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Halloweeeeeeeen!

Oh my gosh you guys, Best. Hallowe'en. Ever. Even though it was pissing down rain we had SUCH a good time. The kids were over the moon, like excited off the charts about the whole deal. Everybody loved their costumes. Everybody got all the candy they could ever imagine wanting. Everybody had an amazing time. 

And I want to tell you guys, I feel so satisfied right now. I've been parenting for about six and a half years now and really, one of the things that you learn is how rarely things go as expected, let alone go as hoped. But tonight... I love Hallowe'en, and the kids are so excited about Hallowe'en, and you just hope thing will go well, that no one gets hurt or scared or disappointed. That they have fun. That they will remember it. And this is one of those rare, rare times that that appears to have come true. And I'm telling you, it is rare, but oh, so sweet. 

Anyway, enough of my ebullience. Let me tell you about our costumes. I've been working on the Little Guy's for a couple of days now.  He wants to be The Flash, obviously. I downloaded the logo from the internet and then cut it out of felt and appliqued it onto a plain red sweatshirt that I got from the second hand store. 

And Hubs drew me a pattern for the mask (because he is awesome) and we cut it out of craft foam. 

Hubs also decided to make himself a mask. We like to dress up to match the kids. So Hubs was Wolverine, to match with Little Flash. 

And here he is, Little Flash in all his rubber booted glory. Those boots are from the V.V. The Little Guy absolutely HAD to have them, even though they fit him just exactly, with no room to grow or anything. But he insisted. And since they were $2.99 I figured it was worth it. And just as well with the rain we had tonight.

And here are our two super heros. Note the running pose on the Little Guy. 

Also note Hubs' specially manicured Wolverine beard. Now that's costume commitment.

The Little Dude's costume was much easier to manage. He wanted to be a lumberjack. He cared very little about the costume itself, but kept telling us how important the axe was. He needed that axe. Everyday he came home from school and asked if Hubs had his axe yet. There is even a concept sketch. 

And of course Daddy came through for him. A real axe handle, a fake axe head (styromfoam and silver duct tape) and he was over the moon. The shirt and the hat are just set dressing as far as he's concerned, but he was very happy, as he looked in the mirror, at the overall effect. A very satisfied Little Lumberjack with a very Big Axe. 

And naturally, I'm the Big Lumberjack with the Little Axe. Har har. 

Axe Battle!

And so, we all put on two layers of warm clothes underneath our costumes, got our boots, our candy bags, and an umbrella and headed out for a very slow, very fun and candy filled walk around the neighborhood. And as previously mentioned, a great time was had by all. Our neighbors were very generous and there were TWO houses where they were giving out full sized candy bars! I'm seriously going back to those houses with thank-you notes. We returned to the house about an hour later, thoroughly dampened (but only the first layer, we were dry underneath!) and retired to a hot bath to eat our allotted six kinds of candy before we headed off to a very well deserved sleep. And as I tucked the Little Dude into bed, he murmured about how it was the best Hallowe'en ever. And I agreed. I whispered "Do you know how much I love you? I love you so much it fills my heart.", and he replied "I love you for as far as there is sky, Mom. And you know what? The sky never ends. So my love for you never ends either." And I melted, like chocolate eaten in a bathtub.

I love Hallowe'en. 

pumpkins!

A couple of days ago we decided it was time to carve pumpkins. Or rather, the Little Dude was home from school, he and his brother were fighting like cats and dogs and when they weren't fighting they were whining about inconsequential things that made me want to shout "FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS!" at them. Everybody had had a snack, the Little Guy was fresh off a nap so really, there was no need for such unpleasantness. NO NEED! I had stuff to do (laundry to put away, dinner to make) and they wanted me to play, so we had a problem. And then someone suggested pumpkins. I don't know if it was L.D. or I that realized we had not carved yet and Hallowe'en was only a matter of days away. But it seemed urgent. And relevant. And worth ignoring the laundry for.  So, first step is cleaning them out. 

But nobody wanted to put their hands inside. Too goopy apparently. 

Even the Little Dude who is previous years has been all about grabbing big handfuls of pumpkin guts, insisted on using utensils. So who did most of the pumpkin gut removal? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count. 

The Little Guy was especially pleased with the removable top. 

Lid goes on, lid comes off. (and note the chicken pox all over this poor child. Scabbing over nicely though. We're almost over it!)

L.D. said, "Look Mom, it looks like a spider web! Take a picture of this!"

Once we had them more or less cleaned out (and I did NOT do a very good job of that. We were under time constraints as dinner does not make itself people!) we did a little concept art on paper and then drew what we wanted them to look like with washable marker on the pumpkins themselves. And then we carved! Or rather, I should say that then I carved. Because three year olds and knives are not the safest combination. Though the Little Dude did the teeth on his pumpkin with my assistance. 

And here are our finished pumpkins. The Little Dude's is on the left, and the Little Guy's is on the right. And I must say, they are a pretty accurate depiction of their different tastes and personalities. 

The Little Guy was saying "Its too heavy! I can't hold it anymore" as I quickly snapped this picture. Which is why the Little Dude is helping him hold it up. I'm glad I have a photo of this becuase I need proof that he can, occasionally, be helpful to his brother. 

Though of course, everybody's favourite part of pumpkin carving - better than knives, better than gooey pumpkin guts, better than scary faces even - is fire. 

And there they are, all lit up! We'll burn those candles down to nubs on the first night for sure. Oh, the joy of looking out the window and seeing those glowing orange faces on the porch. So, pumpkins carved, done and done. And we had quick scrambled eggs for dinner. And now, we can't WAIT for Hallowe'en! 

 

thanksgiving

Remember thanksgiving? It happened, like, half a week ago. Aaaaages ago. Do you even care anymore? Well, whether you do or whether you don't I'm gonna blog about it. Because it was kind of a milestone for me. You see, I am the daughter af a great cook. Someone who had been cooking for her entire life and has honed her craft to an art. And I live 8 minutes away from the culinary  brilliance that is my Mother. So why on EARTH would I ever cook my own Thanksgiving Dinner? Or Christmas Dinner? Or Easter Dinner for that matter? My Mom has pretty much nailed turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce. And I love it. 

But this year is the year that The Little Dude has Chicken Pox (see previous post) and so we had to miss Thanksgiving Dinner at my Mom and Dad's house. Too many other little kids to potentially infect and even if that were not a concern, he was so SICK on Thanksgiving Sunday. Just laying around, being miserable, having a fever, shaking his little six year old fist at the heavens as he said (repeatedly) "I don't want to have Chicken Pox any more!" - in no condition to go anywhere. Anyhow, my point is that I had to take Thanksgiving Dinner into my own hands. And you know, its not like I don't have any culinary skills at all. So in between painting calamine lotion onto L.D.'s spots and reading endless stories I cooked us a bird.  Just a little organic chicken. But I haven't roasted a chicken a while and it was fun to do. 

Also, we got out the fine china and the stemware.

The better to toast you with my dear. 

Isn't that a fine looking plate? And note the place cards, written with care my the Little Dude. 

Everybody had their favourite part of the meal; mine is the stuffing and the cranberry sauce. Both are my Mom's recipes and I will never deviate from them even a smidge because they are perfect the way they are. The Cranberry Sauce has orange zest in it and is so fresh and lovely. And the stuffing is so sage-y and delicious. But the Little Guy here is all about the mashed potatoes and gravy. As is the Little Dude. 

This is his thumbs up for the food, as his mouth was too full of mashed potato to say anything at the time. Also, not his general lethargy. This was about as enthusiastic as he got on that particularly unpleasant day in the Chicken Pox cycle. Poor kid. But he did like those mashed potatoes. 

Though this is what everyone was waiting for:I did NOT attempt to make the pumpkin pie myself. That was delivered to our quarantine house by my kind niece, courtesy of my Mom. That woman makes the ultimate pumpkin pie. 

And it was gobbled up as fast a forks could allow. I said before that the mashed potatoes were the boys' favourite part of the meal, but I stand corrected. They would eat stale bread with cold gravy for dinner and be happy as clams so long as there was Pumpkin Pie for dessert. 

And so, in spite of not getting to join the big party with the long table and tons of little kids and noise and fun and multiple pumpkin pies, we still had a pretty good Thanksgiving. And I felt like a grown-up, cooking one of those signifigant, symbolic meals for my own little family. It was nice in spite of the Chicken Pox. And I hope you all had good thanksgivings too, whether they were little or big, in good health or bad. It can go either way, but I hope you managed some pie and some celebration whatever the circumstances. 

 

Chicken Pox

Yep. The Little Dude has the Chicken Pox. It was only a matter of time. Last week we got the news that a classmate had it, and this week we heard about another. I saw a few spots on his neck on Thursday night and hoped it was just one of the myriad weird rashes that we with our sensitive skin are prone to. But when I went to wake him up on Friday morning I did not even have to turn on the light to know he had Chicken Pox. I could feel the bumps on him in the dark. And since we have not vaccinated the Little Dude yet (aaaaand cue controversy) I knew we were next. 

This is day three of Chicken Pox. He's managing pretty well, so long as he is not tired or hungry, and so long as I'm not attempting to put Calamine lotion on him. THAT is for sure not his favourite thing! 

I don't know if you can see it, but he has a chicken pock (is that the singular, and "pox" is the plural? I feel like it is. Humour me if I'm wrong) on the inner edge of his upper eyelid. Isn't that the worst!? It makes me cringe inwardly, but I'm trying not to let him see it because it does not seem to bother him. Thank goodness. 

But he was done with pictures pretty quickly. Patience is in pretty short supply around here. 

Though he was willing to model his gloves. He wears these at night to keep him from scratching. The only way this works is because they are so cool. With the glow in the dark skeleton bones on them and whatnot, I didn't even have to ask twice!

So far our best coping strategy for dealing with the discomfort of Chicken Pox though has been reading. Reading stories aloud. Between Hubs and I we read out loud to the boys for most of the day yesterday. L.D. is pretty tired and listless, so he is very happy to be tucked up against one of us, listening to a graphic novel like the Lizard of Oz (aka The Marvelous Land of Oz, by Eric Shanower and Skottie Young) or hearing a couple of chapters about life on the Prairie with Laura and Mary. Or any number of endless picture books from our latest library trip. Sophie's Squash and Hugless Douglas are current favourites. And the Little Guy has never met a read-aloud story he did not like, so he is happy to listen along too. And at those crisis moments of the day when no one is available to read, like the dreaded hour before supper time, we are supplementing with a judicious amount of medicinal Magic School Bus and Veggie Tales. Its all about distraction.

On a side note, our resident three-year-old could not be happer! (For now. Give or take a 12-14 day incubation period.) And it may just be in contrast to his pretty miserable big brother, but the Little Guy is in the BEST. MOOD. EVER! He's practically skipping around here, reveling in his good health and high spirits. I wouldn't say he is doing it to spite his brother, but it sure is annoying him never theless. Its like when you work in an office, and you go in on that day that you have a cold and PMS combined, and you are super annoyed to be there and there is a little black cloud hanging over your head that all the coffee and chocolate in the world could not dispel. And then your co-worker comes waltzing in all excited about a new pair of shoes and dancing to their favourite song, and being all like "Can you BELIEVE this weather? SO gorgeous, right!?" and you just want to punch them? Yep, that is the dynamic between my two kids today. There has been a lot of "TELL HIM TO STOP SINGING!" I feel bad for them both. And also me. I certainly feel bad for me. 

Anyhow, as my wise Mother always says: "This too will pass." Though sadly, it won't pass in time for us to attend our big family Thanksgiving Dinner. Sigh. But the aforementioned wise Mother who is also a very kind Grandma has promised to deliver us our very own pumpkin pie and has already dropped off an organic chicken for us to roast and a jar of our her own home made apple sauce. We'll miss the company of course, but so long as there is pumpkin pie, there will be peace. 

a perfect day on the river

I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but this past week has been just gorgeous around here! This Monday was, in particular, a perfect day. Sunny, warm but not too hot - just ideal fall weather that feels like a second chance at summer. So my Dad - Grandfather extraordinaire - had the bright idea to take the Little Dude out of school and bring the Little Guy along out for a little family boat ride on the river. Needless to say, L.D. did not object to a day off school at all.  We drove Grandpa's boat down to the local dock, and with all the strength that a three and six year old can muster, we got it out into the water. 

Here we are, all life-jacketed up and ready to go!

We got out on the river, and oh what fun it was!

There were fall colours, and drooping willow trees.

And something new to see around every bend in the river. 

There were tall graceful Herons rising from the banks, and big flocks of Cormorants, eager to get out of our noisy way, skimming over the water like ghosts. 

We stopped in the shallows to look at the forest of seaweed below us, and catch a wishful glimpse of turtles or fish. 

The sky above us was as beautiful as the waters below. 

We even discovered a whole tree full of Cormorants. 

I love like a long-necked bird in silhouette. 

We stopped and had lunch in a little town on Cooks Bay.

And then got back in the boat for a leisurely trip back down the river. The Little Dude favoured this spot at the front of the boat where he could "stretch out and relax." Because life in grade one can be very stressful.

And of course, Big Monkey-see, Little Monkey-do. Though really, the Little Guy's favourite spot to sit...

...was in GranGran's arms.

Both boys really enjoyed the novelty of being in a vehicle that did not involve car seats and seat belts. Such freedom!

Captain Grandpa was the man behind the wheel most of the time. 

But he welcomed the help of little co-captains.

The Little Guy could not have been happier about the chance to drive the boat. 

And after seeing how much fun his little brother had, even the Little Dude had to try his hand at it. 

Eventually it was time to leave the river in our wake (sorry, could not help it)

And say goodbye to our day on the river. But it was a lovely outing that will live in our minds as one of those golden memories of our children's childhood for years to come.