Halloween 2007

We got started right at 5:30. Every year at 5:30 it is dark. Not this year, not with daylight savings being messed up. So we were the first ones out. A bunch of houses were not ready, but many of them were. We even managed to arrive as one good sport was just pulling in to his driveway. Big C spent a great deal of time in the wagon just hanging out. Not really getting in to the whole thing. Normally taking a ride in the wagon is the whole point of the outing, the free candy was lost on him.Monkey and his friend BigE had been prepped in school and were more than ready. BigE was happy to show Big C the ropes and he was able to do about one house for every two that the older ones got done.

There were many happy choruses of "we're the candy guys" from Monkey in place of the traditional "trick or treat". There was also a lot of "umm, can I have some Smarties too please, they are my favorite". Grandma should be proud. Or maybe he just remembers the Smarties getting stolen by Grandma in years past and he knew that he needed extra. He actually did a remarkable amount of negotiating right on the door steps. Some guy gave him playdoh, but not blue playdoh. Oh Monkey spoke up, you can bet on it. They were trading between BigE, the neighbour and Monkey. It went on for at least 3 solid minutes.

He figured out that if he told people that he was also collecting for his brother, they would give him twice as much. At one point BigE was even trying to send Monkey in his place since Monkey was so good at it. At one point Big C took a rest at some random person's picnic table. Hey, it was sitting on the front lawn and he is always told that he has to sit in order to eat. Putting two and two together, he was hoping to get some candy in!

They had a great night and we packed it in by about 7.

DPoD October 31st - Hallowe'en Hair

Today was the day that we went right into getting Monkey's hair turned blue. Mommy got the goods and they did a trial run at supper last night. There were a lot of smiles and some very happy shouting 'it's BLUE!'.

Then Monkey found out that there were other colours. Other colours that he could put into his hair too. Please take a look at our little Monkey in a rainbow of colours.

Thanks mommy. I LOVE IT!

DPoD October 30th - Carving Pumpkins WB Style

Today was the perfect day to carve pumpkins. Mommy had brought them in last night so that they would be nice and warm when it was time for carving and Monkey was all ready to go from the moment that we walked in the door. Now, Daddy didn't know that you had to draw on the pumpkins first, so it was a learning process. Monkey drew on the pumpkins that he chose, including the one that he brought back from the day the pumpkin patch with mommy or was it grandma? I don't remember. He certainly knew which one was his.

He did the drawing and Daddy followed up with the carving. The Hallowe'en pumpkin carving knives were nowhere to be found, so we did it old school. Monkey drew on his little pumpkin and got to work on using the world's smallest spoon to carve out the inside. Daddy meanwhile got to work on his 2 pumpkins. It was a great time and we even had 2 separate bowls for the insides. One for putting on the lawn, not in composter as to avoid growing pumpkins randomly throughout our garden like at the old place, and one for putting in the oven. Monkey had never sampled cooked pumpkin seeds before, but I think they're his new favourite. Daddy many have mentioned something about them having lots of nutrients. Anyhow, he thinks that they're great.

The Jack O'Lanterns are now proudly displayed in front of chez WB to delight and amuse our friends that drop by. We hope everyone has a happy Happy Hallowe'en!

DPoD October 28th - TRAIN PINS!

Aunt H stopped by recently and had something incredibly special for the little WB's.(I once again apologize for the delay in this). She came in the front door wearing some very special momentos for the boys. She showed them not only pins, but train pins. And not any ordinary train pins...these were 'team name' train pins. Acquired through some aggressive on-line auctioning, these little beauties were the result of searching and scavenging on the internet, then outbidding international competition to bring them home. I think that there are some collectors in the UK who may be monitorring this blog now to find out just who are the lucky owners of their sought-after treasures. Gentlemen, I hope that these smiles make you as happy as these little guys are.

The boys were both VERY excited. Monkey chose the pin with the team name prominently displayed at the bottom. His smile is still ear to ear and we have to remember each day to take it off before it ends up in the laundry. He wears it with pride and is eager to tell everybody about what the pin is all about.

Big C had the pin put on him, but needed to make his own close inspection to check it out. It went something like this:

'hmmm, what's this new thing on my chest?'

'it looks like, but it can't be...no way...really???'

'Train....TRAIN....TRAIN!'

(this really was a look of joy)

Thank you Aunt H.

We love them.

DPoD October 27 - The Hitchin'

This wekeend marked a monumental event for the B side of the WB family. The relatives were in town for a wonderful of one of their own - Dr. Ew. The beautiful ceremony took place at a gorgeous church downtown and then the reception followed at a fabulous location as well. There were plenty of good times had by all, lots of cajoling during the 'make the couple kiss contest', some foolery the next morning at the breakfast at our place and lots of fun had by all. It was a great weekend for the ceremony and we felt blessed to have so much of our family get together and spend time in our home.

Congratulations to the newly married couple.

Consumer Product Safety News: New posting / Nouvelles de la Sécurité des produits de consommation : nouvel avis

Provided here for your convenience is a link to a new recall notice:

"Blooming Garden", "A Pirate's Life", "Princess in Training" Children's Furniture

http://209.217.71.106/PR/recall-retrait-e.jsp?re_id=243
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Voici à titre d'information, un lien vers un nouvel rappel:

Meubles pour enfants "Blooming Garden", "A Pirate's Life", "Princess in Training"

http://209.217.71.106/PR/recall-retrait-f.jsp?re_id=243

DPoD October 26th - Another beautiful fall day

A reminder about comments

Hello everyone.  I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that we don't use the children's full names on the blog.  We can't publish comments that contain their (or our) real names.

Thanks so much!!
The WB Family
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

DPoD October 25th - Mommy's home

Yay!

Hockey Net for sale-$60

Is this http://ottawa.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-toys-games-Hockey-Net-W0QQAdIdZ27384612 really how much they sell for used???  AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG.

 

Sigh, it'll always be the one that go away.

DPoD October 23rd - Photos are In!!

First - HAPPY MOLE DAY! If you're not sure what that is, check out the link.
Second - Grandma, Monkey LOVES his new Rookie Racer shirt. I think that he'll be wearing it non-stop for the rest of the week! He was sooooo excited to show it to me! He was overjoyed enough to literally run laps around the house.Thank you.
Third - The rain wasn't about to stop Monkey from picking red raspberries. The pictures are great (arrgh) but they show him dressed head to toe in his full body rainsuit picking berries and putting them into his 'sharing bowl'. Maybe there's a little postal history in our family bloodlines (grandpa?)
Fourth - we all still miss you sweetie and are looking forward to your return.

Hi mommy - we love our spinny thing

The weather here today was absolutely condusive to going out of doors. I picked up Big C just a little early from school and stopped at home to change his pants and get laundry going. We were then off in the 'train' to collect Monkey at his school. Big C had a blast in the caboose on the way there, and once Monkey was in tow the silliness insued. We stopped for a little shopping and a cookie, then were off for naps and quiet times.
Once those ended we hit the back yard. After a little raspberry picking, which are loving the lengthened growing season by the way, we played on the 'spinny thing'. The shouts of 'more, more, more' from both boys had everyone a little dizzy in the end. Grandma picked up Monkey for his sleepover and he was absolutely delighted. This left just me and Big C. We headed for the park hanny-in-hanny. We walked up the really big hill, then ran down it with daddy trying to slow Big C as best he could. We went on the climber, the teeter-totter and the big boy swings, then we were off for home. We decided to play a little game. I would run away from Big C, then he'd chase after me and tackle/hug me to the ground. He ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! We must have done it a dozen times on the way home, each one more joyous than the last.
After a little supper and a shower Big C was cooked. He's off to sleep and I think that daddy won't be far behind after a day like today.
Sorry. The photo loading is down right now. I'll update the pictures as soon as I can.

DPoD October 22nd - Boys will be boys

With all of the mayhem this morning there was little time to get 'normal' things accomplished. As a result of this, 2 things happened:

1) we did get time to make the 'fauxhawk' in Monkey's hair. It may not be exactly the same way that mommy does it, but I think the results speak for themselves

2) I didn't have time to read the requested story to Big C since I prefer to go to work wearing such frivolous items as deodorant and pants. Thus big brother stepped in and took Big C by the hand over to the chairs in our room. He opened up the book that Big C handed him and then proceeded to 'read' (from memory only) the story of Thomas the Tank Engine. It was super cute, so I did have time to run and grab the camera.

We love you mommy!

See the new poll?

VOTE AT THE TOP OF THE LEFT COLUMN

DPoD October 21st (the 400th post) - Mommy can you guess what we were up to?

Ok mommy. We went out and had a little fun today.

Here are a few hints as to what we were up to.

Feel free to guess.

If you guess on the first set of clues you get a fantastic, amazing super-super prize.

Second set, a pretty wonderful prize.

Prizes decrease in value from then on in.

Ready.

Here we go.

(if you're not mommy, feel free to play along. If your response is quicker than hers then you can steal her prizes)

That might have been too easy

...Ok, I just realized that the member stickers on the little ones likely gave that away far too easily.

I'm a man of my word.

You can collect your amazing, incredible, super-super prize when you get home.

I think it's a lot of hugs and snuggles from the kids in the pictures, hope that's Ok.



Here are some more photos:

last set

it was sooo much fun. We enjoyed the outdoors for a little while, played in all sorts of usual and new areas, Monkey volunteered to be in the show and have a bowling ball launched at his head, Big C was a total ham. By the way...bonus question for a real prize. This relates to the 4th photo. Name the movie: 'Rules, rules, rules. The world is full of rules. Don't talk with your mouth full. Don't run with scissors. Oh yeah, and never play on the railroad tracks.'
'Uh, Phil. I kinda like that rule'.

(The answer is already in for the original prizes...M of S & T, then Pizza Hut).

Momma's trip so far...

There will be pictures to come after I get back, for now this will have to do.

It is 6:15 local time and Jen is still asleep.  Yesterday was so much fun.  The flights were painless and we even watched Harry Potter, so that was pretty cool.

I arrived and quickly met us with Jen who had made her way over on the ferry.  We grabbed a quick lunch at Sam's Deli and then started our tour.  We walked by the historic Empress Hotel and then did a tour past the artisans on the wharf on our way to the parliament buildings.  From there we came back towards downtown and did some shopping. 

For two years now I have been looking for tall boots that I can wear with jeans, dress pants and skirts.  The trouble is that I have size 11 feet and slender legs.  Everything either doesn't fit my feet at all, orsloshes around my legs.  We found a great pair of riding boots at the first store that we went to and they look amazing.  I couldn't believe that they actually had three pairs of size 11 boots-that never happens!!!!

We stopped in and Jen had some port while I enjoyed a local beer made by Race Rocks.

Back out on tour after that and we did a bit more shopping before heading to the hotel to freshen up for supper.

We ate at il Terazzo and it was AMAZING.  I had some spagetti meal with crumbled meatballs and it was like there was a party in my mouth.  Best sauce in a long time!!  We split a bottle of Valpolacella and had a fantastic meal.

After supper we headed to the Empress for a martini and a chat in their bar.  They had the coolest ceiling fans in there.

It was 10:00 local time, so 1 am Eastern and we turned in.  I miss my guys a lot.  I even woke up at the same time as they would have woken up back home.  Then I rolled over!!

Love you guys : )
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

DPoD October 20 - Silliness in the Leaves

We wanted to post what we've been up to this afternoon to update everyone near and far.
We miss those of you who aren't near.

After both boys had sturdy naps we were off to grandma and grandpa's house for supper (mmmm....steaks). We arrived a little early, so Big C went over and grabbed his shoes and said 'grandpa outside'. Taking the cue we all quickly went outside where daddy offered to make a pile of leaves. Here is the goofiness that ensued: