Thanksgiving day practice

First gather up and cook your harvest foods. If you are very, very fortunate, some may come from a farm like this squash from my aunt Mary's and uncle Bill's. Otherwise, I'm guessing a ton of people are hitting the stores for their bounty.

Speaking of friends- family or friends are what really make thanksgiving, so gather some around. Here are the kids with Fiorella, who is a favorite staple in their lives. She lives across the street and they spy on each other to see when each other appears available to play. The boy is Ashton, he and his brother Franky are also some new favorites. They are a little older and live down a house and across the street. After eating with friends or family, it may be good to go for a walk down the street to wear off some of the calories taken in.

I'll take you for a walk down ours. I have loved to watch this tree through my kitchen window as it took on it's fall colors. I am anticipating amazing frost on it in the coming months. This tree is at Fiorella's house.

Cross 3rd street and keep walking toward Broadway (the main street) and you will pass this amazing tree. It's colors took my breath away this fall.



Need a closer look?









We've only gone two blocks now, but already the turkey is hitting our systems and the call to sleep arises, causing many a turkey consuming contestant to travel off to another land, otherwise known as Lala. Ivan's teacher told him once he was in Lala land and he asked her what that meant. Now he can look at this picture for reference. In this instance, Lala land travel was enabled thanks to gifts from their cousin Arwen including a rabbit hat and pooh bear, and the seemingly inconspicuous activity of reading books.

Hope your turkey day is filled with friends/and or family, laughter, joy and maybe a little snooze to top it off. If you are American, this is just to get your mouth watering. Go grab a turkey sandwich and your turn will be here before you know it.

another beachy day

The weather has been really wonderful. It's a bit nippy in the morning and evening, but it gets really warm during the day. I hate to change clothes midday, so I've just been wearing jeans, but several times while out walking and getting errands done, I've thought shorts may have been a better choice.

I'm thankful it is not cold yet, even though the kids are so anxious for winter to get here. They like to wear their new boots in the evenings, in the house and keep asking me when the snow is coming.

Each week, Ivan brings home a stack of papers he's worked on at school. Some of it is not always done, but there is no note indicating that it's homework for him to bring back. Ivan said it's papers that the teacher is letting him take so that he can teach Dominique. Last night was her first class with Ivan as her teacher. He's pretty strict and I'm not sure I would want him as a teacher, but they both survived the experience and she may even have learned how to write better. The irony is that while he is the perfectionist, she is more advanced in ways. She loves to sound out words and try to write them and get's them surprisingly close, but he doesn't even want to try. It's also funny because I'll tell her or him how to write something correctly and they don't want to follow my direction, but if it's from the teacher (even if the teacher is Ivan) she will listen better!

We are heading to Regina Monday for Canadian thanksgiving, to eat with our friends Kate and Larry, so that will be nice. Happy thanksgiving to all you canucks out there.

AND Happy Birthday to Nana!!

Fire safety

Tonight we got to go to Ivan's school for an event. The families of preK, K and grade 1 were invited to a presentation on fire safety. It was so fun. There was a movie, a fireman went over safety tips, a couple of firemen showed us how they got dressed in all their gear and they had the kids listen to how they breathe so that if they ever heard the sound in a fire they would know it was a fireman on his way to get them. They told the kids if they couldn't get out of a room, to stay low and on a wall where the fireman would find them. Lots of things I didn't even know. Then they did a simulation, had the kids lay on a cot, when the fire alarm went off, they had the kids crawl on the floor to a door and through a tunnel. I forced Ivan to overcome his shyness and then all three of my kids went through it, the older kids a couple of times. They also got to go inside a firetruck and have snacks. The above picture is Ivan's desk.


This is the door to his class- room 17.


Here he is with his teacher.



On the homefront, we are still deep in renovations. All these walls are torn out. Brian moved the wall frames out and we've been insulating pipes, caulking, he's rewired some stuff and is trying to figure out exactly what other things we need and how to install them, like a sump pump and air to air exchanger, maybe also a dehumidifier? Everything is different from what Brian experienced in Texas with remodeling because of the winters here and humidity issues in the house, but it's slowly coming along. My cousin in taking the girls tomorrow for a couple of hours so that we can go at it together and try to get a bit more accomplished that way.

Meanwhile I think I have the best job in the world. I walked with the girls to the driver's licence issuers to renew mine and it was just glorious out. In fact, I got hot in my jeans and t-shirt. The girls and I did laundry and danced the afternoon away, to the point that we almost missed picking up Kellen from school. We had to run (me), bike (Dominique) all the way to school where my cousin's son was playing happily in his class. It probably wouldn't hurt if I had an alarm go off each day. I'd been having so much fun, I had no idea it was after 3pm. Brian asked me if I was picking up Ivan and clued me in that half the day was gone!

The coolest

We can now make the coolest breakfasts ever- thanks to this gift we received. They are molds we place on the grill for the pancakes to cook in. So now I ask if they want to eat Yoda, a storm trooper, Darth Vader, a flower, heart, their name (which tends to fall apart once you remove it from the grill. However, even with our ingenious pancake tools, we are no where near as cool as this guy.

Meet my cousin, Ian, with son Kellen. I pick up Kellen a couple of times a week from school. He gets out just before Ivan does. He walks with us home and plays about 15 minutes before his dad arrives. One day, Ian came to pick up Kellen in his big truck with a 4 wheeler in the bed. I told him he must be the coolest dad in town to pick up his 4 year old in that. The next pick up day, he came in this! I am not joking. We all ran out to watch and take pictures as Kellen got to sit in the cab and ride off with his daddy. SO COOL!

She left her voice

Nana gave the kids a book with her voice recorded reading the story.

She wanted me to give it to the kids after she had left.

So I gave it to them this weekend. Watching them hear it was one of the funniest things ever! They immediately recognized her voice and started yelling at the book "hi Nana! We love you too Nana!" It was so hilarious.




























It's been a bit rough since she has left though. Ivan was being a total tyrant once again to his sister, so he has been banned from playing with friends all weekend.




Then Dominique started running a fever, so I stayed home with her while Brian drove the other kids into the city for an impossible shopping trip (sorry hon) and hanging out with Andrea- another of my cousins, Mike, Arwen, Moira and Victoria while participating in Saskatchewan cultish, I mean cultural activities- ie. watching the Saskatchewan roughriders football game. Today is a school holiday. So Ivan is home, we have been painting, are going to make a volcanoe (read it in a chapter book with the directions) and read another chapter book, play... After today, we will have 10 reading sessions documented for his school's reading club, so he's excited about that. He also has some homework to do. Learn his phone number and to tie his shoes (I have been lazy and only bought him velcro, but the teacher put in a note that kids need to learn this skill in grade 1).

fabulous fall

I haven't experienced Canadian seasons in over a decade. I forgot how amazing it is to see the entire world transform and prepare for winter. The colors are just so totally amazing. I figured you would enjoy them too.

Meanwhile, I've come to realize that Emora is not a baby anymore. She understands so much of what we say, tries to sit on the potty and is so very determined, having her own ideas, likes and dislikes. She noticed Ivan putting the piece of grass in his mouth for the pictures, so guess what she had to do? I just love finding out who my kids are and who they are becoming.
It's not all a bed of roses though, Ivan has been a terror to his sisters all summer. He put a hold on it while Nana was here, but yesterday went back at it with a vengence to the point that he is now banned from playing with his friends all weekend in the hopes that he can learn to be nicer to his sisters. I told Brian the bad thing is that he is so mean to Dominique, but the good thing is that he is normal. I've never heard of a big brother who didn't terrorize his little sisters. For that matter, I did my own little tyranical stunts as an older sister growing up too. We are not expecting the impossible from him, but maybe just to curve his meanness some so it's not ALL the time!




Nana flew off to her sister's so we are back to just the 5 of us. We are hoping to make some new friends here and for peace on Brian as he learns so many new things and has to adjust to a whole new way of life.

tons of pics to show you

I've been snapping away pictures like a mad woman. I have such a huge file of them to share with you that I figured I'd better get some up! Plus I have a bunch more to upload. The last few days, the colors have been just amazing, but it is starting to slow down. The leaves are falling and the hills are going from golden to brown speckled with the naked tree limbs. The days have been warm though, so that has been truly nice. We are still enjoying walking to drop off and pick up Ivan from school and high jacked him today for a lunch picnic. It wasn't as much a huge treat for him and for that I'm pretty thankful because it means he really loves school. I know that wouldn't have been the case the first week and am glad I waited until now to get him for lunch.

Nana leaves tomorrow, so that will be a sad day. She has been so much fun and a huge help too. So glad she got to come for the time she did. Next time we should have a room for her and she won't have to share again with all 3 kids! Not that she was complaining. I think even if she had her own room, the kids would end up in her room anyways!

We had a feast for her send off tonight- carrot salad with garden fresh carrots, home made perogies, elk sausage and peas. The perogies were incredible- thanks to Ian and Janet! and to uncle Bill and aunt Mary via Sheena for the rest!