Smashing Pumpkins

Don't our pumpkins look smashing?

I carved Kaitlyn's lion pumpkin this afternoon and I asked her if she wanted to watch. No. She wanted to play computer. What's this world coming to? She's not even 4 yet! At least she picked out the lion picture to go on the pumpkin. I thought it was appropriate because she's dressing up as a lion for Halloween.

Then Rachael got home from school and I asked her if she wanted to scoup the goup out of her pumpkin. She did, but then she saw how slimy it was. And then I told her to scoup it out with her hands! That was just too gross. So I told her to get a spoon. Well, a spoon is good for scraping the walls of the pumpkin, but not so good for actually getting stuff out. So she proceded to "scoup" at a rate of about one seed a minute. And then I pulled out my goupy hand and bumped hers and got slime on it. "Ewwww!" After which I said either scoup with your hands or get out of the way! So she went off to color and didn't watch the carving, either. Oh well. Maybe when they get bigger and can actually use the knife they'll be more interested.

Grandma's Back

Since NOBODY ELSE has updated their blog recently, I guess I will. Grandma came back for a quick visit again last weekend. She was here to see Amanda get baptized. And she came to play with Rachael and Kaitlyn. They had lots of fun last Saturday playing Scrabble Jr. and down in the play room. It was a nice visit, even if it was really short. Next time they'll have to come for a longer time.

We're All Set...

We got our passports in the mail today, so we're all set to travel the world! We were going to go to Hawaii in February, but with this whole house thing sucking up all our time and money, that's on hold for another year or so.

The passports got here pretty speedy. We applied for them at the end of August and it's only mid-October. We weren't expecting them till Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Rachael sure had fun playing with her cousins on Thanksgiving! Rachael hasn't seen Tim since summer last year and she was looking forward to playing with him and Abby. We hardly saw them - they were too busy playing lego downstairs. We just saw them when it was time to eat! It was a full house - 33 of us, and there were lots more who couldn't make it.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Soccer Star

Rachael had her first indoor soccer lesson yesterday and she loved it! She's been wanting to take soccer for a while, so now she's getting an hour a week for the next 8 weeks.

They practiced dribbling the ball...

...and then they had a little soccer game at the end of class.

Rachael's friend Ryan from school was even there!

New Blog

So, you may have heard that we're building a house. Ya, I've heard that before, too - but this time it's really happening. I still can't believe it!

If you want to see the progress on our house, check out our new blog (linked at the left).

Maximus

Gramps and Gram got a new puppy! His name is Maximus and he's three months old.
Rachael had a blast playing with him!
Kaitlyn... not so much.
He's much nicer when he doesn't give kisses!

Grade One

Well, Rachael has her real class now. Her teacher is Mme Lageaux, the same teacher she had the first couple of days of school, so that's nice. She's in a 1/2 split class - and there are only 5 grade 1's!!! I thought only 8 kindergarten kids in the k/1 last year was pretty small, but 5??? I guess that's just how the class sizes split up. I think they took the top 5 students and stuck them in with the grade 2's. Of course, I'm saying that because Rachael is stinking smart, but I think at least 3 of the other kids did really well in kindergarten last year, too. So far the days aren't too long for her. She said today felt like only a half day, so that's a good sign. Learning a new language can be tiring! But, so far so good!

First Day of Grade One

Hard to believe, but our little girl is off to Grade One! It was kind of a rainy start to the school year but at least it wasn't really hot after the lousy summer weather we've had. They put kids grade 1-5 in all the classes for the first few days of school, but she knew 3 or 4 of the kids in her class from last year, so that's good!

Cousins Day

It was a little chilly at the waterslides for Cousins Day this year. But at least there were no lineups!
Rachael really loved the tube ride. I think she would have gone on it all day if someone would have taken her!
Those swimming lessons she had in July really made her much more confident in the water.
Good thing Mom brought sweatshirts for keeping warm in between getting wet.
Rachael and Kaitlyn had lots of fun chasing bubbles with Amy.

PNE

What? A post with no pictures? Yes, I'm sorry, but you'll have to use your imagination!
Yesterday we went to the PNE. We hadn't been the last two years because we found the entertainment was too repetitive. But Rachael wanted to see the SuperDogs again, and it looked like they had a bunch of new stuff, so off we went.
The first thing we went to see were the Bejing Acrobats, and let me tell you, they were amazing! The flips and tricks and the way they could twist their bodies was incredible! It was very cool. Then we went to see the SuperDogs. They had a new sponsor and a new host (which isn't a bad thing!) but the tricks were the same old. But the girls really liked it and that's all that matters! We saw the cartoon parade and Rachael shook Brother Bear's hand, and Kaitlyn shook the big bad wolf's hand. There were lots of characters they recognized like the Berenstain Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Clifford (though he must have been the Small Red Puppy still, because he was not big!) the Cat in the Hat and the dinosaur with Fred Flinstone that we just saw at Dinotown! There were lots they (and we!) didn't recognize. My girls just don't know about Saturday morning cartoons, and I'm fine with keeping it that way, thank you very much!
We also saw the miniature horse show, which again was a bit of a snoozer but the kids liked it. The last show we saw was the Illusions and Beyond which was really cool. They did lots of neat magic tricks and we all enjoyed it. And of course we saw the show home and the market place and had lots of snacks to eat. It was even nice and sunny, but not too hot. Perfect PNE weather. If only the weather will cooperate for Saturday's waterslides...

Butterfly Castle

It was Girls Only when we went to the beach on Wednesday. Gram had the week off and decided we needed to go to the beach! So we picked up Auntie Andree on the way and headed in to Centennial Beach for an afternoon of fun while the boys went to work. The tide was out and you could walk for miles before you reached the edge of the ocean. The tidal pools were lots of fun to play in. And they were warm like bath water, too! We made a sandcastle and decorated it with seashells that looked like butterflies, so we named it Butterfly Castle. We made a moat around the castle and put tiny fish and crabs in it. It was lots of fun on a hot day!

Scrapbooking

By popular demand, my scrapbooking site has been updated! Click here http://www.scrapbook.com/galleries/21531/list/-1/0/1.html

to view my latest scrapbooking stuff or click on the link to the left. Thanks for looking!

DinoTown

I guess we're having a Dino-mite summer, cuz this is the third time we've gone to see dinosaurs! Rachael and Kaitlyn loved going on the "train" ride, the boats, the go-carts, playing mini golf, and all the other fun stuff to do there. Mom and Dad were just along for the (over-priced!) ride.

29....no, really!

Well, I'm 29 now. For real! Not with any years experience or anything. And let me tell you, I'm glad to be here... I almost didn't make it!

Last week I had severe bleeding and had to have emergency surgery and a blood transfusion. Thank goodness for modern medicine! After leaving the girls at my parents for a sleepoverI went in to the hospital for the second time around midnight last Sunday night. After waiting in the waiting room for three hours I finally got a bed... then they did nothing (except take more blood - I felt like a pincushion!) until 12:30pm. That's twelve and a half hours of doing nothing while I was bleeding to death! (Well, they did give me some estrogen around 4am, but that did nothing.) What is wrong with our health care system that they'll let someone lie there for that long and do nothing! They finally got around to giving me an ultrasound, and from there they rushed me straight to the OR where they cauterized the problem areas and gave me 4 bags of blood. My hemoglobin should have been around 120... it was down to 50. This all happened as a result of the miscariage I had back in May, but at least that means it's not some random occurance that's likely to repeat itself.

But anyhow, I lived to tell the tale. Many thanks to all who helped out and prayed.

Grandma's Dresses

Hi Grandma!

Thanks for our nice dresses you made us! As you can tell by our messy hair, we had lots of fun playing in them!

We love you!

Rachael's Tent

Grandma made me a tent! I saw one with her on Sunday and it was lots of money so Grandma said she could make me one instead! Thanks Grandma, I love it!

P.S. - I'm feeling much better

Three Hills Holiday

Our vacation to Three Bumps, AB (actually Three Hills, but coming from BC the hills are more like bumps) didn't go exactly like we planned. We got there on Saturday around supper time and the girls had fun roasting wieners for supper. The next day was Canada Day and Rachael and Kaitlyn wanted to find something fun to do so we went to Drumheller. Drumheller is paradise for dinosaur lovers like Rachael. There were dinosaurs all over town, including the Worlds Tallest Dinosaur! We got to climb the 105 steps and see the view from his mouth. Lots of fun.

The next day we went to see our dirt for the first and last time. Huh? Yes, last September we bought some Three Hills dirt, thinking we might be crazy enough to possibly move there and build a house. Fortunately we came to our senses and decided not to. But we still had to get a picture of us on our prairie dirt while it was still ours. We sold it the next day.

We went swimming on Tuesday, and that night Rachael got sick. She was a bit feverish when I put her to bed, but I was hoping she was just warm because of the heat. No such luck. Of course, being on holidays, we had no medicine with us, so finally at two in the morning Darcy went to Mac's to find some. Wednesday evening I took her to the ER and they said she had strep throat, even though her throat wasn't sore. They sent us home with some antibiotics and Tylenol. But, Thursday night we were back, this time overnight. And the next day. And the next night. We didn't get out of there until Saturday morning. Not what we had planned for our holidays.

At least she was better for Saturday, the day of Jeremy and Christine's wedding. They had asked me to make a "fake cake" out of cardboard with a crazy wedding-topper. Christine wanted it all lopsided and crazy. It was fun to make, and turned out not too bad, if I do say so myself!

We left Three Hills on Sunday, but we had promised the girls we'd go see the Dinosaur Museum before we left. We had originally planned on going on Thursday, but someone just wasn't up for it then. So we walked around the museum for an hour and then headed to the airport to catch our flight.

Not the vacation quite the way we planned, but Rachael's on the mend so it's all good.

Playtime at the Playground

What would school be with out recess in the playground? Kindergarten gets out of school right when the older kids go outside for recess so I let Rachael play with her friends until the bell rings for the kids to go inside and eat their lunch.

Rachael's favorite playground activities are tag (especially before school), sandbox and lately they've started up soccer every recess.

Sometimes Kaitlyn will go play; sometimes she just likes to hang out with Mom.

Only 4 More Days Of School!

The classroom is starting to look a little bare with all the art work coming down. It must be the end of school. Rachael had lots of fun in her first year of French Immersion and she's looking forward to going to school all day next year in Grade 1.

Oh, my goodness! Did I just say Grade 1? That's way too big! We keep asking her if she can stay little for a while longer but she doesn't go for that.

The eight Kindergarten Kids in Rachael's class sit at tables while the grade one's get desks. And there's always lots of carpet time.

Kaitlyn has loved going to school almost weekly to help out in the classroom. Most of the time she'll simply watch what the older kids are doing, but once in a while she gets involved. She's become the resident-little-sister of the class. At least I'll still have one little girl at home to keep me company. At least for one more year.