Karate baby!

Very proud to congratulate Maia on earning her first karate belt!

Also thrilled that Ran's eartubes came out today. She had a check-up with the ear specialist this afternoon and he discovered that they had already come out on their own, but were kind of stuck in her ear canals. He quickly popped them out and Ran couldn't be happier. No more earplugs for bath or pool time! Though she is quite insistant that she is still going to wear her pink neoprene headband for swimming (always the fashionista!)

The tooth fairy cometh ...

It's hard to tell from the picture, but today Maia lost her first tooth! (middle left bottom) She is so proud, and relieved. She has been waiting and waiting. Maia's teeth came in late - she didn't cut her first teeth until the week she turned one. The dentist had told her she might not start to lose them until grade two since she was a late starter. In the mean time, her classmates have been losing teeth for well over a year. Today she finally became part of the club!

Holiday Round-up

Happy 2009! Now that the holidays are past and things have substantially quieted down I can take some time and post. Our Christmas this year was quite low key, but we really enjoyed it. Ditto for New Years Eve.


Santa came!

Santa and his little helper.

Christmas angels.

Ringing in 2009 ...

A toast to the new year (don't worry, that's gingerale in the girls' glasses!)

A New Year's tradition in our house ... the making and modelling of silly paper hats!

Happy New Year! Best wishes for 2009!

Hinchie Holidays

This past weekend we headed south to spend an early Christmas with Mike's family. There was good food and great company. The kids especially enjoyed hanging out with their cousins. And despite having an unexpected delay coming home and spending a night storm-stayed in a small roadside motel we had a fun time (the motel wasn't even so bad once we brewed some hot chocolate in the coffee maker and watched Christmas specials on tv).

Auntie Erin and cousin Jacob

Margo and Maia

Ran and Daddy

Sniffles and Santa ...

Actually sniffles is a bit of a misnomer. It should really be insane hacking coughs accompanied by fever and ear ache. That's what we've been dealing with since Wednesday with the girls. Finally we dragged them to the doctor last night. The diagnosis: viral bronchitis for both, a full blown ear infection (complete with antibiotics) for Ran and a new inhaler for Maia (it seems her long lost asthma has decided to rear it's unwelcomed head again). Despite how grim that all sounds they were feeling significantly better today after a few doses of medication.

We were especially grateful for that since today was Santa day. First we had the kids' Christmas party at Mike's work including crafts, a clown, snacks, presents and the big guy in the red suit. He stuck around after the party and tonight he took up the rear in our town's annual Santa parade. We were joined by Auntie Shari and Uncle Wayne for dinner, hot chocolate and Santa spotting. It's been a long day and the little sickies are all tucked into bed. I will be off to join them shortly!

Mike, Auntie Shari, Ran & Maia

Welcome back!

Once again, the craziness of life has kept me from upating the blog, but I am finally taking some time to catch up. First, I spent the month of November participating in a writing challenge called NaNoWriMo. The object is to write a 50,000 page novel in just 30 days. I am proud to say that despite the difficulties with working novelling in with our regular routine I completed the task, and five days before the deadline! However, since the challenge is about quantity and not quality don't be expecting to see my masterpiece on your local book store's shelves in the near future. Or ever! But it gives me the confidence to tackle other projects now.

My grandmother was also hospitalized for a while. She is now back home and doing much better. I do find my days somewhat busier now though since I am helping her out a bit at home and making sure that she gets where she needs to go.

Then we had to dig out ...

And of course with December upon us we are fully into holiday preparations. The decorations are up and the ginger bread house is decorated. Now I just have to finish shopping, complete three sewing projects, write my cards, get a package in the mail for Ran's former foster parents in China and do my baking!

Here's some pictures to help you catch up with what we've been doing ...

Halloween ... Miss Hermione Granger of Harry Potter fame and the Pretty Pink Princess.

Digging out from the first storm of the season. When all was said and done there was over a metre of snow in our front yard!

The annual decorating of the ginger bread house. This year the girls did it all on their own!

The result ...

I think they did a great job!

Thanksgiving recap ...

I've been a bit negligent lately (like that's news!), but I do finally have my Thanksgiving post. I did have some problems with my internet access for a few days, so that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it.

We had lots of fun and feasting this Thanksgiving weekend. We started in Sarnia, spending some time with Mike's family. Saturday afternoon we took Maia & Ran and our niece Margo to a fun farm. They had corn mazes, hay rides, animals, mini putt, a pick-your-own pumpkin patch and pig races! The girls had a great time. Definitely something we will redo in the future.

Later in the day we had a yummy Thanksgiving feast cooked by Grandma Helen complete with pumpkin pie baked by OJ's food class. We also celebrated the fall Hinchie birthdays with wishes extended to OJ, Maia, Margo, Jacob, Sean, Mike & Frank. We wrapped up the festivities Sunday with a family skate with the London Hinchies (Maria, Sean, Margo & Jacob).

Monday was our second feast with my family cooked by yours truly. It has taken my belly a couple of days to recover! Memo to self: at Christmas we will not over indulge!