visit + halloween-ready

We are less than a week away from Halloween! We have decorations up (and out) and Halloween books are evening go-to reads AND costumes are almost finished. Alana wanted to be Franklin (again), and somehow the suit doesn't need any alterations size-wise; some felt and fabric needs replacing here and there but we can attend to it any time now that Hendrik's costume is finished. It is AMAZING. Amazing. He is going to be a Dinobuster - as in Ghostbuster but Dinosaur Buster - which is a takeaway from Dino Dan (Trek's Adventures); this is what the dinobusters look like on the show:

And here's Hendrik - with his blue coveralls and backpack extraordinaire (complete with flashing lights, flashlights, dino zapper, dial and more):

Basically how it goes (on the show) is this: there's a great big haunted house that's riddled/haunted with pesky dinosaurs, and depending on whether the dino they spy is a carnivore, herbivore or omnivore, the dial on the front of the pack is adjusted and the appropriate dino-busting spray shoots out of the dino zapper. Hendrik's costume is complete with dial, zapper, tubes - wait, I already said all of this. It's pretty epic, and I'm looking forward to getting some more photos up (plus an explanation of construction materials). Moving on...

We had visitors last week (my parents!) and it was so so so great having them here - to have them see our house, visit with the kids, and get a snapshot of our life and daily routine; spending time together was something I wish we could do more often. This is the only picture I took - of Grandpa O reading a new Halloween book to the kids. I love it!

Life has been so busy with school (it's going well - lots of assignments), coaching (we had our first win on Saturday against Windsor; we're 1-0!), and family life (the kids are sick right now, but have been so good and are SO excited about Halloween), that it's difficult to fit all of the extras in (blogging, working out, reading). On Friday we put Alana in a program at the YMCA that we call Gym & Swim; there's an hour of gym followed by an hour of swim, and then we pick her up. Both Steve and I worked out (first time in months!) and then watched her splash around and play in the kiddie pool... it was great. We'll try and make it a weekly, Friday thing - I don't have class and it felt so good to sweat and get my heart rate up. I also get to exercise tomorrow night... women's league has started! We play Monday nights and it's something I look forward to every week.

A few random thoughts to share before I go; we had one of our go-to dinners tonight and it was so good I have to share. Maple-glazed salmon (sauce: reduce 1/3 cup of orange juice, 1/3 cup maple syrup, 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar - pour over cooked salmon once on your dinner plate!) with... well it doesn't really matter what it's with, that's the part of our staple meal that we most love (rice, carrots and caesar salad - that's what else). My mom and dad gave us a Foley Food Mill and it is my new favourite kitchen appliance (behind the ultimate fave, the toaster); we stewed apples the other day and made applesauce - no coring or peeling required! Just stew up them apples and mill out the sauce. It was so good I didn't even have to add sugar - and it's Alana's dessert of choice. Once I get this girl to sleep (she napped in the car this afternoon - she has a pile of books on the couch and it's 9pm), I'm going to check out the glow-in-the-dark Halloween fabric for future trick-or-treat bags. I know there's more to write about but I'd better tap out - Alana is adding more books to her pile and the clock is ticking!