Friday, November 25, 2011

Camping in the Basement

Another case of cool things happening when mom is at work. Kinda sad for me, but so fun for everyone else. Dad really pitched the tent in the basement and let them sleep there all night. He slept in his sleeping bag on the couch. Before bed was a little movie on the nook (e-book). What great memories!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Remembering


This week we went to a service to remember A's grandmother who we called GG Nan. I went back through all 7+ years of our digital photos and found all the great shots of her and passed them on to hopefully be useful some way or other.
The biggest thing for me was the sweet and ladylike way she had about her. Very gentle and well, sweet is the perfect word. I was fortunate to have so many years to have gotten to know her and for each of the children to have gotten to know and love her too.


I will surely remember her every time we use our silver teaspoons that were hers, our cake plate that still has the family name written on the bottom, some crystal from her parents' farm, as well as some lovely jewelry for me and many play necklaces for L.


We love you GG Nan.

Friday, November 4, 2011

Halloween Fun


Let's face it, Halloween is a major thing for the little ones. They love the costumes, they love the candy, they love the excitement.
Sleeping Beauty on her way to school to see the boys

At their school there is a parade of costumes first thing after lunch. It's a fun little tradition where everyone in the school gets to see each other's costumes and show off a bit.
Indiana Jones
Green Lego brick

Soon A. had to head off to work and the grandparents all started showing up.
We lit the pumpkins and took the obligatory group costume pictures.
We were joined by our friend Luke Skywalker, I mean A. and his Mum.
And we made the rounds.
There were a few glitches. Indie's whip kept unraveling, the Lego block couldn't put candies in his own bag (his arms couldn't quite touch), and the princess had to hike up her dress to climb the steps. And man, was it cold!
The next morning we took inventory. What a great night.


Thursday, November 3, 2011

Pumpkin Patch

LATE ENTRY
Oops. I just found these pictures from our quick family trip to the local pumpkin patch.
I think I'll just slide them in here, ok?
Aren't they cute little pumpkins?

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

the Day Before the Big Day

This is the story of the Sunday before Halloween. We hung around all afternoon and did pumpkin-y stuff and last minute preparations.

We hollowed them out, scooping the guts and saving the seeds.
Someone in our family is pretty gross on a regular basis (licking spilled slurpee off the playground equipment this afternoon, BTW it wasn't his slurpee, it was garbage left there from lunch). But somehow he can't stand the thought of touching pumpkin guts. Can't figure that one out.
Watching Daddy do the carving. Mum is the cleaner, Dad is the carver.
R's choice of pumpkin faces and a to do list for the day.
Occupying himself while Dad carved out his design.

K's design...
Watching it come to life.

L's was the last pumpkin to be carved, so she got creative during her long wait.
The finished products. L's, R's, K's.
And we fell asleep by candlelight.
The votive holders on either side were from VBS this summer.
The pumpkin one in the middle R made at school.
And that was the day before. Stay tuned for a recap of the actual day itself!


Belle visits Papa

When the kids were younger and not in school full time it was much easier to get them to visit the grandparents in their costumes. Now L is the only one home during the day, and only 3 days during the week! Well we did make it to visit Papa and I am so glad we did.

She had a few costumes this year and the Belle costume is more indoor appropriate so a good choice for this day. Everyone asked if she was a princess which made her very pleased.
Then Papa fell asleep so we wandered around to visit the neighbours and L danced her little heart out for them. They had a great time watching and she had a great time dancing.
I have always said that nursing homes and daycares/preschools should be in the same buildings. It would make everyone happier!