'A Christmas Carol'

Hannah and I went on a date together to see 'A Christmas Carol' this afternoon. The movie was really good... the animation was great and it was in 3D which was cool. There were definitely more than a few parts that were pretty scary for little kids and Hannah jumped into my lap a couple of times but overall she wasn't that scared. There were a couple of kids much older than her that I saw parents leaving the theater with part way through the show.

Hannah kept her 3D glasses on the whole time and she has kept them because she wants to take them to 'show and tell' at school next week.

It was really nice to spend an afternoon with just Hannah doing something fun together. Hannah even shared some of her popcorn with me ;-) After the movie when we were driving home she asked me if we could go on a 'date' again.

Every year it the same old thing... family portraits = frustration! This year I decided to try out the portrait studio at the Superstore in Abbotsford. Their prices are pretty reasonable for the amount of pictures I need to order and you get the pictures back the next day. Sounds easy enough right?

So our appointment was at 10am today and we all got up early so we could get ready and dressed in our Christmas outfits. All of us were ready on time and in the van by 9am giving us plenty of time to get to Abbotsford on time. I was actually thinking to myself that we were on a roll this morning.

Off we go... we merge onto the freeway and the traffic halts to a dead stop. I turn on the traffic station on the radio only to find out that there is a big accident 2 exits ahead of us and that is the problem. Great. We are now stuck on the freeway at a complete stop and we can't get off. We sit in the van for close to an hour and the kid's are getting restless. Victoria is thrashing around in her car seat and messing up her hair, Hannah is crying and carrying on about it taking too long and I am wondering why I bother with family portraits anyways??

Finally we reach our exit on the freeway and we head through Abbotsford towards the place only to run into a huge construction detour! We did eventually get there... better late than never?

We get into the studio and start the session... it never fails that with 4 people in the picture there is always someone in every picture that doesn't look so great. After going through all our options we choose a picture that most of us looked OK in... poor Victoria is not going to love us for the one we chose! It is definitely not her best picture but the rest of us look alright... Sorry Victoria! Maybe next year it will be the year of the fantastic family portrait?

I don't have the pictures back yet but here is one I took of the girls before we left this morning...

Halloween 2009!

Friday night the girls (with some help) carved their pumpkins. Hannah's was a witch and Victoria's was a snake. Papa and Dave did a fine job at carving them (Hannah and Victoria abandoned them part way through to watch Toy Story).

Halloween night we ordered in pizza for dinner and then Hannah and Victoria got ready for their big night of 'Trick or Treating'. Both of them were bouncing of the walls with excitement all day long. They could not wait for it to get dark so they could get out there!

Victoria was a little scared at the first few houses... I think she is traumatized from the 'scary mask' incident. After she got some candy in her bucket she was fine. Fine that is until she was walking up to one house right as someone dressed as a big gorilla was leaving... Victoria turned on her heels and bolted back down the driveway so fast that her little legs could barely keep up! I thought she was going to fall down on her face!

Hannah was really into it this year and although she was a bit apprehensive of a few of the scary houses she was leading the way most of the night. "Hurry up Victoria!" she kept saying to her sister.

They scored lot of candy... I am expecting the sugar high to end sometime mid-spring?!?!