Hallowe'en Night Post

The boys had a phenomenal Halowee'en this year as both of them were totally into it. We grabbed some pizza with the Busseys and then got all dressed up. Mommy outdid herself this year and made a Ming-Ming costume for Monkey. We borrowed the Tuck costume for Big C, though he was assured that 'no mommy, I'm a turrrrtle.'. It was too cute.
Even Peanut got in on the dress-up action!
We boarded the flyboat for about a milisecond before the boys were all off like a flash. Monkey and E-man were literally running from house to house getting candy. Big C did his best to keep up and really enjoyed the evening. He and mommy went door to door slowly, visiting some of our friends on the old side the neighbourhood first, then hitting our neck of the woods. Mimi was right into it too, learning a lot about how we do Hallowe'en here.
All too soon Big C was done, so he headed back home to catch some well-deserved zzzz's. Monkey wasn't far behind as he was sitting in the flyboat by the time that mommy returned from dropping daddy and Big C off at home. The boys slept like rocks and are sure to be asking for their daily candy handout by about 6:02 every day.
It was a super Hallowe'en all around. Thanks mommy for all your hard work!
(Here is our little family of Jack O'Lanterns - boo!)

Makin cookie for Mommy's work

Last year the boys made cookies for mommy's work and they won a trophy. That really motivated them to do it again this year in hopes of winning another award.
The work was carefully done
and the cookies lovingly prepared
all to help out the United Way.

Sunday afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa's house

After an afternoon at the pumpkin patch we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandpa had raked a HUGE pile of leaves together for the boys and they set upon it like all get out. I think these two photos are my favorites from the afternoon : )
Big C found himself getting launched into the leaves no less than about 30 times. Mimi's arms were tired Sunday evening from throwing the two boys."again mimi, again mimi" and so on
Throwing leaves
Oh please throw me, oh please throw me...whoo hoo!!

Mimi's great punkin adventure

Mimi has been having a fabulous time here in our home. She's polite, super friendly and always dancing. She's a true joy to have in our home and we really love all that she brings to our family.
One tradition that she mentioned she doesn't have in her home country is Hallowe'en. No pumpkin carving, not really any trick or treating and no roasted pumpkin seeds.
We're taking her under our wings for this holiday to get her knowledgeable about how we do things here in Ottawa (even under the 4 inches of snow that stayed on the ground after the snowstorm yesterday). She got her own pumpkin at the pumpkin patch on Sunday and today was the day for carving. She took at it like an artist. Here she is carefully drawing the face on:

Then working hard at the carving process:

She really has a skillful set of hands and a great smile while she was working at it:

Here she is finishing up the top and carefully trimming away any of the marker that was left behind:

And here's our Mimi proudly sporting her Jack O'Lantern.

Have a great time outdoor camping today and tomorrow and we'll see you for trick or treating Friday night!

Punkin Carvin

The boys and I decided to make today our pumpkin carving day since I have PTI's tomorrow (parent teacher interviews!). Both of them were quite excited, as was I since this was likely the first year that Monkey was going to 'get it'. He certainly did and was raring to go. We showed off the pumpkins:
Then got down to the artwork with a big blue marker (what other colour?)

Big C was overjoyed when it became his turn:
Then Monkey posed to show off his finished work - what a beautiful smile!


mmmm...a bird's eye view of the inside of a pumpkin
and a final shot of the 3 pumpkins with Mimi in the back - surprised to be in the photo. There's Big C's 'Masked Punkin' on the left, Monkey's personal creation (he did everything, even scooping out the 'guts', except the part with the knife) in the middle and daddy's 'silly punkin' on the right as requested by the boys.
The gang, Mimi included finished things off with the delicacy of eating roasted pumpkin seeds and then the boys went outside for a little late night play before bedtime (Monkey couldn't help getting a snuggle in with mommy)

Daddy, Grandma and Monkey get some pumpkins

Today was another scheduled trip to the pumpkin patch. Grandma C had arranged to go with him from the get-go, but daddy suddenly had the opportunity to go too. Grandma C had him on her lap when daddy arrived, so Monkey was totally unwilling to have daddy attend. He came around by the time that we hit the door and we were off. Grandma C helped lots of other little ones get their boots, hats and mitts on. We took the big green bus and were off. We sang lots of songs on the bus ride there, many of which Monkey has been singing over the last few weeks.
When we arrived at the patch we went for the wagon ride and then picked out our pumpkins. The notice of 'you have to pick one that you can carry' was well received by most. Monkey had to sets of big strong hands to help, but he picked a Monkey size pumpkin. We also grabbed a gourd and then we were off to the shed for an apple and a few stories. 'The Littlest Pumpkin' was by far the cutest and all the kids totally loved it.
After this we were off home, to where daddy had the camera, to clean the outside of our pumpkins for later in the week. The boys were all in for it, especially Monkey. We stored them in the closet to keep them warm for tomorrow night when we get to do some carving. We all took a moment to celebrate with some chocolate cupcakes!I wonder what the faces will look like??

Happy Mole Day - Kind of

Thank you to my wonderful wife who sent me a mole day e-card. I love you sunshine.
To my confused friends who don't know what Mole Day is, I can do two things to help you out:
1) Send you to the Mole day website - MoleDay.org
However when I tried to cut and paste some stuff to our blog I got this message:
Service Temporarily Unavailable
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

I guess that the overwhelming response melted a server somewhere.

2) Tell you simply that it's this neat 'holiday' for chemists based on the relation of Avogadro's number to the mole. (a super useful unit for measuring things in chemistry as the Mole is the unit used for calculations in chemical reactions). Since Avogadro's number is 6.02 x 10 exp 23, 'Mole Day' is celebrated from 6:02 am to 6:02 pm on October 23rd.

We did all sorts of neat, fun stuff around our school to promote chemistry. It was neat to see the kids so interested in learning.

This is how you know that your day care is doing a good job

He lay like this for hours last night. He never moved from 7 until after we went to bed.

MIng Ming Costume-toot toot

Toot toot? You ask. That would be me tooting my own horn!! I am so not a crafty or creative type of mom. I am really good at buying stuff with instructions and following them. I suggested to Monkey a week ago that he might want to consider being Ming Ming from the Wonder Pets for Halloween.

For those of you who don't know who Ming Ming is he is a duck on a kids show. Monkey likes the show and we really don't mind it. He is actually Ming Ming within his group of friend's at school. Here's Ming Ming.So Monkey jumped at the idea to dress up as Ming Ming. I failed to recognize when I made the suggestion that to be Ming Ming one needs to be a duck with a pilot hat on and also have a green cape WITH the Wonder Pets logo. Groan. So I looked up ready made costumes:
or:
and found myself quite underwhelmed. I figured that if that cost $30 plus shipping from the US, I could do better on my own. So I set out to make it piece by piece. First thing I did was find a woman locally who could make a cape (like I said, I am not crafty or anysuch). I got two reversible Wonder Pets logoed capes for $15 each.
Then we tracked down some yellow clothing. That wasn't hard.

The last step was to tackle that head piece. Both a duck and a pilot?? Not easy. I'll spare you the nitty gritty and the false starts. What we ended up with was a duck head from Value Village that we found on the floor separated from it's costume. They couldn't find the costume which actually worked well for me since the costume was an infant or toddler costume that would not have fit Monkey. They agreed to give it to us for $4. Awesome.

Next step was supposed to be a trip to the craft store to pick up felt to make the pilot hat. I got a brain wave to pick up something at Value Village that would work as fabric. I found a brown golf bag towel. It was $0.99 I intended to cut it to be the helmet and the hanging straps. Almost out of the store I think to take a look at the belts to see if I could do the pilot hat straps from a belt. Found one, perfect for the job. Another $0.99. Awesome. Now to find a glue gun. I don't own one but it is now on my Christmas list.

We get home and try out the clothes and bare hat to make sure that Monkey is happy with the result. Despite the expression on his face, he actually is quite pleased with it.
So I set to work. Thanks Brigitte for the glue gun. It was awesome!!!
First step take the golf towel and fold it over so that the pleated part is against the top of the duck head (essentially it is inside out). I started by centering it at the top and gluing there. Then I fastened my pilot straps.
Next step, the goggles. I found this container that came with a pair of ear plugs a couple of years ago. You can see my little device on the counter with the Ming Ming image on it for reference.
Add a piece of ribbon for the goggle straps and we have a Wonderpets Ming Ming costume for a 5 year old. He loves it!! I have to admit that I am really excited about it too!!!
Now to go and turn our wagon into the fly boat...