Tadhg and Sadhbh watch Santa's parade

Winter's chilly fingers have wrapped themselves around the weather recently and on Sunday the first snowflakes of the season fell. Everyone was happy to see these first wafts of snow especially on the day of the St Catharines' Santa Claus parade! It looked very Christmassy indeed when Tadhg, Sadhbh, mom and dad staked out their spot on the parade route. Sadhbh was snuggled up in her winter muff but Tadhg, mom and dad had to make do with snuggling together on camp chairs while they waited.

Luckily they didn't have to wait long as the parade started soon after they set-up their seats when the town crier wandered past ringing his bell. Tadhg and Sadhbh stared agog as the marching bands, cheerleaders, inflatable Santas, dressed up dogs, sports mascots, stilt walkers, a locked up Grinch and even reindeer rolled past. A highlight for Tadhg was seeing his dance instructors putting on a show for the crowd.

Many of the floats handed out Christmas candy and it wasn't long before Sadhbh tasted her first lollipop. Sadhbh's mouth closed around it as soon as it went in and didn't open again until all of the sugary goodness was sucked away. Mom and dad reckon she might have a sweet tooth like her brother! 

The real highlight of the parade came at the very end when Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived in a horse drawn carriage. They arrived with little fanfare and were gone so quick Tadhg and Sadhbh hardly noticed them. The cold was starting to seep in at the parade's end so everyone was happy to head back to their warm home for some tea and Christmas cookies.

Tadhg and Sadhbh see some fantastic sea monsters!

On Saturday after dance class and lunch, Tadhg, Sadhbh, mom and dad visited the Fantastic Sea Monsters!! exhibit at the St Catharines museum. Tadhg had high expectations of the exhibit and looked forward to seeing some real sea monsters ("Do sea monsters really exist daddy?"). Sadhbh was happy to be going on a trip with her family. The museum had set-up some cool arts & crafts activities for the kids where they could get dressed up as sea monsters (Tadhg was a giant octopus and Sadhbh wanted to be a mermaid but was a bit small for the costume).

After playing dress-up everyone got stuck into making their own monster and colouring it in. Sadhbh enjoyed the colouring and Tadhg was happy with the end product. The actual exhibit itself was full of pictures and descriptions of sea monsters as well as some life size models of sharks. Mom and dad found it interesting but Tadhg was a bit disappointed that there were no actual sea monsters on display. Sadhbh was happy to wander around by herself.

Tadhg's 2012 school photo

Tadhg's 2012/2013 school photo arrived today. Tadhg tried to make silly faces at the photographer during the photo shoot but she managed to get a great one all the same. Mom and dad are so proud of their little student.

Tadhg and Sadhbh wish mom Happy Birthday!

 

Thursday was mom's actual birthday. Tadhg and Sadhbh started the day by wishing mom a cute "Happy Birthday!". Tadhg gave mom her birthday bag with the special birthday card he had made for her. Mom loved the card and gave it pride of place in her birthday card collection. Tadhg was proud of the card he had made. Sadhbh learned how to say "Birthday mommy" and enjoyed saying it to mom around the house.

After a special, if somewhat normal day together, mom brought out her birthday cake after dinner. Tadhg helped mom blow out the candle. He wasn't so keen on the chocolate covered cheesecake though which left more for mom and dad to enjoy! After putting the kids to bed, mom and dad celebrated with some bubbly. Happy Birthday mom!!

Tadhg and Sadhbh celebrate mom's birthday

Monday marked the start of mom's birthday week. As baba and papa could not make it on Thursday for mom's actual birthday, they came over to celebrate on Tuesday at the family's traditional birthday restaurant, Montanas. Tadhg enjoyed going to his favourite restaurant as always and Sadhbh is starting to enjoy it as well as she can draw with the free crayons and lead mom and dad on a merry chase around the tables and chairs. The staff came over as always to give mom the birthday hat and sing the birthday song. Tadhg and Sadhbh loved seeing mom celebrate her birthday with baba and papa. Happy Birthday mom!