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Christmas in Markerville

The Christmas season in Markerville is kicked off with their Christmas in Markerville and Famous Cookie Walk weekend.  A walk through Markerville will definitely get you in the Christmas spirit.

The kids and I spent yesterday morning in Markerville enjoying all the festivities.  As soon as you step out of your vehicle you will hear the sound of joyful Christmas Carols dancing through the air.  The only thing that was missing was the ’s____’ word on the ground!

Our first stop was Fensala Hall which was filled with vendors offering many unique items for gift ideas.  There were candles, pottery, artwork, barnwood art, stained glass art and jewellery, just to name a few.  Of course my kids loved the vendor with all the toys!  Which I would have to say also gets my thumbs up.  The vendor had very unique and creative toys, the kind of toys you don’t see anywhere else.

Next we walked over to the Markerville Creamery Museum to check out the Famous Cookie Walk and the various vendors on display over there.

Of course we had to start with the Cookie Walk, which was fun for the kids.  There were tables filled with a wide assortment of cookies to choose from.  The Cookie Walk costs $5.00 for a container and a plastic glove (for handling the cookies).  As you walk along the tables you fill your container with as many cookies as you can.  My kids loved this part the best, they got to choose the cookies they wanted in the container – even though they could barely see over the edge of the tables!  But it was fun none the less.

Of course before tasting any of the cookies we had to head down stairs for lunch.  The cafe offered a nice variety of homemade dishes and the room was nicely decorated for Christmas.  The kids were quite excited to see the two Christmas trees!  After lunch (and a lap full of hamburger soup! thanks to child #3) we headed back upstairs to tour the vendors.  As with Fensala Hall the Markerville Creamery was filled with a unique assortment of vendors including Nixon Honey Farm, a makeup vendor, candles, Christmas crafts, clothing and jewellery.

Our last stop in Markerville was the park!  The girls loved the swings, it was a first time on the swing for the baby.  It was so much fun to watch her excitement as she squealed, laughed and kicked her legs.  The spring pony turned into a bucking horse for my son.  He had great fun getting bucked off as I cheered him on and he ended up with a cowboy hat full of pebbles.  (the pebbles got stuck between the cowboy hat and the inner layer)  I was teasing him about rockin’ out with the pebbles bouncing around in his hat every time he moved his head.

Well it’s only the beginning of November and I’m looking forward to the next Christmas event to attend with the kids.  Not sure where or when yet, maybe it’ll just be a trip to the mall to see Santa!  Regardless, Christmas is so much fun with kids!

My 3 year old son was standing on one end of the living room staring out into the middle of room.  He had on his Wrangler jeans (a must wear everyday!), a cowboy shirt (another must wear!) and his cowboy hat.  He had taken his belt off and was holding onto it like a microphone.  Then he started chattering (like an auctioneer)….”chatter, chatter, chatter, bull, chatter, 2 year old bull, chatter, chatter, bull” – you get the idea.  So I said “Hey look at that awesome auctioneer, he’s doing a great job selling those bulls!”

He looks at me, “Mom, it’s a rodeo”.

“Oh you’re a rodeo announcer?”  I said.

“Yup”, and away he went with his chatter & bulls!

My oldest daughter is quite a little mommy.  Since the baby was born she has begun mimicking everything I do with the baby.  She pretends to breastfeed her bears or dolls, changes their diapers, tries to dress them, pushes them in the stroller, etc.

Today at Mass, she was standing beside me holding her bear.  I was holding the baby, singing and swaying.  I looked down and there was the middle child humming along with the music, holding her bear and swaying.

She was so intent and focused, like she was actually praising God with her humming as I was with my singing.

The amazing gift of children!

I was really hoping that my middle child, who is 23 months, would hold off on potty training until the baby is done breast feeding.  That was one of the challenges I had with potty training my son – it seemed like every time I sat down to breastfeed, he would need to go pee.

But I guess when a child is ready, she’s just ready and there’s nothing you can do about it.  I know this is terrible but I got so stubborn about not wanting to potty train her that she would tell me that she had to go pee and I told her “It’s ok, you’re in a diaper.” (Only when I was breastfeeding of course.)  Then she’d get mad at me and whine “toilet”.  So obviously she wants to be potty trained – so we’re going with it.  She’s doing really well, and has only had one ‘accident’ in the week that we’ve been training.

It still is rather frustrating for me to stop breastfeeding to run to the toilet with her, but she is doing really good and I guess that’s all that matters.

The other frustration is now the two older kids are fighting over who gets to use the toilet first!  If one of them is using the toilet, then the other has a fit because they want to use it!  It’s not like we don’t have enough toilets in the house.  There are two regular sized and two small people sized!  I guess it’s just another case of “I want it because he/she has it.”  I just never thought that they would be fighting over a toilet!

Kids are funny!

My son is quite a cowboy.  For his 3rs birthday party he wanted a “Bucking Bull” birthday party theme.  Do you know how difficult it is to buy decorations for a “Bucking Bull” birthday party?  The internet and clip art worked great for making the invitations, decorations and birthday cake design.  Most of the gifts he recieved had a cowboy theme, so he was thrilled!  We got him a cowboy hat, which he loves, (he always used my old cowboy hat).

So now that he has his own to wear, he wears it everywhere!  So when we’re out and about he always gets attention and comments from strangers.  “Hi cowboy!”, “Howdy partner” or “Look at this cute cowboy!”.  The comments from the little kids are the cutest – “Look mom, it’s a cowboy!”  His dad took him and his sister to the auction mart and there was a little 4 year old girl there.  She was quite intrigued with this little cowboy.  She kept asking him if he was a cowboy and if he rode bucking bulls.  The last time I took him to the auction mart, one of the cattle buyers bought the little cowboy a box of smarties to share with his sister.

I guess it must be quite natural for him because he doesn’t seem to notice the attention most of the time and if he does notice, he just says matter of factly, “Yup, I’m a cowboy.”