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!

We Love Cake

Well, another year older, another year more mature. Happy Birthday Ryan.
Reasons we are thankful for Ryan:
*He's really, really, ridiculously good looking
*He's really handy
*No one works harder for his family then Ryan
*Ryan is definitely the 'fun parent'
*He makes us all laugh
*He loves us, without a doubt
*Did I mention he's really, really, ridiculously good looking?

1 Stitch, 2 Stitch, 3 Stitch, 4

That is the end result of walking straight into the corner edge of a brick pillar. By far the least fun thing that could happen to a 5 year old girl. We were just walking along, she was holding Ryan's hand and SMACK.... blood everywhere. Ryan's hand immediately went up to her head to put pressure on the wound and it was so fast I didn't even really know it was bleeding until he picked her up in his arms and turned her toward me and blood was all I saw. By the amount of blood covering her face I thought she broke her nose but I was wrong. It was just pouring out of her forehead. We quickly took her back to the van and tried to wipe off all the blood with a semi-used napkin. Blood was all over her face and making parts of her hair red. We took her home, washed her face and I took her into the ER to see what the damage really was. The nurse came over, took one look and said it was definitely stitch-able and took us right back. First the nurse came and taped up some freezing so that the needle injection of freezing wouldn't be as painful for her. They mentioned that it takes about 30 minutes for that freezing to reach it's full potential in pain killing so in those 30 minutes the doctor came in, assessed the damage and gave me my options for stitching versus glue. For cosmetic reasons (the least chance of scaring) we went with undissolvable stitches. They went and wrapped her up like a mummy so she couldn't swat at the doctor or kick her, covered her face with a sheet with a tiny hole so her hair wouldn't get into the way and off they went. I've never had stitches or seen anyone get them before so this was a whole new experience for me. Sydney didn't move, didn't make a sound. Just layed there perfectly still with her brave face on under that little green sheet. She was amazing. So about 40 minutes after walking into the ER we walked out with 4 stitches and 6 princess stickers and I was one proud mommy! Proud of Sydney for being so amazingly strong and brave and proud of myself for not puking or fainting at all that blood!

Ryan Loves Me, Let Me Count The Ways

As a token to show how much Ryan loves his family he let us get a kitten. My mom, Brayden, Sydney and I went to the Animal Shelter to pick up our new long haired grey kitten. She had been in the shelter for a little bit but was only available to take home this last weekend. Coming from the shelter she had all her needles and seen a vet to make sure she was healthy but because she is only 8 weeks old she had not been spayed. You have to pay the price it would cost and take your 'golden ticket' (the dark yellow slip on the receipt) to the vet who will then spay your kitten and collect the money from the government and not you. This was my moms birthday gift to me ... Sage:

The first couple hours at home she was pretty skittish. I'm pretty sure she was freaked out by the 3 pairs of big brown eyes staring at her and monitoring her every move. The kids did not give this cat a moment to breathe. I don't think she even touched the floor of the house until we forced the kids to go out to the park and let the cat explore her new home on her own terms. She was totally litter trained, has been eating great and has now gotten used to the constant attention the kids give her. She is quiet at night as she has free range of the house which is fantastic. Now that we don't have any babies waking us up in the middle of the night the last thing we want is some little kitty meowing at us trying to get into the bed. So far I' say she's a pretty good fit. Hopefully she survives us!

Crazy Hair Day

How do you go to school when it's crazy hair day?

Photo Time Fun

For my dad's birthday this year a surprise birthday party had been planned for him. My job was to get him out of the house so that everything could be set up and ready for his return. My sister secretly flew in from Vancouver to surprise him at the party so we had an afternoon of fun planned for my dad. She met us at Moxies surprising him that she was even in town using the excuse that she found a cheap seat sale she just had to take advantage of. If my dad didn't believe it he didn't let on and assumed that was the reason I had been acting a little off my game earlier in the afternoon. After a little time catching up we decided to go play around with our camera's because it's something that all three of us love doing. I got my kids all dressed up cute for his party and told him it was because I wanted them to look amazing for some cute pictures and off we went down to the river bottom. For the most part my kids are easy participants in posing for me but it seems there is always one child that has a different opinion of what we should be doing. As far as going down into the river bottom, they all loved it. Running through the paths and playing with each other, I love watching those moments. It's moments when I can take a step back and watch my kids truly laughing that make me extremely grateful that at least in all the chaos and learning curves we are doing something right.

After we spent some time walking around the river bottom we went up to Galt Museum to play around up there. The kids love climbing around on the structures they have set up there on the coulee edge. It was the perfect time of day to be there with the sun lowering in the sky giving off a nice warm glow to everything. They all looked so cute running around in their fancy clothes having fun with each other. Brayden and Sydney were running around climbing on everything and there was little Madison following after them refusing to be left behind trying to climb up with them and keep up with them occasionally tripping on her long dress and bouncing back up to not loose any time.

Off to the side of the Galt Museum they have an old brick wall with windows and you can go there and play around on it. People go there to get their engagement or wedding pictures done sometimes. It's a great setting with the coulee's in the background and the nice contrast with the red brick and green tree's surrounding the museum. I tried to take advantage of it and line up all the kids and get them all to smile at the camera at the same time. Near impossible task. I was able to at least get a few nice and goofy shots of my sister and I with our dad. We ended right on time too! Just long enough so that when we got dad home most of the guests were there to surprise hi when we pulled up.

A Little Hitch

Brayden has always been my little man. He's kind, sensitive and cautious. Taking him to grade 2 that first day I think I was more nervous then he was as we found his classroom along with his desk and off he went. His first full day of school, staying at school for lunch and knowing no body in the classroom I hoped for the best. When I picked him up later that day he was so happy and excited.
The next day I asked him if he wanted to go to park and wait for the bell to ring and go in himself or if he wanted me to come with him. As I assumed he wanted me to take him to his class. We made it as far as the boot room when the first bell rang and a boy ran past Brayden saying "Hi Brayden" and off Brayden ran with his new friend leaving me standing there. So I turned and walked back to the van excited for him.
Friday (the next day) came and again I asked him if he wanted to go and wait for the bell at the park or have me come with him. To my surprise he said he'd find his own way to the class from the park and off he went. Sydney doesn't have kindergarten on Fridays so it was just us girls sitting there in the van. For some reason I couldn't pull out onto the road. I sat there watching him play waiting for the bell to ring and when it did he ran, grabbed his backpack and off he went into the school.
I slowly pulled out of my parking spot and drove home and as I was leaving the school zone I found there was this little hitch in my throat at the thought of my little boy growing up. When did that happen!?