Fairytale Ball

 Cara's whole school  had a Fairytale Ball last week.  All the kids went dressed as a fairytale character and Cara chose Rapunzel (she's been wanting to wear Gwen's Rapunzel wig somewhere since Halloween!)  Gwen was very generous and lent her costume to Cara.

 Cara was very excited - they had been practicing ballroom dancing for the Ball and also all the kids learned the Macarena!

She also learned to curtsy!

The kids did a bit of dancing at the end of the day for the moms.

The wig became a burden during the ball - so Rapunzel had a hair cut!

Daddy makes the most beautiful princess of all though.

We are gearing up for some visitors that are coming - Aunt Sarah and Cousins Connor and Simon are flying over from Vancouver on Saturday for a week.  We are SOOOO excited to see them and meet baby Simon.

Lots of pics will make it to the blog I'm sure.

Olympic Fever

 Cara is taking a Clay class at a city Art Centre and really likes it.  They do a sculpture each week and then had a week to glaze their creations.  This past week she got to bring some home - Penguin, Snowman and Two Frogs on a Lily Pad.

 Such a funny 5 year old.  When told that she could choose any treat at the grocery store she chose a Cherry Blossom - a treat fit for a certain generation...like old ladies!!! haha!!!

She thoroughly enjoyed it.  Wise beyond her years?  Maybe.

 We have had a bad case of Olympic Fever here - watched everything, the girls loved seeing Canada do so well and Cara told us she was going to be a speed skater and win 5 gold medals on "that ice".

On the afternoon before the big GOLD medal hockey game we had enough snow to paint a flag on our front yard.  The girls had been seeing it in a commercial that was on during the CBC coverage so they were excited to see it happen - even if they didn't help that much.

Not bad for a freehand flag in -15 weather :)

Go Canada Go!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great Valentine's week here - the girls each received a bunch of sweet valentine's from their friends at their schools.  Cara had a great time at her kindergarten - she addressed and signed all of her Valentine's herself which was great!
Gwen is practicing printing her letter "G" and she is pretty proud of that.

We went skating on an outdoor rink on Prince's Island Park in the centre of Calgary to celebrate Valentine's Day.  We all had fun!

Cara took a developmental leap in her drawing this week - she drew this for Gwen.  A portrait of Cara's lion and Gwen.

Her eye for detail is great :)

This'n'That

We have been doing our usual thing around here and it has been very very cold so we haven't taken many pictures lately.  But this video is from a sledding outing in December just before New Years.  Gwen loves sliding by herself :)

All of these pics are from the iPod:

Cara before skating class last weekend.

Gwen all set to start skating too!

The girls showing off a tower Gwen built with her duplo.

Gwen playing at preschool.  She loves it and wears the same outfit every week!

Cara one morning before school. She has been getting used to waking up so early for school and now gets up on her own with the alarm and gets herself dressed which is very nice.

And then there is this little monkey!

Feed The Birds

 We've had a two week long melt here in Calgary and it was so Spring-like we could hear birds chirping on our walk home so we made some birdfeeders - Cara only licked the peanut butter!

 Cara cantaloupe.

 Gwen!

 Gwen started her ballet class last week.

She loves it!

She's a maniac on the floor!

They also started skating class and Cara was excellent - after a few minutes she was getting up and skating around.  Gwen did awesome for her very first time on normal skates - she even stood up all by herself!

January Routines

 We are all back into our routines now and Cara is enjoying kindergarten.  She made this adorable family portrait out of clay in December and got to paint it and then bring it home last week.

She started a clay class outside of school one day a week and so far she likes it.

Gwen is loving preschool and show & tell is her favourite part.  She is going to be doing ballet classes this term and she is very excited for that to start!

We had a meetup with the old "Baby Group" this weekend.  Most of the families came and there were a ton of kids! The girls had a great time even though they didn't remember anyone!

Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year!

We took our annual portrait by the tree on New Year's morning.

The girls were getting excited - Cara's BFF Leah was coming over for a sleepover that day!

 Manicures, dance party, movie and treats - eventually they went to sleep.

For a first friend sleepover it went very well.

 They were smiling in the morning :)

 Freya came over for a holiday visit on the last weekend of the break.

The girls all had a lot of fun!

 Silly faces!

Cara went back to school on Monday, Daddy went back to work on Tuesday and on Wednesday....

 Gwen started Preschool!

She was and is still so excited for school.

 Finally a "big girl" who can go to school!

She loves wearing her backpack.

 She had a great first day and didn't miss Mommy one bit.

She goes Wednesdays and Fridays while Cara is in kindergarten and so far she loves it!

 Nana and Grampa Howie came home to Calgary after their Christmas in NB.

We celebrated with a joint birthday cake for them!

 We had a really great Christmas season.

The girls pic from our photo session in December - a great photographer!

The Byrne Family 2013 - looking forward to many more fun times and great memories ahead in 2014!