Miss A and the Ledge

Christmas traditions are repeating themselves once again this year, and Miss A got to go to the Ledge this year to decorate a Christmas tree, just as Miss G did last year, and as every Kindergarten student in Yellowknife has done for nearly 20 years.

The tree decorating for Kindergarten classes at our school was last Wednesday, December 5th.

I had a chance to come by in the morning to wish Miss A a fun time, but I had to stay behind at school this year, because I had a Kindergarten class of my own to take later that morning! 

Daddy's work is very close to the Legislature building, so he was able to meet Miss A at the Ledge.  This was taken at 9:00 am, dawn... before sunrise. 

Pumpkin Time!

On Friday, I decorated six pumpkins with my class... I forgot to take pictures of the finished pumpkins, so hopefully tomorrow I'll have some to share with you, because I think they are really great!

Eli bought me some pumpkins for my class, and the girls picked out their own pumpkins at the same time.

We promised the girls that we would carve pumpkins on Saturday, and we kept our promise. 

Miss G wouldn't let us forget, anyways! 

Can you see that is is night outside the window in the drawing? 

It is dark here a lot more, now.

On our weather chart the other day, Miss G asked me where the "dark" picture was for the weather. 

I told her that dark wasn't weather, it was more about time, and in Yellowknife winter means dark, and summer means sun.

She agreed, and settled on "snowing" for the weather, since that is a continuous state outdoors now, too.

We're already two weeks into one-piece snowsuit weather.

The girls helped Daddy scoop out the insides... a bit.

Long Days Make for Busy Us

I also could have called this post, "A Little of This and A Little of That" because it's a mish-mash of photos from recent days.

Our days are looong now, in sharp contrast to perma-winter and perma-night.

Me no like-y perma-winter and perma night.  Ug.

 A little while ago, I was flipping through Family Fun with the girls when we saw this craft, so we got the supplies out, and began.

The super long days pose certain challenges, but filling up the days with fun stuff to do is not one of them. 

We find inspiration all over, and the girls have great imaginations.

I carefully traced the girls hand prints strategically along a fold of a paint-quality piece of paper, and helped them to cut the tracings out. 

They are excellent with scissors, but the finger tips were tricky. 

Then, we took out the water colours to freestyle paint butterfly wings.

I will admit that I was tempted to do symmetry paint blotching, but the girls wanted to PAINT, so we did. 

They love watching the water change colours as they paint with new water colours. 

The butterflies are as unique as they are.

I'm sure I do not need to tell you which one which girl painted.

Meanwhile, in a kitchen not so very far away, Twofour stared at the fridge and had a nap in front of it. 

"Please, oh, cold provider of carrots, lettuce and all crunchy vegetables, open sesame!"

"Hey, you have opposable thumbs.  Help me out, woman!" 

"Aaaah.  Crunch crunch crunch." 

 The girls have discovered word searches, and like them! 

 

Especially with markers...

Lots of sunlight means we have time to hang out on Daddy's boat and make bubbles, alongside our fishing rods. 

When the guys at work ask me what kind of boat Eli has (a standard Yellowknife question), I answer,

"Blue." 

They laugh as say that their wives would say the same thing, and next time they'll just talk to Eli.

Daddy was pretty thrilled the day our mailman delivered his new rifle.

For reference, this is a happy man.

The long days here means that when work is over, Eli has almost a full day's worth of sunshine to burn through at the shooting range or with the Water Mistress, AKA the boat.

Good thing I'm cute, or he'd never come home! 

This was taken only about two weeks ago, just before summer permanently landed and the leaves popped out overnight.

The girls found a peek hole in the neighbour's fence, and thought they could be super spies.  

This is evidence of the picnic Miss G packed for herself to enjoy in the sunny sun. 

Miss A wanted Patchy-Patch and Kitty (who is really a Chihuahua, but don't try to tell her that!) to enjoy the sun, but she kept her Yellow close by to block the sun, if they thought they might get burned. 

Miss A watched me wash the cars one hot Sunday, and thought it was a fun-looking chore to sign up for. 

Perhaps we should encourage this.

Yes, playing under the big Northern sky with planes buzzing by all day long is a lot of fun, and really can take it out of you!

And the sunsets... well, they last for HOURS up here, and I for one, cannot stay up late enough to see the darkness, as right now dusk and dawn are all we get for "night." 

Here is the sun thinking about setting around 11 pm.  It's so pretty! 

All this sunshine is tiring the girls out!

Here, Miss G is on the top bunk in a night gown, with thermal wool socks on, her black cowboy hat, bruises all over to mark the fun she's had outdoors, and Blanken tucked under her nightgown next to her tummy to snuggle her to sleep.

You know how when babies fall asleep and you want to wake them up just because they are so freakin' cute?

Yeah, that feeling doesn't go away. 

Meanwhile, Miss A has made a face plant on her pillow, tucked in next to Patchy-Patch, and under a pile of Yellow (the Blanket), her VeggieTales blanket, her orange doggie blanket and duvet cover.

She will kick them all off within an hour. 

And, then, the girls will be up, hours after the sunrise, ready for another day.

Twenty-six Egg-cellent Pictures

So, it was bound to happen.

Mama got sick.

I spent most of this week huddled in my house, trying not to sound like a barking mad seal, but I do. 

I really do sound like a barking mad seal.

Luckily, I only got Miss A's throat thing, cough and fever.

That's enough germ sharing, thank you very much.

I may have simply willed away an nasty stomach bug.  I hate feeling sick.  Blech.

Anyways, today was my second sick day in a row.

I was coughy and oh-so-achy, but my fever broke yesterday, so today was much better.

I only feel like I want a new throat.

Eli picked up the girls from school and brought them home to a very special craft.

I had been feeling a bit guilty for lounging around, encouraging movie marathons while our house was in the grips of a frozen bout of illness, and sometimes if you pretend you are not sick, you feel better... So, I prepared a craft.

The girls were pumped.

This is a super inexpensive way to decorate eggs.

In fact, I bet you have everything in your house right now.

I added food colouring (primary colours only) to a wee bit of water in a small glass. 

It was lots. 

The trick is to add a dallop of rubbing alcohol. 

The rubbing alcohol helps to "seal" in the colour on the egg. 

You can also use a bit of white vinegar instead. 

I've done it both ways before.

The pretty coloured water alone was enough to get the girls excited. 

They patiently listened to the directions, and did very well.   Such good listeners!

Note, they are wearing their smocks with no shirts...

The rubbing alcohol-food colouring mix might not wash out of clothes!

I hard boiled the eggs (I put the eggs in cold, cranked it up to MAX, and left it for about 15 minutes). 

Instead of letting the eggs cool off, though, I carefully dried them off (one by one!) with a dish towel and delivered them to the girls HOT. 

The other eggs stay in the hot water until they are ready to be decorated.

As you can see, I cut up a toilet paper roll to be out eggie holders.

Why on earth am I giving my girls the extra challenge of colouring a warm egg? 

Because the heat off the egg helps to melt the crayon onto the surface of the egg for a more vibrant creamy look.

Genius.

Miss G is nothing if not thorough.

I've seen this done many times before (and have done it a few times myself), but you'll find lots of ideas online like this.  I cannot take credit. 

The girls were very into it.

Look who is hanging out under the table! 

Hi Twofour!

Are you excited about the Big Bunny coming?

Oh!  He is!!  

They were very focused, and thought this was a very fun canvas to draw on! 

But, those colourful glasses... they are just so exciting!! 

A wee bit of waiting, and... 

Delight.

They each got to design and colour four eggs each. 

I think if we had done more, they would have rushed and not enjoyed it as much. 

Four each was a good number.

Miss G's first egg, the obsessively complete purple crayon covered egg, may have somehow affected the blue dye. 

I wonder if it was too hot when we put it in there. 

I think that it's possible that the plentiful wax crayon was not dry and affected the blue's ability to "seal." 

We tired for purple here, but the blue didn't dye.

I think next time, we will just bring a few extra glasses and do the colour mixing in them with the girls.

They love mixing colours.

You could, of course, draw white to seal in a layer of colour and dip again, but my girls were very happy with this process. 

This egg got cracked while bubbling and boiling away.

I told Miss G that it was unique.

So, she wanted it. 

Miss A is in the zone. 

So, the eggs were waiting in the bot of still hot (but not still boiling) water waiting for each girl to finish her previous artistic endeavour before another was brought out of the pot.

Mmm.  Melty. 

Here, Miss A is demonstrating how to flip an egg over to colour the other side.

I LOVE this picture. 

The girls asked me if we could colour some more eggs another day.

I told them, "Of course."  

In the meantime, these eggies are going to live in our fridge. 

(I just saved an empty egg carton and cut it up, so each girl would have egg holders.)

The girls are anxious for the Easter Bunny to see them, and they wonder if he'd like to hide their eggs for them. 

Twofour will diligently pass on the message to the Big Bun.

Did you know that Twofour likes to help out the Easter Bunny each year?

He does!

Many pet rabbits do.

I'll tell you all about it sometime.