Baby Ryan's Baptism

On Sunday we headed to Baby Ryan's baptism. Ryan is Kerry's brother's new son and he was born on August 27th. All the cousins have a 7 in their birth date.  Callie and Kristen both on August 7th and Carter on September 17th. The church is just a few blocks from our house and it's one of the nicer modern Churches I've been in.  It's part of the Catholic High School and has very high vaulted ceilings and is nice and bright. The ceremony included three other children but still went quickly. I get the sense that this is a pretty routine event for the priest now. Kerry looked after the kids while I took pictures where I could.

After the ceremony we headed over to Corey and Carmen's town house complex for lunch. They held it in the clubhouse and all of Carmen's family was there. The food was excellent and all the cousins had a great time playing together. Kristen really seems to enjoy playing with Callie and Carter and it's going to be chaos once Ryan is able to walk.

Disney on Ice

On Friday night we headed out to Abbotsford to see 'Disney on Ice - Toy Story 3' or as Carter calls it 'Toy Story Ice." Previously it's only been held in Vancouver but this year they held it in Abbotsford as well as they have a nice new Arena for the Abbotsford Heat AHL team. We've gone almost every since Callie was 15 months and this year we chose Friday night as you get 2 for 1. Before the show we met up with Veronica and Brad and their kids Sarah and Lauren at the Spaghetti Factory. We met them in prenatal class for Callie and have keep in touch every since.

The theme has ranged from a mix of Princess shows to High School Musical but this year was totally dedicated to just the one movie. I'm not sure that you'd be able to know what was going on if  you hadn't seen the movie before but it was still excellent. I'm amazed at the sets they manage to come up with. My favourite scene was probably the opening one with all of the army guys parachuting in. Two of the guys actually glided in from above on a lifting rig and they used special effects to make it look like they were all arriving the same way. (Actually they were probably mostly army girls.)

Buzz light year had a similar entrance that included a flashy rocket trail. Carter and Callie had a great time and Disney emptied our wallets nicely for Cotten Candy and drinks.  Apparently if you add a 25 cent plastic cup or hat to something you can charge $12.00. They were nice enough to include handy wipes with the Cotten Candy which was very much needed since Carter tends to just let the stuff dissolve in his hands. It was a 30 minute drive home afterwards and we stopped off at Toys-R-Us for their midnight sale to pick up some gifts for Kerry's Sunshine fund at her school. They had portable high-chairs on sale and several teachers are having babies. We didn't get home till 10:30 but still had a lot of fun.

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.