Happy Halloween!

Halloween weekend officially kicked off on the Friday before for us. Callie and Kerry's school were holding a school dance. I don't recall having elementary school dances when I was a kid other than perhaps something for Grade 7 but this event is for the whole school. The tickets were free and they had  a cake walk, door prizes and even a smoke machine and strobe light. Callie had already prearranged to be there with several of her friends and within minutes they were out on the dance floor. One of the first songs was 'Firework' by Katy Perry which was the song everyone danced to at the end of her ballet recital. You could tell which kids went to the same dance school as they all had the same moves. Even Carter got out there to dance with Mommy. I don't have pictures but if you can picture him in his horse costume shaking his booty so that his tale swung back and forth you'll get the idea.

I decided to try a different technique for pumpkin carving this year. Usually I cut straight through but this year I tried one of the ones where you only remove the skin and most of the meat from the inside so that your image glows. It wasn't as difficult as I had thought so I think I'll try something a bit more challenging next year. (By challenging of course I mean copying someone else's work) This year's pumpkin was Phineas from Disney's Phineas and Ferb. A show for the whole family. My favourite trick-or-treaters were the eastern European  family who were speaking in their native language. The only word I understood was Phineas.

Carter was a horse of course, Callie was a witch and Kerry decided she needed something different then her old standby costume of Mickey Mouse's wizards hats along with some Mickey gloves. Our annual routine was disrupted a bit. Rather than the whole family heading over to Corey and Carmen's only Kerry and Callie were able to go. Carter wasn't feeling very well and fell asleep on the couch. He did manage to make it out with them when they got home and they had their biggest hull to date. I'm thinking giving out two candies per kid is stingy compared to what some of the other families were handing out. We only got 60 kids so maybe we'll do something special for candy next year.

The Pumpkin Patch

We took our annual trip to Aldor Acres today with Corey and Carmen. It was an absolutely gorgeous October day. Sunny and 15 degrees and there hasn't been any rain in close to a week so the fields were nice and dry. This year looks like it was very good for pumpkins. Lot's of big ones and very few rotten ones.
Our family got there a bit early so we headed over to a few of the barns where they have some animals. The first barn we always go to has this singing pig in it that will probably cause nightmares with my kids for the rest of their lives. As soon as they see it it's like they're seeing the devil. We usually manage to walk by into the rest of the barn but this time Carter was also upset with the smells and loud noises from the crowds so he and I had to get out fast. We headed over to a slightly less crowded barn that didn't smell as much and he was quite happy that he 'wasn't scared' there.

The big hit with Callie was the bunnies. This year they had at least 40 of them and they were everywhere. You could pick them up and hold them and if Callie had her way she would have taken one home with her. There's something about cats and bunnies that she absolutely loves. It's only a matter of time before she asks us for one or the other. She's mildly allergic to cats so I'm expecting the bunny or hamster request within the next few years.

We did our usual things including the petting zoo, barns, hotdogs and pumpkin pie, chickens and finally a hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Everyone piles on a trailer towed by a tractor and they take us out into the fields to hunt. In past years there have been quite a few rotten pumpkins in the fields with crows pecking at the remains but this year the field was dry and full of pumpkins. Your goal is to find a nice tall skinny one as they use a wooden measuring device to price them. The farther down the trough it goes the cheaper the pumpkin. We usually try to convince the kids to get a smaller one as you can usually get good ones at Superstore for much cheaper. After that they take us back to our cars, or in our case back to the bunny cages for one last visit.

Happy Thanksgiving and GG's 90th Birthday

For Thanksgiving this year we headed up to Prince George. We don't usually go up as it's a long way to go for what turns into a one and a half day visit. But this year was a special event. My Grandmother's 90th Birthday! In our house she goes by GG in PG for Great Grandmother but at this party she and many names. Mom, Grandmother, Great Grandmother and Aunt to name a few. She's still going strong and lives on her own. We had relatives from all over including my cousins from Toronto and Vancouver Island.

The kids had great fun with their usual Prince George games including
1) Lego. This time with the aunts and uncles.
2) Playing with Dax. My parents cat.
3) The marble board. This game is older than my Dad.
4) The box of special toys.
5) A trip to Grandma's where there are more special toys.
6) A trip to Uncle Eric's to see Yoda. My brother's cat.
We didn't have a chance to get out to the lake this time.

This was also a time for Callie and Carter to have some fun with their cousins from Victoria. Erin and Kerri flew up with their kids Avan and Rovan.  These ones are my cousins kids making them my second cousins and I think Callie and Carter's first cousins once removed. I have no idea how many cousins there are now. It's hard to keep track. They had great fun rolling down the hill in the back hard and for some reason Callie decided to rake the leaves into a pile at the top of the hill. I think she convinced at least half a dozen of us to help her. She was trying to make a pile big enough for my brother's dog Misty to jump in though I don't think we ever got to that point. It was a really great weekend trip and much too short.

The Apple Barn

At the beginning of October we took a trip to the Apple Barn. This has turned into another one of annual our day trip destinations. It's mainly an apple farm where you can pick your own apples, however like many farms it's branched out into farm tourism. It's got a petting zoo, a pumpkin patch, and a giant air pillow. If you have the room (and I mean a lot of room) this is a much safer option for a trampoline. It slowly slopes off the sides into a sand walkway and for the adults it's a lot of fun creating giant ripples that send kids flying. (or so I hear.)

It was too early in the season for us to feel like getting our pumpkin and we find them cheaper at Superstore anyways, but if we had wanted to get one they had them nicely categorized by size and shape. Carter had great fun walking up and down and through the aisles of pumpkins. The funny thing about our trip was that it was too early to get pumpkins and almost too late to get apples. We did managed to get a bag of nice apples but the pickings were slim. I think early September is probably a better time.

We finished our day off with a trip through the corn maze. It was the ideal time for this as the ground was still dry and the corn was nice and full. It was a giant maze with five stations that you needed to find. You coloured each finger with a different colour and afterwards you got a task based on the order that you coloured your fingers. There were dozens of options so rather than explaining to Callie how it worked I just made her cluck like a chicken and had Carter act like a gorilla. Valid options though perhaps not matching up with their colour order.

A Trip to Krause Berry Farm

On Saturday we headed out to Krause Berry Farm. Even with the hustle and bustle of the Lower Mainland there is still some great little trips we can make to interesting destinations. Krause Berry Farm is just off of Highway 1 in Langley and is open during the summer season selling berries, pies, baked good and all sorts of tasty treats. They've got horse rides and pumpkin picking in the fall and they must be doing well as they've added a great playground.

I first made it out here by bike during the Fraser Valley Grape Escape bike for MS which was a two day 150km bike ride that included a number of Fraser Valley wineries as well as the berry farm. Our favourites are their pies and this amazing creation that's cream and berries in a single serving shortcake. Even though it was over a year ago Callie still remembers coming out with Kerry during 'Daddy's bike ride' to ride in the horse buggy.

It was a hectic summer so this was our first trip out there this year. The only berry picking that was left was blueberries and blackberries though they also have strawberries, raspberries and a few others. I need to get a hold of some canes of their raspberries as they're much bigger that the ones I have. The kids had a lot of fun ducking in and out of the rows of berries and of course we came back with a giant pie that was about 80% berry.

Carter's First Soccer Practice

Every couple months we get Callie and Carter into some sort of sporting class. They both started with swimming lessons and 'Boots to Blades' skating as well as multi-sport which was a mix of soccer, floor hockey, basketball and many others. We'll keep them both in swimming but we've also been watching to see what activities they'd like to continue. Callie has moved on to dancing which includes two class on Saturday's now. Tap Dancing at 9:15a and Ballet at 11:00a. For Carter it has been pretty easy figuring out that he'd like to go with soccer. Whenever there is a ball he's out there kicking.

We've probably dealt with a couple dozen different teachers now through the Surrey leisure programs. The swimming and dancing teachers have been pretty good but we were really getting varying degrees of quality for things like Multi-Sport. I wasn't expecting much better for this soccer class since it's for ages 2-4 and it's indoor. I was pleasantly surprised however with his teacher. She had a very clear plan for the first class and even though the ages were quite varying she was still able to keep the class together and moving. It helps that we're still at a stage where the parents are out there helping each kid.

By the end of the class she had taught them three important skills. The first skill was stopping the ball. I thought this was very ambitious but quite a few kids figured it out. Carter fell down a few times but he was eventually stopping with the best of them. She then moved on to 'little kick, little kick'. Carter has always been more of a 'big kick, run' kind of player so it took a bit to slow him down and then when he did he was only moving the ball about 2 inches at a time. The final skill was 'Blast Off' where they put the ball up on a flat cone and kicked as hard as they can. She brought it all together with a 'Little kick, little kick, stop, blast off' exercise. This should be a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday Carter

I'm about a week behind getting Carter's birthday blogged. I'm choosing to believe that it's because I was behind on getting the cruise blog done but it's probably just because the second child get's forgotten. Good thing Carter's so easy going. Having Carter's birthday in mid September is going to be tough. When he's going to school he's going to have to show up with birthday invitations on the first day of school and with the first couple weeks of school being so hectic we're going to have to plan over the Labour Day weekend.

We did manage to get a bit of a party together for him in time. We didn't start Callie's friend birthday's until she was four so we kept Carter's third birthday to just family.  Uncle Corey and Auntie Carmen came over with Kristen and new cousin Ryan. Carter had decided that he wanted a Pirate theme so everyone had their best Pirate costumes on. (Mostly stuff we had from the Pirate night on the Cruise.) Even Ryan had a bit of a pirate costume on with the striped pyjamas.

Callie helped out a lot with Carter's gifts. She convinced him he wanted to get a scooter so that he could scooter around with her.  He got a nice red three wheeled scooter and a Cars sleeping bag from us as well as numerous gifts from friends and family. It was good when the family gifts were delivered because Callie was very worried that Carter wouldn't get as many presents as she did. It was quite refreshing to have her getting along with her brother so well even if it is for just one day. I think she feels he deserves at least one day. :)