Monday 7 November 2016

Halloween Candy & Dentists

As is the way in North America, Halloween was a big deal for the kids, and for some of the grown ups! We went to a friend's house for a party on the Saturday evening, the adults dressed up as well as the kids..


Then on Halloween itself we did the obligatory trick-or-treating, but it only lasts a couple of hours and then there are all the sweets to eat, we have to help the kids, it wouldn't be fair on them to make them eat it all.

Coincidentally, both kids have had two fillings each this last week! Poor Lara had hers on the 31st October, which did limit how much candy she could eat that night! Dan had his two a week later, but they were very small, and didn't require a numbing injection. He had been promised that he could choose a new dinosaur if he was good for the dentist, and he was, so meet Rocky the (Inflatable) Rockysaurus:




Grandma Invasion & Crazy Weather

Only one week now until Baba Luda arrives from Russia for an extended stay, up to 2 years. The language situation in the house could get a little complex, as I should speak to Lara - and Dan - in more French really, and there will be no escaping Russian for the foreseeable future. I need to start practicing too!

Then in a month, Grandma arrives from England, fresh from her own house move from Radcliffe to Portishead. It'll be great to have them both here for a month over Christmas and New Year - let's hope for a genuine White Christmas!

Thinking of White Christmas, and snow, we've had the polar opposite recently, no pun intended. For the last week or so, and predicted for the next 5 or 6 days at least, we've been subject to a Chinook, meaning the daytime temperatures have been very high for the time of year - here's a photo of our thermometer I took last Friday afternoon - it peaked at 20 degrees C:


This doesn't bode well for the start of the skiing season - we're supposed to be at Nakiska this coming weekend for Lara's first training session in the U10+ group, complete with her ski racing suit. I think there's enough snow high up on the mountain for her to train, but I don't think the rest of us will make the effort to join in. The weekend after Lara has training at a different resort, near Banff, and that's a lot higher, and has a lot more snow already, so we'll definitely be skiing then.  I've had to turn part of our attached garage into the family Ski Tuning area, where I'll be sharpening edges and waxing bases during the week, especially for both Lara's pairs of skis:





School Photo - Grade 4

Lara's latest school photos have come home, and she looks great on them again. The photographer takes three or four shots of the kids in different poses, then photoshops them onto different backgrounds. Here's just one that I particularly liked:


Lara chose her own dress and hairstyle, and seemed to take some extra attitude with her on that day.

Watch this space - not to be outdone, Dan had his photo taken at his preschool recently, and we've seen the results online. There are some crackers there, I'll post them once the prints arrive here.

Back on Stage

Oops, it's been a month, and time has flown by, and this isn't even our busiest time yet - that's about to come, once the skiing starts.
Lara has been attending drama classes one night a week in a local school, and tonight her group put on their performance. As usual, she knew her own lines, and most of the lines of the rest of the cast. Like most of the other actors, she was a little quiet, but certainly not the quietest there, and we hope these classes will give her confidence with public speaking as she grows up.


She's just left of centre in the photo, she was playing the teacher on a school field trip to a museum, so another good role.