Skiing again!

After a few days of being at home we were all in need of a fun day out somewhere, so today we went skiing. We arranged to meet some friends at a local resort, and had a great day.

Both girls had a lot of fun, and I feel like I am slowly getting the hang of juggling two small people who are both skiing. In all honesty it is easier (so far) having both the girls on skis, than having one on skis, and the other having a miserable time because she is cold/bored/too little to ski.

Anyway this will be brief as I am off to lay in a hot bath, but here are a few pictures from today.

Sofie.

Sofie was thrilled to master the pony lift today. She looked so grown up joining the line and waiting for her turn to be towed up the hill.

Emily skis with a permanent grin on her little face. She just loves it.
'Look Mummy, I ski fastley down the big hill'.

And of course because her big sister used the pony lift, Emily wanted a turn too. She does still need help at the start and end though (much to her disgust).

We also checked out the facilities in the children's ski school area.

Sofie started the day with her usual snow plough turns, but by the end she was doing some rather smart parallel turns.

We had a lot of fun, and tonight everyone was (or will be) in bed early. Our good friends offered to take Sofie off to do a blue run, which eased my guilt a little about the fact that she skis and we don't, so without the kindness of others she is stuck on the nursery slopes. We sat in the sunshine and had great coffee and a decent lunch, and even found a little time to chat.

I think I might be getting the hang of this 'Ski Mum' stuff!

Our Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope that however you spent your day, and whatever you celebrated, you had a joyous and peaceful time, filled with laughter and magic.

We had a wonderful Christmas - here is a brief update.

We played board games, cooked, ate, played, walked, talked, did puzzles, read books, and appreciated being together.

We thought of those who were less fortunate than us, and raised a glass to our family who are so special to us, but do not live nearby.

The girls were wonderful. They loved their presents and kept saying, 'I so lucky' (Emily), and 'It was just what I wanted', (Sofie).

Christmas day started with all of us opening our stockings on our bed. The girls were totally absorbed with the contents of their stocking for over an hour, and never once mentioned going downstairs to check under the tree.

When we did finally go downstairs, the girls were thrilled to discover Father Christmas had eaten their snack (Oreos and Muscat) and left some presents in return!

It was wonderful holiday for our family this year. The girls loved their presents, and we resisted the ever present urge to go overboard, and buy them loads of plastic junk that they don't need.

They received books (lots and lots of books!), puzzles, craft items (bead kits, colouring books, origami paper, etc), a doll each, board games, and some plastic princess high heels (clip clops), a few sweets, and some small stocking stuffers (a torch, lip balm, more books, etc).

Both girls have played with everything they received, and many of their gifts are things that they can use together, or we can all play with as a family. Even whilst opening her own presents, Sofie kept stopping to hand out presents to DH and I, or take one over to the birds or the dog. I love the way she was still always thinking of those around her.

We prepared Christmas lunch together, and basically spent the whole day enjoying each other's company. Right now I am feeling very thankful for my family and friends.

Craft, presents, and pies

Both girls are doing better today (thank goodness), but we did choose another low key day at home.

When the girls got ill, I was initially disappointed that all of our wonderful plans for the run up to Christmas had to be cancelled, but now I am able to see the positive side. Whilst it would have been great to catch up with friends and do lots of fun activities, I have also enjoyed having the time to slowly prepare for Christmas. It definitely helps that the girls love doing craft (which has managed to comfortably fill our days), without the stress and time constraints of lots of scheduled things. Hopefully this is a lesson I will remember for next year.

Anyway we filled our day today with craft, wrapping gifts, listening to music (some Christmas music and some Gugge), dressing up, playing, reading, baking, talking, and even watching some television.

We started by making paper plate Santa's. Naturally my ideas of simplistic Santa's with red hats and cotton wool decorations turned into hyped up glitter versions! Then the girls wanted more plates to decorate, and asked for jewels and stars. I am not exaggerating when I say that plate decorating took up pretty much most of the morning. They loved it. Now I just need to find somewhere to hang all of our beautiful plates.

Then we wrapped some presents and placed them under the tree. Naturally the girls had to check all the presents under the tree to see if there were any there for them yet.

We also baked some mince pies. This is a real treat for me. I love mince pies (sweet fruit mince pies - I think it is a British thing), but fruit mince is hard to get over here and I hadn't got around to making my own this year (although this is on my 'must do' list for 2010). But I found a jar of mince in the cupboard, and it wasn't that far out of date, so I made my own pastry, and the girls and I embarked on our first ever mince pie making adventure.

They liked the making part, but one of them wasn't so convinced about the taste.

The pies turned out well though.

Sick kids and Christmas Craft

Both the girls were ill today. Actually they haven't been properly well for a few days, but today was the worst day so far. Nothing too awful, but because they were both tired and running a fever we cancelled all our arrangements, and decided to have a low key day at home.

We wrapped some presents, and Sofie was very sweet, insisting we cover the bids over whilst we wrapped their present, so it wouldn't 'ruin the surprise'. We also wrapped a present for the dog. The presents for our pets were actually Sofie's idea, and she insisted everyone in the family needed something to open on Christmas day, so we made a trip to the pet store yesterday so she and Emily could each select a gift for our pets.

We also decided to do some more Christmas craft, because there are still several very small areas of our house that have managed to remain glitter free!

We made hand print reindeers, which both the girls really enjoyed. This is a great craft with little ones (or sick kids with short attention spans) because it is quick and easy, and has the added advantage of googly eyes and pom poms (well on ours anyway).

I was actually planning to stop after adding eyes and pom pom noses, but the girls insisted on glitter for the antlers.

I have to confess that this has turned out to be one of my very favorite Christmas crafts. I love that the reindeer's head is their foot print, and the antlers are their hand prints. I love the glitter and the smiles that they both chose to add. Looking at their reindeers just made me smile at the end of a tough day. If you only do one craft with your kids this Christmas I would recommend this one - it is fun.

We then also attempted to make these 3D stars, that I had seen here.

Sofie got on quite well with the folding and cutting, but to be honest the assembly part was far too difficult for her, and she quickly lost interest. I think it would work better with thicker paper, but were we using light weight origami paper, so our star was a bit flimsy for 4 year old fingers. The end result was nice, but I think this is an idea that will work better in a few years.

Drawing

I have been meaning to blog about this topic for a while.

Both the girls love drawing, and spend as much time as possible scribbling away. When we come downstairs in the morning, the first thing they do is rush to the art cupboard and pull out sheets of paper so they can set to work. I am in the kitchen trying to ascertain what cereal/juice they want, and all I get is grunts whilst they manically commence their first art work of the day.

Both Sofie and Emily will now often tell me they are 'too busy drawing' to go out/tidy up/eat.

So because drawing (and art and craft in general) are such an important part of their lives, I thought I would do a post abut it.

Here are a few of their recent efforts.

Sofie is still very into leaving small notes and making cards for people. Most of her pictures have a name on them, and are done for a specific person.

Father Christmas in the snow by Sofie.

Emily is still mostly into manic scribbling, however in recent weeks she has started to make far more deliberate attempts at shapes.

The picture below was drawn by Emily for DH. Once she had finished, DH showed great enthusiasm, and asked her what it was a picture of. Emily looked at him as if he was being slightly dim, and said 'a circle'.
I love how as parents we are always trying to be encouraging and open minded, and this sometimes blinds us to the obvious.

The girls will usually draw at the table, but theyalso like to set up 'camp' elsewhere occasionally. Underneath the table, and in the middle of the living room floor are two current favorites.

They have also started to work together on a lot of pictures. Sofie is quite a perfectionist, and has often regarded her sisters 'scribbles' as babyish, so it is lovely to see her accepting Emily's efforts and enjoying working on pictures with her.

Snow

Can you tell that all of us are loving the arrival of the snow?
Well except for the dog - he isn't cut out for all this deep, cold, powdery stuff everywhere.
Here are a couple of pictures I snapped on our walk this morning.
I hope your day was as beautiful as ours.

First skiing of the season

Today was our first ski trip of the season, and Emily's first time skiing ever (which still happened about a year too early for my liking, but what do I know of such things).

As it was Sofie's first time on skis since March, we put her in a lesson with a friend of hers, who is the same age. Emily is still considered a bit young to be in formal lessons, so DH and I decided we would just let her play around on the nursery slopes and have a couple of rides on the Magic Carpet.

The whole morning went very well, and both girls had a fantastic time.

Emily ready to go.

Emily on the magic carpet.

Emily skiing down the nursery slope.

Emily was thrilled to finally be wearing her 'baby skis', and as we would get to the top of the magic carpet (either DH or I rode up with her) she would start squealing with excitement. As expected she proved pretty fearless, and the first time we got to the top of the small nursery slope DH and I (neither of us ski) just looked at each other blankly. We had no clue what to actually do with her! So I walked a short way down the slope and DH just let her go (such responsible parents I hear you saying). The grin on her face was priceless.

Initially she was quite happy just to fly down as fast as possible, until she started to get tired and had a mini meltdown. So she and I headed off to the cafe for a host of sugary treats (IMHO sugar is the key to skiing success), and a small rest. After about an hour she was ready to get back on the slopes, and she finished the day by starting to experiment with shifting her weight about, and do small snowplough turns and stops. She cried when I made her take her skis off.

Sofie ready to go.

Sofie's first run of the season.

We arrived a little before Sofie's scheduled lesson, so she could have a small practice first. I was surprised at how quickly she took to skiing again, after such a long break. She was also excited to be back on skis, and didn't want any help from DH or I.

Her instructor (Tamara) was lovely, and after a bit of a warm up and assessment period on the nursery slopes, she took Sofie off to ski her first ever blue run! Sofie loved it, and skied until she was so tired she could barely speak. Tamara said she did really well, and is easily competent enough to tackle blue runs now.

Now whilst I am aware that there are lots of children out there who are better skiers than Sofie, and skiing a blue run probably doesn't sound like a big deal, DH and I are just so proud of her. As I mentioned earlier neither of us currently ski (although that will change in the New Year), and Sofie has worked really hard and been totally self motivated when it comes to skiing. Most importantly she really enjoys it, and now DH and I plan to take some refresher lessons so that we can start to enjoy it with her.

Sisters who ski.

Well done girls.
Daddy and I could not be more proud of the two of you.
Hopefully before the end of the season there will be a picture of all four of us wearing skis and having fun together (or more realistically the two girls skiing off and laughing at their hopelessly slow and incompetent parents....).