Happy Halloween!

What a great day! Jack was having a party all morning in his class and got to wear his costume to school. Parents were invited (I was surprised not many showed up) and I haven't had many opportunities to participate in Jack's class so he was excited to learn that Henry and I would spend part of the morning with him. Henry was pretty occupied with another younger sibling so I got to watch Jack in his environment. It was great! Then all the kindergarteners had a parade through the school to show their costumes to the older grades...how intimidating! They were extra quiet in the older classes. Jack took Henry by the hand (Jack was Buzz Lightyear and Henry was Dipsy) and paraded with him. When they got to Hannah's class she met them with a big hug. It was so nice to see! Hannah wasn't allowed to wear her costume until the afternoon so she came home for lunch and transformed into a witch before going back to school. Everyone came home from school with a sugar rush and were wound up until well after trick-or-treating. Henry went with Jason and the other two to a few neighbours houses then Jason dropped him home with me to take Hannah & Jack to a few more. Eri & Mike arrived with cutie Bennett while they were still out. Bennett was decked out as an alligator for his first Halloween. Everyone looked pretty adorable! Happy Halloween! - d

Is Hallowe'en over yet?

We've been carving pumpkins and decorating and getting ready for our Halloween Party for so long that it seems the big day must have passed already! Poor kids...I'll have to muster just a bit more spirit for tomorrow night. The turn out for the party was INCREDIBLE, costumes were all so impressive, new faces and old all mingling together...I (for one) had a GREAT time! Hope I haven't overdone it with the photos again! - d

Home & Cozy

I forgot to blog a Happy Birthday to Jason yesterday...I think I've been a little too busy. Do you ever feel like you're drowning? Poor Jason, I saw him for about 10 minutes to tell him what homework was and wasn't done as I headed out to work...Happy Birthday!
So today I woke up with this cold feeling worse and Jack did too. He's home from school playing with Henry in his pj's and house coat. I've got to get us all better in time for the Halloween Party...we've got a record number of RSVP's at 51 so far! So it will be a relaxing day. Good thing we just got digital cable a couple of days ago! - d

Lipstick. Who knew?

Tonight was the Halloween party at Sparks (like brownies but for 5/6 year olds). It is at Hannah's school and all the girls were going dressed up in their Halloween costume. Dana was at work so I was in charge of getting Hannah dressed in her witch costume along with doing her green face. The green face part turned out perfect, actually it was quite scary, poor Henry was running away crying most of the time because he was so scared, Jack thought it was "way cool".
Hannah was thrilled with it, but I remembered Dana mentioning something about black lipstick, which I found. I put it on her lips, it looked pretty neat. Then I remember (I think...) that she said to put some black stuff around her eyes, so I used lipstick, now you might be surprised to hear that I have never really used lipstick before, so I don't know how this all works, but I put it on her eyelids and under her eyes, and who knew it is hard to get off. After a very long bath, lots of soap, a lot of rubbing, her eyes still look a little black, and red now because of the rubbing... Maybe lipstick around the eyes wasn't such a great idea after all. Dana will have to figure this all out in the morning.

Happy Birthday Erika!

Sorry Er, I know it was yesterday, but I went to bed early with a cold.

Today was our annual triple birthday party, Jason, Dad & Eri's birthdays are all within a week of each other so we celebrate them all together every year. It was a great time with Marilen joining us this year! So nice to be able to get everyone together. It came at the end of a busy weekend for me...a wedding Friday afternoon/evening and a 14 hour wedding Saturday. I felt like I hadn't seen the kids in ages. Now I'm pretty tired but still debating about my Halloween costume for our up-coming 10th Annual Halloween Party next weekend. Jason keeps coming out of the storage room with different dresses and wigs that I didn't even know we had saying, "you could really do something with this!" I think I'd better just head to bed for now. - d

Happy Birthday, Dad - Dana

Halloween Costumes

Halloween is almost here, the kids are deciding what they are going to be. Jack will be either Buzz Lightyear or Superman, Hannah has decided on a witch, and Henry will be whatever costume we can squeeze him into. Hannah is very excited because she gets to wear green make-up on her face, she's a bit worried that there won't be enough left if she wears her full costume to school all day then for trick-or-treating though.

Jack and Hannah had nightmare's last night, Jack's was about how he was at the grocery store with Dana and Henry, and when they were leaving they bought a candy out of a machine, and Henry took it from him, then Dana and Henry walked out to the parking lot and Jack had to pick up the bags and he was left behind and had to find them in the parking lot but couldn't. Poor Jack, that must have some meaning now that I am typing this out. Hannah's dream was something about how she was holding on to a peanut or something and a big bug crawled out of it and scared her. In my groggy state I think I said "don't worry bugs are fun"... she didn't buy it. - J

How many pictures is too many?

Every year that we go to John's for Thanksgiving I go a little nuts with the photos! Dogs...kids...pumpkins...changing leaves...everywhere you look, there's a great photo to be taken. The beauty of using my digital camera this year was that I could take as many as I wanted and not worry about film and print costs. I sure hope I didn't spend a socially unacceptable amount of time behind my camera though. So from about 200 shots, I edited within the camera to 160. From 160 I edited further on the computer to about 120. From 120 I edited to 9 for the blog. Too many?
We had a very quick visit with Nancy and Doug for lunch on Saturday before heading out to John's (that's Zoe asleep on the swing).
Out at John's, he arranged a treasure hunt with trivia and puzzle pieces for the kids to find a field of hidden pumpkins. There were tractor rides, feeding corn to the geese, kite flying, Jason's dad, all Jason's siblings and their families together and an amazing turkey dinner. The weather was great and the day couldn't have been better! - d

on a mission...

John asked the kids to bring acorns and pine cones with them when we come to visit tomorrow for our Thanksgiving with Jason's family...not sure what he's up to. Something about planting them? Anyway, give Hannah and Jack a job to do and they'll make sure it gets done. They were asking Jason and I all day yesterday and today not to forget that they needed to collect these things.

So we took a trip to Milne Park this afternoon and collected all kinds of crazy stuff - including some snails!

Then waited in line for our McDonalds while the kids compared snails in the back seat! - d

Feelin' Fine

I feel a lot better today than I have in a long time. I finally went to the doctor yesterday...I've been exhausted and slightly nauseous and although I was certain I wasn't pregnant, everyone saying, "maybe you're pregnant" was starting to give me doubts. Turns out my iron's low...sorry everyone. - d

Uncle John

We had a nice surprise visit from Uncle John last night, he was in Kitchener and decided to drive up and have a quick visit. The kids were very excited about seeing him, well maybe not Henry, I think he thought John was staying to babysit him and wouldn't let go of me for the first 15 min whenever someone he hasn't seen in awhile comes over he thinks we are leaving him, poor guy. Henry warmed up after a few minutes. The kids filled John in on everything from what they are being for Halloween to school. Jack brought up all is Star Wars action figures and John quizzed him on each of their names, & Hannah sold him some Girl Guide cookies.
After playing on John like a jungle-gym, John left, probably exhausted. The kids were wired for an hour after that.

Oh, and thanks Penny for the great turkey soup, yum.

Sweet Hannah

Ok, I know I said I was heading to bed, but I forgot to add this one thing. Hannah brought me a note in bed this morning:

MoM
SiK SnesinG
KoFinG
hitempach
hrtisBetinG
ShaFenoS

(Mom Sick Sneezing Coughing High Temperature Heart is Beating Stuffy Nose)

I told her I thought it was a beautiful poem and that I would keep it forever but she told me that it wasn't a poem. Then she came back a minute later with this:

MoM is nis
MoM is Good
I Like MoM
betre then
Pies

I was just as impressed and of course told her I would keep this one forever too! - d

Turkey dinner!

Thanks Mom for the excellent Thanksgiving dinner! Dad's right, we do have so much to be thankful for!Don't know if it's the turkey or the wine or the fact that my Dayquil has worn off, but I'm beat. Heading to bed early...the kids crashed early too. Jack's still not feeling great (as you can see). I found it hard to take photos while chasing Henry (he's really into everything! Jason has to keep reminding me that it won't last long and to enjoy this age!) and didn't have the right lens with me to get the whole gang at the dinner table, but I think I've got everyone covered in the random photos I did get. We missed you And & Ali! - d