whirlwind days...

For some reason these last few weeks and months have felt like a whirlwind. I thought that after having finished work in January I would have this sense of freedom and life would be restful and relaxing...it has been some of that, but life with kids just isn't exactly that, and I'm always trying to squeeze in some fun and excitement (aka sewing) into the mix. Anyhow, excuses excuses as to why I never blog anymore. But here's a little attempt.
First a couple of Luke stories:
We were having a conversation about porcupines the other day and Luke insisted that they were called "poke-u-pines" instead of porcupines. Can I argue with such brilliance??
Then there is his singing...he's been into medley's lately, one of my favorites being "How Great Thou Art/O Canada"...at least we're no longer "standing on God for thee", that didn't seem very nice. We have some nice, cheesy, 80s christian VHS video where young kids do different songs to music and Luke pretty much knows them all now. It's pretty neat to be at a point where when I don't know the words to a song, or I can't remember where I put something, I can just ask Luke and 9 times out of 10 he knows.
And then there's been birthday talk floating around, first of all much talk about his birthday and turning four, and what kind of cake to have. He said he wanted a "heaven" cake. Hmmm.... Usually his cake requests are firetrucks or firefighters or spiderman (which he knows absolutely nothing about but heard of somewhere and talks about him all the time). His cousin Victoria is having a birthday party on Saturday and today he was speculating about what kind of cake SHE would like. His first thought was a princess cake, and then he changed his mind and thought maybe she would like a lawnmower cake. A lawnmower cake?!?
Finally, when talking about what present he would like for his birthday he said, "I want a parrotshoot (parachute), so I can shoot parrots." What?!?!? Poor parrots, what did they ever do to him???
And now for some pictures. Here are the boys watching themselves eat coconut lollipops. Strange, yes, cute, also yes.
Reading...in matching pjs. Always a hit.

An attempt at ice skating at the Forks. It was so freaking cold that day we didn't last very long.

Sammy and I trying to be excited about how freaking cold it is.

Short-lived skating.

My dad. The 60-year-old. We've just had a few celebrations for him so he's a big hit around here. As is his hot yellow curling sweater. We go and watch him curl, mostly for the sweater.

The boys, in Papa Ron glory, watching curling.

Wrestling with dad. Good times.

Luke in a bumbo chair. Playing an obnoxious xylophone.

That's all for now, this winter has been long so I'll spare you the un-taken shots of us lazing around at home, playing blocks for hours on end and watching cheesy 80s praise videos.

motherly musings

I'm back to being a full-time mom, except for today as I'm subbing and have a moment to reflect on life these days. I like being home again. It feels great, in every way. I love being in pyjamas until at least 9am, I love sitting and reading to the boys, snuggling and not looking at the clock, sitting on the floor playing with magnets, and watching them play contentedly as I do some blanket stitching. I feel like I've finally gotten to a point where I genuinely like my kids, nearly all the time. That probably sounds horrible in a sense, but parenting is just not an easy job. I still get frustrated at the many spills and messes, the toddler temper tantrums which are becoming quite frequent with little Sam, and all manner of irrationality that abounds, but on the whole, life has gotten easier. I think one thing I've noticed since being home again is that Luke seems a lot more settled. During Sammy's nap he will often just play by himself in his own little world, creating stories and talking out loud, oblivious to anything else. It's beautiful to see. A contented child is a mother's dream. I think my attachment to them has grown a bit more too...last night we dropped them off at my mom's for the night and they both didn't want us to leave and I had a few tears as we drove away...my mom was babysitting today while I sub so it was just easier, but I'm getting quite used to having these little guys around and am not used to days without them. What a gushy post so far, yeesh! It's not all roses, let me assure you. Here are some ponderings and questions to you, my readers and experienced parents!!
Luke is starting to talk a lot about "scary guys". He is entering into the realm of childhood fears and I don't like it. We watched "The Incredibles" with him a few weeks ago, after much begging on his part, and Julio and I both realized this is completely NOT a kid's show! Ever since that he's been afraid that bad guys are going to kill people and be in our backyard and in the basement and I just feel horrible about it. What to do?!? Is this normal growth or have we permanently wrecked him? He's a sensitive kid and it just makes me sad that he has to have these fears. He asked me to put our baby gate up yesterday to keep the bad guys in the basement, and brought the gate to me and was explaining all this to me as I was on the phone so I started to try and hook up the gate which is really not easy with the phone in the crick of your neck and I finally lost it and said, "we don't have a baby here! we don't need a baby gate!!!" Oh, lovely irrationality, how familiar you are to me.
And just to keep things well-rounded, Sammy has issues too. He's a little toddler bully it turns out. I'm saying that a little tongue-in-cheek as I don't really believe that or want to label him as such, and really he is so tender and sweet too, but I suppose after months of trying to hold your own with a 3-year-old, it has reprecussions with his peers. We had playdates twice this week with kids Sammy's age, and he was just plain not nice. Lots of pulling, pushing, grabbing and a bit of hitting thrown in for good measure. I honestly think he's more comfortable with 3-year-olds than kids his age. He's built like a truck, too, so he's pretty good at winning the toy battles which isn't necessarily a good thing. So what to do?!? Should I intervene all the time or let nature take it's course? Not that I want him pushing, etc, but how much do you let kids solve their own problems at that age, especially as I know he wouldn't be able to really hurt anyone, and how much to intervene? Thoughts on this are appreciated as well...it is truly a dilemma for me! Parenting the second time around definitely looks a little different, I'll say that. I definitely remember being more protective and worried about Luke when other kids were around, and sometimes feel bad that I don't hover around Samuel more, and am sometimes glad I don't.
On the whole, I have to say that I'm enjoying this phase of motherhood the most so far, probably especially for all the nice chats with Luke. He is getting to be so much fun to be around, loves to help out and has a real tenderness about him that I just marvel at and love. The other day Sammy wanted yogurt and Luke said, "I'll get it for him mom" and proceeded to take out the yogurt, a spoon, peel the yogurt lid and told Sammy in his patronizing baby voice, "get into your chair Sammy" and gave him his snack. It's not all roses, but life is pretty good and I am thankful.

boy talk, as in, my boys talk, and say funny things

I've been really bad at keeping up any sort of journaling lately, and Sammy is so completely funny these days with all he says and understands that every 5 min I could write something funny. As in, mildly amusing and probably excruciatingly boring to the majority of the population so let's just be thankful I DON'T journal that much, but cute nonetheless. The current tidbit of mild cuteness? Sammy has been giving us menu ideas. So kind of him. Usually it’s just “sushi, sushi” followed by “esh, esh” (yes) with a few very emphatic head nods. But the last two mornings he’s been giving breakfast suggestions. I got him out of his crib yesterday, brought him to our bed to say good morning to Julio, and he started his menu monologue of “bek-ist, bek-ist (breakfast), ug, ug (egg), toes toes (toast), esh esh (yes) *head nod*”. So Julio made him an egg. Who wouldn’t?!
Luke’s cute too. I was just eavesdropping on Julio’s conversation with him, as he (Julio) was multi-tasking, making cookies with both boys and carrying on conversations with them, while I get tendonitis writing this. Luke said, “we shouldn’t eat our snot, right?” Those are quality moments.
But on to the real story of the day. Luke and I have been getting into his new library books this week, one of them being a Curious George story all about George going to the “hostable” (hospital, for non pre-schooler parents). In it, there’s a girl named Betsy who is sad because she’s at the hospital and has never been there before and is a bit afraid. Well, today when we got to the part with Betsy being sad because she’s never been to a hospital before, Luke says to me, “mom, of course she has! We’ve read this lots of times already and she always goes to the hospital!” Isn’t that priceless?!?

And finally, I leave you with my current source of daily amusement. Favorite lines: “splish splosh”, “voila mon passeport”, “Gerard Depardieu!’’. Sammy now says ‘fa fa’ and ‘ah-ee-ah’.

imaginary friends

Luke and I were just colouring and he was telling me stories. His story went something like this:
"Mom, you know what? I was going to school, and I was waiting for my school bus, and mom you know what? My school bus came, and I went on the bus with all my friends...all my friends...Do you know what my friends' names are? There's (be prepared to be amused) Audi, Keg, Rod, Cimmamim (at this point I started writing them down, and he noticed, and kept going), and Ahay, and Awee, and Aseesa, and Josh and Jake, and Aray...and yeah, and Bod. Yeah, Bod."
I love his stories. Although I was a little sad that "Jurda and Urda" didn't make the cut today. They're my favorite. The other day they were the goalies. Maybe they were too busy with they're blossoming hockey careers today to have time for school.

Three videos, for your viewing pleasure

Luke skating with the infamous Josh and Uncle Marco...


Muscles and monkeys, our talented Sam.


Jingle Bells forever...this has been a frequent favorite, especially in the car, at high volumes, for extended periods of time. Niiiiccccceeeeeeee.....

More holiday fun

Be prepared to be impressed with all the pictures and video that this post will contain. I'm hopeful anyway, we'll see if the videos cooperate. (Video update: SLOW! Check back later, I'll post separately).

So here we are in our happy, lounging state at home. You don't get to see any pictures of me in my new candy cane pyjamas, but they have gotten a lot of use already and I am in no hurry to change out of them each day. We've had quite a bit of time to just hang out at home and I've been loving it. The only thing missing is a good springbok puzzle, but Sammy would probably just mess it up anyway. He already does that to my train set-ups and I get annoyed at that, and him using the excuse that it's HIS toy and not mine is just lame, in my opinion. I was here first.

Anyway, enough about me, here's our boys. This is the year of the matching attire. Here they are in their matching pajamas. They also have matching football shirts. It's cheesy, but I'm loving it.

Awww...that's what it's like all the time here, really...The boys, just playing contentedly, together, for hours on end. You believe me, right?!?

Sam, pjs, and new farm set.

Luke, pjs, and new hockey pads. His new hockey outfit includes some dreadful looking knee pads and gloves I made for him once a while back, sunglasses, booties from a 1-year-old snowsuit, and his new elbow pads. He takes this outfit quite seriously too!

What memories would be complete without a picture of famous Josh. Now Sammy has just got on the Josh bandwagon and was all over him when they were here for Christmas. He kept going up to Jake and calling him Josh too, and today he was calling some other older boy at church Josh. I guess, in his mind, "Josh" just means "big, cool boy". Today on the way home from church I heard Sammy saying over and over, "Josh, Josh, Josh". We plan on funding his college years as long as he stays out of trouble in his adolescence and comes over weekly.

Luke, on skates! First time this year, and he did GREAT! Such perseverance, I was so proud. He never let go of that hockey stick and just kept at it. We definitely need to get him out skating more!

Sammy could not be left out, and kept dropping his stick over and over again and said "hockey hockey" until someone picked it up.

Family photo! Aren't we cute and outdoorsy.

Sam's first quad ride! Marco and Darci have neighbours with horses behind their house on their large property, so Darci took Sam and I to see them. Sam's word for horse right now is "Ah-ho!" He enjoyed the "ah-hos" a lot!

There we go. Proof that we weren't just in our pajamas 24-7.

Christmas, in no particular order

As I sit here eating my kinder surprise egg, looking at the weird genie toy found inside, I have to say, it's been a fun Christmas. A good balance of family, time at home, crazy prepping, busy malls, more coffee than usual and way more chocolate than is humanly acceptable. Good times. Here's a little glimpse at our festivities, in words and pictures.
The initial prepping began last week. We hosted Julio's side of the family, including a couple of aunts and uncles, on Saturday and I have to say, I honestly did not feel overly stessed and actually was able to enjoy myself. Good laughs, fun times, and a snowman pinata for the kids even! Julio's mom made it and it was a huge hit. It's usually at Dino and Shannon's house but this year we decided to give them a break and host it, so in lieu of it being at their house I made Shannon come over and help me decorate. She is so talented at that kind of thing and within a few minutes transformed my boring living room into something more orderly and appealing, and even gave me a shopping list and a "to do" list for how I could shape up the rest. It was very helpful, if anyone needs decorating advice I strongly advise you to talk to her! I made some purple and white cushion covers, bought some purple ribbon for the tree, a vase with silver balls and silver spiky things coming out and she came over with a wreath and some other decorating goodies, and VOILA! We look festive. A highlight for Julio's Auntie Angie that night was a conversation she had with Luke. He had just finished licking all the icing off a cookie, the only part he really likes, and then asked her, "Is there gluten in this? Because I probably shouldn't eat it if there is." What a sneak...all he wanted was the icing! He has also been known to ask if there's "gluten-free" in something because he doesn't like "gluten-free". He sure knows the lingo.
So, back to the festivities. That was Saturday. On Sunday we had our church's kids concert in the evening. Luke knew pretty much all the words to the 2 songs with 3 and 4 verses each and told us each week before the concert that he knew all the words but that he never sings at church and wouldn't sing at the concert. Good to know he's a boy of his word. He would not even get up on stage and just stood off to the side with Julio for the whole thing. I asked him later if he sang with dad up there and he said, "no, but daddy sang!". Way to go Julio. You get a treat.
Here's Luke looking like an active participant in the concert. Way to go Luke!

Let's backtrack for a minute. On Thursday evening we had a small group get together and played games and had a lot of fun, except that we could hardly cope with missing the Krymusas so much (they're in Germany, the bums). This was the game of choice, putting bins on your legs and head to look like a medicine capsule. You have no idea how entertaining that was...for the kids. All in all, fun times.

Brotherly bonding. Samuel got up onto Luke's chair to play play-dough with him and Luke didn't push him off. That's photo worthy. They are actually playing quite well together lately. The other day when it was time for Sammy's nap Luke said, "no! I was playing with him!!!" Can't beat that. And lately Sammy has been climbing all over Luke giving him hugs and kisses and Luke doesn't mind one bit. I just can't get enough of sibling lovin', it's the best.

Christmas morning! It's amazing how much less spooky I look in the little version of this picture I clicked on to post up here!

Luke enjoying his new flashlight...

I made Sammy this scary looking doll (this is the closest picture I'll show anyone, it's really quite a frightful thing) and he pulled it out of his stocking and said, "no bunny!". Niiiiccceeee...I was contemplating making the hideous thing some clothes today but I don't even know if it's clothes worthy. I'm so glad I didn't make two...Luke didn't seem to have an ounce of jealousy.

Cutie Sam.

Luke, gearing up to get into the presents.

Christmas carnage. I have since found places for all the new toys (there weren't too many thankfully) and tidied up a bit to give me some Christmas sanity. But I'm not going overboard and am also enjoying the mess. Luke is currently putting together, with Julio's help, a 6+ toy he got from his cousin that he was so excited about...it's a fire engine with lots of small parts and lots of assembly required. He was very much wanting Sammy to nap today as that was the criteria...wait until Sammy's nap and then Julio would help him. So far I don't hear Julio swearing so it must be going well.

The boys enjoying Luke's new hockey game. Julio played a game against Luke and I and was way better, and all Sammy wants to do is pop the guys off, but I think it'll get some use. Luke was quite excited about it.

More Christmas morning messes and cutie Sam.

Luke went and saw Santa in the mall a few times before Christmas, pretty much just because "Santa has really good candy canes!" The two times we visited Santa he was quite happy to tell him that he wanted "outside hockey stuff" for Christmas. We weren't really sure what that meant as he already has skates and a bike helmet, so we got him some elbow pads that could also work for his knees. He seemed appeased, and I just reinforced that this was "outside hockey stuff" hoping we got it right. He seemed happy enough...phew!

Julio, eating a turtle from his stocking.

A couple of other events, which have no pictures to prove it, include sledding at a hill nearby and the 2nd annual Charleswood train ride which we did as a familiy the evening of the 23rd. It's a lot of fun, there's a whole bunch of lights set up and tunnels to walk through and a little train station where you buy $2 tickets, and then get to go on a pretty cool little train ride. Definitely a fun experience, even in -30 weather. Our cheeks were cold but it was still pretty magical. And it was very Christian...lots of Christian Christmas music, two nativity scenes and "Christ is Born" in lights, among other things. It's nice to see Christians doing cool Christmasy things. Luke especially liked the manger scenes and asked lots of questions, like "where's Jesus? Is that Mary? Why aren't there THREE shepherds?!? Are these the wise men?" It's cool to see him connecting with the real story of Christmas, it's my hope that it'll make more and more sense each year. I was trying to explain what Christmas was to Luke on the way to church this morning, and why Jesus came, etc, and I said to Julio, as he was rolling his eyes slightly at all the over-your-head-details, "well, the more we talk about it, the more some of it will sink in!" And Julio said, "I've heard this story over and over and I'm still not sure I get it". So true. In my own life lately, I've been thinking a lot more about heaven and eternity, with the passing of my gramma and just the passing of time in general, and I have to say, this life is sure a mystery. But I'll keep telling my boys the story in hopes that we all keep getting glimpses of what it's really all about.

I can't be stopped...the Charleston

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and another...Country Christmas!

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That time of year again...

I couldn't help myself. Check out the following two videos...

My personal fave...the classic

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Disco Christmas

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No, I'm not pregnant, are YOU?!?

This is what I feel like saying to all the lovely questions and comments I've been getting lately. In the past 4 months, I have been asked 4 times if I'm pregnant. The last two happened Tursday and Friday of last week. Another one was by my aerobics instructor AFTER having worked out for an hour. That did not go over well. The first, in September, was in a room full of teachers at my school, and the teacher who asked was a Spanish teacher who didn't quite understand my quietly embarrassed "NO" the first time around, so she repeated "When are you due?!? The baby?!?" To which I said, quite loudly this time, "I am NOT pregnant!" And so, dear readers, I ask you, what would you do in this situation?!? I have gone from tears to laughter on this one, to finally just telling people, yeah, I've got a gut, it's been hard to get rid of since the last baby. And in my dreams I add, and my, your butt is big, really going hard on those chips and chocolate these days, hey?!? My lovely physio friend told me to tell people that I have a curvy spine and that it just makes my stomach stick out more and that there's not much I can do about it. She even had a fancy anatomical description of it, which I fail to remember. And I throw in my lovely Celiac disease to explain some bloating which adds to my pregnant look, but to be honest, since changing my diet I feel less bloated than ever. But whatever will help, right?!? Of course people are somewhat flustered and apologetic afterwards, but I must say, the last two didn't even seem too embarrassed. The one lady even went so far as to tell me that I should maybe see a doctor about it, as her one friend was asked for years if she was pregnant and finally went to the doctor about it and found out she had a humungous cyst even though she felt terrific. That was helpful. And the other lady tried to make me feel better by saying, "but you're so tiny everywhere else!!" as if that was supposed to make me feel so wonderful. Anyway, free tip for all of you out there...IT IS NEVER APPROPRIATE TO ASK IF SOMEONE IS PREGNANT!! What if I was and just not telling anyone yet (not the case, fyi)? What if I was emotionally unstable and that put me over the edge? (It kind of did for a while, honestly). What if I'm just going for a fat look? What if I just really can't give up the chocolate addiction? Feel free to flood the comments section with other inappropriate questions and embarrassing moments, I need to know I'm not alone :).
In other news, I haven't yet started my Christmas shopping. Appalling to some of you Christmas fanatics, I'm sure. I almost bought a Christmas decoration for $10 at Superstore the other day, but I really struggle to justify a $10 purchase of a silver little tree when people are starving out there. Sorry for the soapbox, but it's a real struggle for me. I'd love to make all gifts or just donate to a charity or something, but I'm too lazy (for gift-making) and fear people wouldn't like it, and can't seem to quite take the charity plunge for fear of offending family members. In the end, we will buy something, feel partially guilty, but somewhat glad for not going over the top, and try and find more places for stuff in our house and also be grateful for these gifts that were lovingly bought and chosen and do truly bring some joy and fun to the holidays and joy felt in the giving as well. You should check out the advent conspiracy for some good Christmas inspiration. Don't get me wrong, I love getting stuff, and giving stuff, and I see value in that too, I just don't know what's reasonable anymore. What do you do for Christmas? Do tell, I'd love to hear.
And finally, a picture of our little 3-year-old trapped in a 1-year-old body with 1-year-old coordination. Sammy has decided that he needs to sit in Luke's booster seat now, and eat like a "big boy". It's disastrous but watching him throw a fit if we try to contain him in his highchair isn't much fun either. And this is entertaining, albeit messy. We do win sometimes, fyi, even though I have been referring to Sammy as "Bam Bam" lately (remember the Flinstones?!?) because he's ridiculously strong and tough. Anyway, here's today...boy child eating yogurt.



That's worth a perma-mommy-tummy, right?!?

for you, Steve!

Sushi night, once again, at the Silvestri home. Listen to Sam...

There's a little history behind sushi so good...sushi...enjoy!

saying good-bye to great-gramma: through the eyes of a child

(My gramma, a few years ago, with my nieces Claire and Alexandra)

My gramma passed away last night after 85 full years of life. My dad and most of his siblings were there and it was a peaceful passing. It feels good to know that she isn't suffering anymore and that she is living the good life now...Luke has been asking a lot of questions about great-gramma and we've tried to answer them as logically as, what we think, a 3-year-old mind can handle. Here are a few examples:
Me: Luke, great-gramma is going to go to heaven soon.
Luke: What vehicle will she go in?
Me: Well, one guy from the Bible went in a chariot (...explained what a chariot is...) so maybe she'll go in one of those. Or maybe angels will just pick her up and fly her there. I don't really know.
I never thought about heavenly transport before, but Luke is all things vehicles so this was an obvious question. Funny.
Luke wanted to see her on Saturday and I hadn't seen her recently so, because Julio was away, I took the boys, along with my dad, and we went to see her. Luke was completely fine with going and as we pulled into the nursing home parking lot, he said, "Are we in heaven now?" If great-gramma was going there and we were seeing her, maybe we were going to hitch a ride! Funny. Luke did really well when we did see her and went pretty close to her and looked and her and said to me later, "well, her eyes were open!"
Tonight when I was putting Luke to bed I told him that great-gramma was in heaven and he said, "well, when is she coming back?" And I explained that she isn't coming back ever again, that she was going to stay in heaven. And he said, "But is she going to get a new body?" (We had explained that her body was getting old and tired and that she would get a new one when she got to heaven). And I said yes and he said, "so will she run and jump and kick a ball SUPER high and play with God and Jesus?" I sure hope, for Luke's sake, there are many balls in heaven.

And now for part two of this post. I'd like to label this BAD PARENTING - GOOD PARENTING.

Bad parenting, Exhibit A: Sammy, standing on the dining room table, flinging fries and burger boxes around. Bad on many levels really.
Good parenting: Exhibit A: Two boys, simultaneous colouring and developing their creative selves. (Snapshot of a minute later would show Sammy grabbing markers from Luke saying "mah-kuhs" and me taking them away and Sammy throwing a fit. Niiiiiiceeeee).

Good/Bad Parenting/Living: Exhibit B: Truffles. I hosted a gluten-free bake exchange and made a lot of truffles for it. We've made two more batches since. We're not proud of our chocolate addiction, but at least we've admitted to it. That's the first step, right?

Good/Bad Parenting: Exhibit C: Letting Luke lick the bowl. There's no bad in that, is there?!?

Good/Bad Parenting: Exhibit D: Good in that my son is eating highly nutritious (well, kind of) spaghetti. Maybe bad in that he's doing so while watching Baby Einstein so I can make more truffles. The truffles in question were for the required baking for the bake exchange so it wasn't just to feed my glutinous habit, it was to do so for others too. So that's good, right?!?

Good parenting: Exhibit...something. Sammy, dressed in many a knitted vestment, looking his oh-so-keen, cute self, if I do say so myself. I take no credit for the knitting, only in the appreciation of it.

Good parenting: exhibit more: Luke playing outside with good friend, B. The other day Luke and I were playing in the basement (oh yes, once in a while I DO play! Not enough, but sometimes it really does happen!) and Luke asked me if I could call a mommy to come over and I could talk with the mommy and he could play with the kid. So B's lovely mama came over today with baby E and the boys had a blast in the snow and somehow that all felt like good parenting. Good friends, the great outdoors...what could be better?Questionable parenting, unquestionable cuteness: 3 boys, with sippy cups, snacks, watching a movie which was a series of songs, all about sports, with some choreography and cheerleaders thrown in. Too bad about the cheerleaders, but the rest is really cute. They're 80s cheerleaders so it doesn't really count as bad, right?While my parenting may be questionable, I have to say, there have been times lately when I really can't handle how much I love those two boys of mine. They make me laugh so much, say such darling things every minute and give the best hugs and kisses...when they want to. I love them, even when I think I'm going to lose my mind with the noise, the cries, the falls, the bumps, the hockey sticks, the whining...oh, oops, I guess you get the idea :). Really, love them, I do.

just a tad excited...

...to announce that Jaimee and I have launched our Etsy shop for all our sewing craftiness! So far only my stuff is up so check back in a bit to see all of Jaimee's great creations too. Here's the link:
http://www.lilypadshop.etsy.com/

We're van people now

Here we are with our brand new (to us) van. The car salesman took a picture of us for his own purposes (we're so hot he wants to display us next to his kid on his desk) and emailed it to us, just so you don't think we were so keen as to bring our camera to the dealership. Anyway, we drove around for over an hour and Luke said a bunch of times how much fun it was to be in our new van. And Sammy slept. So, all in all, looks like it'll be a good vehicle! The decision to "go van" just kind of came up, we were thinking of doing this in about a year's time or so, but a good deal arose and here we are. Loving it. Now we just need to find some more people to fill it up...wanna go for a drive anyone?!?

The ever-awaited (at least by Robyn) Halloween picture

Halloween fun. Here's the story...we didn't think Luke really got Halloween until the kids starting coming by for candy. He liked most of the costumes and kept asking if more costumes would come. But then he clued in to the fact that these kids were getting CANDY at EVERY HOUSE and suddenly the Halloween appeal was there in full force. So there we were, at 6:30pm, hunting all over the house for some semblance of a Halloween costume. What we ended up with? Julio's hockey jersey, a hockey stick, a baseball glove and a goalie helmet. Luke had a blast going from house to house and was proud to tell me that he wasn't shy and said "trick or treat" really loudly. Amazing what a little candy motivation will do to overcome shyness! Only one person (the lady across the street) made a funny comment in a sarcastic voice about the inpromptu disguise: "wow, that's an expensive costume". Nice neighbour, hey?

And now for some fall fun. We have a lot of trees and hence, a lot of leaves in our backyard. With the mild weather we've been having, I can't say I've minded raking this year. Over the course of two days, we went from not seeing the ground to having 15 bags of leaves. These are shots from the in-between moments.

Sammy: I love soot!

Luke: I love piling up the leaves, driving random "vehicles" into the pile and whacking the leaves with a golf club!

Sammy: I think I'm annoyed with all these leaves, or maybe with my sooty hands.

Sammy: I'm a plumber's son!

Sammy: I want to do what Luke was doing!

Luke also hid a ball under the pile of leaves and then would kick it out, like it was a big surprise that there was a ball under there. Good times.

And apparently soon the snow will fall...I'm okay with that, we have thoroughly enjoyed this fall season and I think we're ready to embrace the next. Sometimes I think maybe Winnipeg weather isn't so bad afterall! Seasons are a good thing. Ask me again in January and you may be hearing a different story however...