halloween celebrations

well, it has been one of those weeks.

we started out strong and healthy. i had plans. flu vaccines to be gotten poked with. parties to prepare for. groceries to buy.

i am now wishing i had taken all of us for the vaccine on Monday. while everyone was healthy!

Tuesday started out great, then took a sudden turn for the worst when i got a mild flu. it was scary because i wasn't sure if it was H1N1 or not. i recovered in only a couple days and never experienced any of the cold symptoms, so i hope it is safe to assume it was not. Thursday, it was Kiara's turn. she has handled it better than i did. three days straight of videos and laying on the couch. fun. the flu shot was delayed.



fortunately, or not, she was healthy and happy when i took her to school that morning. it was her first school party. she has been wearing her costume ever since. they got a huge load of candy treats and goodies. right after we got home, she started with a fever. the crazy part was that she had no appetite...not even for her yummy treats. poor girl.


i was concerned that Aidan would follow the same pattern. i suppose he could still have his turn tomorrow. that won't go over so well. this was the look on his face this morning. yup, he was quite excited. today was his party at school. the walk to the bus never went so quickly! he too has been wearing his costume ever since he got home.

the cutest part was listening to his non-stop story once he got off the bus! part of it included how they had a party, but they had to eat the healthy treats first. then they got to eat all their junk food. haha. he also commented how two of his friends managed to eat ALL of their junk food, but he just couldn't do it. that's our boy! i told him he didn't have as sweet of a tooth as his friends. he responded, "i do too have a sweet tooth!!". hilarious. i love his stories.




i felt more like myself Thursday, even though Kiara was not. but it didn't stop her from helping carve the annual pumpkins. they are both old enough to understand the process. this year Aidan described it in steps. i am guessing that is something they are discussing at school these days, or he just likes to order his life.


as Aidan would say, "step 3 draw the face". last year we picked up a carving kit from a liquidation store for super cheap. we were thrilled to use it! Kiara and i used the stencils, but Aidan prefered his own drawing. i don't let my kids use knives. just one of those rules us moms seem to have.... but the kit had some little knives that seemed harmless and possibly useless. after i cut out Aidan's face i allowed him to "fix it up" with the knives from the kit. i was greatly surprised when i realized that he cut several more holes and even enlarged other ones. ON HIS OWN. without any blood or other injury.


this is his pumpkin. he is only 5 years old. isn't this amazing?!

soooo i had to give these knives a try. they worked amazing.


Kiara chose the cat stencil. considering this was a complicated design and i worked quickly (before the kids were bored!) it was much simpler to cut with the little knives. good practice.




this was the design i chose.

yup, we're not expert carvers here. one year i took my apple corer and just poked holes all over the pumpkin. i also like to strip part of the skin off and let part of the light shine through. the kids love these cute and funny faces, so we'll go with that.

well we're praying everyone will stay healthy long enough for us to get the flu vaccine and recover this weekend. i am so thankful that i know God is protecting us, but it is still tough to not have control over this. the kids and i are healthy, but Kristian has asthma. this virus isn't being too kind or particular in whom it chooses. our goal is ultimately protect our home from giving Kristian the virus from us. i had hoped the line-ups would be more diminished by now. i am so glad that every year is not like this.

hopefully i'll have some costume photos to share tomorrow!

scavenger hunt

it was an average fall day on Friday. except if you looked closely. the irony of patches of snow on the ground and green leaves remaining on the trees. somehow the rainbow of yellow, orange, red and brown leaves missed the party this year. there were a few....but they were few!


early this month, Aidan brought home two sheets of homework. one was a calendar with a mix of seasonal and learning related challenges. the other was a scavenger hunt designed for fall. we would have done it long ago, if it hadn't been for the icy cold, 80km winds we had before the snow came. while i was still waiting for the perfect fall photos. we went from +30 degree CELSIUS days to ZERO degree CELSIUS days!


BUT on Friday, a warm front rolled into town. not great for those fall photos, but fine enough for the long awaited scavenger hunt. the kids were armed with paper bags. i had the master list and the camera. we were hopeful!



the temperature was 11 degrees C. just cold enough for us to stay cozy in our winter coats.

i love that this forest is a short walk from our house. no car or seatbelts required. no strange people...just parents, kids and cool runners or cyclists. phew!


one of the items was to find an INSECT. those ladybugs are tough! we found 3 of them. and one spider.


usually i am the only person carrying my DSLR camera. except this walk. we ran into TWO moms who had a wagon of photo gear, 4 kids and 2 cameras with lenses and flashes to make me green with envy! it was actually entertaining to my 2 kids and myself to listen to other moms repeat the famous photo phrases, "look at the camera!", "where is your nice smile?", "cooperate please!", "just one more" and "good, good, keep that pose"! the best part was hearing someone else say it to their own kids!!


and just to make sure my kids knew i loved them and still thought they were fabulous posers....we lost the jackets for 10 minutes and took some posed photos.




we managed to find ALL the items on the scavenger list. success!

i got some terrific photos. yippee!

now if i can just get some great family photos this weekend....with pumpkins? or something that resembles the fall....

more celebrating

we had another birthday in our house this week. Aidan, my oldest, turned FIVE years old. i don't think time is just flying by....it's picking up speed!

he's had an exciting week too. i really think it started on Sunday...he had a fabulous time playing with his cousin, Jacob that afternoon. the two of them keep planning sleepovers....but their mama's aren't quite buying it yet. can you picture what it will be like for us another five years down the road? speaking of roads, that leads me to Aidan's highlight. big enough that he has remembered the incident for several days and waited until today to share it with his 'best buddy'. we stayed about an hour past the kids' bedtimes, then headed home in some light snow. yes, it has been snowing! still!! we found an icy patch of highway and had the most incredible near miss of our lives. there were so many "what if's" that we had to stop thinking about them and just be thankful that we were okay. we were in a series of vehicles that were involved in a crash and we were the only one NOT hit. angels watching over us? plenty i do believe! watching one car get hit by a fast moving vehicle out my side window and then watching the same fast moving van slide right in front of our car...after we had driven into the ditch. between all the cars involved, there were 7 children. none hurt seriously. another miracle. i was surprised at the reactions of our kids. they took the entire event in stride. it was a long wait because we had called 9-1-1 and had to wait for the emergency vehicles. then we had to fill out accident forms. both kids were sound asleep by the time we approached the city.

i think that late night did not help the kids to fight the recent cold virus to hit our home. they both woke up the next morning with the sniffles. they were pretty tired that day too. i kept them both home from school the next day. and the next day! which also happened to be Aidan's birthday. rotten luck? or was that good fortune? the jury is still out deciding that one.

since he was home and had lots of time on his hands, i decided to let Aidan open his present that morning. thank you Scholar's Choice gift registry! he had picked it out himself a few weeks ago and it had been wrapped and hiding since that day. he was a happy kid. then he asked me where the other gifts were. hmmmm....kiddo, you don't always get everything you want....




i couldn't get a good photo of him unwrapping the gifts. my other arm was busy....




......consoling this sad sister. she has just now learned the excitement of unwrapping presents and didn't want to miss out on any of the fun stuff. tough lesson for her. it made it very tough to take photos! (isn't her hair crazy?! i am not sure what happened in her dreams the night before. it won the 'crazy hair award' by a landslide.)




this is the second cake for his 5th birthday. he took cupcakes to school today. the cake and icing and decorating were done to his choice. i decorated the cake using the same plan. yellow sugar in the centre and rainbow sugar on the edges. i also had some gold icing gel...reminded me of a galaxy....so i wrote his name using it. and added the silver balls.


now we can concentrate on halloween and christmas in the near future.

our front porch is all decorated in the fall colours. just because i found the stuff on a super cheap sale at Michaels yesterday. i also bought pumpkins. however they both must have frozen. with all due respect....i should have been thinking more clearly. they were being kept outdoors. in below zero temperatures. now, do i return them? or keep them, as a reminder of my own stupidity?

as soon as the kids' quiet times are finished tomorrow, i plan to take them outdoors. Aidan was given a scavenger hunt that he has been wanting to do. i REALLY want to get more photos. i am hoping to find some trees that have yellow leaves.

have i mentioned that most of our trees still have leaves and the leaves are STILL GREEN? bizarre. even more bizarre is to see the green with the snow covered landscape. it has to be a record of some sort.
wish us luck!

i had to share....

how can that not make you smile today?!


Happy Thanksgiving!

celebrating Aidan

as i mentioned in an earlier post, we had Aidan's birthday party early this year. little girl had a month long party....why not big brother?!


he turns FIVE years old this year. where or where has the time gone?

we had one of his biggest parties at a nearby science centre. it would have been nice to have had more of his friends, but i wasn't ready to go insane at my young age. the teacher in me came out as we wandered around the building. i don't think any of the kids would have been surprised if i asked them to raise their hand if they wanted something! okay it was not that bad, but i had them make "trains" to help avoid losing anyone in the crowd.


there were so many activities to choose from and the time flew by so fast. we started out in the Discoveryland. lots of water play and tower building. then we moved on to the SpacePlace. i think this was one of their favourites.



most of the kids wanted their photo taken in the space suit. except the birthday boy! he told me a few days later that he wanted to go back so that he could stand in the suit. oops! i guess he'll have to wait now. i didn't realize the kids could stand in the suit until we were doing a headcount and i came up one kid short. Kristian could see him, so pointed at the space suit. and there was one of his little buddies quietly standing there with the biggest grin!

the next exhibit is a special one called the Science of Sport. this was also one of their favourites. one of the options was to race against various animals, and the kids had fun "winning". i was glad that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were at this exhibit too. they spent a lot of time at the climbing wall spotting.



it was a fun one for Aidan too! this is one of the rare pictures of him in it. which is weird....i really thought i was taking most of the pictures of him.

then we had time to visit the Green's House. not much time for this one because we had hot dogs and cake and presents waiting for us....




Aidan's first birthday cake for this year! it was also the first year that he learned the importance of blowing out all the candles. after he blew them out, one of the older boys shouted, "yay! NO girlfriends!!" Aidan was confused for a minute!

he loved all his presents. he has them lined up in his room and has been playing with a new one each day this week. i think the upcoming play dates will be exciting too!

after the cake, we went upstairs and watched a movie in the star theatre. the kids thought the chairs were cool and you could tell they had fun moving around trying to see all the parts to the movie. they watched "The Cardboard Rocket". i think it was a very educational party! one of his buddies sat beside me during the movie. love that boy! the basic story is that the main characters build a rocket from a cardboard box and fly to the sun and all the planets. they started at the sun and his one buddy was shocked to learn that our sun was a star. he was in total disbelief that this information had not been shared with him before! i'm so glad he is a good friend of Aidans....he is going to be fun in the coming years!

we only had 15 minutes left, and the kids wanted to look at all the games and exhibits lining the hallway. i had hoped to take photos of each of them on the police bike....but we ran out of time. we also ran out of time for the Mystery and Body exhibit rooms. i'm still impressed that we got as much done as we did. the kids were at a perfect age to enjoy the fun stuff and have patience to realize that if they followed the instructions they would enjoy the exhibits even more. {i mean the instructions for the games....not from the mother-teacher!}

i think we'll do quiet birthdays next year. when Kiara has her fifth birthday, we'll do something big for her that year. i am very thankful that our kids get along with other kids so well. but it makes it tough to work out a guest list! i am also looking forward to hearing the kids ideas for parties when they get older too. they are creative, so life could get pretty interesting!

off to enjoy a quiet evening.

Kiara's special celebration

since it was Kiara's birthday first, it is only fair i start with her!

she invited some little girls who became her friends this summer. i didn't wan't to do anything super fancy or organized for her party. she's really still too young to know any other way. it was kind of like an organized playdate. the activities were geared to those that i knew Kiara enjoyed and those that i knew would also interest her little friends. it's amazing how quickly you get to know kids when they are at your house, playing with your kids and their toys!
when they arrived they each had a crown they could decorate and wear. lots of stickers and gems to dress it up!

all the dress up clothes and princess-like accessories were brought out for them to wear. they are still too young for much imaginative or creative play. however, they wore the dresses and played with the regular toys!



all the girls are at the age where they are old enough to play with icing and decorate. one of her friends loves painting....and since i was not exactly willing to have 4 little girls painting up a storm inside my house....this was the next best thing! they loved it. those tubes were tough for them to squeeze though. i had thought that it might be easier for them to use these in comparison to home-made icing and decorating bags. there were sprinkles and little silver root-beer balls for them to add. yup, could have added all sorts of cute treats for the decorating, but i wanted to keep it simple.




they brought presents and spoiled her! i was so pleased to see that Kiara shared very easily and happily.




then came the cupcakes!

each girl had her own unique cupcake with a candle. one of her guests actually had her real birthday on the day of the party. and, would you believe this, another guest would be celebrating her birthday in a week. we lit the candles and sang happy birthday to Kiara....since it was her party. then we re-lit the candles and sang to the other birthday girl. then we re-lit the candles and sang happy birthday to the up and coming birthday girl. and of course we had to sing to the remaining guest! the girls were so thrilled to be sung to and have their own candles to blow out..FOUR times! i love that girls this age are sooo easy to please.

we started a girl movie at the very end. the party had lots of free play time, and other activities for the kids to enjoy. i knew they would be tired, and a quiet movie time would hopefully eliminate the need for any arguments that could erupt due to the tiredness. it was perfect timing.

Kiara had little treat bags for each of the girls with shiny princess rings....which every one of them had on their fingers when they left! and other fun girly and princessy treats.

Aidan was so fortunate to be invited over to a neighbors house for a playdate that afternoon. we basically traded her daughter for my son. too funny!


i think the afternoon was a success. my legs were tired by the end of the day! i did get plenty of time to sit and enjoy the afternoon too. but i still had to be the "mom"!

the best part of the planning was the babysitter! i had pre-arranged our sitter to come that night and give Kris and i a night out. both of the kids were tired and went to bed without any complaint to her. any parent knows that the situation would have been much different had she not been there!

so a re-cap of the party day. and some lessons i learned as a bonus!

birthday season

3 birthdays (out of 4) are celebrated in September and October in our house. b-u-s-y! it started with Kristian. we had a quiet celebration for him this year. there was so much going on! then came Kiara. it was an odd one because Kristian was out of town that week. so it ended up being the never-ending celebration for her!





we had the "big" party and now i hope she realizes that the birthday is over for a year. she really wanted a princess cake...oops! got the princess party but forgot a princess on the cake.


these were the invitations i made for her party. the crown was like a postcard, with the details on the reverse side. very simple. but the little girls' faces all lit up when they got them. cute!



i tried harder to plan in advance for Aidan. in reality i need to do the planning in August (two months before his special day). September flies by with school....getting crazier every year. then it gets lost in the Thanksgiving celebrations (i'm Canadian). this year i was very concerned about the H1N1 impending epidemic. i didn't want to cancel a party due to us being sick, nor did i want to do a big part in helping to spread it more quickly! like i have a choice.



he's getting older and has shown some amazing artistic talent recently. he also loves making cards and doing crafts. i plan to encourage that for as long as he's willing! he drew this rocketship, then we scanned it. my PSE7 was very helpful as i duplicated it and printed it out! he did the cutting and i did the cutting. he is not yet allowed to use my straight cutter. i also added some glitter to the rocket flame, which was Aidan's request.


i'll share more photos and details from their special days. we have had Aidan's party although he has not officially had his birthday. i'll definitely share photos from his real day. thankfully we should all be at home for this one. and i'm praying that we will all be healthy!