Happy Halloween 2011

All the fun that Halloween brings and we have been missing out on for 3 years! Hayden had never, until this year, carved a real pumpkin...they cost about $35 minimum in Malaysia and there was no way I was paying that!

Alyssa's first school Halloween parade and party. At MKIS it was celebrated after hours, so nothing much was done during the school day. This is about the only picture we have of Alyssa during the parade, the rest are of her back. She is quite adept at the art of camera avoidance!

Ready to go out for their first true night of trick or treating. They got a little goofy at this point!

As you know, I enjoy baking, and occasionally cooking. With the internet, I find that I use my cookbooks less and less and turn to the internet for recipes...the issue? When I want to find the recipe again, I sometimes have difficulty remembering where it was or which one. I decided to keep this information all in one spot so a simple click will get me to the recipe I'm looking for. Also, it helps when someone wants a recipe, I can just send them here. I've expanded my blogging skills and added other pages with these recipes on. Check on your right if you want to try something! Happy cooking!!!

Fashion Show

So last night, Hayden, Alyssa and I were in our first fashion show. The show was for Breast Cancer Research and local business had the option of participating. One of my favourite stores in town: From Kicks to Kids, was looking for 'models', kids and pregnant women and since we fit every bill, I asked the kids if they wanted to do it. They both did pretty well and liked the new clothes...Alyssa is coveting her Kenneth Cole Reaction boots...guess she better get a job!

Pre-show, ready to go...pretty pumped about the light up Star Wars shoes.

Alyssa totally loved her outfit and has asked me to buy it for her...I don't have $200 spare lying around though. Poor girl has horribly chapped lips.

The group shot...but, because of privacy I only chose this part.

Here we come!

Hayden jumped all the way down the ramp to show off his super cool lighted shoes. Unfortunately no shots of Alyssa on the runway because they walked WAY too fast.

...and the party

This year I decided that I had had enough of "whole class" parties. In an effort to get away from these "extravaganzas", I first had Alyssa pick what she would like to do then, based on that, decided how many kids she could have. (I didn't want her to pick something like Galaxyland and have already promised she could have 7 kids...that would be well beyond budget). She chose an "almost sleepover" party ~ an evening party where the guests wear pjs and do activities like nail painting and watch movies. At first she was having a tough time deciding on 7 friends to invite. She finally got 7 and I was about to send out invites when she changes her mind and says she only wants 3 guests...good thing I hadn't asked anyone yet. Then, we decided on an "agenda":

• tie-dye pillowcases
• make your own mini pizzas
• cake
• presents
• pedicures/manicures and a movie (a big girl movie like "High School Musical")

preparing to do the dying of our pillowcases

adding colour

the "cupcake" cake ~ fantastic idea, made by Sobeys, not me

manis and pedis...Hayden did not want to be left out!

watching the movie...

...and chowing on popcorn.

I picked the girls up at 3:30 and dropped them off around 8:00...They all seemed to have a great time!

Happy 7th Birthday Alyssa!!!

Yes it sounds cliche, but time flies! It's hard to believe my "baby" girl turned 7 this past week. Here's a quick blast from the past.

2004 - 11 hours old

2005 - 1

2006 - 2

2007 - 3

Pangkor Island, Malaysia, 2008 - 4

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2009 - 5

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2010 - 6 (doing stunts into our pool)

Camrose, AB, 2011 - 7

Happy Birthday Alyssa, I love you!

Saskatoon

The kids and I headed to Saskatoon last weekend for a quick visit with Grandma Isy, Uncle Jeremy and Auntie Carol and Jenn and Maddie. We opted for a hotel since that would mean we got to spend a little more time together. It was a gorgeous weekend with the fall colours along the Sask river and temperatures in the high 20s. Steve was busy in the combine. We enjoyed hanging out, strolling along the river and playing at the hotel's indoor water park. We also had a mini birthday party at Jerry's (fantastic ice cream!) and dinner at an all-u-can eat Japanese restaurant with some of Jeremy's friends. Here's the mini-album (I tried to be selective).

Hanging out on the bench with Daisy and gramma Isy

Vertical Frisbee, not such a successful sport

The concierge at the hotel gave Hayden a frisbee...it was a hit!

The concierge also made balloon animals. Nice fish hat Gramma.

Maddie the beginner fish.

"Birthday Party" at Jerry's ~ they had awesome ice cream! Maddie was the smart one who chose to skip the meal in favour of ice cream...wish I were that smart!

"The girls" hanging out in the play area doing "big girl" things.

A walk by the river.

Hayden collecting garbage.

Neglectful

I feeling like I've been neglecting this blog...it's just been SO crazy busy with the end of summer, harvest and back to school. I'm teaching two new subjects this year ~ gr. 6-8 language arts and social studies...I like to think of it as expanding my skill base, but I seem to be working more now than I did when I was full time (I'm only 0.6 FTE which I think is great!).

Rather than going back and catching up, I'm going to continue from this point: a trip with the kids to Saskatoon and Alyssa's 7th birthday.