Happy Halloween

He just loves his little pumpkin and asked me to take photos of them together today. So cute.

Big sigh of relief as we all stepped out the door today. To add to our normal morning chaos everyone had to be in costume. But we did it and they looked great. Camera battery was dead, aaarrrgghhhh, so no pictures but it's charging now so I'll make up for it tonight. If we don't all get too soggy. Darn that rain.

Potato soup is simmering (our annual Halloween dinner) and buns are rising. All is good.

Halloween prep

Old clothes from Value Village. $11.00Four large pumpkins picked straight from the patch. $22.00

Shoestring licorice for spider legs. $1.25

One glass of wine for one tired mama. $5.00

Four happy kids with cool costumes and fun treats for their class. PRICELESS.

(photos of costumes to come)

More weekend fun

We packed lots of good times into Sunday. We didn't get together with Mary, the kids and Mum on Thanksgiving because we all weren't home so we did it this weekend.

We started the afternoon with some great Halloween snacks courtesy Mary and then headed to the Apple Barn to get some pumpkins. This is becoming an annual tradition so it had to be done.
The weather was beautiful and on the last weekend before Halloween the place was packed. The line up for the hayride was too long so we walked down to the patch, got our pumpkins and then made the kids haul them back up. Here are the highlights in photos:

We didn't stay too long because it was important to get back for the much anticipated game of football that Cooper had initiated.

So everyone headed down to the field. I was unofficial photographer so I didn't play and Tag hung with me for the first while but then Tony called him in and he proved to be very valuable - scoring two touchdowns for his team. Reagan, on the other hand, lost interest quickly and ran home to get her skipping rope. Here are the highlights in photos:

This one cracks me up

So does this one

Lots of huddles

Was this pass completed Mary?! :)

What a good-looking team.

For those who played along in the ice-cream guessing game:

Cherry Garcia - Hudson and Cooper

Cookie Dough - Tony and Reagan

Strawberry Cheesecake - me

Strawberry - Taggart (you got it right Mary)

(Leni - good guessing - I think you got a couple)

Thanks for playing.

It takes a special family...

Now I'm sure most families wouldn't consider an outing to the grocery store on a Saturday night as a source of entertainment. But that's exactly what this family did.

Cooper still needed some accessories for his Halloween costume so we decided to go down to Bellingham to see if we could find them. On the way we stopped at the Safeway in Lynden for snacks. We always like to scour the snack aisles at Target when we're down, for things we can't get up here; little fun things for the kids lunches. When Tony was down a while ago for work he visited a Safeway and mentioned he saw some things the kids might like.


So we headed up and down th eaisles filling our cart with SpiderMan Kraft Dinner, Curious George fruit snacks, etc. But the best thing we found, by far, were these. Little, one-serving size ice-cream tubs witha little spoon right under the lid - for $1. We all chose one and devoured them in the van. Any guesses as to who had which flavour?


Some may think the grocery aisles are an odd source of enjoyment but like I said, it takes a special family.

Tired now - must go to bed. More from the weekend to come tomorrow.

It's not me

It's my computer. We are sort of fighting lately and as a result I'm feeling a bit sheepish to sit down with it. Every time I am well into something (editing photos, a blog post, etc.) it shuts down on me and restarts causing me to lose everything, including my mind. I finally took it into the shop just for them to have it for four days, charge me $55 and say there's nothing wrong with it. I took it home, plugged it in, feeling hopeful that the threat of sending it away again would be enough for it to smarten up. I had it up and running for all of 15 minutes before - poof - my screen goes black. Very well spent $55, don't you think. Anyways, it's with slight trepidation that I sit here typing this. But hopefully I am able to finish before it decides again it's had enough of me.

Really wanted to post about our trip to Whistler on Thanksgiving weekend. Thought the three days off for everyone was a great opportunity to get away and do some family bonding. We had a great time. Here's my fave photos from the weekend. Our Starbuck's girl (timmy's hot chocolate just won't do)
Never thought I'd like his hair long but I think he's just so handsome :)

The hot tub was a big hit

Hudson's inukshuk

The olympic rings (sort of)

Going to try and be more consistent with blog posts but if that is not what is seen here in the coming days don't be quick to assume I have flaked out - my computer will most likely be in the shop again.

A race and a pumpkin...and a turkey

Well it's been time again for cross-country season for Cooper. You may or may not remember our experiences last year. This year was a tough one. Cooper spent the first week and a half of the season fighting a cold and an ear infection, therefore missing the first race. After that he made every early morning practice trying to gear up for the second race. Unfortunately, he missed that one as well because apparently the starter of the race doesn't wear a watch and started the race at least 10 minutes early so by the time Coop got there they had already taken off. He took it pretty hard and at that point was ready to quit cross country. But he didn't and yesterday he ran the final race of the season (his first). Tony took off work early to be there, the sun was shining and we all headed down to cheer him on. He got 21st place out of over 40 racers. We thought that was pretty great considering the season he'd had. But 21st is not a great place to be when only the top 20 get ribbons. Big disappointment. Being that close to something and not getting it was pretty tough. But thankfully he doesn't hold on to it for too long. By the evening he was well over it and on to something else. I think I said it last year and I feel the same way again. I'm proud of Cooper for being a participator. He is really not a natural runner - it doesn't come easy to him. But if there's something he can sign up for he's there. I like that about him.

At the race startThe home stretch

Consoling words from Dad

Taggart and I went on the annual Apple Barn preschool field trip today. Sixth year in a row for me (2 with Hudson, 2 with Reagan, and 2 with Tag). Fun was had by all.

The pick of the patch The goats
The bouncy pillow (crazy)
Us :)

Finally "Happy Turkey Day" to all.

Had a really great "Tag video" to add but it won't let me upload it. It was very holiday appropriate. It will still be cute even after Thanksgiving so I'll try again.

Good night!

Another reminder...

...that the little things are really the big things.

Friday night I decided to light the candle in the middle of the table as the kids and I ate dinner. Something I don't normally do because the chances of someone leaning over it and catching their shirt on fire seems pretty high. But I decided to live on the edge. After we were done eating I wondered aloud if you could roast a marshmallow over a candle. Before I know it we had four candles lit and everyone had a bamboo skewer and a pile of mini marshmallows in front of them. We had a great time and it was funny to listen to their comments on how much fun this was. So excited to be doing this. They talked about it for the rest of the night and beyond.


So much fun we had to do it again tonight with Nana.