Collingwood, Ontario Christmas Parade 2013

We headed to Collingwood tonight (despite the cold spell we have right now) as they were having their annual Santa Claus parade in the evening instead of the afternoon.

By the time the girls got all bundled up in their snowsuits and we drove to Collingwood we arrived with just enough time to see the last few minutes of the Ballet dancers performing pieces of the Nutcracker in the stores windows.

 Can you tell by Aayla's nose that they are already frozen after about 10 minutes??? They wanted to sit in the truck and watch the parade...

Even after arriving very close to parade start time we managed to get a spot which was right in front of the parade route so they girls were able to sit there and watch from the warmth of the truck. Really they were having their own little party in there as I froze my behind off determined to watch the parade :)

It was a night time parade so the town was all lit up.

Lots of people awaiting the parade

Most of the floats were lit up...some more then others...

 

The marching bands had to have been frozen! Everyone else who was all bundled up looked cold enough.

And last but not least Santa arrived...To wish everyone a Very Merry beginning to their holiday season!

Other than the bad photos, the freezing cold temperature and having to watch the parade alone...it was a fun parade.

Happy Halloween

We really didn't get into the spirit of Halloween very much this year. With us in Jamaica for 10 days and the girls visiting Nova Scotia with their big sister for close to two weeks we barely had time to finish the costumes!

Aayla was Strawberry Shortcake. She decided to be her before her birthday (click HERE if you missed the birthday post) so making this costume got double use :) To make it I used a white shirt and cut out and sewed on the felt pieces. The skirt was originally white with red dots but a simple food colouring bath made it the perfect pink colour. I found a pair of green pants at the thrift store and sewed on some ribbon stripes. The ribbon should have been thicker but it worked ok.

 Sierras costume was a little more (actually a lot more) time consuming. We found a ladies white dress at Value Village as well as the skeleton costume. I cut and tucked and hand-sewed a masterpiece with the help of some lace and spray paint. It was fun to make but did take a lot of time. When Sierra decided she wanted to be The Corps bride I remembered seeing this blogpost on someones pinterest board and I loosely followed the directions HERE to make Sierra's dress.

We didn't get a wig as we couldn't find the right colour blue...or so Sierra says (the wig pics in the post mentioned above were really super cute). Instead we used a headband with hair on it that was the colour Sierra was looking for. I made her a headpiece and flower bouquet to match with ribbon and lace I had in my crafty stash :)

I was a pirate which Sierra was kind enough to tell me I was a pirate before so why was I a pirate again??? I only have so many costumes to go around...

Ian made a new costume for himself this year. We aren't sure what to call it exactly... some post apocalyptic idea but it turned out great and got a lot of attention while trick or treating :)

A family shot in the back yard before we head to a friends Halloween party.

One of our homeschool friends had a little party. We were a bit late getting there and missed most of the activities but the girls really liked playing bocchi with gords.

Their next favourite thing to do at the farm is maul poor Vader. He takes it so well!

However this time Vader got spooked by a visiting dog and Sierra got quite a few scratches...and we had to leave the party early to go calm her down. She was quite shocked that Vader would "attack" her like that and it took some convincing that Vader was just scared of the dog and tried to get away as fast as he could. We will see how quick she runs to pick him up the next time we visit the farm. She is fine now and the scratches weren't too bad but after she saw the blood it was game over.

We made plans to go trick or treating with Matthias and Linda so we headed to their house for 6:00 as on our street last year we were told "you must be new here as we don't do trick or treating here anymore"! We saw Matthias for a blink of an eye and then he was off! Off like a streak of lightning and there was no holding him back. 

Our neighbours met up with us and we had a great time trick or treating together...running into Matthias every once in awhile :)

Tina and Steve both dressed up too. There were a few parents dressed up but we were definietly out numbered by none dressed up parents. We had one lady come out of her house and give us all treats as she was so happy to see a whole family dressed up together (Below is Tina and our girls...phone pics in the dark are terrible...sorry)

We found one house that was amazingly decorated. The girls were scared at first as there were "walkers" or Zombies walking around their decorated yard. Kodey stopped in her tracks on the way to the door to get treats. She was petrified so the people stopped and talked with her and then everyone was much more at ease while approaching the house for treats.

There was also a haunted back yard where zombies jumped out at you as you went through the corn maze they made in the back yard. Everyone below is gaining confidence to go through the haunted back yard.

Tina and I went last...holding hands and screaming as zombies jump out at us. They did an awesome job!!! And now the wheels are turning...hmmm how can Steve and Ian make a haunted house and draw people to our barren street on Halloween next year???

Hope you all had a safe and Happy Halloween!

Aaylas Strawberry Shortcake birthday party

It's been along time in the planning and a lot of work in the preparing but I think Aayla and all her guests had a wonderful time at the party...BEWARE this post contains soooo many pictures! I hope you enjoy seeing them and reading all about of Strawberry Shortcake party.

Aayla all decked out in her Strawberry Shorcake outfit I made her. Meadow was going to crochet her a hat but we ran out of time so I found this one at Party City in Barrie.

We headed to the trampoline as we waited for guests to arrive and played tag and popped popcorn.

Then we went on a scavenger hunt. I made strawberries out of pink plastic easter eggs ans hid a clue inside each one to lead them to the next clue.

 The THIRD clue if you are hasty, is hidden where things grow tasty

 The SIXTH clue is kind of sneaky he's hidden where it's sometimes leaky

There was a first clue to start and then 10 eggs to find...and Aaylas off and running to find the strawberry clues.

The last clue...
The surprise, is where we eat our dinner  this is where everyone will be the winner.

On the table was a basket of Aprons that Meadow made for each of the guests to use for an up coming activity.

Everyone got their aprons on.

Then we made some bakers hats for our next activity. These hats were super simple to make and looked so cute! I got the idea HERE and it's a full DIY (scroll to bottom of her post).

 I pre-made all the basic hats and fit them to everyone's heads as they made their flowers (they were too plane without some bling)...by doing so missed a lot of photos of the creating of these flowers but they were adorable when done.

 Everyone made their own flowers with coffee filters and cupcake liners. They coloured the white ones with a line (or two) of markers to add some colour and used printed cupcake liners. They glued them all together and then we added a flower to the centre with the glue gun and secured them to the hats.

Next it was time to decorate their mini cakes.

Soon after we started the wasps arrived and we quickly had to move the table inside to finish (please excuse my background mess).

 

A masterpiece in the making

A little taste testing going on here

such concentration

Then it was time for some snacks and drinks. Meadow made strawberry rice krispies, cake pops and strawberry jam thumprint cookies which were delicious! There was also a fruit plate but I was bad...and didn't get any pics of the spread. I did get this one of the juice cups beside the cake.

While everyone was having a snack we moved between eating, face painting...

 

  and playing pin the stem on the strawberry.

 Then it was pinata time!!!

Then as you can imagine there was a huge scramble :)

We headed out back for a group photo.

and then it was time to open presents

and have some cake

 In the younger kids treat bags I made a strawberry peg doll and a necklace. The hair clips and rings came from party city..as did the tattoos that ere included in everyone's bags.

 The older girls received these notebooks I recovered and added on some ribbon.

 And everyone got some candies and these bubbles Sierra helped me make :) I got the bubbles on clearance at Superstore for only .24 cents! The perfect ending to a perfect party.