Santa is coming!

Saturday night we went into town and saw the local parade. What a hoot! Lots of floats and some very over the top. My favorite was the antique fire engine pumping out so much fake smoke that you couldn't actually see the musicians playing on top. Of course the hit of the evening was the big guy himself, Santa. He arrived about 45 minutes after the start of the parade and it was just in time because we were starting to get a bit chilled. The family center was open for hot chocolate afterwards so we warmed up quickly.

Despite all the promising and swearing that I was NOT going to bake this year (because I eat it all!) I caved and made a batch of the most delicious spice cookies. I added the candied ginger this time and it was a really nice touch. It isn't the holiday season without at least one batch of spice cookies. Sid was a huge help this year and was the official pourer and ball maker. She actually made her cookie dough balls without licking anything. I had bribed her with the privilege of licking the bowl at the end though!

1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 cup white sugar for decoration
DIRECTIONS Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, oil, molasses, and egg. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger; stir into the molasses mixture. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Roll each ball in white sugar(I skip this part) before placing 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.Bake for 8 minutes in preheated oven, or until center is firm. Cool on wire racks.
*** 1/4 cup chopped candied ginger can be added for extra flavour***
Bowl licker available free of charge upon request.

Tonight we hit a huge milestone in family life. We played our very first card game! Mom, Dad and Sid played Go Fish with Sid's alphabet flash cards and she completely got the game. She actually won twice too! It was such a cool moment for me to see the three of us sitting around the table playing cards. Ahhhh the things to come!

Russell Fair Weekend

Our weekend started a bit wet with the 10:30 parade at the fair. The nursery school entered a float and invited all the kids to come out for the parade. Sidney was joined by four classmates, their siblings, her teacher and a few parents.



We had talked about the parade on Thursday and Friday so Saturday morning, Sid woke up yelling "The Sun is OPEN, The Sun is Open, time for the parade." She ran to her playroom and brought out her basket of musical instruments. The panda tambourine was for her teacher Miss. Patti, Dad got the jingle bell giraffe, mom was given the monkey maracas and the lion castanets were for Sid. What a great idea!!



The float was comfy and greatly appreciated since the parade route was 4 km long. Sidney was an excellent waver with the occasional double wave and her secret wave that she used just for all the dogs. The dog wave was like a sideways queen wave and she did it every time she saw a dog. She was giggling about it all along the parade route.



Around 12:30 the parade came to an end and it started to rain really hard. We decided to go to lunch and come back to the fair Sunday when we could see all the animals and ride the rides. Sunday morning came quickly and back to the fair we went. Sidney's favorite part of the day was by far the pony ride. She talked about it all night.



They had a wonderful Children's section that had a petting zoo, face and hair painting plus a HUGE sandbox filled with cow corn.

Sidney loved digging and playing in the corn and it was so nice and clean. I loved it too, wish we could have that instead of sand in our backyard!

After the corn pit, Sidney wanted her face painted and her hair sprayed blue. We agreed that it would look great if her ponytails were blue! Then she had her makeup done by a 11 year old. She did a pretty good job and most importantly, Sidney was thrilled.




After face painting we ate our free pancake breakfast and hit the rides. We went right to the Ferris wheel because we knew that little kids could get on and we wouldn't have a disappointed daughter. So many of the rides require her to be much taller and she doesn't get that yet. While waiting for our turn on the Ferris wheel we saw Charlotte (from school) and her mom. It was great for Ken to finally meet them. Charlotte's dad is a pilot in the military and her mom was a flight instructor for years and years. Needles to say they are plane crazy and Ken will go crazy when he visits their house and sees all the photos and models they have of airplanes!

After the Ferris wheel we chatted with our friends and waited for our turn to go on the Chilly Willy ride which was four large Penguins that spin around. There is a big steering wheel in the middle that you can spin to make the penguin spin even more. Sidney wanted to go on the green one which Ken thought was a bad omen! He was right!!! Off we went spinning and spinning and as soon as I looked out the door, ugh... I was a touch motion sick. I looked at Ken and he was strictly focusing on Sid, I could tell we were feeling the same. I was watching Sidney's eyes and they were darting back and forth a bit while she watched the world spin by. She loved it and wanted to go again. As pathetic as it is, this ride did Ken and I in. We coerced Sid to head for the car and picked up her guitar on the way through.

Sid saw this guitar on the way to the rides and fell in love with the pink one. She has wanted a guitar like daddy's for a long time so we got it for her and she has been serenading us all night.

After bath and jammies, Sid was cuddling on the couch and she said "I loved the fair today!" So did we!

The Many Faces of Sid

We were out rollerblading in our neighbours driveway when I caught this clip. Gosh she is a funny kid!

Today we went to the Navan Fair and Siddy went on the ferris wheel and the swing ride. She loves rides and was so disappointed to find out she was still too short to ride the kids dragon roller coaster. Next year!

On an Airedale related note, our foster boy Benni went to his potential forever home yesterday. The family met him at the groomers and they were approved for an Airedale by me over 3 years ago but had not adopted due to the health of their own dog. They met Benni, fell in love and came and got him Saturday morning. Hopefully he is home to stay!