Lest we get too cooped up with the winter weather (which has actually been fairly tame this year), the girls and I do try to grab the dry opportunities for a jaunt to the playground whenever they come about. Daddy joined us on this one, for Maggie’s maiden voyage on her new set of wheels!
And away she goes!
Good thing she was wearing a helmet! on the dinosaur? 
Pretty girl
No comment.
Daddy’s girls.
Per what seems to be our burgeoning tradition on the St. Pierre side of the family, on the heals of our Santa’s Elf weekend, we held the St. Pierre family Christmas part 1… The upshot of it was that Dave had to work all weekend (thanks to a company move that he had to be a lead man for) and the girls and I packed ourselves into Auntie Erin and Uncle Chris’ car. It made for a fun ride down. That weekend was, of course, a blast for the girls. I, of course, failed to bring my camera.
So, on to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, aka St. Pierre-side Christmas part 2…
Given that we were set to host a houseful for New Year’s Eve brunch, I pushed our Christmas cookie-making to just before Christmas again so that we’d have cookies for the party. That made for a hectic but fun pre-dinner activity! Dinner, of course, being the most important part of the day 
.
After the cookies and some excellent Chinese takeout (next year we think we can venture to an actual restaurant), the girls were pumped, ready to burst with anticipation for the big arrival.
So, we placated them by allowing them to (strategically) open a couple of gifts (pajamas and Erin & Chris’s gift so they could be part of the fun). Which made for pretty cute pix:
The next morning, it took little to remind the girls of what they had to look forward to and little to get them tearing into the piles of presents under the tree.
Amidst the new books and baby dolls and totes and towels were lots of smiles…Ok, and lots of “More?”s from Maggie 
What can I say? the girl was finally in on it for real this year!
The rest of Christmas day was pretty lovely and mellow…and then dark and cold, thanks to “End of the year wind storm, 2011!” (Read: we lost electricity.) But, it was a great excuse to keep it really mellow (OK, the smoky fire didn’t make me so mellow, but I got over it eventually…) and it failed to completely derail Dave’s planned Xmas dinner yumminess: slow-cooked ribs. Turns out, they don’t really have to be slow cooked to be fabulous!
So all in all I think we can claim a certain level of greatness for this holiday. Thanks to Chris and Erin, Nana and Pepere for making it merry and bright (even without electricity!)
Yup.
We let her turn 5 this year.
I don’t know what we were thinking. I want my baby back!
But, we sure did enjoy her first *little friend party.
She wanted a “pin the candle on the cake” game; I found a pin the treasure on the pirate’s chest” and well, Nana and I kinda ran with the theme. Zoe certainly came to be *very* excited to have her friends over and was a great little hostess for Lucy and Lewis.
With a bit of hat-wearing, pirate’s chest-pinning, a treasure hunt and fishing for loot, it was a party, indeed.
X marked the spot
And a real treasure chest, to-boot!
Beware these fearsome pirates! Thick as thieves, I tell you!
A bit of decorating and “itsy bitsy spider” (which didn’t go over so well, either)
Little sibs were in on the fun, too
Maggie, just making sure… 
Happy Birthday, Zoe Zo. We love you for the smart, funny and beautiful little girl you are!
*Last year, I asked Zoe if she wanted a party with friends and her response was a definitive “no-way-what-the-heck-are-you-crazy-head-shake”, so I didn’t push it and considered myself lucky that she’d let me off the hook yet another year. Then, the week after her own simple family party at home, she attended pal, Lucy’s big party at the Little Gym (tumbling mats, activities, cake and lots of kids), she asked me when she’d have her party. Gah! So this year I swore to push the friends party idea a bit harder with her. And, after lots of prodding and coaxing, I managed to eek three whole names from her (two of which were actually my starter suggestions). One couldn’t show and so we ended up – actually quite happily – with a “starter” friend party of sorts. And I think it was perfect.
