My Pumpkin Patch

I'll only carve the orange ones.

So, the pumpkin Joel picked today is the one that Micah has. Nathan was sad that he didn't get one so while Joel finished off his day at school I took the other two up to SaveOn to pick out their own pumpkins. Well, when Joel got home he saw that his was the smallest and promptly proclaimed that he and Micah were going to trade. He's a bit of a manipulator, don't you think?
And now my blogging is caught up. Yay!

the Pumpkin Patch!

Today was the first field trip for the kindergarten kids! They had a great time at the Richmond Country Farms pumpkin patch. They met up with their "big buddies" from the grade 3/4 class, sang some songs, hopped on the hay wagon and went to the fields to pick out a pumpkin. The rain subsided for the day, the sun peeked through the clouds and it made for a great morning! The worst of the mud was in the corn maze where you really had to be careful or your feet would slip right out from under you!
The best part was driving Joel, Madison and Camryn and hearing them sing along to the Pandamania CD the whole way there and back :)

Thankful - Baby dedications

Ourselves, Amanda and Keith (Nadia), and Terry and Michelle (Bowen) had our babies dedicated on Thanksgiving Sunday.

Colossians 1:9-14
⁹ So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. ¹⁰ Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
¹¹ We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy,^{[c] 12} always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, ¹⁴ who purchased our freedom^[d] and forgave our sins.

We love you Micah!

And More Visitors

Our house is a bit of a revolving door :) Mom and Dad left and 2 days later my sister Frances and Chris and Hannah and Josh arrive. The next night Jen and Aaron joined in the fun along with Katie, Luke and Sam to bring the grand total of bodies in our house to 14 (16 if you count Cooper and Madison's fish...). I was very impressed by how not crazy the house actually felt!
Jen and her family left us on Saturday morning to head to Victoria and the rest of us started planning and cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Dare I say that Frances and I put together quite a fine meal...Chris said it, the stuffing was awesome!! Why bother putting it in a turkey, making the turkey take way longer to roast and always having the question of whether it's cooked enough when you can make it the Best of Bridge way? Yummy!!
Anyway, to get rid of a few of the calories we were going to consume, we headed to Green Timbers for a walk. None of us had ever been there so it was indeed an adventure finding our way around. Luckily it's not too big of a park so it's not that easy to get lost (unless you're a 9 year old girl that got separated from her dad - another story...).
Thanks for the visit guys! We loved having you here :)

Visitors!

Schatzi and Papa came to visit for a week just in time for Micah's birthday! The boys love having them around and Nathan always cries for them when both Mommy and Daddy are unhappy with him! I enjoyed having a break from doing all the cooking and getting Joel to and from school. Thanks Mom and Dad for all your help! We introduced them to Tynehead Park and enjoyed getting a good walk in there. I'm always happy to discover some good walking trails close to home!
Brad says I should mention that I was in a terrible mood that week...Sorry Mom and Dad. I blame it on all the changes taking place around here - it's been a bit stressful. Joel had just started school, Brad had just been away, starting work was creeping up on me...Sorry....

Camping 101

Golden Ears Park in 3 words: Green. Damp. Mossy.
Call us crazy but we headed out at the end of September for one final camping trip, the first with our tent trailer. We were lucky with the weather - Saturday was gorgeous (nice enough for the kids and men to get in the lake) but it did start raining overnight, spoiling our plan for a Sunday pancake breakfast.

The kids loved it! Camping seems to be their thing - until it's time to get to bed that is :/
We had a few issues with sleeping again the first night but by they second night, they were konked out just after 7pm and I think we, the adults were about ready too. Sitting around the fire that night we kept checking the time and it wasn't even 9:00 yet...

The kids rode bikes, balanced on logs, went swimming, played in the boat, climbed dangerously steep enbankments.
They had fun. Looking forward to doing it again next summer!

However, before we head out again we need to figure a few things out. This was our first time taking our tent trailer out. We weren't able to cook on our stove. We didn't have a working fridge. But we stayed dry, we were warm enough and we had a mostly good time! The fact that we'd do it all again says something, right?
Thanks Hummelman's for coming with us, for putting up with us and for letting us use your stoves! Pretty sure we would have turned around had you not been there. Hope we can do it again!

How long is long enough?

I've been off work for over 13 months. It feels like forever and it feels like I just left. I don't feel like I belong back there. But tomorrow I go back there. I remember feeling anxious and excited when I went back after Joel, I don't remember how I felt when I went back after Nate (I don't remember much from that time...). This time feels different. Maybe because it's potentially my last time going back. Maybe it's because I am going back just weekends - no more soccer games, no more church, no more family time. I don't know what it is. I feel saddened and stressed by the changes that are taking place. Yet I know there is nothing I can do about it right now. I know that God has it under control. I just don't want to do it. Maybe 13 months is too long.

On a side note - you've probably noticed that I haven't been blogging very often and I rarely venture out in the evenings or spend time on the phone...my reason is, I am doing a course right now and it is taking up a very good percentage of my free time. Trust me...I'm way behind on all my shows too.

Nov 18. It will be done. And one load of stress will be off me.

Little Bugs Birthday Party

Ladybugs was the theme for Micah and Nadia's birthday party! Amanda - my creative and adventurous friend made the fondant for these bugs out of marshmallows! We had a vision and she went with it. I have to admit the bugs were fun to make and they did turn out pretty cute :) She also made and decorated the cupcakes which were pretty and delicious!!

The birthday kids in theirs bug outfits! They didn't seem to mind!

Enjoying their cupcakes! Nadia really got into it and started looking a little like Fiona from Shrek! They were so cute to watch - a little hesitant at first but as you can see they did get into it!!
Thank you Amanda for all your hard work.
And thank you all for celebrating our babies with us :)

Playing games with Dad

Joel is really into playing "adult games". Nathan joined in this time for a round of Zooloretto.
I think he takes it pretty seriously!