Snow Men and Valentines

Happy Valentines! We spent a romantic(?)day for five. Lochlan and Miah made valentine hearts and had a fancy dress (ie. dress up) birthday party to attend. We then had a meat, cheese and chocolate fondue. The kids loved it. I've also included a couple of pictures of the mini snow man we made when we had snow. I think we used most of the snow in the front yard. Lochlan had a snow day from school that day! Also a pic from the Eden project which we visited last weekend. L

Ukrainian Christmas

We celebrated a belated Ukrainian Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Kotzer upon our return. They arrived here only two hours after us and were able to spend a week and a half with us before Grandpa had to return to his new job. We had a great visit and it really was Christmas all over again! Grandma did some baking and attended "mynastics" with Miah while Grandpa built Meccano with Lochlan. I think Olivia just kept them amused as she ran for the stairs every time the gate opened. Grandma and Grandpa also toured St. Michael's Mount as it was one of the few things they missed when here last time. Here's some pictures of our time together.

Christmas in Canada

We headed to Nova Scotia on the 14th Dec. for Christmas. It was much anticipated as it had been 18 mos. since we'd seen my parents or my brother's family. It was also the first time they met Olivia. My entire family met us at the airport with welcome signs and balloons for the kids. It was great! My sister put on a nice spread back at her house and then it was off to Nanny and Grampy's. We had LOTS of snow and a white Christmas, exactly what we ordered. The kids had a wonderful time with their cousins and Mark and I had some adult time at my brother's Christmas party. All in all a wonderful Christmas. Here are... a lot of pictures.

Let it Snow...

Yes we are still in England... It snowed here!!! First time in 10 years! A few photos to prove it.



Bye!

Birthdays, Plays and Christmas Markets

Happy New Year Everyone! I know a little late considering it's already Feb. but better late than never. I'm a little behind on the blogging so I'm going to try and do a bit of catch up.

Dec. was a busy month for us(isn't for everyone?), Mark turned 33, Lochlan was in his first Christmas school production and of course the usually parties and decorating. We had a quiet family celebration for Mark's bday. Lochlan helped me make his cake (one of the few that will cook in this oven)and we had a scallop dinner. Lochlan did great at his performances (he was a shepherd)! He really has come a long way. Our shy little boy sang and did actions and even smiled. It was really cute to see, I was a proud Mommy. Here are some pics below.



I also went on a trip to Belgium, the Nertherlands and Germany to see the Christmas markets. I went with Mandy (another Canadian down the street). It was fab! We stayed in Valkenburg, Netherlands and did day trips to the other places visiting Brugge, Belgium on the way home. My favourite markets were probably German: Monschau and Aachen, but I would love to go back and visit Brugge, what a beautiful medieval city. Maastricht, Netherlands had great shopping. Valkenburg (where we stayed) had two Christmas markets in caves with displays which depicted a story about elves which they gave you when you entered. Neat, but I didn't find the products nearly as nice. Valkenburg also had a spa (with mulitple pools - not hot mind you) and lots of restaurants/stalls with Deutsch food. On my trip I also discovered Kriek, cherry beer (Belgium) - yummy! Overall a fantastic experience and lots of fun! Kudos to Mark as well as he had the three kids on his own (for the first time)for 5 days and two out of three ended up getting sick. Thanks sweetie!
(To see my comments go into the album by double clicking on the pictures.)