carving our patch of pumpkins

On Sunday afternoon we got out 6 of the pumpkins and carved them up!

marble game

Mom, make me a marble game please, I want a marble game... Sammy said this a few times on Monday morning - so the best I could do for him was give him a bowl and show him how to make it spin around! It worked for a little bit!I then thought Alexa might have the Marble-Works toy from Discovery Toys, so I made a phone call and picked up this toy for us to borrow!it would be nice to get the actual marble one (this one shown is for balls moreso, also from Discovery Toys) - shall we write that down on our Christmas Wish List?!

lining up to meet...

Spiderman!A Best Buy opened up this weekend in town, so to attract Families in to the store, on Saturday they had "meet Dora" and Sunday was "meet Spiderman" - for a long line up, it went real smooth and quick and the rest of the crew spent a bit of that time in the Playstation semi-truck playing some games while I got us a spot. No fuss - and it's not like we really know anything about Spiderman besides his name, but it was fun none-the-less!
Gabi wanted nothing to do with him so she didn't make the shot.

makenna turns one

On Saturday we went to Makenna's first birthday party! Sweet little thing is already one! Wow! She had a Halloween-type theme for her party - Dana did an amazing job of creating a great atmosphere and activities for the kids!
We were asked to wear Halloween colours - so my kids were all in orange and black and even some Halloween shirts!

Spread out around the house were stations for facepainting, decorating a Halloween House (gingerbread house), Halloween video and Halloween necklace making, shown here, Gabi and Aunt Katrina:And here's Makenna:

Mmmmm - cupcakes:Jessie:I even had this shirt that Lily could wear!Wish I got a picture of all 5 kids together. Elijah's shirt says "no questions, just put the candy in the bag"! We got it for super cheap after Halloween one year at Target. He usually wears it as PJs.
and yummy - a buffet of candy!

recycling all sorts of things

Friday was a Pro-D Day, so we took advantage of a free event happening at our local recycling depot... pumpkin decorating. Right up the alley of my kids who love to create!buttons, ribbons, bottle caps, ornaments, flowers... you name it!Sammy liked the ornaments that he could hang on his pumpkin - which became "O Pumpkin Tree, O Pumpkin Tree"and creative Elijah loves to go to town - he had quite the fake-flower bouquet on his complete with nesting birdFun times!

Oh, and speaking of pumpkin patches lately - my front entrance way is basically one! There's 12 pumpkins out there (plus one "fake" one)!

spirit day

Last week the kids had Book Character Dress Up day! We were thankful for this opportunity when it came to Kelly and Lily being able to dress up since their group heads back for home (Beijing) on Halloween Day morning! How lame!! So at least they go to get a costume and dress up last week a bit!
From left to right: Anna (Alexa's student) is Queen Esther; Lily is Anne of Green Gables; Kelly is an Angel from the Bible and Elijah is a Lion, since we had that costume for him for this year... so he could have been Alex from Madagascar or Aslan (though he doesn't know about Narnia yet) or Lion King...

fieldtrip

I joined Elijah on a fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch with all the Grade 1's last week. This is a different patch than we visit annually (this one costs money to get in, hence we never go there! LOL) It was nice to visit with other Moms (and a Dad) and see Elijah interact with his classmates.
Isn't this cool?!

telephone

I caught Gabi chitter chattering on her phone while playing - she can do two things at once! Good job little girl - a teen-in-training I guess! ;) Wish I recorded what she was talking about!

'when i see a rainbow, I know that God is love'

looking over at Stanley Pk. from C-Placepictures compliments of Kelly since I didn't bring my camera along since we didn't plan to be in Town for much more than this show


Last weekend (Oct 17), we went into V for a Health Food Show (for the sake of Jason's work, to check it out) - it was a teeny tiny show in C-Place that took 30min or so, so when we the weather cleared up after the above rainbow made it's appearance, we headed out for a walk downtown. The kids love walks like such where they can balance on curbs/planters, run up/down steps of buildings... we had a great old afternoon! (we kept our eyes open for Uncle Matt too, but no such luck!)
Here is the countdown clock for the 2010 Olympics! Getting closer!and this colourful Eagle is one of MANY Eagles around the downtown core - each with a different theme painted on them representing some company or organizationJason and I used to 'hang out' on the steps on Robson often when we were dating and first married - watch people, street entertainers, eat the odd caramel apple from Rocky Mtn... not so much since we've had children - it was real fun though!

uno stack-o

The kids playing games with Grandma and Beppe (my Grandma)after a big Thanksgiving dinner!

pumpkin patch

Saturday, October 11th we went to the Pumpkin Patch since it was a beautiful fall day!
As always, so many pictures, but if I want to keep updating this blog and keeping it fairly up-to-date, I need to be able to get posts done fast! So less pictures I think it will need to be...

Build a Bear

Those 4 days off (2 no school and then regular weekend) were jam packed for us! With Chuck E Cheese and a bit of shopping that one day... and Friday Night Basketball... and then a trip to Build a Bear for the girl's pleasure! (Elijah was going the next day with Uncle Matt for his long-awaited birthday present)

I really wanted to go along and get in on the experience too! So much fun! Oh, to be a kid!

So it's quite the workshop and series of things that you do when you go to B-A-B...
Here they are already stuffed and ready to insert the special little heart that you wish upon first! (Elijah looking on - he did SO well coming along with us, knowing he was going to come again the next day for his turn)
hmmm, what to choose for my new stuffie? Underwear, shoes, Halloween costumes, shirts, pants, socks, sunglasses, guitars - you name it!so cute, hey?!Since bears/animals range from $12 to $30, I got Elijah to pick a bear ahead of time so that Matt wouldn't be stuck with a little boy wanting the $30 bear and be able to have enough extra to get an accessory or so - he chose the "velvet puppy"$150 later spent per girl and we were ready to go!(don't worry, it doesn't have to cost that much but these girls have money and are almost on their way home to China so we didn't stop them from going crazy! And they did!

C.E.C.

On Elijah's actual birthday he had a day off from school due to Christian Teacher's Conference - so we went and did our 'tradition' of going to Chuck E Cheese! I brought along a little cake and some candles and we celebrated Elijah together! We had Elijah's good friend from school with us since he wasn't able to make it to Elijah's party. Alexa and Erin also joined us - she had her Students of course as well as Angel and Helen for the day since there was no school for them either.Gabi is right in there at CEC - I give her a few tokens at a time and she carries them from ride to ride inserting them herself and sitting on the little rides. Too cute! Such a big girl already!
This machine prints out 1 of 4 Girl or Boy "credit" cards with a picture of the child on it - Elijah's face is getting printed onto a card - a big hit always... and for one token (less than a quarter), why not!?!

spirit day

On Wednesday, Sept 30th the kids' school had spirit day - wear blue and yellow! So this is what the three looked like.

And on that day Elijah brought a birthday treat with him to share in his class. I found lego Cookies online and thought that's exactly what I'd do - it was a hit amongst Mom's looking on in the hall and the kids! (for his cake I used m&ms; for these I just made a sugar cookies and used skittles)