Soggy Halloween

I can't remember the last time we had such a wet Halloween.  For years and years it's be clear and frightfully cold.   This time it was mild so we didn't freeze but we got soaked to the skin. 

Liam was the only one walking the streets as Chad declared himself too old to go out.  Nate hasn't gone out for years as he's never liked Halloween.  They stayed home and answered the door since Keith was out working...aka chasing down fire setters!

The same costume from last year was recycled.  Liam has a closet full of wonderful costumes but insisted on the pumpkin again.  Fine by me.  It's a nice warm outfit and the hood kept his little head warm and mostly dry.

 

The evening before Halloween we introduced William to pumpkin carving.  He did a pretty good job for a first timer and we were even happier that he didn't slice off any fingers in the process.

Formal Day

Our first dress up day of the school year and it was formal day.  My kids don't own really formal clothes so we made do with an old tie (wide-style!)from Keith's closet and a white dress shirt for Chad.  I own only two dresses so the options were pretty limited for me.  I wore my spring/summer dress with bare legs and absolutely froze ALL day!

 

 A certain teacher at our school had no idea how to tie his tie so Marci had to help him out.  I admit that even I could not help him.  I guess we could have always looked it up on Youtube!

 Black was the color of the day.

 Marci and I took turns wearing her fascinator.  I can assure you it wasn't made out of the feathers of the dead bird that was found at our entrance this morning!

16 & 61

Time for the October birthdays!  I had my family over for my mom's birthday.  I made the requisite dairy-free, beef-free supper and dessert.  Ham, salad, buns, veggies, and scalloped potatoes.  Did you know that one can make delicious scalloped potatoes without any dairy?  They were so good that I don't think that I'll go back to the old kind.  For dessert I made a lemon poppy seed bundt and a chocolate cake. 

 

 

 William's first birthday in Canada!

 

 

 After supper we gathered in the family room to watch Amazing Race.  As you can see my children become limp rags when given back rubs. 

Not sure if Liam's back rubs are equally as relaxing as Grandad's!

At Attention!

This past week our entire campus has been hosting the EEC team.  External Evaluation Committee for those of you who don't know the lingo.  Independent schools such as ours are inspected every 6 years by the government to be sure we are following on educational laws and policies.   We need to prove we are worthy of the funding we are granted by the government!
So for the past several months we have been going over everything with a fine tooth comb making sure all 'i's' are dotted and 't's' are crossed.
Today was the final day and as I attended the final de-brief along with all staff I was very proud to hear that they found our schools to be excellent in all areas.  Phew!
The EEC team was delightful to have around, very friendly, kind, funny and didn't really make you feel like you were under the microscope.  It was a good experience, yet I am really glad it's behind us now. 

Thank You Day

Still Blooming!

My garden has no idea it's October already.  This has been the best Indian summer in ages!

Liam's Party

Liam had a small but enjoyable party for his 4th birthday.  We all had fun watching him opening his gifts and playing with them.  He quickly found his favorites and so did the guests!  Who knew a $4 blow-up robot head from Liquidation World would be so popular?!

 

 

Liam is really into dressing up so this knight costume was well received!

 

 Liam requested a chocolate cake with Hot Wheels.  This is what I came up with and he was very happy.  So I was happy.  Not my best work but decorating cakes never has been my forte!

 

 

A week post-party this is the number one gift which was from Nathan.  A motorized Hot Wheels track.  He plays with it all the time!

And now this is the last year I will call him 'baby'.  Once they are five (in my books anyhow) they are all 'growed up'!!! 

Just Own Up to It!

I had a situation today. 

This is the email I sent to a real estate agent:

Hello ****,

I had the unfortunate experience of having you ride my tail and honk at me through a school zone (Cornerstone Christian on Downes Road).  Not only was that very rude but bad advertising as your name is plastered on the back of your vehicle!

This is the email I received in return:

Rachel,

I would like to apologize if I upset you over an obvious misunderstanding this morning. It was not my intention today to leave my house and upset anyone on the way to work, including you.  I don't really like it when those things happen to me, either.  I hope your day improved after our encounter this morning. If I had your name and contact information, I would gladly forward you a gift to apologize.

 

All the best to you and your family,




One word to describe her response:  LAME!

That Darn 'R'!

 

If you know my boy Chad you'll have already heard that he speaks with a speech impediment.  He's had life long issues with his speech all the way from when he was a wee thing.  He had chronic ear infections in his toddler years at a time when proper hearing is vital for picking up proper speech, he was a very late talker and then when he did talk it was a mess.  We had two years of weekly speech therapy sessions, plus attended a speech course through the health unit  After Chad was five he was discharged from the 'free' speech therapy program.  He spoke pretty well by this point but still retained that 'Boston accent' that was kinda cute.  Now that he's in grade 6 it's no longer cute and I fear it won't be long before he starts getting teased.  Kids regularly ask him about his 'accent' and Chad was starting to become rather self-conscious.  Private speech therapy is atrociously expensive and our benefits aren't that great but we decided it was time to get some professional help. 

Today was our first session and we were greatly encouraged!  The speech therapist is a dear, caring lady who Chad felt very comfortable with.  A few observations from our consult today were:

-Chad can indeed make a perfect 'r' sound which is half the battle.  It just becomes an issue when the 'r' is not at the start of the word.  That is the problem that we specifically need to work on.
-Chad is motivated and willing to work hard to get tongue retrained to make the proper sounds
-Chad will only have to see the therapist once a month unless he's not making good progress
-the rest of Chad's speech is very good and he has excellent enunciation which she said was due to Chad's previous speech therapy
-this is a common issue and it can be resolved which is such good news because my child has the gift of gab!!!

...and we are gaining knowledge!

Oh Boy!  Here we go again!

4

Fours years ago our well-planned little life was turn upside down.

God decided to shake things up a bit with a boy named Liam.

We love you Liam and are proud of the BIG boy you are becoming! 

 

 

2008

 

2010

2012

 

 

Innocent Bride No More

 

Well, you can't go back but if you can still put on your wedding dres you're doing alright!  Actually since I was not a frail, skinny bride my dress still fits and is actually too big.  It was fun to put it on last night even though it reeks of mothballs and needs to be ironed desperately.

 

Keith surprised me with a Kobo e-reader for our anniversary.  I'm SO excited.  Now if I could only figure out how to borrow items from the library with it...help!

 

 

My Love

For 18 years this man has been my rock.  I love you more than you'll ever know!

Happy Anniversary, Keith.

Caves and Tunnels

William has been starting to 'cave' as they call it in the international student world.  He's spending FAR too much time in his room and hardly interacting with us at all.  He's extremely friendly and polite when he does emerge from his room but he basically comes down to eat and that's it.  This is not what immersing yourself in Canadian life is all about so we are trying to get him out more.  The other night Keith found out he likes Jackie Chan so they watched a movie together.  William fell asleep!  Today we decided to show him some of our beautiful mountains and head up to Othello tunnels. He slept on the way there and back.  He keeps very late hours we've noticed as well. 

I hope he enjoyed the tunnels...more than church this morning anyhow where he was sort of sleeping during the sermon :)  I did find out from him today that he comes from a completely non-religious background so I can imagine church is extremely overwhelming for him.

Here are some pictures from our afternoon out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 An apple and a beautiful place to sit.  I'm good.

 Building inukshuks.

 

 

Fall Hike

 

Best thing about late summer is being able to enjoy hikes without the heat.  I am so out of shape that I create my own climate zone with my huffing and puffing up the hills!  We enjoyed a great afternoon out at Lindeman Lake last weekend with friends.  If you've never been I recommend it as a great family hike.  Liam was such a trooper but it was maybe a bit much for him.  Especially during naptime. 

When We Began

My talented friend Kimberly makes wonderful signs and I ordered one from her last week.  Isn't it gorgeous?  Check out her site:  http://www.mybrownbagstudio.com/

 

It fits perfectly in our little eating nook and helps me fill up one more bare wall in my naked house!

I Want It Perfect!

 Sigh....epic fail on beautiful apple perishky.  They look nothing like MGCC nor anything like my Oma's perishky either.  You'll have to trust me when I tell you they taste much better than they look!

Chad's Passion

Chad is always coming down after rummaging in his Lego bins to show us his latest creations.  If it's a space ship or robot I'm not super interested but this one really caught my attention.  Snoopy!  Who doesn't love Snoopy?
Chad aspires to be a Lego designer and when I saw he plays with it every day I am not kidding you.  I've never known a lad to be SO into Lego!