Gearing Up For Halloween

Tomorrow will be the rainiest Halloween I've seen in a long time (they're calling for up to 50mm of rain), which is probably going to make it a quiet night for us. 

 

I don't mind too much since Lynden's a little sick, I've kinked my neck and shoulders, we just found Lynden's Halloween candy stash from last year, and Alyssa will want to to go trick or treating too, which could be hard with stairs and no Danny (he works late on Wednesday).  I think we'll just do the trick or treating at the mall and maybe drive around in the rain when Danny gets home to look at the displays. 

 

Lynden is going to be a fireman, which he wanted to be from his birthday until a few weeks ago when he decided he wanted to be Spiderman.  Of course he decides this as soon as every Spiderman costume is sold out... everywhere.  Finally broke it to him on Sunday he has to be a fireman. 

 

Halloween is one of my favourite kid holidays (after Christmas), not because of the candy but because I love seeing him dress up.  He's always been cute in his Halloween costumes.

 

Giraffe Lynden
2009

 

 

 

Lil "Debil" Lynden
2010

 

"I'm Thomas"
2011

Alyssa was pretty darn cute last year too



She was a lil "debil"

This year she will be a witch and if we go out tomorrow night we might put her in Lynden's giraffe costume.  It fits as long as we don't put the hood up. 

What are your kids going for Halloween?

In Case You Missed The Memo: I Love My Kids

Time for another list of things I love about my kids

 

Lynden

• The kid is all about cars. 
  We got him a new wall track for his birthday (if you have a boy you Need a wall track) and he races his cars and gets SO excited when he has a winner.
• He loves his sister. 
  To pieces. 
  He always tells her (and us) he loves her.  It's super cute when he wants to play with her.
• Speaking of playing with her, he has picnics with her.
  He gets her blanket from her crib, lays it down, and gets her teapot and play food and calls her to have a picnic with her.
• The funny stuff he says. 
  Most recently: he's been a little sick and one morning I asked how he was feeling.  He told me "I'm all better, but not Winnie the Pooh because someone smacked him in the face". 
• He cleans up when you ask him. 
  We've switched him to "play quiet time" (it's an hour or two of playing quietly in his room instead of napping) but he has to clean his room when he's done (it's functional that his room gets clean and I get another thirty minutes of peace and quiet).  He's gotten Really good at cleaning his room.
• He mops! 
  I had a video I was going to post but my hubby seems to have deleted it from his phone.
• He's conquering fears. 
  We went to Playland awhile ago and he was good about trying new rides; (including a kids rollercoaster that was "a little scary")he didn't get upset when he didn't like them and Really enjoyed himself on the fun rides. 
• How he encourages Alyssa to sit on her potty. 
  I think he's going to be key in getting her interested in potty training.
• He loves preschool. 
  It's so nice to know he has a lot of fun and isn't afraid to be away from us. 
• He tells me I'm pretty
  or that my clothes are.
  Either way it's nice to hear he think I'm pretty. 
• His silly faces
  He loves making sully faces

Alyssa

• She says mama!!!!! 
• How excited she is when I get home from work
• She loves her brother. 
  To pieces. 
  He went for a sleepover at grandma and grandpa's (that resulted in him being home by 10:30 that night) and Alyssa was so upset about him leaving.  It was sad and cute.
• How sad she gets when people leave. 
  Ok... it might not be that they're leaving but that she's not going with them.
• She loves her shoes! 
  Any and all. 
  Her rain boots were too small for her so instead of buying her new rain boots I pulled out some snow boots - she was Thrilled.  I could not get them on her feet fast enough.
• She wants to do everything her brother does. 
  When he helps me bake she pushes a chair over and climbs up just to watch. 
• How she lies down. 
  When you tell her it's time for a bum change she gets herself ready (grabs a diaper, the wipes, and lies down to wait for you).  To lie down he gets down on her hands and knees and then rolls and squirms to face you.  It's harder than just lying down but it's darn tootin' cute.
• She kicks the stool in the bathroom before she leaves. 
  When I'm at the sink the kids stand on the stool to see but when they're done I have to move the stool to close the door, so I move it with my foot.  She now thinks it's how we leave the bathroom.
• When she poops she tells us by saying "pee pee" and grabbing the front of her diaper. 
• Her smile! 
  There is nothing more heart warming than her smile. 
• She is too damn tootin' cute in hats (her's, Lynden's, Daddy's, whoever)

Wordless Wednesday: Mater

Guess who was at the pumpkin patch we went to this past weekend?

 

 

 

Leaves

I love being able to see different poses and settings people use for their photos on Pinterest.  It makes me want to do more family/kid pictures.  The ones I have always loves are photos with leaves.  Both my sister-in-laws have great fall pictures and I'm totally jealous. 

Especially since Danny and I chose October to get married so we could have nice fall colours in our pictures.  Of course, it was warmer than normal and we have little to no fall leaves as a backdrop to our wedding pictures.

Last week I was so inspired I made Danny drive us to a park almost an hour away from us to scout it out for a potential for fall photos.  I wasn't in love with it, although I saw many private yards on the way that would have been perfect, but I did manage to get a few good pictures to bide my time until I find a good location (and manage to find the right outfit scheme).

don't they look thrilled?

Pinteresting Recipes Part 4

Another round of reviews (read the previous ones here)

Hawaiian Grilled Chicken

Ok, a few things went wrong.  First: before using coconut milk, shake it.  I didn't know this so it wasn't too coconutty.  Second: I only marinated for 4 hours instead of 8.  Third: we bought a bulk meat deal from a local butcher.  I didn't realize that 1lb. of chicken would be one breast instead of 2-3.  This caused me to completely scramble at the last minute for another dinner for the kids.  However, I was happy with how it cooked and if I had let it marinade longer the flavour would have been better.  This I will make again. 

**I have made a second time and it was awesome!  I let it marinade over night and cooked on the indoor grill.  This was a hit!

Cowboy Casserole

I had this as left overs, which I was told wasn't as good as the night before, but I liked it.  It's basically Sheppard's Pie topped with tater tots instead of mashed potatoes.  A good kid friendly meal.






Corn Chowder

This was pretty good and the kids loved it.  I did forget the red peppers and celery (I don't know how) and it was missing "something" so add at least the celery, although the red pepper adds colour.  Danny later said it needs some bacon, but he says that about most soups.  It does make a lot so plan for a left over night or freeze it - I googled it and you can freeze it with the milk in it.  The potatoes might get a little soggy in the defrosting but in soup do you notice?



Chocolate Cupcakes

This is the recipe I used for Lynden's birthday cupcakes.  The recipe said it makes 16 but I didn't alternate between the flour and milk and ended up with 42 cupcakes between 2 batches.  I found them to be a little dry; but I don't know if that's because of how I added the milk (slowly added) or my oven, which is quite off.  They were flavourful cupcakes though. 

When Is It Enough?

One of the many perks of Facebook is you are exposed to different stories that you might normally miss.  As a parent this is handy for recalls, alerts, and local news stories I would normally miss because I don't have the time (or interest) to watch the news.  And let's face it, I check Facebook more often than I do my home news page.

One story that caught my eye was a news anchor's response to an email she received from a viewer. 

I know some people don't agree with what she said but I think she handled it beautifully.  It's good to see someone in the public eye bring it up and handle herself with such pose.

Not even a week after this story was posted I saw people talking about Amanda Todd, saying Rest in Peace and calling for action. 

We all see status updates on people dying every now and again, but in this case friends of mine who didn't know each other were posting about it so I googled it. 

I wasn't prepared for what I found.

Her story is heart breaking in so many different ways.  Not only was she bullied so horribly, but her tormentors followed her from school to school.  And if that wasn't enough, read through the comments on her video you will find horrible comments about her.  Even after it was confirmed she killed herself people commented on how she deserved to be bullied, good riddance, the world is a better place because she's gone, and other horrible things.

Sick does not even begin to describe how I feel. 

I didn't know her.  I didn't see this video before her situation made Facebook news.  I don't know anyone affected, personally, by her story.

But I know what it's like to be bullied.  I know what it's like to be afraid every time you leave your house.  I know what it's like to want to run, hide, and give up.

Fall Scavanger Hunt

Monday, between rainfalls, we went on a Scavanger Hunt. 

Green Leaf

Pinecone

Blades of grass

stylin' Alyssa enjoying the walk

orange leaf

flowers

red leaf

bark

yellow leaf

twig

He kept smiling funny when I took his picture

blurry but funny

We managed to find all but an acorn and the winged seed.  Lynden really enjoyed walking around looking for things.  Something a little different for a walk (and we found a neat little path that would never have found if we weren't looking for twigs).

When we got home we took all our collected leaves and used them to colour with (paper over top and shading).

You can get the sheet we used here

Wordless Wednesday: Man Bouquet

Have a man in your life and need a different gift idea, try a Man Bouquet (as found on Pinterest)

Month Long Meal Planning

I mentioned in my last resolution update I had made a month long meal plan in hopes to buying less, using leftovers better, and saving time with my incredibly busy month.  I thought I would share with you my plan and how it came to be.

The first thing I did was spend some wonderful time on Pinterest, looking at all the recipes I've pinned (there's LOTS) and once I found a recipe I thought I'd want to try I wrote down every ingredient that was needed for the recipe. 

I need to write things down to fully wrap my brain around something

Then I went through my cookbooks and added to the list meals I wanted to keep in mind.

I finished with 32 possible meals (not all made the final cut but can be used for future meal planning).

Then, I grabbed my handy Mom Calendar.  With Lynden's swimming, skating, and preschool it's already won it's way into my heart (I'm a sucker for calendars anyways).  I looked at what days were going to be slow cooker meals, which days needed an easy meal (mainly the days I work), which days we were going to be out, and which days I would be home (thus free to cook at the last minute).

 

Here's how my month turned out.

{None of this is written in stone, as things change all the time}

A Heat Breaking Story For Mothers

Once upon a time there was a beautiful woman

 

 

who gave birth to a stunning baby boy. 

 

 

Her heart swelled with joy every time she looked at her.

She was blessed when his first smile was caused by her walking into the room. 

Soon that beautiful boy grew into a toddler and started mumbling words.  Among his favourites were "daddy" and "kitty".

But the son had a funny sense of humour and refused to say "mommy".  He would say "mmmmmdaddy" or "no" when he was asked to say mommy. 

 

She had no doubt that her son loved her, but she still wanted to hear him say "mama"

 

Soon the beautiful woman was pregnant again

 

 

and joked about the new baby, a girl, saying "mommy" first.

 

 

As her daughter grew, she started to say a few words.  Her first word was "mama" and the beautiful mother was thrilled. 

 

But as the daughter grew she took on her brother's twisted sense of humour by refusing to say "mommy".  When asked she's sweetly say "daddy" and look for him. 

The peak of her "joke" was pointing out daddy, brother, grandma, and great grandma, but when asked where mommy was she looked around and (with some prompting by her daddy) shrugged her shoulders.  All while sitting on her mother's lap. 

 

The beautiful woman knows that she should enjoy this time of few words, for soon it will be non-stop "mommy".  But, in the mean time she just wants her sweet baby girl to say "mama".

 

 

 

** Update: since writing this post she's said "mama".  She says it once, laughs, and follows it up with 3 or 4 "daddy" {just so I don't get spoiled}

 

Wordless Wednesday: Mama & Son

There are only a few pictures of me with my kids (mainly because I'm the one taking the photos).  This is one of my recent favourites.

Resolution Update: Septemeber

Because September was so busy it felt like we didn't do a lot of wasting.  Granted, I think we ate out a bit more than we normally would. 

Food We Tossed:

3 pears: $1.04
1 peach: $0.26
Plums: $0.75
4 lbs potatoes: $1.20
1 Fridge Clean out: $5.37
6 strawberries: $0.54
1 Steak: $4.99
1 yogurt cup $0.33

Monthly Amount:

$14.48

It's lower than normal, but I am still not happy.  It was a lot of big items:
4lbs potatoes - I need tips on keeping them longer, they're in a cool and dark place but they seem to get soft quicker than "normal"
A lot of leftovers in the fridge clean out - I think I need to implement a weekly left over night
1 steak - this has nothing to do with me.  I don't eat beef so I didn't take the steak out to leave it marinating for a week... yep, that's what happened. 

Year to Date:

Be Careful What You Wish For

I was really looking forward to fall starting; the beginning of activities and social life. 

I should be careful what I wish for.

September started off fairly busy; preschool, skating lessons, swimming lessons, a variety of parties (5 birthday events, including Lynden's, and a baby shower), an outing to Playland, and a trip to the hatchery (thanks grandma and grandpa).  Oh yea, and work.

LOVED seeing him smile so much

funny faces on the merry-go-round

Riding the Elephants; they're his favourite animal

Lynden and Mommy