dinos + DIY

Only two more sleeps til Halloween! Eeeeeee! Steve brought a dinosaur costume home last week, and it's been on the little man more than it's been off of of him - Hendrik would probably sleep in the thing if he could. And Alana is pleased as punch to put on her Franklin costume and run around growling like a little reptilian creature. And, I'm pretty sure they'd still be on cloud nine even if the candy phase of this sweet little holiday never came to pass. One thing I find amusing: people ask Hendrik what kind of dinosaur he is, and he can't quite say - which is interesting (and highly unlike Dino Dan) seeing as how he can probably name 50+ different dinosaurs. No matter - he's a herbivore and can roar like the King.  

I should be making this a family update post, because check! out! this amazing cabinet! Steve made it. From scratch. It is the home of our coffee maker and breakfast goods, and wouldn't it just look complete with a little plate of goodies sitting there? On a nice little glass plate? Yes. Yes it would. It looks pretty darn complete the way it is - I'm just ready to eat goodies (or Halloween candy).

#11

Some big news is out about my guy, and I was hoping to get a more detailed, in-depth post about Team Canada and Steve's 17 years in the middle - and hopefully I will (I will.), but for now - I just wanted to share this story. He set a record for number of years played for the National Team, and attended every major international competition save for the Olympics; he played overseas for 14 years, in nine countries, for 13 different clubs. I'm proud of him and of his accomplishments, and happy to have been a part of it all - at home and abroad. Lucky me, I get to stand with and next to this man for the rest of my life.

bedtime reads - my loves!

short and sweet

Since an entire week has zoomed by without nary a blog to be read, I'll make this a list-post; but first, how adorable is the above picture? I was shocked - and I mean shocked - that Hendrik didn't respond to his sleepy sister's snuggles with a shove and an upside down spaz-move; I had to slowly back away  to get the camera so as not to startle him out of the loveliness that was happening. Okay, list:

1. Volleyball last weekend was oh so fun, despite the 6:30am wake-up after a few night-calls from the goblins living down the hall. We won the tourney and $30, and went out for dinner and beer before driving back to London - it was an all-day affair, that's for sure. I was quite surprised to wake up with mobility; I wasn't sore! But then ... oh, but then ... after women's league on Monday night ooooh boy, I did not feel good. So I'm not too upset about missing next week's competition; I'm working the election - another all-day affair that might leave me feeling just as worn-out. We'll see!

2. Our new favourite book is, Fletcher and the Falling Leaves - I'm in love! And so are the kids. This adorable fox takes on a few other seasons, and I'm thinking they'll be perfect birthday/Christmas gifts. Hurray for new, much-loved books!

3. At one point in the above-mentioned book, Fletcher cozies up under his favourite tree and falls asleep, and that's just what I wanted to do on Wednesday afternoon between classes. This was the view from my 10-minute, in-between-class chillout, under a full, fall tree:

4. I thought the first part of the semester was crazy, but it was just a warm-up; November is going to be crazy! CRAY-zay. I need to write a paper this weekend, and I think there are seven assignments due in the next six weeks. YIKES. One thing at a time, right?

5. Lastly, this:

twas a happy friday :)

What a day! If you know me, you know I love a book sale - and our kids love 'em too. I was too busy burrowing through piles in the children's section to snap any pictures, so there isn't any evidence of blond heads heads buried in dinosaur (Hendrik) or doggy pages (Alana) (they were on-the-floor, mid-aisle, and ensconced; = love!). We came home with 15 volumes and parted with $15 - I could have stayed for hours! But Miss A fell asleep in my arms and Hendrik and Steve were getting antsy (AND - okay, I don't have time to read any adult books that I could have / would have bought, right?), so we called it quits.

a few of our favourite finds

Does it get better? It gets better.

From there we finally (!) found London's Greek bakery, staffed by a friendly lady from Kefalonia - who was happy to hear that the best feta I've ever eaten came from a big, wooden, Kefalonian barrel (true story). I bought cookies and baklava, tzatziki and cheese, AND a big roll-up of phyllo so we can make bougatsa and portokalopita. YUM! After carrying a dozy girl around Costco (we parted with more than $15 there), we had a delicious dinner - with Greek themes throughout, which was perfect perfection. Thank goodness I'm getting up at 6:30 tomorrow to play volleyball all all all day long - I need a solid burn-off of the syrupy goodness that was the several pounds (or felt like several pounds) of delicious dessert. For now, I'll absorb my cargo-loading (ha! pretty decent autocorrect there: or, rather, carb-loading) efforts on the couch, and then get to the Roald Dahl book - which I haven't read for years and years. Happy Friday!

thanksgiving: picture-heavy post

Happy Thanksgiving! What a day we've had here in Bowmanville - it's like heaven, for kids and adults alike. Since we arrived we've been spoiled rotten with delicious food (waffles, baked goods galore, appelflappen (apple fritters), mulled wine), and it all culminated in the big turkey din dins tonight. The kids went to Watson's yesterday and then over to the neighbours to play in their bouncy castle AND on their inflatable giant bouncer slide, and I made it to the library to get some work done. (I also checked out a pretty pile of kiddy books - see pic below.) I'm not sure if it's the turkey, but I'm one tired mamacita, so this'll be short and sweet here, and hopefully I can get to bed early. Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and thankful!

hendrik in bed "doing homework" (with his book from the museum), alana's hair loved the slide, and driveway wheels x 2

me going for more mulled wine, a full dinner table, and kids on cleanup duty

watson's!!!

loved all these books!

field trip +

Field Trip!! Hendrik had his first field trip and his first school bus ride this past Monday, and I got to go along as a chaperone. It was super fun seeing him with the other kids, and also getting to be there as a sort of support staff for him and the other rugrats. On the way home another tired out tuckered out three-year-old fell asleep and nearly fell right off of her little bus-bench, so I propped her up and carried her off the bus when we got back to school (it was adorable). Appleland was great - we were apple-educated, had some Q&A (e.g.:"Where does food come from?" THE STORE - true), drank apple cider (yum), saw animals, and got sandy on a massive - and I mean massive - sand hill. Fun! Hopefully I can accompany the kiddies and teachers on the next field trip too.

Sooooo we had a home inspection done a few weeks ago and are thinking about the next step; we'll get an electrician in to see the extent of the knob and tube, and then get our finances in order. Should we be buying lottery tickets? Hmmm... Maybe I'll start a lottery pool at school? Wait, we're talking London, Ontario, not Vancouver - where $2.4 million can get you this:

18th and Ontario

That money here? Man, it would go a looooong way indeed!

3.4 acres, 4 beds 7 baths: London, Ontario

I'd take the friends that come with that price tag though - I'm always missing my Vancouver people! And everywhere-else people too (Denver, Manitoba, BRAZIL! Italy Italy Italy Italy, Greece). And speaking of Greece, I took the kids to the grocery store yesterday afternoon after a Hendrik haircut and happened to hear a lady speaking Greek to her grandchildren, so I piped up with a smattering of the few Greek words I know. I got to talking with the lady, and she recommended a bakery (yes please!) and I gave her my email address with the idea that I could get together with her daughter, who lives here in London. We've already been in touch, and hopefully we can get together some time and eat bougatsa while our children play :).

We're heading to Bowmanville on Friday afternoon for Thanksgiving, and I think everyone is looking forward to it. Family, friends, food - and Watson's! The kids love going to Watson farm, and I'm sure we'll make a few trips. I'm hoping to get some work done as there are more papers, more projects, more assignments... but not always more time to get them done. On that note, I'll get to work...

a short one

Ready for a  kid-sleep/no-sleep rant? Here it comes: getting our kids to go to bed at a decent hour (and stay in bed and fall asleep) has been an epic struggle; they stay up too late, and then don't want to get up in the morning (EXCEPT if it's the weekend, and we don't have to get up early... then they do). I was thinking that an earlier dinner (say, 5:00) might allow for more time for the crazy-apres-meal steam runoff, and in turn allow for an earlier bedtime but nope. Nope nope nope. They still want to stay up late (-ish - I'm talking 8:30) and then wake up several times in the night (each) and then I have to spend way too much energy getting people out of bed and ready for school (mrrrrrrrrrr). Unless it's the weekend, and then they still stay up late and still get up multiple times in the night and then wake up right on time or earlier, and make the parents get up too. I'm thinking this is where weekend cartoons come into play, though I know that if we get started on that they'll be up even earlier on the weekends and be even more tired during the week. BAH! Let this be a sleep speed-bump; hopefully we get back to some restful nights soon. (Rant over.)

I have been extrrrremely productive in the kitchen this weekend (powered by coffee, tea); I made granola, pumpkin spice muffins, carrot cake (in muffin form) and a huge pot of sauce for lasagna, which I need to go and put together (jobs jobs jobs). Alana has been resisting her nap - but went down this afternoon like it was the only thing she knows how to do - thank goodness! Steve and Hendrik went to the pool, so hopefully we'll (they'll) all be tuckered right out and I might get some work done tonight.

School is going well, but without those solid sleeps it's tough to get anything accomplished after the little weasels (as cute as they are) have finally fallen asleep. We're heading to Bowmanville for Thanksgiving next Friday, and there are no classes the week after, so hopefully I'll be able to get away and get things done then. No other news for now - well, there probably is, but the empty lasagna pan calls and the teapot needs refilling. (On that note, I'm looking forward to reading the next Mme Ramotswe - out next month!). Red bush tea and friends (still need some of those here) are good good good, so I'll start with the tea, and enjoy the quiet house...