too much. Luckily she knew a couple of the kids, so this helped. She told me that she cried after I left, but I'm not sure I believed this as she was fine when I left the room. She was happy when I picked her up, and she said that she liked her teacher. I, on the other hand, have more homework to do than I had on a bad night in university. I have a packet of papers to read, fill out, and return. The pressure!

It was actually a pretty crazy weekend for us. Faith was sick on Friday...and the germs leaped to George and I. Luckily it was a quick thing. Saturday night, Duncan visited with his girlfriend, Deanna. This was the first time we met, but we'd had previous glowing reports from the parents. And, yes, she lived up to them! :)

Sunday was dinner with Paul and Kim and the kids. This meant that Ava and Faith went off and played for three hours and we basically had to monitor the squeals.

Monday was a playdate with our old baby sitter and kids, and a visit with an old co-workers kids. Tuesday was the first day of school, a doctor's appointment for Faith (including 2 needles!), and a little shopping for me so i can leave the house in something that does not resemble a tent.

So...essentially we're all exhausted and now I have to go back to work. Uggh. And, of course, my morning sickness has decided to come back during the last couple of days! This is supposed to be over with and now I can just gestate and get bigger!

Oh well. On the plus side, I think I actually felt the baby last night for the first time. Of course, it was at 3:30 am when I couldn't sleep, but at least it was something to think about through the insomnia.