October 31st - Halloween and Alexia's 4th Birthday Party

What was I thinking when I agreed to have a Halloween Party for Alexia's birthday ON Halloween Day???  Both events are highly draining... could you imagine both on the same day?  I think I am still recuperating and the reason why I haven't blogged in so long  :)  Alexia said she wanted a Halloween birthday Party and frankly, it was fun!  Lots of scary foods and decorations and well, loot bags, that was super easy and a no brainer!

We carved 24 pumpkins for the event.  Who am I kidding?  We do this every year!  I LOVE pumpkins!

Alexia wanted to be a tooth fairy so out came my sewing box to add a 'tooth' to the fairy dress we already had and a 'tooth' to the star wand.  Voila!  Super easy!

My friend C was reading the Martha Stewart Halloween magazine and decided that our girls would dress up as Jellyfish.  They turned out really, really well.  Anyone want a jellyfish umbrella?  I have two floating around in my garage!

The Jellyfish Girls.  They were the talk of Montreal-West!

My frien L was dressed as an Egyptian while I was a Bat.

Other adults also joined in on the fun by coming in costume as well.  Thanks guys!

We had a Magic Show as entertainment which the kids loved.  Alexia was his assistant and a good one too!

See how intrigued they were.

How did he do that?

For dessert, we had lots of scary stuff PLUS a candy bar.

Alexia with her Ghost cake made by Auntie L.  It was a red velvet cake. Bloody!

Some of her friends waiting for their piece of cake.

And of course, after the party ended, we all hit the streets for a couple of hours of trick-or-treating.  Too bad it didn't rain as the girls were equipped!

After a most tiring but fabulous day, I just wanted to let my little girl know how much I love her.

Alexia, I love you with all my heart and Happy Birthday!

October Review

I know, I know.  I haven't posted in forever!  And I have only our new computer to blame.  I just can't get things to work like they used to.  That will be one of my New Year's resolutions.  Getting my electronic life in order...

But for now, here is what we were up to in October.

We made our usual trip west on the 401 to Guelph, Ontario for Thanksgiving with Gord's family.  Besides eating turkey, which is definitely a highlight of the weekend, we spent lots of times with the girls's younger cousins, C and N.  The weather was beautiful so most of it was spent outdoors.  This year's activities included Strom's Farm and Yee Haw Adventure Farm (extremely hokey but so, so much fun!).  Thanks Uncle D for finding these places!

The Quartet!

Girls Only Club

Rubber Duckie Races.  Who will win?

The annual pumpkin patch pic.

Panning for gold

Sitting around waiting for I don't know what.

Ooo.  Another pumpkin patch!

The kids coming out of the Corn Maze.  Do you know how difficult it is to keep track of 4 kids in a corn maze?

Holy Wall of Fame.

Back at the Holiday Inn for lots of swimming.

Also every October, the cottage needs maintenance.  More specifically, raking up a gazillion leaves.  In the 10 some years we've had this cottage, I've always managed to NOT do any of it.  My poor friend L somehow always manages to do it all with Gord.  But this year, I went out with the girls and guess what?  It was actually fun!

Only in Canada do kids use now shovels to pick up the leaves!

And do we use a child to compact them into a recycling bin!

And do we wheel the bins down the road and dump them into the woods.  What?  It's called composting!  The wind better not blow our way!

Happy 4th Birthday Alexia!

The day has finally arrived that Alexia is a BIG girl!  This is the day that she has been waiting for for I don't know how long.  She popped out of bed this AM announcing that she grew so much during the night since she turned 4.  She proceeded to have us all look at the size of her hands and feet and how much bigger they were today.  How cute!

My dearest Alexia,

You never cease to amaze me with all the smart things you do and say.  You were such a little baby when we first met you in China.  It is so hard to believe that you are already 4 years old.  Where has the time gone?  Alexia, you will always be our little baby girl no matter how old you are.  We love you!

Lost?

No, I am not lost!  I have been back from wonderful Hawaii for 3 weeks now but for some reason, I cannot seem to get a moment's peace.  I was hoping to post some wonderful pictures of our fantabulous trip but my PC is now at the Apple store being transferred to the new iMac we bought last week.  So the pics will have to wait till next week... that's if I will be able to figure out the Mac OS.  Hope springs eternal!  Anyway, if things keep up as they have been in the last 3 weeks, I won't have time to even play with it at all.  Between work, school and activities, there is hardly any time for sleep.  Here's how my Tuesday went for example:  Get up, shuffle kids to school, work late, inhale supper, take Cara-Li to piano lessons, help Cara-Li with homework, shuffle kids to bed, deal with the computer situation and it is now 11PM.  What the f***?  And through all that, I didn't even go to the bathroom once... no time!  Anyway, with November around the corner, things should slow down... one hopes!