Service flights!

We survived the holidays! And we made it back out west for a few days after Christmas :) It was a wonderful adventure, going to the airport, checking in for the service flights, going up, going down, going up, going down, ice storm delays, swimming in hotel pools, and visiting family that it's been way too long since we've seen.

Every single day we were there was declared the best day ever by Monkey, for nearly two weeks after we got back we had the daily question of when we would go back. It was an absolute success.  The children did so incredibly well for the flights.  Smarty and Daddy got to ride in the cock pit for the whole flight between Ottawa and Trenton on the way heading back east. Awesome for them, lots of tears for the exhausted other ones.  But they survived as I knew they would.

On our way!

Delay means extra hotel time. And pizza :)

The terminal at Trenton had a play area for the kids. It was awesome!

Impromptu play time with some cousins

Everyone likes tea 

As much of the immediate family as could be there on my side

Ring around the rosie!

Newest cousin we hadn't met yet

Confetti and balloons at midnight for new years 

Confetti angels

Sledding New Years Day with the kids' cousins

Good visit! On to the next Grandma's house!

Fun at Amma's

Cuddling Amma's cat

Playing with cars that Daddy and Uncle used to play with as a child

Thank you, Tim Horton's, for helping us on the early morning on our last travel day headed home

up to date!

This one is more pictures, less writing. Back at the beginning of October we drove out to Wolfville with some friends to pick apples and check out the pumpkins, corn maze, and such.  It was a great day and we brought home four new pumpkins to gut out for Halloween. The story alluded to in my pic that had the finished products is this:

The 30th of October rolled around and after school the boys were going to start gutting and carving their pumpkins. I cleared the table, laid out the garbage bags to catch the mess, got tools and bowls for various muck and seeds, then I cut the hole in the tops for the boys to clean them.  They already had a few ideas for what they wanted to put on them, so I asked them to draw it out. They took a sharpie and started drawing on their pumpkins (cue my inner screams that they needed to figure it out on paper first or they'd have black marks all over their gourds!!!) Sergeant drew a Tree Rex Skylander, Smarty wanted his to look like a clone trooper mask. I basically left his design as it was, since he actually did an alright job of it.  But I had to explain to Sergeant how cutting worked. It was like cutting out paper. You can't cut out a circle for a face and expect the eyes to just ... be there.  So I got him to take the paper and he decided on a different design to cut. And he was really happy with it! 

Next the girls were called up for theirs, but when we went outside to bring their squash in we discovered that they were rotting.  Yup. Rotting pumpkins the evening before Halloween.  I should mention that this happened to us last year too. But it was Sergeant's pumpkin and mommy tried 5 stores before finding something remotely suitable. This year Daddy took to the roads, trying store after store. Texting me with update after update. There. Were, No. Pumpkins. I got onto the computer, searched Reddit for info on anywhere that might still have some left.  Made a couple phone calls and texted Hubby. There were some pumpkins left all the way across the city, but they were selling pretty quickly. Off he went and came home to make two little girls happy :) But their carving would happen the next morning.

Smarty has been taking Cello lessons and had his first recital a couple weeks ago. He did so well! And he's been practicing and loves using his bow :)

 The kids saw Santa at a Unit Christmas party a couple weekends ago. Something we discovered last year is that Monkey is afraid of Santa. She would not go to him last year at all. So when he came in this year, she clung to Daddy and scowled at him. When Daddy said that she wouldn't get a gift unless she went to the big guy in red, she hopped right down and sat with her siblings.  All three of the older ones answered Santa's question "Have you been good this year?"with a resounding "Yes". Monkey got the same question and, bless her heart, she answered very very honestly with "Not really." 

Our house became very very festive November 22 this year. Hubby had a busy Sunday of services and such so the kids and I brought up some boxes from the basement and started setting things up. Nativity scenes, sparkly baubles, winterscape candles. Then the tree. I was hands off for the tree, only putting it together and fluffing the branches. 

I confess, I did help rearrange the garland, even though now you can't tell...But the children kept busy and didn't fight! 

And the boys made sure that there were ornaments on the very bottom of the tree too. There was only one casualty this year. One of my glass nativities that hangs in the tree fell and shattered within minutes, but I'm counting that lucky so far. 

Last week was crazy for school. They had Tuesday and Thursday off. Happily we were able to have much needed pajama days. And played with Lego so much! Both the little Lego and the Megablocks. They all (and it really was all four of them) played so well together. Sorting and building, playing with the characters. 

 

We also got our yearly Perogs made. Yummy yummy bacon filled buns!!

And the school Christmas Concert was this week too. They did so well, sang loud and with the group, All dressed up and shiny. They really are growing way too fast!

Okay. That was way more writing than I anticipated. ;) But I think that more or less brings thimgs up to date! 

technical difficulties...

Okay, I've been fighting with technology enough and (fingers crossed...) I have it figured out. I've been working on getting pictures from my phone emailed to myself to download onto the computer to post here and I've gotten so frustrated! Likely my own fault. Whenever there are technical difficulties I'm more apt to blame myself than the equipment. Maybe...

But here are some pictures!!! For Halloween this year I was asked to make some of the costumes, So I actually did! This is really the first year I've done it and I am crazy proud of myself and the patience shown by this amazing crew.

Monkey wanted to be a caterpillar. That was easy enough, she was one last year and the costume is still too big for her. Excellent!

Girly wanted to be the character Scratch from Skylanders (google the image. That's what she wanted). Okay... I can see what fabric I have on hand for that and can kinda see how the pieces should go to fit together...

Sergeant wanted to the Pop Thorn from Skylanders (again, google that. Here I was really REALLY at a loss for how to make it work). I took a deep breath and told him I'd try to figure something out, but please have a back up plan, just in case.

Smarty had two costumes. He had a history project due the last day of class before Halloween and he was to dress up as the person he was researching (he'd chosen Si John A MacDonald) and then he wanted to be Sheep Creep from Skylanders. Okay, that was probably the easiest off all the crafting costumes this year. So okay!

First up, I tackled Girly's costume.  Some felt, some elastic, hot glue for the mask and claws. Thrift store for wings. Hunted in the fabric box for the rest, and I started sewing. I used another costume as a very, very loose template and went to work.

I cut out legs and belly and started sewing and then I realized I didn't have quite enough for the arms and the tail! Thankfully a crafty friend, Judgey Momma (over here) was able to help me out with a close match that absolutely thrilled the girl! 

Doesn't she look pleased!!

Next up was going to either be Sergeant's crazy costume or Smarty's relatively easy one. I opted for starting the easy one while looking online at anything that might work for Pop Thorn. I cut up an old bed sheet that wasn't going to get any more real use, and I did what I could think of for a sheep. Stuffed and stuffed and stuffed! Bearing in mind, this crafting was mostly done while the older three were at school and I didn't have them around for measuring. 'Cuz, You know I'm crazy like that.  

So with the help of Monkey and a friend of hers that I sometimes look after, we stuffed what I thought would look like a sheep. And it would have too if I put the cotton batting around the outside. But Smarty decided that he wanted to put a halt on that for a bit because he was going to just go with being the Father of Confederation for Halloween. 

I was absolutely most nervous about creating Sergeant's costume. Inspiration did strike when a thought formed around paper mache and my exercise ball. So I started looking up different recipes, trying to figure out what would work best, dry relatively quickly, and then I got started. Monkey was sad when she saw me rip up some old colouring books for it. But once she saw and understood, she was great about it.

I made a horrible mess!

 

It got goopy, messy, and very pasty.  I'd never worked with paper mache before so I was kind of just going with my gut. I had no clue at this point how I was going to make spikes or wings, but I knew I had to at least get a couple of base layers down first.

Took a lunch break and came up with an idea for the spikes!! I taped some other colouring pages into a cone shape, cut the bottoms so it could be mached to the base! Aren't I smart?? So Monkey helped me with the tape and a few minutes later we had enough spikes to surround the sphere with space left for arm holes and wings. 

Woohoo! Then I got to deflate the ball, wash it, and sweep up the mess. I cut some arms out and started painting!!

Cut wings out of cardboard and smothered them with paper mache as well and hung them to dry.  Then I got to paint them as well and hot glue them to the finished body.

Made some straps for his shoulders as well to make wearing it easier. I lined the inside with spray adhesive and duct tape and he was good to go! He wanted his face painted blue for going out trick or treating, but that was easy peasy.

The actual pumpkin carving might be a post for another evening. But here are our finished products this year!

And the crew, ready to bring in tons of sugar! 

food!!

Food. Food, food, food.  Something that the whole family enjoys. Both the preparing and the eating. It is a real source of smiles when we're out at a restaurant and the boys in particular suggest that we try making some of these at home. Doesn't matter what it is, but they are sure we could figure out a way to make it at home from scratch., Awesome :)

Yesterday we made wraps. Not the first time we've done them, but it really is much easier to simply buy flour wraps instead of make them. But I wanted the home made ones yesterday, so I got the kids involved. Lots of flour and giggles later we had a nice stack of about 16 or so warm on the counter under a cloth napkin.

As I started wiping up the paste, I mean flour, the kids's imaginations just took off. They were grabbing wooden spoons, hunting for the toy dishes (ended up using some of our actual dishes), some forks, the empty juice pitcher... so many things left their spots in the kitchen and moved to the living room.

They had dialogue with each other about who was making what food, what everyone's order was, then they sat down, prayed, and had a "meal". As far ass I could tell, they had eggs sunny side up, toast, juice, and who really knows what that Monkey prepared. They did pretend bed time, pretend wake up, then the game morphed into restaurants, where Smarty made a logo for his "hamber mania" that was his burger place, Sergeant had a soup restaurant, and Girlie had a fruit place. They made little menus (like 3 or 4 items on it and crazy prices!). When I told them they had to take their playing downstairs Smarty decided that they absolutely NEEDED the coffee table down there so he convinced his brother to take an end and they actually got it down without marking up the walls!

They played and played. Working on the menu (Smarty NEEDED it printed off from the computer so he typed it out himself) and making a grand old mess, but they were happy, they were busy, and I was able to get as much of that fine, powdery white flour off of as many surfaces as I could. Then set about to finish preparing the meal. Hubby came home from work in the midst of this, Ran the printer and encouraged them to add more (who has a restaurant with only 3 things??)

yummy chicken salsa tacos!

Everyone had lots to eat, going back for seconds. After forcing some toy and dishes clean up and then having some ice cream cones we all went to the park to play catch. Even Monkey hit the ball (Daddy might have helped) and they were all tired by the time came to put pjs on and brush their teeth. Hooray for a great crew!!

In a nutshell

Crazy fast summer holidays! And packed with activities. Hard to believe that it's September 2 today and everything starts up again tomorrow.

There was the incredibly successful VBS at Shearwater Chapel, a trip out to Cape Breton, Dr appointments, playing in the sun and fog, trips to the library, and wonderful food. always wonderful food!

The oldest turned 9! That Smarty is growing up way way too fast. Taking the time to slow down and enjoy the moments with them doesn't make the time pass any slower but it sure will store up those memories to take out and polish when they are bigger . Smarty discovered Origami Yoda. It's a series of seven novels and there are instructions to make the different characters in the stories. So the kitchen table has been covered with pieces of paper, tape, and him branching out from the instructions and using his imagination to expand that craft he is working on! And listening to the play, knowing that all four of them are playing nicely and they aren't plugged in is fantastic. I don't mind picking up bit of paper and consistently reminding them to tidy up after themselves if the end result is as satisfying ass that!

Girlie lost her first tooth and she was beside herself with excitement! It's been loose for a bit, and the adult tooth was coming in behind it (not underneath it) so only some of the root had dissolved. We experienced this with a few of Smarty's teeth so we knew when we were about! She was determined that it needed to get out but didn't like to work it herself because it hurt, so momma set about doing it. I'm very practiced at it now! I tried before bed but thise lips of hers!!! As soon as my fingers were anywhere near that pearly white those lips moved up. And they are strong! She's going to play a brass or wind instrument... But it did't come out that night. Before Daddy left for work the next morning he held her lips down and I rolled up my sleeves (figuratively). But it came out! And she was over the moon! Couldn't fall asleep that night, didn't want to stay asleep, but the Tooth Fairy came and brought her some plums as she requested in a note. Which she promptly shared with everyone. Such a sweetheart!

She is both anxious and excited for school to start tomorrow. At bedtime her anxieties come out as she's fighting sleep. Some nights she's crying because she misses preschool, some nights it's because she misses Alberta, other night it's that she thinks school wil take forever and ever and ever and she'll miss being home. Sounds like concerns her brothers have had. It'll sure be an adjustment. It always is.

Sergeant is excited for school. Last week he wasn't, this week he is. He says he's looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. And he's really hoping he has the teacher his older brother had in Grade two. He keeps trying to placate Girlie by saying that she'll see him every recess and lunch time, and he can play with her, and help her with the rules, and, and, and... It's very cute.

Monkey suddenly decided last week that she wanted to toilet train! We've been trying off and on, not usually worth the fight (since it'll happen eventually...maybe?) but she started one day and every time I turned around she was in the bathroom going pee! That went well for a couple of days and now she seems back to where she was before. Hopefully it'll pick up again with the older kids being in school. She mentioned that she wants to go to preschool but she can't do that until she's out of diapers and pull ups. Maybe that'll be thee incentive.

Hubby has tomorrow off work! For the first day of school and for our 10th anniversary. Yay! Since we don't know how many anniversaries we'll be in the same time zone for, we're taking advantage when we can! So together we are dropping the older three off at school, taking assorted pictures and giving the needed hugs (mostly Hubby needing them from Girlie) we'll go to the MFRC and drop Monkey off there so we can have a morning date :). Go for coffee, spend some time, grab some lunch.  Then we'll pick up the toddler, maybe get her down for a short nap, then do the pick up of the older kids. Done done! And, just becasue, we'll find a McDonald's with a play place for supper for that first day of school.

And the race continues Friday, when Girlie turns 5!!! So many milestones in one week! First tooth, first day of school, finally 5 years old. She requested a lemon cake in a bundt pan with cherry frosting. We'll see what Momma can produce! I'm sure it'll be awesome.

finally pictures!

Hugs!

cold cold water!

Splish splash

Silliness shoppping

Listening to music 

Silly girls

Funny faces!!

Chillaxin'

Fishing with Dad

Hanging out by the water at camp

Fun with birthday gifts :)

Trying to lick the birthday cake!

sitting on the new soccer ball