Trick or Treat

Halloween must be the best day ever for young children! You get to dress up in costume ALL day long, eat awesome snacks at school and totally clean up in the evening with treats! Seriously, I remember running from house to house to fill a pillow case with loot as a kid and if I remember correctly we filled pillowcases. *plural*
We've missed out a bit on the wonderful Halloween holiday known to North American's while in the Philippines. They don't really do Halloween and then those that do dress up are all pretty gothic. I think it's because November 1st is All Saints Day where they go to the cemeteries and light candles. The following day is All Souls Day. With that being said, we've never been trick or treating in the Philippines and so they were really pumped about going this year which made it a lot more fun for me. So here are my little rays of sunshine all excited for the big day:

My Halloween Treats

I get to bring snacks into school today for both Sydney and Brayden. The school prefers healthy snacks which is perfect so I did a little google search and found a couple of cute ideas and went to town! We have coconut covered ghost banana's, strawberry ghosts, ghost rice krispy's along with black cats and monster mouths made with apples. Luckily Brayden has an allergy free classroom so we could fill those mouths with peanut butter! YUM.
Anyway, I just wanted to share my hours of hard work and fantastic idea's stolen from the internet!

Hopefully they taste as yummy as they look!

Jack-O's

We finally got around to some pumpkin carving, just in time for halloween! Sydney actually got to carve her pumpkin Thursday at school with her classmates. It was pretty huge thanks to Brayden for picking out the pumpkins. Sadly though Madison's pumpkin got stolen off our front door step sometime Friday night so we had to make a special pumpkin run for her Saturday where she picked out her second pumpkin of the year. Seriously, who steals pumpkins from people's door steps, that's just so mean!
Anyway, I'm not too sure what Brayden was expecting but a pumpkin filled with slimy seeds was not it. He was actually a little repulsed by the idea of putting your hand inside that mess and pulling the gunk out. Madison absolutely refused and so mom to the rescue on the first pumpkin. I tried to make seem as fun as possible but they weren't buying it for some reason. I tried to explain it was just the stuff put into pumpkin pie and they actually have eaten that slimy gunk before but that didn't really work either. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the kids never ate pumpkin pie again by the horrified looks on their faces.
Finally once Madison's pumpkin was carved and lookin' amazing they got more into it. Sydney wouldn't touch it with her hands but she tried to scrape it out the best she could with her spoon. Brayden surprised me and dove in for a couple good scoops with his hands before resorting to a spoon.

Of course once the pumpkins were completed we had to make sure they looked cool and test them out.

They were so proud of their pumpkins and we had to sit with the lights off forever before the novelty wore off. I remember how exciting that was when I was a child. It's kind of interesting because it's been a couple years since we've been in Canada for Halloween and had the chance to carve pumpkins, the kids are almost experiencing it for the first time and it's so fun to watch. So bring on Halloween! We're ready.

My Newest Addiction

I have no idea how long this Pinterest has been around, but I absolutely LOVE it. It's pretty much a collection of things that people like and they pin them up on the wall where they can share it with the world. There is recipes, home decor, fashion, photo's, seriously anything. When you find something you like you can repin it and share with your friends, you can post your own idea's or if you see something on the internet you can 'pin it.' It's great. So here is the first thing I took from pinterest and tried, these snazzy nails :D

Perspective

Lately Ryan has been gone quite a bit back and forth to the Philippines for work and the kids and I have been managing on our own. It's a challenge but I suppose it's perspective and i've been trying to focus on the fact that I have these three little people in my lives that are healthy and happy. So for now I have to be the mom AND the fun parent. Being the mom gives me the picture above and being the fun parent gives me the picture below and in both pictures I see 3 wonderful reasons to be thankful.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

I've been waiting and getting prepared. We bought new snow suits for the kids and their outdoor winter wardrobe. It's been a while since we've had to deal with the Canadian winters combined with that *brisk* Lethbridge wind. I have to admit I almost cry in the mornings when I check the temperature and I see a negative sign in front of the number. The kids run to the bathroom shivering and Maddy's teeth were chattering the other morning as she was telling me how cold she was. It's mornings like that when I ask myself "how many more nice afternoons are we going to have where I can kick my kids outside when they are getting me annoyed?" I guess the only answer to that is to take advantage of the nice days because *knock on wood* who knows how many we have left. One thing I'm thankful for is that there are less and less days when the kids come down in shorts and I have to send them back upstairs to get 'cold' weather clothes on. They are starting to figure out that every day is a 'cold' weather clothes day. The only one that fights me anymore is Madison. It's a battle most mornings to get her into pants, the bonus is that she LOVES her new boots! I guess you take what you can get, right!?

The Boy is 7

Well, we had a party which was a bunch of kids running wild through out the house and Brayden loved every second of it. He got spoiled with gifts and said he loved the cake pops I made so I have to say the day was a success. The most important part is that he is 7 years old. We have had 7 years of fabulous memories and laughs. He was the first, the one that turned Ryan and I from a couple into a family and so he's special (don't worry I tell all my kids they are my favourites!) So to celebrate our first born here are some of the few things we love about this kid:
*He is so compassionate.
*Brayden retains everything, his memory often surprises me
*He has the best freckles and they absolutely suit his personality. I just LOVE them.
*He's still not embarrassed to kiss me goodbye or wave at me from across the park at school
*He is pretty easy going and gets along with pretty much everyone
*He has this amazing sparkle in his eyes when he smiles, I can't help but smile back at him
*and, most importantly, he loves us and we love him

Cold As Ice

Every Wednesday in October Sydney gets her ice skates on along with the rest of her kindergarten class and they skate away. The very first Wednesday of October was Sydney's first time ever on an ice rink. I bundled her up in her brand new snow suit (it's been a little while since we've done snow), a toque that was a few years too small and my mitts because I couldn't scrounge any kid sized ones out of our few dozen boxes sitting in the basement and her skates.
All I can say was that I was FREEZING! Seriously, winter is going to kill me. Other then it being terribly cold it was fun. I wouldn't say she's a figure skater but she didn't suck either. She was moving and she spent maybe 5 seconds on her butt the whole time.
So yay for new experiences!