Twas the Night Before Christmas . . .

. . . when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Well, maybe a mouse, and a teddy bear too:





The last few days, the girls were in the Edmonton Festival Ballet production of Twas the Night Before Christmas. Even though they were the ones dancing multiple performances, I am the one that is exhausted.

98th Grey Cup 2010

Pete, Joel, the twins, and I went to the Grey Cup on Sunday. It was quite the experience. The energy of the Rider Nation was infectious. However, the drunken idiot behind me wasn't all that fun. He was putting popcorn in my hood, smoking cigarettes, swearing all the time, and he fell on me. At one point, we were all standing because they were throwing mini-footballs into the crowd. Drunken idiot dove for a ball (it was nowhere near him) and fell into me, causing me to smash my knee against the hard plastic seat. Jerk. Anyway, overall it was fun, but I think I like the regular season games better. Here are a bunch of pictures:

Pregame:


Opening Play:


Pete and the twins:


Joel, the twins, and me:


Halftime setup. I got a kick out of the lawnmowers towing the speakers:


Halftime was Bachmann and Turner from BTO:




A Rider fan:


(Rider) Elvis is in the building:


Gainer the Gopher (the Roughrider mascot):


Blitz (the Alouette mascot):


Some Melonheads:

The Costumes

This year we went with purchased costumes. Here are my ghoulish creatures of the night posing with a kindred spirit on our lawn:




Here is a close-up of Katerina's head and her make-up:

Hallowe'en Pumpkins

The kids picked out the patterns and traced them on the pumpkins. I did the carving, except for Shayna's pumpkin. She did her own. Joel doesn't have one because he was away this Hallowe'en. In picture order: Shayna, Joshua, Katerina, Isabella, and then mine.

Birthday party

The twins had their birthday party last weekend. They turned 9 years old. We had the party at a bowling alley. Here is a picture of the boys:




Here is a picture of the girls (plus one boy):




And, the group shot:

I wanted to borrow their bags

The poor, poor Eskimos. At least the loss tonight to the Stampeders wasn't as awful as the last two times. These guys were sitting a couple of rows behind us tonight.



I took the twins and 2 of the neighbour kids (their first time to a CFL game). We still had a good time but we did leave a little bit early as it was a 7:00 pm start.

Friends!

Last week, I accidentally locked the cat in with the dog overnight. I guess they came to an understanding that night.

First Day of School

New school year. A brand new school. The same pose as last year. lol

This year:




Last year:

Isabella's new fashion accessory

She was very excited to get these. My little fashionista initially picked out the most expensive frames, but we settled on a moderately priced pair. She really likes these, too.

Hockey School - Day 2

Joshua and Katerina are in the Edmonton Oilers Hockey School this week. On Monday, they got to meet Colin Fraser. He was just traded to the Oilers from the Chicago Blackhawks. The kids were excited because he talked about winning the Stanley Cup. Here are a couple of pictures from Monday. Katerina is doing a drill on ice in the first picture. Joshua (in the blue helmet) and Katerina (far left) are listening to the coach in the second picture.

Katerina's Jazz Recital

On Saturday, Katerina had her jazz recital. The class was beginner jazz and they danced to O-Zone's "Mai Ai Hee (Dragostea Din Tei)". On the video, Katerina is the first one entering off the left side of the stage (my left).



If you want to see a larger version, here is the link to YouTube: Katerina's Jazz Recital.

Here are some pictures, too:

Happy Pi Day!

In honour of the symbol "pi" π (3.14159265...), I've made a pie. It is a strawberry-blackberry pie. It's still cooling so we haven't eaten it yet. Soon, though. Yum!

Cake Wreck

Gosh! It's dusty in here! It's been 6 months since my last post. Eek. Well, here it goes.

Cake Wrecks is a blog dedicated to 'interesting' professional cakes. We had our own experience recently. Isabella's 6th birthday was last month. Normally, I order my cakes from Save-On-Foods just down the street from us. I've always had great cakes. Not so this time. The cake we ordered looked like the icing exploded all over it. The manager did give us the cake for half off and the cake did taste good.

Here is what we ordered:




Here is what we received. Notice how "Isabella" is spelled "Isalella" and the "6th" is written as "th6":




Even with the Cake Wreck the party was a success. Here are few pictures from that day: