happy new year!

Thank you all for stopping by our little blog and sharing our little adventures with us. We so appreciate it and have loved meeting you all. All your lovely comments always make my day so.. here's to another year and all its adventures that it'll bring. We look forward to sharing it all with you. Happy New Year!

skiing bliss

I haven't been keeping track of days and dates lately. I am blissfully unaware of time.

We went out to the ski slopes again today. We headed out yesterday as well but Mr C had to go in to work and so, didn't join us. Two days in a row plus all the tips and tricks from our friends meant we had our equipment and lunch packed, organized and ready in a jiffy. If you think packing your own lunch is boring, a hassle and not worth it.. you'll soon change your mind when you pay 10 bucks for a lousy sandwich and soup at the snack shop plus 5 extra bucks for 2 Aero chocolate bars. Ouch.

Keira & her Papa waiting to get on the magic carpet..

Yesterday's weather was foggy and grey. Today however, it was glorious! A sweet temperature plus tons of sun. We started off as we did yesterday, by the magic carpet and bunny hill. Again, Keira got one on one ski instructions and lessons from our friends. They're both ski fanatics and also, certified ski instructors (both having worked at Mont Tremblant). They are incredible ski instructors! And this isn't even their day jobs. lol. After 1 magic carpet ride, we were ready to hit the slopes. Keira learned to snow plow last year and yesterday, learned how to stop with her skis.

Beginning of the lesson.. Keira's a great listener!

Once we got to the top, I got ski instructions from Stella and Keira got one on one instructions from André with Papa looking on. It's not a great idea to have both parents right there when your kid is timid or scared. They won't learn, they'll just look for mommy and daddy to rely on. So I left her in good hands and went down with Alex and Stella. Alex is the son of 2 ski fanatics, is it any wonder he's amazing on the slopes at such a young age? Did I also mention that he's a speed devil too?? I asked him to give me some pointers which made him giggle like crazy.. lol.

I did stop and take photos of Keira a few times. To see her progress and damn but she was amazing! I did hear her panic a few times, especially when she was left to herself to go down (with André and Mr C right behind her!) but she ended up skiing pretty darn well for a beginner. At this point, she can easily transfer her weight by following André and Papa. Kids this young learn by visually seeing how to do things whereas as adults, we tend to over think each move we make.

Ski lesson Bromont 10 from ChantaleP on Vimeo.


André and Stella checked out the photos and videos I took this evening and remarked how great her posture and stance is. So she has it in her, she just needs to build her confidence on the slopes. This calls for some more lessons on the weekends.

I'm so grateful André & Stella took turns in teaching Keira the past 2 days! And they've both given me some amazing lessons on the slopes as well. All I need now is more practice.

holidays, ballet and birthday

Hello everyone! How have you all been? Still enjoying a wonderful time off? I hope so! We've been having an incredible time so far. I pretty much cancelled everything I had planned for this winter break. It included a trip to NYC then a ski vacation and other various family activities. For one thing, I'm so grateful my NYC trip didn't pan out because the weather has been horrible in every part of the US and I'd never have had made it out on time if at all! An opportunity wasted had I gone through with those plans.

I was feeling a little overwhelmed before the holidays and cancelled so much, I thought our christmas week would have been boring but I was so wrong. It's been a whirlwind week so far!

We spent a lovely Christmas Day with my in laws and where Keira got to see Santa in the evening (although, after he left she whispered in my ear that it was only 'mon oncle Pierre' - her uncle! lol). As with last year, Keira received too much gifts (yes, there is such a thing as too much). There are still some unopened stuff here in the playroom as I type. I can easily open up a toy store. On the 26th, while Keira napped, I went through all her older toys, cleaned them and put them in bags to give away. Sooner or later, she'll notice some things gone but by then, it'll be too late.

I celebrated an amazing birthday this year! It is literally the first year where everyone remembered my birthday (thank you facebook birthday alert!) and where my day was planned from am to pm. Mr C had to work in the morning so I took Keira to run some errands and to get her ski rental. I made sure to get her skis and boots to match this year, no black or ugly plastic red. I thought it was important that if Keira loved the way her skis looked, she'd be more inclined to want to put them on. Then we had a mother/daughter lunch at Zibo. It was so fun to eat pizza at a fancy restaurant together. Well, fancy for us as we're always either at Eastside Mario's, McD's or La Cage aux Sports.

We then rushed home to meet up with Mr C and head out together to watch... The Nutcracker Ballet with les Grands Ballets Canadiens. This was Mr C's first gift to me and we wanted to bring Keira to see her first ballet with us. And oh how she loved it! Not only was the ballet incredibly breathtaking but it was worth it to see Keira moving her arms and hands in tune with the music, imitating the conductor, moving her upper body with the dancers and rhythm. So cute! On our way back to our car, Keira and Mr C were pirouetting in the parking lot.

Keira doing her best ballet moves while Alex does his best Star Wars moves..

But that wasn't the end of my birthday. We had a few moments when we got home to relax a bit and where Mr C surprised me with my 2nd gift of the day! Then our good friends arrived and off we went to supper. What a great evening to end a truly memorable day for me. I enjoyed it immensely with the people I love the most.

wishing you all the happiest of holidays!

Mr Squirrel! 

It's the final countdown! Final week heading towards Christmas and baby, I cannot wait! Not for Christmas day itself, just the entire week off. Off and with the people I love and hold most dear. Grateful for having met some wonderful people this year (you know who you are!), happy to have started something and watching it grow. But mostly, just grateful for all the little things in life that I no longer take for granted.

We actually had a bit too much planned so we've scaled it all down to none. Lol! What will actually happen is we'll be just flying by the seat of our pants the entire week and into New Year's. Hopefully, we will aim for a bit of skiing and mostly, tons of relaxation at home.

A new addition.. during one of our craft day at home.

Last year's ornament brought home from school.

Just to get into the holiday mood, here are some ornaments we've put in our tree this year. We added 3 new ornaments this year: One is our new KLTworks Squirrel that Keira picked out (welcome to the family!), and 2 new ones that Keira made herself. One is a ceramic angel that you can see a bit of in the photo above that she made at a friend's birthday party. It came home about 2 weeks later, all fired up.

I've never been into Christmas myself. I hate all the tacky merchandising and commercial aspect of this holiday. The only thing I do love is spending time with my loved ones and getting the time off needed to recharge and be with them. I hope you all are able to do the exact same! Be with the ones you hold nearest and dearest to your heart.

To everyone who I've gotten to know this year, to everyone I have known for so long, Keira, Mr C and I would like to wish you and yours, a heartfelt Happy Holidays!

snowglobe

Sometimes, it's great to sit back, reflect and appreciate our friends.. 

Yep, you.

sugar cookies and jammies

Keira's 'special' snack: sugar cookies in top tray, crunchy juicy grapes and apple slices in bottom tray. That sure is a lot of sugar.. eep! 

She also gets to bring in Chunk, her Zhuzhu pet today. hehe.

Today's the last day of school for Keira until after the holidays. I got word yesterday that she's allowed to bring a 'special' snack to school that does not contain nuts, chocolate or chips. Jessica on twitter suggested sugar cookies when I tweeted that I was stumped. And that's exactly what we baked last night! So.. pyjamas on, cookies safely tucked into her bento box and Keira's ready for a fun day!

Mickey's Rockin' Road Show!

I loved the interactive background..

We just came back from a rockin' Disney Road Show. It was just as I expected: well choreographed, music with some interaction for the kids in the audience (this mainly in terms of 'Can you shout the loudest' type of deals). There was however, a fun part in the 2nd part of the show where members of the audience actually got to participate. I won't spoil the fun however, if you actually decide to go. I thought this part was fun and cute.

The girls screaming their loudest at 'Okay audience #1, let's hear your loudest shout!'

You can already tell here that Miss B is feeling under the weather, poor little sweetie!

Keira and I went with our wonderful friends, Miss B and her mom. The only sad part was Miss B was feeling under the weather. She started off in great spirits, however, deflated and felt sickly the rest of the show. Aw.. Keira loved it when Tigger came in on stage and went all Tiggeriffic goofy dance on us, tried to get Miss B to do it too but Miss B just didn't have the energy to chime in. Afterwards at home Keira told me her bff was 'really too sick so she couldn't dance wif me'. Yep kiddo. She was that. Hope she feels better soon!

Keira doing her best Tigger impression.

My friend and I braced ourselves for the marketing toy craperoo being hawked but it was like David vs Goliath! We were no match for the Disney machine. Although we had told the girls beforehand that they would get only 1 thing, it was hard to keep to this 1 purchase only rule. It worked out fine in the beginning but oh! with all those vendors marching around the aisles and every little kid whining and pining for the hats, popcorn (10$!), drinks (another 10$ because we forgot to bring our own water bottles), whirlygigs and thingamabobs, we caved. So instead of 1 thing, we ended up buying 3. Oivay.

Those crazy @#$%!! merch.

Kudos to the actors on stage! They really looked like they loved what they're doing. 

I think for kids 6 and under, this is a pretty easy show to follow. Some of the words you couldn't make out because of the amped up noise but really? Easy and fun. What really gets the kids excited are all the characters that come out. There are enough of these characters to please every little kid. In this show, we saw Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Jessie (who I thought were the best part of the show with great song and dance), Tigger and the Disney gang. The kids (not Miss B but Keira I noticed moved to the beat with her upper body, lol!) around us were dancing up and down and were pretty happy. Perhaps so happy that when the curtains closed at the end, there were plenty of wailing and tears that Mickey was gone.

This isn't a cheap show to go to but every once in a while, it's just fun to get out and watch something fun with friends. Just bring your own snacks and water bottle and hope for the best that you won't end up breaking the bank to buy all the junk that goes with the shows. Also: The older your kids are, the better they are at understanding that after the whirlygig and the hat, no more stuff! And they don't whine and cry about it either. Whew!

Here's a great website I found through twitter: I Spy Montreal headed by Jessica Howard. Even if you don't live in the Montreal area, it's a great place to read some reviews on shows that are on tour at the moment. These tours are the same ones going around North America, and it's interesting to read parents' reviews on them. This is also a great place to see what's on and about in Montreal for families. And behold!! A site that does not cater only to the island of Montreal and West Island. Finally!

a happy holidays flat backed bento!

After months and months, I finally got around to taking a photo of my flat backed bentos! Actually, can these even be called bentos anymore? What you probably don't realize is, every time Keira has her friends over, I actually make these types of lunches for the girls but I never get around to photographing or posting about them because A) the girls are usually hollering that they are about to die of hunger if they don't get to eat in 2 seconds B) with the winter days upon us, the lighting is so bad that I don't even bother.

Yesterday I decided to do a sort of holiday theme and was inspired by Lia's, Sheri's, Debra's, Lil's,  Ohayo Bento and Susan's bentos. I said I was inspired by them and others! Please don't compare my sad little plates with theirs. lol.

In the plates above, tiny chopped ham (à l'ancienne) square sammies with either a snowman or snow angel cheese, the crunchiest, juiciest grapes we've ever bought and a macaroni and cheese holiday ornament. The bows are made from candy strips. Miss M brought over some gingerbread cookies she made with her mom and they had that as 'dessert'. And that's it! Plates were wiped clean by 2 hungry little girls.

We also finally managed to get to the huge chinese grocery store and we had a great time looking around. Mr C told me it was too easy to lose sight of me as everyone looked like me! Lol. I bought all my ingredients to make my new year's soup and might go back to get fresh mochi for dessert. I went a little crazy with all the ramen choices! I can't wait to try the Shitake Spinach ramen I bought. And tonight's dinner? Roasted chinese duck! I also almost bought the char siu bbq pork but the Mister has potassium level problems and I think pork is off his eating list for a while.

Keira checking out the tanks full of lobster, crabs, fish and eel. Please don't tell her they're there for people to buy and eat! 

I almost ate the entire package of shredded squid last night. It was also slightly spicy, yum!

happiness is getting gifts & sharing them

Can you tell she just woke up? A  four leaf clover charm! Perfect for the Irish in her.. 

Her name is engraved on the back of the four leaf clover.. so sweet. 

The past 2 weeks, we've been getting surprise packages in the mail and it's quite a happy end to our day. It makes me realize more and more, how very lucky I am to have so many wonderful friends and who think of making sure that Keira has something special in these packages as well.

Here is something wonderful from Japan that we received recently from Rie.. A complete and total surprise! I opened the package with Keira and her best friend (who was over for supper). There were actually 2 cell phone charms in the package and Keira loved the apple one immediately and Miss B took the other (a sweet bird in cage one). I didn't realize until afterwards that our names had been engraved in the wood! Aw, so sweet. Rie, it made Miss B so happy to have this, I hope you don't mind. She now shows it proudly on her backpack (Keira as well). We also got some very very cute picks! Really, there is no more excuse for me not to make another bento lunch and take a photo right? As you can see, Miss B also took some picks home. lol. Getting gifts is wonderful... sharing though, is so much better! Thank you so much Rie for thinking of us.

The Velveteen Rabbit and The Snowy Day

Here is another gift we received from an incredible person. I admired the illustrations from Kristin's post a while back about this book and suddenly, we got a package with it in it! It also came on the day we had our 2nd snowfall of the season. How à propo. We've been reading all of our new books each night and it's so much fun. We received the Velveteen Rabbit as well but I haven't been able to get past page 2 before Keira nods off to sleep. lol. One of these days, we'll make it through the Velveteen Rabbit. In the meantime, our new Dr Seuss, Snowy Day, Velveteen Rabbit and The Giving Tree keeps Keira entertained each night.

I thank you Rie and Kristin, with all my heart for these thoughtful gifts. They are all well loved and even when Keira grows older, I will keep everything for her.

Cold Hands, Warm Hearts.. A gift exchange!

Well folks, I realize how late I am in posting this but no matter. I'm still excited about it all! I participated in Sandy à la Mode & Much Love, Illy's Cold Hands, Warm Hearts gift exchange in the hopes of meeting other people. I also thought it would be fun to select and send a gift to someone I do not know. Crazy right? I was paired up with Kate Guthrie of Auntie Antics blog. Isn't her nephew just a little cutie?

I got an email with her information and also, her likes but really, I only just glanced at it. lol. Because I just love going out and buying little this and that that I thought she might like. Just looking at her photos and reading her blog, she comes across as such a sweetheart.

This week, I received her package and I love everything! Did she know I'm a JCrew junkie? Because I got the sweetest long gloves and matching headband from JCrew.. Lindt chocolate (which is one of my absolute faves, just go ask Mr C), Lucky magazine (!!) and, this is what touched me most.. Kate had added in gloves for Keira. The cutest striped little gloves. When I saw that, it just made me realize how much thought she put into this package for me. Keira was so excited about the gloves (they fit!) so it made this exchange all the better because I got to share it with my favourite little girl in the world.

Thank you so much Kate! I hope you enjoy your little package from me. Thank you to Sandy and Ilene for a wonderful holiday exchange experience!

You can catch up with Sandy at her blog Sandyalamode, Ilene at Much Love, Illy and Kate at Auntie Antics.

You can also view all the other blogger's exchange experience here.

shower time made easy

This rubber brim looks huge here but it's actually quite small.

I love this thing, it protects her face from water. Meanwhile, it's a snap to wash her hair this way! The water rolls off over the side of the brim while you rinse the hair.

Our night time bath ritual usual starts off with a big "Nooooooooo!" from Keira (usually while she's running away from me). Yet, as soon as she's in the bath tub, she's as happy as a clam. Getting Keira to take a shower or wash her hair though is the real challenge because she hates getting water in her eyes. Now, I have mentioned this Japanese product before here but I'll post about it again because it's been our bath time saviour each and every time!

Keira recently started taking a shower in the big shower stall (usually her showers consisted of me holding the hand held shower extension in the bath tub while she splashed water all over me) and to get her to do so, I just placed this rubber brim hat on her head and ta-dah! She's able to keep her eyes open the entire time and clean up. Perfect! I'm not sure where else you can find this product, especially here in North America (specialty Japanese shops?) but I got mine through a wonderful friend who bought mine at Akachan Honpo (like their version of BabiesRUs) in Japan. If you find it elsewhere at a brick and mortar or online, please let me know so I can pass along the information.

I don't believe there are size options for this thing (but I can't read japanese). 

Just a small note: You will notice that this rubber brim is actually meant for babies! We've been using this thing for over 3 years now.. And it still fits Keira's, um, petite head. lol.

saturday morning in 7 pics

Oh those scratch off books. They're fun for Keira but horrible for me. They leave black crumbs all over the place!

Our growing collection of Pez

Our Roddy & Ginger cushion from Buk & Nola..