Happy 4th Birthday Austin!

Austin turned 4 last week!

As it was a Wednesday, his birthday was fairly low key. We went for a playdate at a nearby indoor playground during the day and had a small celebration that evening -- just the four of us -- with cake and presents, of course.

His party was on Sunday (Feb. 28) and for the first time, we decided to do a kids-only party. Invited were four 3 and 4 year olds (his friends Lilo, Izzy, Aaliyah and Tyler) for two hours in the afternoon. Their parents dropped them off at 2 p.m. and they were all ours until 4 p.m.

I'll admit, although we believed we were well-prepared to keep them entertained, we were a little nervous, when, seven minutes into the party, two of the kids and Austin were fighting over the balloons while running around screaming, one kid was staring at the three of them like they were crazy and the fourth was just sitting in the corner, playing with toys and minding her own business.

But after some quick-thinking intervention with a round of freeze dance and then teaching the kids how to limbo, things went much more smoothly after that.

As I said, we had many activities planned to keep them entertained and on course -- including a craft, which was a hit. I've never seen six kids (Alex included) run to sit at a table so fast when I yelled somthing other than cake time! We gave them all markers, crayons, stickers and blank party hats to decorate. They had a blast.
After that, we played a few more games, opened presents, fed them cake (check out my fun ice cream cone cupcakes -- they were cool to look at, fun for the kids to eat and cut down on the mess kids tend to make when eating cake) just in time to send them home to their parents.

In all, it was a fun time. And Austin had a blast.

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Finally, some snow!

After almost two months of virtually no snow -- we finally got some snow this week. Twice actually, with about 5 to 10 centimetres on Tuesday and another 10 to 15 last night. And I think we're going to be getting a little more on the weekend.

It's not a ton of snow, but it's enough for the kids to go out and play in. That's been the problem these last two months -- it's been cold and snow-free. And as a stay-at-home mom, that can drive you insane. For commuters (like Ryan) it's been a great winter, but for me, I can't just toss the kids outside to play because without snow, there's nothing but frozen ground to stamp around on. And that loses its appeal quickly.

So we've spent the last two months doing a lot of indoor play -- at home, at playgroups, at indoor playgrounds. Getting outside has meant walking across the street to the grocery store or the library.

But when it snowed earlier this week, Austin was practically begging to go play from the moment he got out of bed. And so we did (well not as soon as he got out of bed). We tramped around in the snow, and the kids took turns on the sled.

Maybe this weekend, we'll even get to build a snowman.

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At least she knows what to do with them

As I mentioned in my last post, Alex is potty training herself -- quite successfully, actually -- which we're all very pleased about.

So yesterday, I happened to be at the mall with a friend and I stopped off at Walmart to buy her some big girl underwear. First off, let me tell you that it's a challenge finding panties in size 2 -- and even then, when I pulled some out of the package to have a look (because they were all snap-shut packages instead of sealed plastic packages), many still looked like they'd be way too big on her. But I finally found a couple of packages that looked like they'd fit -- and when I turned back around, she had taken two pairs out of the package I had given her to hold and had done this:

Well, at least she knows what to do with them!

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