Pumpkin shopping

Gaëlle has been excitedly waiting for the day to pick out pumpkins. We finally made a stop and allowed the kids their own choice. As you can see, the large pumpkins were too enticing.



Peter managed to haul the one he wanted out of the bin all by himself.



Gaëlle needed a little help to snag the pumpkin she wanted. Dad was more than willing to go for the big one. You do know who is going to be helping with the carving, don't you? There's going to be a lot of scooping going on.

Thanksgiving thoughts

It’s so interesting to see how over the top excited Peter and Gaëlle get about Thanksgiving. We really don’t do much to ratchet up the energy level.  We are not a family that goes over the top by nature. I haven’t spent hours decorating the house. I haven’t spent days and days preparing food. We don’t have  a lot of company. And yet, for the 2nd Thanksgiving in a row, Peter and Gaëlle can barely contain themselves with the joy of Thanksgiving. Gaëlle, Emily, and Snickers just hanging out waiting for the meal. I did get Peter and Gaëlle to help me make little boxed turkeys. I have managed to hang onto a few old Pack-O-Fun Magazines and this was one of the templates  in one of them. Right before it was time to eat and not a moment sooner, Gaëlle and Josh filled them with candy. Needless to say, Gaëlle was a bit fixated on that the entire meal.None of us are master carvers, but we do our best.  Kaylin took the pictures for me this year and so I don’t have a single one of her. I’m going to have to watch out for that next time. But at least she got us smiling.

Peter and Gaëlle have discovered the game UNO. So after we ate, we all sat around and played a couple of hands. It was a gorgeous day, so we didn’t stay inside too long. But we did have some laughs.

 

Not quite sure what was going on in Gaëlle’s mind, but I’m sure it was something mischievous.

We had amazing weather all weekend so it was great to be together as a family and also to just celebrate the many blessings in our lives.  We just spent a short time going around the table sharing our blessings. Gaëlle had already told us that she was thankful for the sky and the ocean and she stuck with that. On such a beautiful day, it was easy to be thankful for the beauty in God’s creation.  It was also easy to be thankful for the blessing of family and being together.

Open house

After the earthquake Robin was on a LOT of news programs. One of the people who interviewed him was Elizabeth Chiu from CBC news. Last Saturday we went to an open house at CBC and one of the first people we ran into was Elizabeth and she remembered the kids and their names without any introduction from us. So we took a picture and then we moved on. 

No offense to anybody in the news department but we were there for the kids programs and activities. We waited in line for the balloon creatures. A ladybug and a parrot. And who should we see but SUPER WHY.  CBC has some clever shows for children and this is one we like. But to tell the truth our all time favorite show is ARTZOOKA! Jeremie is the host and every morning for 15 minutes he shows the kids how to make easy and fun crafts. Peter especially loves it and is always making things that he would like to show Jeremie. So at the open house they had several tables of craft supplies. Gaëlle was focused and went right to work on a paper plate. She would finish doing something and she would tap Jeremie on the shoulder, “Artzooka, look at the mouth I cut out.” And he would ooh and aah. It was kind of funny seeing as Peter is the big fan and it was if he had stage fright. He started and threw away 3 different projects before he settled down to something.

Jeremie was right there in amongst the kids watching them put things together. It was a great afternoon and I was so impressed with his energy and enthusiasm.

Cooking fun

Not only did Gaëlle receive cooking items from her grandmother, she also received some baking fun from her cousins in California. They sent her edible paper to decorate cakes and cupcakes with. Gaëlle couldn’t wait to get started.

There was cutting and ripping and decorating galore with the edible paper.

The final products did not look anything like the pretty package but they still looked pretty and the cupcakes were delicious. YUM.

Gaëlle goes into her box of goodies and finds things to cook. This was an individual cake that we just popped in the microwave. Easy and good. Just Gaëlle’s speed.