Trick or Treat

Halloween 2009 is wrapping up around here.

We had a great afternoon doing our downtown treat trail. Sophie and I joined her little friends Danielle, Mikayla and Morgan and their moms and hit all of the businesses in our downtown core.

Later, Vic's cousin and his wife and their two little kids joined us for trick or treating around our neighbourhood. Their family just moved up from the US so it was nice to welcome them to Salmon Arm by doing something together. By this time Fynn was up from his nap and he was finally into getting into his costume (whew!). By 7pm these characters are much too full of candy - Sophie has a nasty habit of sneaking it while I'm not looking. Fynn naturally will NOT take off his costume now. Figures :)

Here is the album for more photos of the day's event.

Vic's off to get Thai food and I'm beat. The lead up to Halloween has been fun and I'm sure we'll all have good memories.

some Halloween lights

So much work goes into making Halloween the magical time it is for these little kidlets. This morning went off pretty well. I got Sophie to kindergarten in her costume (no issues) and Vic took Fynn in (in his regular clothes) since he can't sit in his carseat with his tail. I asked the ladies at his daycare to put on his costume and they gave it the old college try but he just wasn't having anything to do with it today. I'm hoping he is a little more game tomorrow.

The ghost sugar cookie were a big hit, so that is definitely something we can do again for Christmas.

Tonight Fynn got settled into bed quickly -- he was pretty tired from all the daycare festivities and Sophie got an extra special treat and was allowed to watch some TV before bed.

Here is a photo of my pumpkin mantel lights.

9:48pm

Yes, it's 9:48pm and that's me in the pink bathrobe...making ghost shaped sugar cookies.

Note to self: sugar cookie dough must be VERY well chilled.

I think they'll turn out pretty cute in the end.

The Halloween prep this year just about put me over the edge. Christmas?

calgon...

I wonder if Calgon really works? Take me away, hmm, not likely.

Sometimes I feel like all I do is go from one thing to another. I do like being busy, and I like to ramp it up a bit more when I see stuff that I think the kids would enjoy or that we could do as a family. But sometimes it gets to me. Like laundry and trying to stay on top of the kids' clothes. I dropped Sophie's last year's winter coat off at our local consignment store because she is into a new size again. It seems it's one rotation after another. They won't stop growing :)

Sophie had a busy day which means I had a busy day. First thing in the morning was her Book Fair at her school. I didn't realize that I need cash or a cheque (I'm so debit card oriented) and she spotted a Hannah Montana book in French, which she of course had to have. So I dropped her off in her classroom, put the book on hold and headed back home (which is close, thankfully) and grabbed my checkbook.

Then it was back to work. At 10:43 she gets out of class and today she had a playdate with her new friend Cami. I needed to be there to ensure Sophie got into Cami's mom's car and that she felt good with it. She can be a bit shy to start and a little anxious (which we are working on) but she seemed fine when I drove away. Then it was back to work again. At 3pm she has ballet so I headed down to the church hall (her old ballet school is being remodelled due to a fire) and watched the girls perform. It was parent watching day today. They have really come a long way since pre-Kindergarten dance classes last year. Then it was back over to daycare where I dropped her back off.

More work, then back to pick them up soon so we can go pick our our pumpkins for carving later.

I'm also hoping to do a little more sewing on the second skirt I started for Sophie (she had fun picking out her fabric yesterday) and I have my eye on another scrapbook layout.

my little Fynn

Fynn gets his own blog post tonight.

I was happy to finally get a chance to do a layout that featured him. I'm going back to the 12 x 12 format for his second album. I find that I need the extra room that the larger layout gives me. His first year was all 8.5 x 11, which was fine at the time, but not so much now.

I used the September Cocoa Daisy kit that featured Ali Edward's as a guest designer.

Halloween madness!

The Halloween festivities have really started to kick into high gear.
Sophie's friend Mikayla had her annual Halloween party today. Yes, a 4.5 year who has already established a tradtion :) Actually this is the 2nd Halloween party that Sophie has been invited to of hers and Mikayla and her mom are great hosts. They have lots of activities for the girls to do. There was a "haunted hallway", a pinata, cookie decorating and a treasure chest. When the Halloween stuff was finished the girls went into Mikayla's bedroom and blasted the Milley Cyrus/Hannah CD and were standing one her bed signing away. It was actually pretty cute and Sophie was charged up because she IS Hannah Montana this year complete with microphone.

We are all going out as a group next Saturday for our downtown trick or treat trail -- fun for the kids to all get together and go door to door to the downtown businesses.

*************************

Apart from that, it's been a busy weekend with other things, too. We went down to Kelowna yesterday so I could write my exam for my second World at Work course. Thanks to automated testing, I got my score instantly and am very happy with the results. Today I treated myself to a couple of hours of scrapbooking with some daycare friends. I made a layout of Fynn's second birthday that I'll post tomorrow or over at 2Peas.

american retail

My Canadian friends will likely agree with me, but the shopping always seems to be better in the US. It just is -- better marketing, more product selection and often lower prices. It is especially nice now that our Canadian dollar is close to par. I know that sounds unpatriotic, but it's hard to argue with.

While we were in NY, we went into the American Girl store. If Sophie had been there she would have gone crazy! It was a little girl's dream. I picked up one of their catalogues and showed it to her when we got home. Her reaction was good -- not over the top goofy, but just nice and interested in the dolls and their names and stories. After thinking about it this week, I decided to order her a Just Like You doll. They have one with blond hair, blue eyes, shoulder length hair and bangs. Just like Sophie! It will be her one main Christmas present this year.

I'm also checking into McCalls patterns because I think I could sew her some clothes. I did check out the Canadian version of the dolls - but I didn't think they had the same selection.

I would love to take Sophie to one of their stores one day -- true eye candy for little girls.

Speaking of eye candy, I loved the store windows of the Manhatten Anthropologie store. Bryan, Patti and Vic were busy scoping out the ice skating at Rockefeller Centre and I stayed busy taking photos of the amazing window displays in this store.

cute alert!

When I walked in to pick up Fynn today from daycare, he was wearing this costume. He would not take it off! They let him borrow it and he wore it home and then was pretty happy to do a little photo shoot.

I haven't told him yet that he is going to be dressing up like a lion next week for Hallowe'en. I'm not sure how he'll handle that. After all the work that went into his costume, my fingers are crossed that he'll love it as much as the elephant.

He's a wonderful little guy. Vic and I are pleasantly suprised by how his vocabulary is increasing and how he is starting to really get into playing with a couple of his little buddies at daycare. He also has very cute feet which I love to kiss.

this guy...

-works very hard every day to help support our family.
-agreed to be interviewed for a documentary they were filming while we were near Bowling Green park in NY. After I volunteered him.
-makes dinner almost every night for our family. he even made Grandma's smiley potato things for dinner to please the kids.
-drove me to Vernon today to the ortho surgeon about my sore foot (even though the appointment lasted 6.5 minutes tops)
-then bought me sushi
-puts up with my crafty mania
-ensures we are thinking long term with our finances
-can do the Oliver triathlon in 2010
-entertains my ideas of career development (school, MBA, job swaps, what's next...)
-is very smart
-is loved.

New York

Our amazing trip!

Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island....more tomorrow

pattern review

This is the little skirt I sewed up for Sophie this weekend.

It was pretty simple apart from the ribbons that I sewed on every 3 inches! Those were a bit crazy, but I'm glad I did it because it worked out nicely. I'll probaby try this pattern again, maybe closer to Christmas (I might kick myself for saying that).

I have my eye on this skirt, but it will have to wait until we are back from New York and things have settled down here a bit.

2riffic

We had a lot of celebrating this past weekend for Fynn's 2nd birthday and Thanksgiving.

On Friday, we had the daycare party and then we headed down south to my parents where we had a little lunch birthday party on the Saturday - complete with a very cute Elmo cake that my mom made. Later we went to Vic's mom's house for a turkey dinner and another little celebration. On Sunday we had another turkey dinner at my mom's place. Fynn got a little shy when we all started singing to him. He's not used to being in the spotlight! He loved his toolkit and his tractors. He is such a little boy!

I also can't forget to mention Vic's race on Sunday. It's been three years since he's done this one, but it's a really great season finale for him. He did very well and beat his personal best (1 hour, 43 min)!

For my entertainment (?) I worked on a skirt for Sophie. I finished it up and she is actually wearing it, but I'll post a pic tomorrow and give a review of the pattern.

I can't believe we will be here in 3 days! I have always wanted to go and I can't quite believe we are actually going. I just have to lick this cold and then we'll be set (apart from the 101 things we need to get done before then). Anyways...

all in blue

I had a double dose of blue this morning.

I finished up Fynn's cupcakes that I'm taking to his daycare this morning for a little birthday celebration. I think he'll like the Cars!

At I made up a couple of paper banners for two little baby boys. We are having an office baby shower today just after lunch.

I'll post some pics of Fynn's little party a bit later....
....and here they are.

we love Halloween

Actually, I'm not sure if Vic always "loved" Halloween before he met me, but I'm sure now he does. I start thinking about it in late August. This year, I was planning for Fynn's Halloween costume (which turned out very cute). From there it was helping Sophie get her's -- which was easy since we bought it this year.

I've been creating some little vignettes around the house. I needed a black plate to replace my usual red one, since we are definitely having an orange, black, and white theme. The Halloween banner was the biggest project (second to Fynn's costume).

I'm also happy with finding the Martha Stewart cut out crows. Sophie got a kick out of seeing those this morning when she came down the stairs. I don't think Fynn cares for the witch, however. Witchy Hazel and her little sister also came out for the season. Her little sister needed a pedestal to stand on so I painted some plain round wooden boxes I got at Michael's.

I have a few more things to add, but those will come after Thanksgiving this weekend and Fynn's birthday. Tonight I'm baking cupcakes with these fellows on the top. I've also got a baby shower at work tomorrow that I created two banners for using this website as my inspiration. They turned out really cute and people were commenting on them at work since I have them spread out in my office. I used white and blue cardstock and spelled out the names of the two babies (we had 2 babies born very close to each other so we are combining their celebrations).

Gotta keep busy, right?

HSP

This is what HSP is to us. Red spots all over legs and buttocks. Swollen knees, sore legs and the odd stomach pain.

Sophie has had this miserable condition for just over a week now.
She is a little trouper and has started to adapt to it. She will say things like, "I know I'm going to have sore legs by the end of the day, mommy."

Watching her limp up the stairs at night is especially hard. Fortunately with a good dose of Advil and Tylenol each morning she makes it through Kindergarten without a hitch. The daycare ladies give her another dose at lunch and that does her until we pick her up at 5pm. We take the evening really easy. She gets tired easily and just wants to hang out on the couch, which is fine.

A nice warm bath and a story seem to keep her in pretty good spirits. I know that this too will pass. But, it can't come soon enough for us.

more sewing

Sophie caught me in a weak moment and asked if I could sew her a skirt now that Fynn's pjs are complete.

We found this pattern and some cute fabric on the weekend.

finished!

I sewed in the elastic for the waistband today and now these are done! I tried them on Fynn, and while they are a little big now, I think by Christmas or so, they should fit him fine. (sorry for the blury photo).

Sophie had a flare up from her HSP condition. We were in Vernon yesterday at the mall and she started complaining of having a sore back. When I checked it out, I noticed a big lump or swelling next to her spine. We took her over to the Vernon Hospital and had her examined. The doctor suspected it was just another effect of the HSP and after taking all of her vital signs and contacting a pediatrician, she said she was okay to go home. Our friend Doctor Grieve stopped by the house today and also examined her and thinks that the swelling (which has now disappeared) was also the same weird part of her condition. She was riding her bike today, so she appears to be on the mend. Honestly, if something strange medically is going to happen, it seems to land here.

the bottoms

I realize that the print of these PJs is going the wrong way. I noticed that after I posted the photos of the top. I have been frequenting the forums on Pattern Review lately and the helpful ladies over there suggested it could just be an error in how the fabric was made. I know I pinned and cut the material with the grain, so I don't think it was my mistake. Anyway, Fynn won't notice the difference.

I'm just happy that these are coming along!

Sophie didn't go to Kindergarten today. I keep phoning every morning and updating them on what's happening. She did go to daycare today and just kept a low profile with one of the caregivers. They snuggled and read books. She seems to be a bit better. Some of her leg swelling has reduced and her red spots are turning into bruises. Poor little bug.

I'm excited to start this online class, too. Now I just need another 8 hours in the day!

how is this for a mouthful?

HSP for short.
Sophie stayed home from Kindergarten this morning because of her strep throat. Fortunately my aunt was able to stay with her until noon. After that Sophie came to my office and hung out with me. She started complaining of pain in her legs. I thought it was just your standard aches from being sick. I took her home after work and let her watch TV. Later that night I was getting her ready for her bath and noticed her lower legs were covered in red sores.

Vic took her immediately into the walk-in clinic (we should have frequent flyer miles) and after an examination she was referred to the hospital where a number of tests were run on her. 3 hours later, they came home and with a diagnonis of Vasculitis HSP which is basically an inflammation of her blood vessels.

Poor thing - she's asleep now and hopefully the ibuprofen will give her some relief. It seems that this condition will run its course.