Working for the weekend.

WE DID IT we made it we survived a whole week with Joel gone. I panicked a little bit before this week started because of the friction between me and Eleanor lately, so pulled out my rolodex all, Who do we know, and I overscheduled us a little. Thursday morning, Eleanor had school, and then I invited the neighbors up for supper in the evening and I'm trying to be a little more chill about having people over and not making A Thing of it, so that I do it more often, but I still wiped down the bathroom and moved some of the weirder stuff out of sight. Why is there a clay fossil on my kitchen counter? ANYhoo, we had a great evening and the girls were OUT OF THEIR MINDS (they love having dinner guests so, so much) and then the neighbors left and I put the girls to bed and my house was a disaster and I almost died because my little introvert snail of a heart was exhausted and I just wanted to lie down.

SO THAT and then Friday morning we joined some friends at a preschool dance party that the library-branch-that-is-not-ours-but-is-still-close-to-us, and it was amazing. We sang that song that goes, Peel...bananas...peel, peel bananas. Cut...bananas...cut, cut bananas. (And then mash, and then eat, and then GO.) This morning Geneva was in her crib all, Eat eat eat. Go go go! Nanaaaaaaas! So we're for sure gonna go to this again because my kids love to dance to ridiculous songs.

AND THEN Friday evening Saskatoon Pride put on a Winter Wonderland carnival at the farmer's market. We wanted tacos so bad but they were CLOSED so we ate this giant chicken leg and bowl of rice instead.

I got Eleanor's face painted (duh) and Geneva watched avidly

so I got HER face painted, and then we showed her in the mirror and then we got down and then she cried

and I can't tell if it was because she didn't like her face painting or because she wanted to CONTINUE.

Babies be confusing. Anyhoodle. There were carnival games, and the hockey ladies let Eleanor 'warm up' for like 20 minutes so that was EASILY the best bang for our buck. (Plinko took like two seconds and then they were all, Here's your prize! Enjoy your bouncy ball, see ya.)

And then we got a saskatoon berry tart!

And then we went back and played hockey some more, because those ladies were SO NICE. And then one of them was like, Have you tried the basketball! But we only had one more ticket and it was spoken for so she pulled some tickets out of her pocket and was like, Go shoot some hoops!

And then. AND THEN. Elsa and Anna showed up and Eleanor was so excited she fell down and Geneva almost died.

This hug was all she talked about today.

Eleanor was, as usual, struck completely dumb. She's SO EXCITED before and after but face-to-face with a princess she is like.....Abuhhhhhhh.

And then we got home like ten minutes before Joel and the girls were like *schlup*

because what a day. And today we walked down to the cafe, Eleanor carrying a sheet of ice she'd found in the yard,

and had a cake and warmed up because it was cold out

though so so so sunny. Being at the park all together is a thousand times more fun than taking the girls there on my own.

Such a frabjous day.

Warm wishes

At the risk of jinxing things, we have having such a good week. I took the girls in for their shots this morning OH AND THE GARAGE DOOR WAS FROZEN SHUT and so our downstairs neighbor came and heaved on it while I pressed the 'open' button but POINT BEING we got out of the garage and my girls are fully immunized and everyone was so brave and then we went to Downey's Golden Sheaf Bakery and had one of their incredible donuts.

Feed the birds.

And THEN, because it was like FOUR DEGREES, I took my bitches to the zoo.

Bitches love zoos.

Eleanor insists on pulling Geneva for most of it, which Geneva LOVES.

And when she got tired, I just stacked them and pulled them myself.

We have cougars and bears and a couple of lynx but the girls' favorite animal is the Random Zoo Cat.

Hullo, zoo cat.

And then the cat climbed a tree and Eleanor took the sled and climbed a hill and Geneva was like, Wha happen, where erebody go?

I told Geneva the eagles were scowling at her (they're so scowly!) so she scowled back.

And that was morning and then we had lunch and everyone napped like the dead and when they woke up, it was STILL WARM SO WE BUILT A SNOWMAN.

Witness him.

And then Eleanor built a TEENY TINY snowman out of shards because rolling snowballs is actually super difficult.

And THEN JOEL TEXTED TO SAY HE WAS COMING HOME and the girls died of excitement and he read to them every book I've been refusing to read because ughhhhhh reading aloud and now he and I are going to have a coloring date because I got TWO! NEW! coloring books in the mail today (blackbird!!!!!) and I am so, so excited.

Oh happy day.

Wintershines

Summer is all festivals and then fall is SOME festivals and then the festivals fade into the holidays and then JANUARY, January is nothing. January is so long and then kind of near the end, the festivals pop up again.

All is ice! Chair is ice. Swans are ice.

Blocks are ice.

Slides are ice.

Ring toss is ice.

BONK.

Hay bale maze is not ice, it is hay.

Human dogsled is not ice either, actually, but is for on ice.

Hockey box is not ice, but has ice IN it.

Pony is not ice; pony is Tex.

Igloo is not ice, but is majestic. Geneva kept calling it the 'mountain.'

Nice job, ice.

The Make-up Day

I'm going to start speaking my sadnesses into the ether more often because we have had the most amazing day THANK YOU LIFE AND UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING.

Eleanor got a gift card for her birthday to this place where you paint a pottery and they fire it for you, so I sent her and Joel off this morning to have some alone time together.

Geneva doesn't always get to do the cool stuff I used to do with Eleanor, or maybe I didn't start doing stuff with Eleanor until she was bigger? Who remembers anything anymore. Anyway. When the cat's away, the mice get to do some painting of their own.

She was so, so proud of it and also ate some of it. 

When toddlers potatohead, though. A LEGION OF EYES!

It snowed again this morning but the afternoon was warm! And sunny! I bought the girls their own little snow shovels and Eleanor makes tracks around the yard for miles.

Geneva is just like *wrangle wrangle wrangle*

SNOW IN THE AIR

Ugh, my house is snowed in.

And then Josie's mom stopped by! With a coloring book for me! Which is something I have walked by a thousand times and wanted but never bought because how'm I gonna justify the expense. And she chatted with the girls and Eleanor told her all about her pottery painting and Geneva told her all about her painting on the fridge ('PAINT! S'RIDGE! Yaya [meaning "Geneva"]') and Josie's mom is the kind of woman who understands littles and can talk to them about their weird interests all day. And then I melted a bunch of cheese over some tater tots with some pepper and some scallions and some leftover meat and we called it supper, and Eleanor and I baked some apples

and now they are all asleep.  Joel leaves tomorrow for a week so I'm trying to hoard all these good feelings. We have some fun stuff planned, I've invited the neighbors up for supper so I don't murder my children and/or feed them waffles every day. January is the lamest month, but it's like a week from being over and then we are further along in our long, slow trod towards spring!