Birthday Boy

Here is Laurie with two of his gifts....the Ripstik he wanted - which is like a weird skateboard thing that twists as you move....and a Hummer card - a kind of magic trick.

Laurence is 13 today! Happy Birthday Laurie!!!

Yummy mail day!

Today was a very good mail day for me - and it wasn't even MY birthday!!! :) Thank you Mom and Dad for the goodies you sent me too! The book on West Coker looks VERY good! Oh and yes, my Mom has been hinting for years that I should write a story book for children about a naughty little girl named Abigail - based on the antics of Abby ;)

ATC's received from Swap-bot!!

Here are the first three packages of ATC's I have received from participating in swaps at Swap-bot!!!! As you can see, most people put in little notes or stickers or little bits of cardstock or paper to be used on future ATC's!!! I like the notes best - I got one ATC - the cupcake one from a girl at Uni in the UK!!! :)

One lady who is sending me an ATC actually found me on Facebook and added me as a friend!!! She lives in South Africa and is an artist - she teaches art classes so I cant WAIT to get her card!!! Her Daughter lives in England!!

It's so nice getting so much mail :) Going to the mail box and finding these lovely envelopes full of goodies for me :) Its really exciting to get them!!! Yesterday I mailed off three postcards for one swap and two ATC's for another swap...One postcard is heading for Singapore!!!

Firing the pumpkins........

The pumpkin cannon is always a hit! You get to fire pumpkins at a pirate ship out in the middle of the field!

A few fun pictures....

Susannah with the pumpkins....

My Cabbage Patch Kid!!!

Susannah with some ornamental cabbages :)

Abigail.....

My three little pumpkins :)

Grandma Terry says...........

........just grab it and run without paying!!!!!

(hahahahaha sorry this is just an in-family joke hahahahaha and the kids did NOT stop talking about it Terry - they have NOT forgotten hahahahahha :)

Sam's turn.....

Getting a picture of Sam today was almost impossible....he was NOT willing to sit still OR loo at the camera so in the end I basically gave up and let him get on with it and just got what I could.

Pictures with Mom.........

Some Fall pictures I had taken with Laurie and Susannah in with the pumpkins today!

Thanksgiving Day 2008....

Hahahaha don't laugh - this is the best I could do this year......the centrepiece for our Thanksgiving table! Most of my kitchen is now packed away - all of my basement is in storage now so I can't access anything really and it is mayhem with the renovations. We were out all day today and came home in time to make our dinner - so I bought some mini pumpkins and put them on a gold charger plate like this and TA-DA!!!!! ;) Martha I am NOT :) but it looked Autumny :) And the children always like a candle so we at least had a tea light!

We've had a lovely day! We decided at the last minute to take a run up to the Prairie Gardens at Bon Accord - we figure this will probably be the last weekend that we'll have a chance to go and we promised the children we'd go this year. It was busy there but the only long line up was to get in! Once you're in it never seems as busy for some reason!

We had a great time. The weather wasn't great - it drizzled for a while but many of the activities were indoors so we still had a fantastic time :) Laurence and Susie loved firing the pumpkin cannon and trying to hit the pirate ship. I laughed out loud at the Ambrosia Museum, Abigail was TERRIFIED at the haunted house but soon forgot it and enjoyed the ball bales and the bale jumps as well as feeding the goats corn. Her favourite thing was the corn maze though and also making the scarecrow!! Sam loved the bale maze and the Enchanted Forest!

I loved the pumpkins and being able to take lots of pictures! We didn't take my big Nikon though so all the pictures are with Susies little point and shoot!

We came home and Lloyd and I made a big roast dinner complete with yorkshire puddings, which we've just eaten! That was so much fun - Chris was videoing the meal because he said Susannah ALWAYS does something hilarious every year (like one year she did this thing about putting a glass of pop to her eye because it hurts - so she then did it again to see if it still hurt!!! Like WHY???? Anyway he filed for ages then gave up and JUST after he switched off, Susannah burped this ENORMOUS burp just like a MAN!!! Of course we were all horrified but we couldn't stop laughing because it happened JUST after Chris had stopped filming!!!

So I'm sat here with my glass of wine, sorting through todays pictures and when we're all ready I am going to get the creme brulee ready. Lloyds favourite. I'm not keen so I will have a slice of pumpkin pie instead! The children are all showered and bathed ready for school and they made all their school lunches before dinner. Hopefully we will be in bed curled up by 9pm to watch the new series of Little People Big World!

I hope whatever you did and wherever you and whoever you are with, you had a wonderful Thanksgiving day 2008!

Our Thanksgiving Sunday...

...turned out to be a lovely relaxing day. Lloyd and I went into town. We went to Starbucks in Chapters and had a coffee. Sat there chatting for a while and then we strolled around the bookstore - originally to look for a good recipe book about family dinners. I couldn't find the right one for me though, so instead I bought a magazine about Christmas crafts and a copy of Twilight (hence my earlier post lol).

Because of the odd snow flurry or two that we've had here this weekend, we walked to Please Mum and bought Sam a winter coat. He outgrew his in the Spring so we knew he'd need a new one this year. We usually get the kids a large enough one to do them at least two winters.

We drove to Sobeys to get the fresh vegetables and cream etc etc and to get some wine and hen we headed home.

In the afternoon Lloyd lit a fire outside and I sat by it with my new book relaxing all afternoon. The girls played on their quadbikes. Sam, Laurie and Lloyd chopped trees in the woods and then would come back and have breaks with me by the fire for a cup of tea and Lassy Mogs! It was so nice :) My book is soooooo good! Sam would come over and tell me all about how fast elephants can run and giraffes can run etc and I was trying to look interested but all I wanted to know was what Edward and Bella were going to do next (lol)!!!

We had a big buffet style meal for dinner - with a big Greek salad, cheese selection, and various other 'party foods' that we normally have with our buffets on special days like Christmas and Thanksgiving. We're having our big meal tonight! We had pumpkin pie last night too Mmmmmmmm pumpkin pie!!!!!! :)

Then in the evening I sat at my writing table and watched the most gorgeous sunset - we get the most amazing sunsets here in the Fall - they really are at their most stunning here in the Fall.

After that we had the fire lit in the sitting room and we all curled up and watched Nims Island together before bed. Once Lloyd was asleep I read more of my book before I finally fell asleep some time after midnight :)

It was a lovely day - time for me, time for Lloyd and I, time for us as a family - a perfect mix! I hope you all had a great day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Painted postcard!

This isn't for a swap - I was just in the mood to continue painting and stamping while we watched The Golden Compass yesterday....so I painted on one of my watercolour cardstock postcards I have in my writing desk. This time I stamped on two bees and the word 'bloom'.....