Friday, November 22, 2013

First Ski of the Season

November 11th is Remembrance Day in Canada, similar to Veteran's Day in the States.  However, it is a public holiday here, so Ben and Greg both had Monday "off".  The smaller ski hills at Canada Olympic Park (COP) have opened, so Greg and Ben suited up in the morning and headed out for some winter fun.  Sounds like there were lots of races down the hill...boys will be boys!  :) 
 

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Halloween 2013

Carving pumpkins at our house generally looks like this...Mom and Dad do the carving while Ben and Nathalie sit around the table eating popcorn and making faces at all of the pumpkin "guts" in our hands.  Can anyone else relate?  :)  But, Ben was excited to try the roasted pumpkin seeds this year and loved them! 
 

Halloween morning, and Ben thought it would be a good idea to put his cereal bowl in his trick-or-treat bucket.  Very creative, and I'm pretty sure that will be the healthiest thing that he ever eats out of that bucket!  Ha!


Angry Bird "Chuck" has his angry bird wings ready for school!
 

Nathalie had school on Halloween too.  She was a little less sure about getting dressed in her costume for school, but did relent to wearing her princess crown.  And, here are the Franken-krispies that I made for her class...let the sugar mayhem begin!
 

Once Daddy got home from work, these kids were ready to go!!


Trick or Treat!!!  Thankfully the snow from earlier in the week had melted off, and it was a chilly but enjoyable evening of trick-or-treating.


Surveying the candy haul.  Nathalie was content to just "seek and find", while Ben emptied his entire bucket to count and sort.  Oh my!  Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

SNOW!!

Sunday, October 27th was the first real snow of the season!  Ben couldn't wait to get home from church to put on his snow gear and play around and catch snowflakes on his tongue.  Nathalie was content to stay inside where it was warm and cozy.  :)   Looks like hot chocolate season has officially arrived!
 

Monday, November 18, 2013

An Unexpected Fall Day

So, we've learned quickly that there really is no spring or fall here...at least not for any extended period of time.  We were already wearing our winter coats in late September, so it was an unexpected and fantastic surprise when we had a beautiful FALL day near the end of October.  Ben had the day off school, and we enjoyed a picnic outside and lots of playtime.  Gotta get outdoors and soak in the warm sun when we can!  PS - The stitches are healing up nicely...
 

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Surprise...stitches!

Never a dull moment in the Zabikow family...
 
While Ben has gymnastics class, Nathalie and I usually run a few errands and then come back for the last 20 minutes to watch and play in the waiting room with other little brothers and sisters.  On Wednesday, October 16th, Nathalie was running to get a toy from the bookshelf, slipped in her socks, and went headfirst into the bottom shelf.  With all of her weight going into the fall and the start of the "silent cry", I knew this couldn't be good.  I picked her up and turned her over, and blood was everywhere!  Oh my!  I couldn't exactly tell where it was coming from, but a quick check showed me that her nose didn't appear to be broken, and all of her teeth were present and accounted for.  We ran to the bathroom to start mopping up the blood that was now dripping from her hair.  Naturally, class was ending and girls were coming into the bathroom.  "Ewww...blood!"  Sorry gals!  Another mom had gone on a hunt for a bandaid and some help.  The cut was definitely on her head, near her hairline, and finally stopped bleeding long enough for us to get a close look.  Yikes!  It looked like a deep cut, not to mention she had hit her head with some force.  I was definitely going to want to take her to the ER or urgent care.  While I was calling Greg, another mom was so kind to stay with us to help round up Ben and check on ER wait times.  Gave a quick accident report to the gym coach, and then we were on our way to check out Calgary's emergency health system.  :)
 
Now that she was bandaged, I had a few minutes to breathe while we drove to urgent care.  Except...she wasn't making a lot of sense and looked like she was falling asleep!  So, what does any good mom do when they are worried that their child may have a concussion and doesn't want them to fall asleep?  Keep a constant supply of snacks and candy coming...anything that I could find in my purse and in the car.  And, crank the music and sing along like a crazy lady.  :)  It worked, and we made it to urgent care awake. 
 
Here is the photo as she greeted Daddy...doesn't look too traumatized, huh?  She is a seriously tough little girl!  I guess it helps to have a big bro! 
 

Talked with the doctor, and great news, there was no skull fracture or concussion.  He thought stitching the cut was a better option than gluing, so here we are waiting 30 minutes for the numbing medicine to take effect.  He also mentioned that Nathalie could bruise on her head or even all around her eye, looking like a black eye.  Guess we'll be cancelling those family photos we had scheduled on Sunday...
 

The After shot...Nathalie was now the proud owner of 5 stitches and feeling great!!  Mom on the other hand was about ready to pass out.  It was almost 8:30 pm, I hadn't eaten since lunch, and I had just watched a man sewing my daughter's head.  Ugh... 

 
We drove home, with a stop for dinner and milkshakes for our brave girl and patient boy.  I think the worst of the night was yet to come.  Nathalie was in desperate need of a shower to get some of the blood out of her hair, and I wanted to ice her ouchie to avoid a least a little of the bruising.  Oh my!  Who knew a shower and ice could cause so much trouble?  Poor girl...I know she was exhausted and probably in pain.  So here are the "leave me alone and stop taking pictures while I'm in pain" pictures...what a night!!  I'm sure we'll all be laughing about this someday, just maybe not anytime soon.  :)
 

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Giving Thanks...A Bit Early

Greg and I were able to sneak out on Friday, October 11th for a belated anniversary dinner at Cassis Bistro.  This adorable little French bistro was ranked second on Calgary's best restaurants of 2013.  Wow, it did not disappoint!  We enjoyed good food, good wine, good service...and best of all, time with each other!


On Saturday, we started off our Canadian Thanksgiving holiday weekend with some bowling!  The kids first time, and they really liked it!  Have you heard of 5 pin bowling?  I guess that's popular here for the kiddos, but Greg and I found it to be more challenging than 10 pin!  Either way, we shared lots of laughs as the bowling alley we went to markets itself as a "retro" alley.  The décor may have been from the 50's, but the music was from the 80's and 90's, so Greg and I had a blast reliving high school and college days.  I should have taken some video of Ben singing the good ole Will Smith classic, "Boom, shake, shake, shake the room".  Hilarious!


Canadian Thanksgiving is "a day of general Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed, to be observed on the second Monday in October".  So, while technically Thanksgiving is on Monday here, families celebrate their holiday meal anytime during the long weekend.  We celebrated our big holiday dinner on Sunday afternoon after church.  Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and more.  Followed by some Wii bowling (I guess we've caught the bowling bug...Grandma Susie would be proud!), and then topped off with some pumpkin pie!  Happy Thanksgiving, eh!