Little Succeses

I can hardly believe that today we are into October!  September was so glorious and warm that it almost felt like an extention of summer.  Loved that.

With Thanksgiving coming up this weekend I wanted to focus our FHE (family home evening) on just that.  I will admit that I am not perfect about holding FHE each week but I do try.  It is often met with some form of grouchiness or fighting at moments from the children, ugh. Please tell me I am not the only one who has this problem?!?!
Tonight I got out our placemat circles the kids used to sit on for our at home preschool circle time.  It sure helps when everyone has their own space on the floor.  We sang a favorite primary song followed by a silly Halloween song "3 Little Witches" accompanied by witches on popsicle sticks (even Baby W got one).  They loved it.  We talked about Thanksgiving, why we celebrate it and what we are thankful for and who we need to thank.  We then made a little thankful turkey craft.  We had some chocolate pudding for treat (fat free of course thanks to my fitness plan).  I was shocked when AL kept asking what was next and didn't want it to end!  That never happens.  I love little moments of success.

We are going to have a pretty sweet looking centre piece on our thanksgiving table this weekend ;)

One thing I am thankful for is my little Buddy.  We were having dinner at our friend's house last night and minutes before we were going to leave we heard one of those horrid cries from JA upstairs.  The poor boy had his finger slammed in the door.  Our one friend is a fireman and was pretty concerned about it and urged us to have it checked out.  It was 8pm when we headed to the hospital and my poor Buddy was so tired and pretty nervous.  The hospital was crawling with some "interesting" people.  JA was amazing when he had his x-rays and held so still (I can't even imagine how difficult it would have been with a 1 yr old).  We had to wait hours.  The doctor finally saw us and thankfully it wasn't broken.  He was pretty sure it had an "invisible" (hairline) fracture and that sooner then later he would be back to normal.  He is one sore boy today but he is a trooper.  It was one of those proud moments as a Mom to see how brave he was considering he is Mr.Anxiety! No small success.

Baby W is growing up more and more each day.  His new tricks include hanging out in his play centre while his siblings overwhlem him play with him. Oh so cute.  Now if only we could get the sleep thing worked out.

Last but not least we are deep in the midst of planning Miss.Al's birthday party.  She has been very specific about what she wants; a purple and green kitty party.  I'm not the world's biggest cat lover but I am giving it my all. All I can say is thank goodness for Halloween cats in every store to help me aplan this party. Here is a sneak peak at the invites.

Stay tuned for more October fun.  The month is just beginning but it is going to be a good one!

Botanic Gardens

T had one of his "fun fridays" off of work so we thought we better take advantage of one of the last gorgeous days of fall. We have never been to the Botanic Gardens before but have talked about going for years. The kids were free and we had a "two for one" coupon which was a bonus.
The gardens were simply gorgeous. I loved breathing in the smell of fall leaves and the kids loved running around, exploring, watching squirrels and throwing arm loads of leaves in the air! AL has become a bit of a budding photographer and took pics every chance she got (I only wish I had a second camera to take a few of her holding such a big camera!).
The Japanese Gardens were so peaceful.

We had a great time exploring on our way to the tower on the far side of the gardens. (The perfect place to play Repunzel)

We will for sure go back to check out all the flowers in the summer and are excited to see the Luminaria display in December! Perfect fall day.

Leaves

The sickness that took over our house this weekend (see previous post) left us all pretty exhausted and dragging (there is something about your child puking all over you in public that leaves little to be desired...haha).
The weather however was simply divine this weekend and today was still just as fabulous. Crisp air, warm sunshine and fall colors really come together to create something magical.
We may still be far from over the sickness but I couldn't resist heading out to enjoy fall before it passes us by. The kids and I set out with a basket to admire all of the amazing fall colors. They picked leaves in all shades off orange, red, yellow and green filling our basket as we walked.

Pics courtesy of AL

Once we returned home the kids sifted through their collection and picked out their favorite leaves. We then pressed them in wax paper (place leaves between two pieces of wax paper and use an iron on medium heat to set them in.....be sure to place a dish towel on either side of the wax paper so it doesn't stick to your iron or board!)

The kids loved it, especially when we hung their art in their bedroom windows! (I seriously have memories of doing this same thing as a kid; fun to do it with my own kids)

The kids are now both curled up on the couches under blankets but I sure am glad we were able to soak in the beauty of Fall and capture a few colors in between some wax paper.

And So it Begins.....

I love fall. The gorgeous colors, the crisp air, the crunch of leaves. There is however one part of fall (that seems to last until spring) that I could do without........the GERMS. My poor little babies are both laid up on the couch watching a movie (you know they are sick when they are happy to just lay still). I am sure dragging them to the church this morning to set up for an activity may have done them in.
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On the plus side, I am hoping it might give me a little quiet time to keep working away on my latest project. I signed up to take part in a Quiet Book Exchange with 9 other lovely ladies. I honestly never imagined just how much time and energy it would take to pull it all together but I am guessing that the final product will make it all worth it! We each picked 2 pages to make and then made enough for each member in the group (20 pages total). I have been cutting, sewing and sewing some more for weeks now. I managed to finish my "tie your shoe" page last week and have been plugging away on my "Pot of flowers" (that button on) page all week. Don't look too close at the flower page as it still has pins in it (lots of sewing still to do on it)but it gives you an idea.

It has been fun to actually have an excuse to be a little crafty. I found a few minutes to make these for AL's party in a few weeks. It was so simple and they turned out so stinkin' cute! Can't wait to hang them from the ceiling.
T is loving this season for an entirely different reason (can we say HOCKEY season??). He had a blast catching a game last night with his brother.

I finally got the primary presentation completely written and can't wait to turn some more of my attention over to planning a little girl's 4th birthday party........stay tuned for a party post!

School Girl

Today AL had her first official day of preschool. I can't even tell you how excited she is! The only disappointment in her day was the fact that she didn't get to take a school bus the two blocks to her school and the fact that today the parents stayed for the class. She was pretty insistent that I could just put her on the bus and she would go to school all by herself!


We got lucky and managed to get 5 little friends all in the same class. AL was thrilled to see all of her friends again.




Walking home after a great afternoon.

I know AL will have the best year. She is just so ready to be there and can't wait until next week when she can go on her own.

I loved doing our little at home preschool last year and plan to keep up with it but in a different format. I am going to continue doing lessons with my two kids and focusing on "a letter a week" and activities to enforce the letter we are working on that week. Stay tuned for blog posts on what we do!

Corn Maze - Double Take

We have been having a fabulous long weekend. We enjoyed a gorgeous hike with the kids, through the river valley on Saturday afternoon and then a great date later that night. Sunday always feels like one of the busiest/exhausting days of the week (although I am certain it is supposed to be a day of "rest")so it is always a treat to have an extra day added onto the weekend!
T actually has the entire week off but is committed to working hard on the basement for most of it. After he spent a good chunk of time working away we headed to the Corn Maze for the first time ever.
We had so much fun. They had the hugest "pillow jump", corn train ride, bike track, petting zoo, etc to make the maze that much more fun. We spent a couple of hours enjoying all the festivities and completed the 1st out of 2 phases of the maze but it was pretty HOT and busy and the kids were exhausted by the end and we ended up carrying them often. We headed home for a few hours and then decided we might as well go back for the evening and enjoy our day pass to the fullest. T's sister came with us and we had the best evening, the crowds were completely gone, the air was nice and cool and the kids were full of life and loved running through the maze deciding what direction we would go next (let me tell you that you sure do go in circles when 2 and 3 year olds are directing you........lol). I managed to charge my camera battery (which had died the moment we got there earlier) and caught a few pics when we went back for a double take.




{ think every Dad I saw on these cars was having even more fun then the kids!}

Fall Begins

We have had just the busiest start to fall but have been loving every minute of it. We were fortunate enough to have T home last week which always means lots of fun! We started out the week visiting the "Jurassic Forrest" just out of town. I was seriously impressed with it and the kids loved it. We travelled the board walk through the forrest and spotted huge life size dinosaurs as we went. The kids loved when the dinosaurs moved and made noises. My little man couldn't get enough of it!



AL had a big day mid week with her first ever dance class. She has been so excited about dance for months so she could hardly contain her excitement when she finally got to put on her dance outfit.

The parents were invited back into the dance studio for the last 5 mins of the class to see what they had learned; all i can say is that it was beyond adorable.


We packed up right after dance and headed to Canmore/Banff/Lake Louise for the rest of the week. We stayed in another amazing 2 storey condo that we scored on Expedia for just over $100/night (It was seriously sooooo nice). We spent time hiking around Lake Louise. Little JA ran the whole 2km on the way back around the lake and I think he jumped in every puddle on the way too! We checked out the water slides in Banff, took a boat tour of Lake Miniwaka, Hiked trails in Canmore, had nightly popcorn/movie parties, soaked in the stunning scenery and fall colors, watched elk graze and much more. It was nice to just get away for a few days.
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We have took some family pics a year ago and I wanted to update them (I just love fall pictures) so we decided to try again a couple days ago. We headed back to the same park we had gone to before with my parents and managed to take pictures for maybe 10 minutes before the kids had enough! I'm sure we took a good 50 pictures but we managed to get a couple good ones. My talented friend touched them up for us and I am thrilled with how it turned out. The crazy part was looking at the picture from last year beside the one from this year; the kids have lost their baby chubbiness! How do they grow so fast?!?


I hope you are enjoying the gorgeous fall colors and chill in the air. This really is such a beautiful time of year.

Fall Fun

Yesterday we headed just north of the city to visit Prairie Gardens. I had seen this place featured on the news last year when I was on bed rest and so I was pretty glad that my memory served me well and I was able to remember to go this year!
The weather was perfect (it was just super muddy) and we had so much fun with the kids. This is just the perfect place to take kids for some fall festivities.

Our first stop was the petting zoo. I seriously love to watch the kids reactions to the animals, they love it so much.


JA pretty much laughed uncontrollably at a goose who was just chatting away to him (it made me wish we had a video camera. The place was filled with tons of play areas for the kids (a mini kid sized corn maze, tire swings, a barn to build scarecrows, face painting, pumpkin painting, puppet shows, theater, etc).

They also had every kind of adorable pumpkin you could imagine.

We went on a tractor hay ride (the kids just loved it). The hay ride drove past the huge field where they fired pumpkins out of canon to a pirate ship in the distance.

We visited all the little shops and greenhouses full of Halloween fun.


I was impressed when AL went right up to this witch and waited while she was talking to other kids.........as soon as the witch bent over to see AL she got super scared and started crying (she had one scary looking face!)

We really had just the best time and I can't wait to take the kids there again as they get older because there is just so many things for them to do. Hopefully next time we can take some cousins with because I kept thinking about how much they would have loved it too!