Family Night Open House at the Fire Hall

Last night Jason took Elijah to our Fire Hall for an Open House. I believe it is Fire Prevention Week, so Abbotsford Fire Halls have open houses this week to create awareness and fun for the kids!They ran into Danika and Luke... here is Danika and Elijah! I'm sure you can see Alexa's blog for more photos of their experience!Stop, drop and ROLL! Apparently Elijah wanted to roll and roll in the little 'course' set up for the kids. If I remember correctly, from what they were telling me happened last night, the kids first crawled under a tarp, then rolled down this part, don't know what happened next, but I assume the Trick or Treat candy was at the end of the 'obstacle' course:

This is a highlight of ours!

Welcome to Matt's Hermitage!

So another link was just added to my list! In fact, I had to change the title from "links to my friends sites" to "links to my friends and FAMILY sites"!! Yes, meine Bruder (brother) has joined us bloggers! yea! So he would love it if you would visit him at his blog. He knows most of you, that visit my site, so stop by and read about his life. Leave him a comment; like all of us bloggers we LOVE to hear from our readers. Welcome Matt (click here to go to his blog now)!!!

Thanks Mr and Mrs Dyck ~ our neighbours!

So our neighbours came over this afternoon to Jason while he was waxing the truck and gave him some presents for our boys! They each got a t-shirt and these moraccas! Our neighbours, who we don't know all that well, did this! I was so 'impressed' (not the right word, but you know what I mean, maybe). We put the shirts on as soon as Jason gave them to us in the house and went out to say thank you to this wonderful couple. They just celebrated 45 years of marriage in September! Wow! So now they are going on a series of trips to celebrate. These t-shirts came from Cancun! They will yet go to New York, California and on a cruise! All to celebrate their many years of marriage! That's awesome! Bless you neighbours! Thanks for the gifts!

puzzles, puzzles, puzzles

My little 3 year old is quite excited about his new puzzles he got for his birthday. I was excited that he rec'd them as gifts because I thought it was time he learnt to do 'harder' puzzles, like those little 'box' ones (if you have kids, you know which ones I am talking about). He got one Backyardigan's box one with 15 large pieces that he can do 90% by himself! I'm so impressed, b/c before he rec'd that he'd only done those simple puzzles that you begin with. Thanks Annabel! Brock also gave him a box puzzle with 24 pcs, Veggie Tales! Thanks Brock! And Alex gave Elijah this bucket puzzle with ABC picture and word matching puzzle. Love it, thanks! He's been sitting at the table a tonne this Thanksgiving weekend, doing puzzles! Thanks!! I found another box puzzle for him at Sears on Clearance the other day, Dora, so now we have a total of 4 puzzles that he is doing over and over again! Good for his little brain!

Second Visit to Willow View Farms

This morning we met some friends at the Pumpkin Patch! It was (is) the most perfect day to go to the patch! The sun is shining and it is hot, actually! Dave, Deanna, Bailey and Chloe; Joanna and Jenna; Leo, Julie and kids (!); Miriam, Travis and Bradley; Alexa, Danika and Luke all met us there for some Pumpkin Daze fun (by the way, Aaron and Jen, we missed you guys)!

We ate a picnic lunch first, then headed to the animal barn and hayride out to the patch to pick our pumpins!Samuel eating the hay!it is sooo bright Elijah can't open his eyes for this cute shot.

Still makes a cute enough pic though, I think!Travis, Bradley and Elijah1, 2, 3 throw up the hay and watch it fall all over Samuelhow fun, driving a tractor!Danika makes a great face for the pumpkins...! (Elijah is in there too a bit)Hayride back from the patch...see Luke's cute little pumpkin?

Thanks for a great trip to the Pumpkin Patch friends! Sorry to D, D, B and C; L, J & kids and J & J... I got no shots of you guys to add to this post.

Also, see Alexa's blog at some point for more photos! click here: Alexa

Can we go to the park after dinner?

Sure! So off we went to the park again, like last Wednesday!

When we arrived, this duck was waddling around the playground...

I think it forgot the way to the 'lake', so Elijah guided her in that direction!Daddy has fun on the play equipment too!Elijah got a number of fantastic gifts for his birthday! He is having fun playing with, reading and watching all of them! Here he is on his new roller skates from Alise (thanks!) paired with his brand new helmet from Uncle Matt (thanks!) at the park! He just loves these skates, as I knew he would... he rolls around the living room and at the park I helped him along on them. He did well.
(last new post today! There are 3 more to read below! Happy reading!)

Red "berry" Trees

What could 3 big trees like this be good for in a back yard? Hmm... no idea! Not for all the red berries all over the grass this time of year; not for the berries on the grass that the kids pick up and try their hardest not to taste them... I don't like these trees in the Fall until this week! Why? Well, these trees are bringing birds and birds and more birds into their branches all the time, I guess to eat the berries or gather them. It's very entertaining for my boys during our mealtimes, as we sit and watch out our glass doors. And a Squirrel keeps visiting too, even more entertaining! He jumps from branch to branch, scaring the birds away...it's very captivating for little eyes! (and mine too, I admit) So, we'll keep the berry trees and just count our 'blessings' rather than the drawbacks!

My Little Sweethearts

So not only did Elijah have a special day this past weekend turning 3, his little brother aka Samuel turned 9 months on that same day! Here he is, smiley as always!(Korinne, like his PJ's? I love them! Thanks!)PJ Picture! Elijah and Samuel just adore one another 99% of the time. It's so fun to watch. Elijah is already very protective of Sammie too, for example if I haven't got the gate up quite yet and Sammie is in the area, Elijah will hold him back and say quite hastily "get the gate up Mommy!"

Ring Around the Rosy

On Sunday we had my Family over to celebrate Elijah's birthday. He just loves all of them, it's great! His 2 Uncles, 1 Aunt, Grandpa, Grandma and Beppe Beppe (Beppa - meaning Grandma in 'Dutch', my Grandma). Here he got all of them to do ring around the rosy with him in our living room! He had a blast and it looks like everyone else did too!we all fall down! (including Beppe Beppe [Great Grandma!])

Elijah's Birthday Party

This morning we had Elijah's birthday party! 10 kids (plus Jayden was sick so he couldn't stay) and just us and Alex's mommy! We did a Backyardigan's Theme... I drew these two, Pablo and Tyrone, to help add to the 'theme'we began outside and all hid our eyes while I hid some plastic bugs and pumpkins for the kids to use their magnifying glasses to hunt for them. Brock is a natural hunter, like his Daddy, he found the most!Annabel and Elijah trying to see through these silly magnifying glassesLuke found a bug!
do you know what this is? I thought it would be easier to 'design' and make a Magnifying Glass cake than a 'Backyardigan's' character cake... it was so simple and honestly, quite cute! The kids loved that there were bugs in and on the magnifying glass
(keep looking below for more pictures)

we each made a paper 'crown', which we were excited about!Then we opened gifts. This was fun for EVERYONE... especially Erica who kept wanting to open the gifts that we were getting to yet! (it's okay, Satu! It was cute)Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Elijah, Happy Birthday to you!

It was a very fun time and really successful for a Kids Only party at this age! (thanks Marlene for helping out since you were here anyway!)
Enjoy your goodie bags kids, thanks for coming and for the assortment of very fun and exciting gifts! You'll have to come over and help me play with the things soon!

Miss Mel, Welcome

My friend, who worked with me at Kids Club, has got a blog up and running! Yea! Check out her link on the side or click here... MEL. Welcome, Mel, to the world of the bloggers!

let's go swinging! "swing-ing, swing-ing"

We went out to the park last night before bedtime. It was a beautiful evening. Here we all are on the swings!Elijah started out on Jason's lap and Samuel on mine until more swings opened up for us...this is the longest Elijah has ever stayed on the swing... he usually loses interest quite quick; we think he stayed on for a good chunk of time last night because his brother can now swing too, which he was excited aboutweeeeeee...can you see all three of us?

I'm a Big Boy Now!

what a big helper I have. I had a productive day today baking Elijah's birthday cake, a batch of Jason's favourite muffins (banana chocolate chip) and homemade pizza for dinner. Elijah always, I repeat always, pulls up a chair to the counter to help himself to who-knows-what and to see what I am up to in the kitchen. So today he helped beat the eggs and sugar, pour in the milk...and he was in charge of spreading the pizza sauce on the pizzas. I had to run downstairs to grab my camera to show you that my baby is not a baby anymore! He helps out all the time. In the kitchen, loading his own dishes in the dishwasher, cleaning up Samuel's puke...he's an amazing little guy!ready to eat the yummy pizza for dinner!

Wyatt's special day

Today we went to Wyatt's birthday party. They boys had a lot of fun playing again. Wyatt isn't in our home anymore for daycare, so for the boys to not have that time to play day after day all day long has been a bit sad for them. Here we were trying hard to get them both to show me their orange fingers from all the cheesies they were eating...Hard to believe these little guys are three already! Happy Birthday Wyatt!