Friday, 31 October 2014

HALLOWEEN 2014

Halloween 2014! 
In my mommy circles there is all kinds of talk about what to do with the candy from Trick or Treating. I had no idea there was anything else to do with it, besides eat it...so that's what I'm doing right now. I'm eating it.  
That's what the kids will do tomorrow (unless I eat it all tonight, while they sleep,) they will eat it. Not all at once, but they will eat it. The pop, they probably won't drink, but the chips, they will eat, the chocolate, they will eat and the suckers, well, they'll suck on them. They'll learn self discipline when we let them to pick 2 and only 2 pieces of candy after dinner every night.  They'll learn patience when we make them put the rest back into their buckets to save for the next night. They'll learn real life skills of how to deal with temptation. In real life the things that tempt you don't turn into a toy, or a car, or money when you put them in a magic bowl, stir them with a magic stick and leave them on the table over night. In real life, you have to learn to walk away when you've reached your limit and that is what my kids will get experience with, whether they learn it or not..we'll have to wait to see.

The kids wore two costumes this year. One to the Day Home. I got those costumes for 8 bucks each at Walmart. 8 Bucks??!! Can you believe they can make costumes for that?? These were the ones I didn't care if they got brownies or juice or markers all over them. These costumes were Halloween: Part 1.




Super-Man and Little Red Riding Hood.




We joined our neighbours for some Trick or Treating this evening. Our neighbours have two girls. They dressed as fairies. Ryder rocked his Spider-Man costume, mask and everything (I didn't know if he'd actually wear the mask) and Payton rocked her tutu (thanks to my friend Larissa for making it) and her Spider-Girl shirt (thanks to Marty for his art work.)  This was Payton's first Halloween and I was just happy she didn't have to wear a snow suit over it! LOL


Trick or Treating with friends is sooo much fun!

 Love that he wanted to wear the mask the whole night!

Not bad for her first "real" trick or treating costume, eh?!

She did spend some time in the Trick or Treating wagon.
And yes, she did try to chug her candy! LOL
Now both kiddos are in bed (2 hours later than usual) and I am sitting here, writing and eating chocolate..it's time for me to walk away.....HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and let 'em eat a little candy now and then, it's part of being a kid!



Saturday, 25 October 2014

Sunday, 5 October 2014

CORNY WEEKEND!

Weekends always seem to take forever to arrive and always seem to pass by way too quickly!! The sun came out to play again this weekend, so we soaked it up!  Nic came to spend some time with us too so between her and the sunshine a good time was guarenteed!!!

We went to the Corn maze Saturday morning.  We went to the smaller one (apparently there are a number of corn mazes around here) but it was the perfect one for us!!  

There were big tractor tires to climb....

 Awesome slides...
 Auntie Dic

giant rolling bubbles...

 and selfies!!!


Just when I think we are enjoying our last popsicles of the season, the sun keeps shining and we get to buy another box, sooo....did we enjoy our last popsicles of the season, Saturday?


Sunday was our good friend, Arya's first birthday party!! She had a ball pit and bouncy castle there!!

 Payton is VERY into dressing up these days. She puts on everything she finds. She wears, blankets, hats, shoes, boots and even bras (she has one around her neck in this pic.)
Ryder has started playing hockey in the kitchen. He plays hockey just as loud as he plays "bull rider." LOUD!!!!! He commentates every move he makes, he could actually be a sport's announcer. Skate! Skate! Skat he'll shout right before he hollers at the top of his lungs, "GOAL!!"
I couldn't get sound on this video, but imagine he is shouting with all the enthusiasm of a three year old, "Goal!!!"

...and now it is after 10pm, another busy week is about to begin, so I better get my tired ass in bed!!!

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and eat popsicles while the sun shines!!!

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

LAST HURRAH!

Despite the weather forcast (it called for rain and temperatures in the single digits [celcius],) we took to the highway with our camper, our neighbours, another family with a toddler and an infant and their trailers.  We headed to the mountains. One last hurrah of the camping season.  I packed tuques and mitts..and we used them all weekend long! The Fall air was crisp and we could feel Winter knocking but it didnt' stop us from having a great time with some good friends!

The kids didn't even notice the cold. Payton refused to wear her hat or her mitts. Ryder wore them then played so hard he'd sweat!  Only the adults complained. Apparently, we were not playing hard enough!! LOL


Payton wanted so badly to keep up with the "big boys" but she wasn't quite "big" enough.
 She was just a little too big to play with the little ones...
 Good thing she doesn't mind playing by herself. She managd to sneak some costume jewllery into the camping toy box and that kept her busy for quite a while!
 She had a great time chasing me around this big rock.
 She's getting pretty good at balancing and jumping too!


I love this smile!!!
This little girl can play well by herself, but truly, she just wants to do everything her big bro does!!
 Cutest lil camper!
 Ryder was sooo happy to have Hudson and his family with us on the trip!
Hudson is two and he adores Ryder!! 
They wrestled,
 They drove dump trucks and pushed strollers,
 They hung out just being cute,
 They worked hard,
They roasted marshmellows!!



 Hudson left early Sunday morning, so Ryder had to drive his dumper by 
himself. He actually asked me and Payton to leave as he was 
at his "job site." LOL
 He's growing up sooooo fast!!!!
My handsome hubby!
 Scout holding down the fort!

Sunday night, Payton decided she will NO LONGER sit in her high chair. She does not care that food will now drop all over the floor, neither does Scout. She will simply scream her ever loving head off if you carry her anywhere near her seat. AWESOME!
 We capped off our mountain weekend by baking cookies at home, in the warmth of our kitchen.  Ryder LOVES baking with me. Payton is still learning, but she has become more and more curious about it all. Ryder can crack eggs, work the mixer and eat dough like a champ. He also discovered Sunday, that after you add flour, if you turn the mixer on high, there will be a giant flour explosion! AWESOME! ha ha ha!
It was a chilly weekend, filled with frozen fingers (mostly mine,) adventure (all of ours) and messes (Ryder's and Payton's) so all in all I'd say it was a good one!! Here's to the week ahead!

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and don't worry about the cold, kids don't!

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

SEPTEMBER COLDS!

We all have September colds. I know it's my fault. I brought all of the germs home from school. We are building up our immunity this year. Hopefully by this time next year, we will all be ready to defend ourselves from "Mom's school germs."
This week was pretty uneventful. The kids and I were super sick with the cold all week. Marty did a fantastic job taking care of all of us.  The one thing he doesn't do though, is hair. Though, I'm sure he could if he really wanted to.  I love trying fun new styles every morning on Payton's hair.   

I attempted this one morning, but forgot to take a pic until supper time...

It definitely looked adorable and way better first thing after I did it....
Bedtime happened early most nights as everyone was miserable and sick. 
The kids are big time into brushing their teeth together!
There is always a little naked time before bed..who doesn't love a little bare baby bum? LOL
 Ryder's favorite game before bed (sick or not) is to pretend he is a bull rider and that this white horse is a bull called Marshmellow.  Mom actually made this horse for Aimee when she was little. (Sure hope Aim doesn't mind that I gave her old horse a new home.)  Mom made a horse for each of us, for our Cabbage Patch Kids, ofcourse she did!  I couldn't find mine though. Yep, awesome MOM!!!!
Ryder plays with it in a very different way than we did back in the 80s.  He sits on it, nods his head with an "ok boys," waits for me to "open the gate" then he starts spinning around, jumping up and down, hollering and yelling about how he is "champion of the world!!  It is stinkin' awesome!!



Tubby time always follows bull riding and it's always together!

We may have been sick but when the sun shone, we tried to soak it up and ever since the freak snowstorm at the beginning of September, the weather has been freakishly warm!


 Marty has even found time to go out wake surfing during the week!

 Despite the sunshine, the "bull riding" the teethbrushing and tubbing there was actually very little sleep happening in our house for Marty, Payton and I because of Payton's cold. Ryder seems to cope a lot better with a stuffy nose now that he is older.  Payton was MISERABLE! Poor lil thing!! Marty actually spent one whole night in the chair with her sleeping on his chest. This is the first time since we had babies that he has spent a night in the chair....he is an awesome Dad!! He let me sleep since I was also super sick with the cold, and now that the three of us (me, Ryder and Payton) are almost over the cold, he has just caught it. :(  Dad's turn to sleep.

Not only did Marty spend a night in the chair with his little girl, but he spent Saturday with them, while I was at a horse event in the city that Mom had gotten me tickets to. We spent hours watching amazing horse trainers share their knowledge and horsemanship skills with us!! Thanks Mom for sharing this passion with me!!!

Then just as the weekend was winding down, this happened. :(
I'm not sure exactly how this happened but I do know that over the course of Sunday, both Marty and I on seperate occasions picked Payton up off the driveway after she took a tumble. Neither of us noticed this giant road rash until tub time when it didn't scrub off. She is one tough little monkey!!

Sunday night, out of the blue, Ryder wanted to make Marty a Thanksgiving Card. He came up with this by himself. We have talked a little about Thanksgiving, mostly in this context as a response to: When is it my birthday?  
First it's Thanksgiving where we eat turkey, apple pie and say what we are thankful for, then Halloween where we get to dress up then Christmas with Santa Clause, then your birthday.
With a bouncy house? 

So the making a card thing seemed random but adorable. I hooked him up with some paper and some markers and then I went to put Payton down for bed. I told Ryder I'd help him when I was done with Payton. When I returned to his room, he had made a card that, according to him said: "I love you Dad. Thank you for taking care of our trees."  And my heart melted. I knew he was referring to the way Marty had shook the snow off the trees in our yard every day during the storm and I had told Ryder that because of that none of our trees got broken like the millions of trees in our city that were destroyed because of the heavy snow!  The things this kid remembers amazes me!! He asked me if I would add something pretty to the card like a drawing of a car and a truck.  I explained to him that I am not very good at drawing. I am better at other things like horse back riding and reading stories, but that I would try my very best to draw for him.  After the car and truck he requested I add an airplane.  I drew what I thought could pass for a plane and asked if it was good enough. Very diplomatically, without hesitation Ryder replyed: Mom, that looks more like a sail boat. Let's just say it's a sail boat ok?  Ha ha ha!!! He spared my feelings. What a sweet kid!! I love him!!

Ok, It doesn't really look like a plane at all does it? See, I suck at drawing. LOL

Sleepless nights and runny noses aside, I love everything about my little cuties!! I am so happy I get to kiss their chubby cheeks goodnight every night...except tonight. Tonight I had to work until 7:30! I hate missing bedtime!!! So happy they have a great Daddy!! 

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and learn to draw airplanes!!!