Pumpkin Carvin'

Mommy did at least three wonderful things this morning.
She let daddy sleep in until the clock started with a 9 (woo hoo!)
She brought back a hot chocolate from Tim's for when he woke up
She moved in the pumpkins from outside so that they'd be warm for when we carved them.
Big C returned from his sleepover just in time for some carving. He was awesome. He listened well and put his hands on top of daddy's to do some carving. He was sooo impressed with the final product. Here he his checking out his handiwork.
Monkey got in on the action shortly afterwards. He did all of the drawing for 'Smallmouth'. The cubist influences are clearly present in this stage of his life.
Daddy had his piece of work to do for the annual pumpkin challenge and decided to use the mystery pumpkin that grew in the backyard this summer. Here is the 'winner' known as 'Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde'.
Unfortunately my competition had to withdraw from the competition this year, but alas, it brings on my two favourite words.
De
Fault.
The kids had a great time carving. I'm sure once we get trick or treating that will face into a distant second for the day. Maybe third.
Here are the three jack o'lanterns together. What a fun morning.

Family Photos

Our photographer came by tonight and gave me a jump drive with all of the photos on it. She put in a great deal of work with photo editing and such and they look great!! Thanks to Stephanie of JSC Photography 613-276-2770.

Here are my favourites. If you would like any of them, I can email you the full sized photo. Of course, if you want ALL of the (over 100) photos, either give me a jump drive or I can bring them over on mine and you can have them.

An afternoon at the 67s game

Daddy and Big C got free tickets to the hockey game on Sunday. What FUN!!It was kinda loud when they scored goals, so he covered his ears.

Then daddy taught him to clap his hands when they scored. That worked much better.
Thanks for the invitation guys!

Daddy and Big C got

At times like this, parenting just seems so easy.

Then they wake up...and want stuff.

Our weekend away Part II

After settling into town we all decided to go off to the big park and zoo. We were expecting to pay admission and look at some moderately cool stuff.
Not at all.
Not only was it FREE
It was HUGE
and TOTALLY AMAZING.

What a venue for a family.
We started by playing at one of the three play structures for about half an hour, then headed off to the zoo. Here are the boys and Uncle J, Aunt K and Uncle B checking out the monkeys (how ironic)

Next, mommy and the boys sat for a photo on the big camel (a fake one, but in the area behind it were several real camels....they're huge!!!)
We took another half an hour or so and looked at all the cool animals and chatted as one big family. It was really nice.
Then we saw it.
The train ride.
Off we went.
(and we even caught the last ride of the day).

Here's Uncle J waiting with the boys and cousin Banana.
The kids were all smiles once they got on board in the front car with daddy.

We took the tracks across the dam.

What's that ahead Big C?

The screaming tunnel.
Why do they call it that?Oh right.
and is it ever loud!
We wore the kids right out. So much so that the 'big boys' had to carry all the little ones back the entire length of the park to the cars.
No worries. We loved it.
These are the days that lifelong memories are made from.

The Cozies~Thank you Grandma!!

Every winter up until this one Big C has had fleecy furry warm PJs that Grandma made him. He has always called them his "cozies" Every night he would put his cotton PJs on and then put the cozies on over top. For photos of past cozies check here, there, and even here.
Of course he has grown out of the one piece ones from the years gone by and we've passed them along. Add to that the fact that he can keep his covers on now. We figured that they were a thing of the past.

Nope, the cold weather hit and he wanted his cozies. We gave up trying to explain it to him. We finally asked Grandma to please make him some. He now has one pair of two piece cozies with feet. He loves them!!!

our family get-together part I

We took some time to hang out as a family over the Thanksgiving weekend. We started out with a 3-hour car ride to Peterborough. We weren't sure what to do when we arrived, so we thought that we'd check out the local university. Why not? Campuses are supposed to be beautiful and this one proved to be no exception.
Here are the boys checking out a stone path that connected a few of the buildings - note that Monkey decided to make it his own tightrope, what an imagination on this kid.Big C and mommy went to the waterfront to take a look at the water and throw in a few leaves.
There were a few races across the lawn
and a picture of the 3 of them.

Then we found the bridge. Too cool. And wayyyy gorgeous this time of year.
Here are the three of them going for a quick run:Big C checking out the water and getting a little too close to the edge for mommy:
even when stopping for a photo of the three of them Big C couldn't take his eyes off the water and the view:


I can't blame the little guy. What a beautiful little pit stop.
More to follow when I get a free moment from all the work I have to do!

School update~not good

School has been going really well this year. Monkey even got to move back a couple of spaces on the school bus. We have all been very proud.



Today THE number appeared on my call display-the school...cue an increase in my blood pressure.



He had an incident on the bus today. Then, he had an incident in the school yard.



He is now back at the front of the school bus for a while and has to walk with the teacher on duty for today and part (or was it all?) of the day tomorrow.



While I am dissapointed that this has happened, in all honesty, I was expecting a bit of a regression and for him to test out the new limits. I am completely in agreement with the discipline that the school is invoking. I am hoping that with a swift reminder of how difficult things get for him when he misbehaves, he'll soon be back to the wonderful little man we all love.

New family photos coming

We got some photos taken about 6 weeks ago and here is a sneak peek that I got tonight from the photographer:
We're getting a CD with all of the photos on it this weekend so I'll post the best ones. If you see something that you want I can send you the full sized image and you can order copies.

Monkey quote of the day

Scene: I'm packing up to take the children to the pumpkin patch...

Mommy: sweetie I can't find your splash pants, do you know where they are?

Monkey: try the hockey bag

Mommy: I did, they are not in there

Monkey: well then look harder

Mommy: snicker (yup, he's my kid)

The skating pictures

This is week 2 of skating.
Here is the crew getting all prepared. Big C feasting on his pre-game apple:
Monkey is all smiles:
As is Saje:By the time that the skating session started Monkey was soooooo ready to go. Here he is as he hit the ice. Let it be known that last week he was a real trooper. He spent the 50 minutes doing his best and fell about 100 times or more. He got right back up every time without complaint and tried even harder. We are so proud. His little bottom even had 2 little purple marks that only faded recently. This week he was determined to fall less.
I think that Big C caught wind of this falling thing and wasn't so eager. He spent a lot of time on the ice with some coaxing from mommy to get up and going. They both did their best and did Ok at the kick the cup game. Then the proper motivation came along.
Bubbles.
I'm buying stock in bubbles.
This stuff is gold on the skating ice. He was up off the ice and ready to have at it.

Monkey meanwhile was tearing it up. He was working it so hard with little steps and getting going quickly. He was able to turn around, skate backwards and then turn back around. His competitive side came out and he was passing people on the outside during a few of the drills. He was proud of himself. He's started internalizing things recently and it's making a world of difference. He wants stuff for himself and is going out and getting it.


Here's some video of Monkey on the ice.



And here he is doing the hokey-pokey:


Well done. We're all looking forward to next week!