Happy Halloween!

2 Clone Commanders, 1 dinosaur, and 1 ladybug :)

Here is what we ended up with for tonight's Halloween.  The Girl decided that she didn't want to put her snowsuit on, so she didn't go out, but the boys (veterans of Halloween) knew what was in store, so they didn't mind getting their snow stuff on then squeezing into their costumes.  Some of the muscles in my arms may be a little bit tired tomorrow from all of the pulling and stuffing.

They put in a solid hour of door to door with Daddy, while I fed and put the ladybug to sleep.  Then Miss Dinosaur and I read stories and handed out candy together (every time someone was at the door, she asked if it was Daddy and the boys!).  So far, we are maybe up to a dozen trick-or-treaters tonight.  But there is snow on the ground, it is minus 8, the wind is blowing, and we're forecast 5-10 cm of snow/ice pellets overnight.  Not really hospitable conditions for kids to go looking for candy.

But when the guys came back, we let them put in a good half hour of gorging of goodies before dragging them upstairs to scrub those teeth and get to bed.  There is school for the two of them tomorrow...  And my goodness, were they ever tired!  Howling about teeth and face washing!  Couldn't find one of the many stuffed toys on the bed!  You'd think that it was the end of the world!  But with the sugar and the lack of sleep, it was the end of the world.

isn't she just the cutest little ladybug?

So now the house is quiet for the night (or most of it, I hope).  Boy2 was up at 6 this morning, telling me that we needed to get ready for Halloween.  He was a bit excited!  And he didn't want to nap.  Nobody has really been sleeping all that well these last few nights (again, I think it's largely the anticipation) so they should start feeling better in a few days.

Daddy having fun with the Boy

It's been a very busy and loud house in the last few days.  I'm not complaining, though.  It means that everyone has been playing and having fun.  The kids attack Daddy as soon as they can, and then everyone (usually except Momma and Girl2) are running, chasing each other. 

And Boy2's turn

In the last couple of days, the kids have been going to play in the basement more too.  Boy2 gets the Girl to go with him and they bring up more toys.  The Boy gets Boy2 to go with him and they usually stay down there playing.  One morning, all three of them were down there.  Then the Boy and Boy2 had to get ready for school so they came up.  I went down to see if the Girl wanted to come up, but she was busy and didn't want to come.  So I left her playing.  Two minutes later, she realized she was alone and started yelling and coming up the stairs.  Poor Girl!

she loves this little ducky!

One morning, she brought up this rubber duck.  It went with her everywhere!  I came into the living room and found her pretending to nurse it.  She had my nursing pillow, part of her shirt up, and had the bill of the duck in the general vicinity of her chest.  It was so cute!  I did get pictures, but Hubby reminded me that I can't post them because of certain laws set up to protect children, so I won't post them.  But as soon as I turned around, Boy2 and the Girl were talking about who could make milk and who couldn't :) 

Cupcakes!

this is what they were supposed to look like

Well, I finished them.  I made 3 1/2 dozen cupcakes yesterday with the intention of decorating them today.  So I did.

this is how they turned out

I just couldn't get the icing "orange" enough.  Oh, well.  We tasted some, and they still taste pretty incredible, if I do say so myself :)  At least the kids will like them tomorrow!

More Baking!

Okay.  This last little bit and the few days coming up are filled with tasty, delicious smells.  Yesterday I made ginger cookies and chocolate chip cookies (St Matthew's is hosting the On Eagles Wing general meeting this coming weekend and I was asked to donate a couple dozen of each of those to serve with coffee).  And I did up a chicken cheese bruschetta-type bake yesterday for supper (SOOOO tasty!).  When Hubby and I were talking about what to have for supper tonight, we decided on soup.  So we'll use soup from a can, and home made buns.  Half of them are done right now and the other half is currently in the oven.  Smells like heaven! 

I'm up for providing a dessert for the Boy's Halloween party at school, so I'm going to be making cupcakes tomorrow and decorating them Tuesday.  He want's me to decorate them like pumpkins, I want to make them into spiders, we'll see who wins!

As I was forming the bread dough into buns this afternoon, the Boy asked if it was perogs I was making.  I smiled.  Every time I've made them he hasn't eaten them.  Keeps saying that he doesn't like bacon.  Now, however, all of the kids like bacon, so it'll be interesting to see if they'll eat them this year.  As it is, we'll likely be doing up a double batch so there will be some for us after we give so many away.  If anyone wants any, put your order in now!  (For those who are unfamiliar, perogs are a tradition from my Latvian roots of fried bacon and onion in a crescent shaped sweet dough bun.  Super tasty!)  As soon as I can find some slab bacon, I'll be starting those.

I've been mixing up hot cocoa mix, so the kids have been enjoying that alot.  The recipe I used, Hubby thought wasn't sweet enough, so I tried a slightly different combination of ingredients this afternoon.  I hope it works out!  I'll probably find out in a little bit, as the Girl and Boy2 are playing outside in the snow (we're finally getting a bit of a snowfall!!!!) and Hubby and the Boy are at a Reformation Sunday service at the Horizon Stage this afternoon.  I'm betting they'll all want some cocoa when they come in!

procrastinating...

Living room and kitchen are a mess, laundry has yet to be started, but I think I'll sit down and write a bit before I do the other stuff.  The mess isn't going anywhere :)

We've been getting colder weather, these last few weeks.  We've even had a little bit of snow (note the "little bit"... there are a few people in this home who are disappointed that it isn't more and that it's currently all gone!) so there has been a shift in the front entry way of our house.  The ball caps and flip flops are gone, replaced with snow boots, snow pants, mittens, and toques (that really doesn't look like it's spelled right...).  The back yard has the umbrella and cushions from our little patio set in the shed, along with the clothes line and sand toys.  Bikes are away (although they will likely come back out for a bit if the snow doesn't come and stay soon). 

Cooked up a bunch of tomatoes and pureed them for sauce.  Grated a bunch of zucchini for baking and sauces.  Last night we did potato bacon soup for supper after I made up two zucchini loaves and a batch of cookies.  Let's just say that the urge to bake is here, as is the compulsion to drink tea all evening.  This house doesn't seem to keep the wind out, so when we had some really cold gusts last week, it was chilled here in the house.

The Boy is really enjoying Grade one.  He's bringing home workbooks a in which he's done very well.  He's also brought home some work that isn't as well (still pretty good, though) in which the mistakes were ones made simply by not paying close enough attention.  This week is the start of the spelling lists, so I'm getting him to practice as we get supper made.  He's enjoying it.  As well as his home reading books.  Every school night, he brings home a designated book that he reads to us and we initial and date a little booklet.  I think that the objective is to make sure the kids are reading at home and to get used to homework.  Once the children read twenty of these books, they get a small prize.  The Boy is very excited about reading, and he's been very good about getting us to sit with him so he can do this.

Boy2 went on a field trip last week to a farm.  They sat in a combine harvester, saw cows, held baby kittens.  Of course the Girl got to do all of this too, since it was a preschool trip, so the parents came along and were responsible for their own children.  Tomorrow they are going on a trip to Romania.  The class is encouraged to bring an empty suitcase and they are going to "fly" to Romania, someone from there is going to talk to them, and they are going to write letters to a group of children there.  They did this when the Boy was in preschool there as well, so Boy2 is really excited about this.

The Girl is much better.  She is looking less pale and her activity levels are back up.  Yesterday the kids dug out some costumes and so she was a dragon for most (if not all) of the afternoon.  Managed to get her out of it for supper, though, and without a fit! 

Tomorrow after we drop the boys off at their schools Hubby and I are going into Edmonton to look for fabric.  I'm thinking that I'll make some Avengers jammies for the boys and find some fabric to do for my Girl as well.  Then I' going to take in some jammies for Hubby, since he's lost an awful lot of weight in the last year and a half.  It'll be good to sew again.  There's really no reason why I haven't recently, other than all I want to do by the time the kids go to bed is rest and do nothing myself!  I think that's fairly normal, though.  I just need to keep busy so I don't snack as much in the evening.  That's too easy a habit to fall into.

Girl2 is doing great.  She's gaining weight and strength.  She's started on cereal, so she's happy to be eating food like the rest of the family.  She's also started grabbing things, so nothing is safe.  I'll have her on my lap at the table and suddenly the table cloth will be moving!  She's quick, too!  And she's so interested in what is going on.  If she's crying while I'm carrying her then I start something (especially if it's noisy like running water) she stops crying and tries to see what is making the noise :)

But I've probably procrastinated enough.  Stuff to start and hopefully get done before it's time to pick up the Boy from school today.  However, the best laid plans of mice and men... for me at least, rarely get done!

And another video!

They're dancing!

medical update for the Girl

There was another bit of a scare.  Yesterday, the Girl got a (more or less) clean bill of health from the doctor.  Another lab requisition to make sure the antibiotics were working, and that was it.  Then, after we got home from picking the Boy up from school and doing our monthly big shopping trip, we noticed she was a bit laboured in her breathing.  Not the inhale, but the exhale.  Alright, she has a cold.  This isn't exactly uncommon.  Then, when Hubby got back later in the evening, it was worse.  And she was yelling about "not wanting to" and "Momma!  Momma!" and "need drink water."  All while sleeping, or trying to.

So at about 2am this morning, Hubby decided he was going to take her into the Stollery Children's Hospital again.  This was really scary.  So I got up and packed a small bag of books and diapers, sippy and snacks while Hubby took the base of Girl2's carseat out of the van.  This way, if they weren't back by the time the Boy had to be at school, I would be able to take everyone in the truck.  It's a good thing we had the foresight to do that.

I hugged and kissed them goodbye, brought my phone up, and tried to get back to sleep.  I fed the baby, texted with Hubby as he recieved updates.  They gave the Girl an inhaler, took some x-rays, put in an IV, all trying to figure out what was wrong.  It's just reacting really poorly to her cold, as far as we can tell.  Her chest and throat were so constricted, she had to have help opening it up.  Luckily the inhaler worked fine.  (It took a few times to really get it though.  Most kids come in and get one dose and are set on their ways.  The Girl had 3, I think)

So we're all home now.  I called a friend to watch Boy2 and Girl2 so I could go in and visit with her, and we all got home shortly before 2 this afternoon.  She still isn't 100%, but she has a bit more of an appetite than she had and we have the inhaler for her, should we need it.  I hope there will be no more emergency trips out to Edmonton.  At least not in the near future.  I am immensely grateful for the wonderful staff at the Stollery.

Well, the Girl is feeling better.  She's on antibiotics, eating more, drinking more, and happily sleeping a bit less.  She still went down for a nap at 9:30 this morning, but she didn't sleep long and she'd had a rough night.

Now everyone in the house (except me for right now) has a cold.  Hubby was feeling rough Thursday, the Boy started sounding a bit hoarse Thursday night, Boy2 has had a cough off and on for a long time, but his started getting worse Saturday afternoon.  Yesterday morning Girl2 had a runny nose.  Ick.  So I stayed home from church with the kids.  But the Boy seemed better this morning, so he's at school.  If Boy2 is the same tomorrow as he is right now, he'll be staying home tomorrow.  He woke up last night hardly able to breathe, his throat was so rough.

The Girl had a follow up with our family physician this morning.  More blood work and tests to make sure she's getting better, but those will be done later this week.  Germ infested house.  That's what we have right now.  I'm drinking tea and water like nothing on earth, so maybe I can avoid getting sick.  But nursing seems to boost my immune system too, so I guess I could get lucky.

Today was Boy2's school picture day, tomorrow is the Boy's.  And I keep thinking that I should book us in to get our family photos done, but Hubby thinks we should maybe wait until Girl2 gets a little bit bigger.  We'll see.