Love these....both so true :)

Thanksgiving Day.

We decided to use our season passes to the Prairie Gardens before the weather changed too much, so we headed up to Bon Accord yesterday for their annual Haunted Pumpkin Festival.

It was busy there and the parking lot is now two fields away - and you then get bussed to the main area on yellow school buses!  I had never been on a yellow bus before!!  Neither had Sam - and Abby only went on one for a few months YEARS ago!  So it was one of the highlights of the day - we even got the back row :) 

It was cold.  7c but with a nasty wind!  I wore my hat for the first time:

We ran in to our friends and Abby went off with them for a little while:

There were soooo many pumpkins there this year - and several that had been carved into intricate designs and faces:

As always, Sam and Abby LOVED the knights who are there to teach fighting and archery:

Sam did the gem mining - despite the freezing water - he LOVES mining for his gems every time we go and I love his collection of stones he has:

Susannah stirring 'Sam soup' in the Enchanted Forest:

Abby pretending to hit Susannah with the giant spoon in the Enchanted Forest:

Another great day was had - and despite the cold weather we had a great time - we got to have our favourite garlic and dill potatoes - and some yummy pumpkin pie - but best of all we got plenty of fresh and and made many more fabulous memories :)  

My evening:

We went to the bottle depot tonight and then came home and finished getting ready for our guest who arrives tomorrow.  

When Abby and Sam got back from Lloyds we played some games of cards - Zap with Susie too, and Spit - I played Abby while Sam was in the shower, and then Sam while Abby showered.  

It was fun :)  Love these games :)

Sam did some colouring before he went to sleep, oh and his bedtime story tonight was 'Ten Timid Ghosts' - we are reading books to do with Halloween at the moment :)  

The Italian Centre

Today we went on a field trip to the Italian centre - with our homeschooling friends.  

We were met by one of the staff members, and at first we thought she was just going to show us around the store....but it turned in to sooooo much more!  It really was an interesting and fun field trip for all of us!!

Last night we watched a dvd about Italy - the North of Italy....and it discussed Parmesan Cheese, olive oil and Truffles etc etc - this lead to Abigail having many questions about the foods...

We were shown the bakery and told about their cakes - and taught a few Italian words - and then the lady brought out a big tray of cookies for us to try!

Yummy!  Then we moved on to the produce section and looked at all the different peppers etc - and yellow/ golden raspberries (sooooo good!!) and then they showed us 'Cactus pears' which we had never seen before - and they brought out a big bowl filled with chopped up Cactus pear for us to try!  Very unusual fruit - reminded me of watermelon as its so juicy and filled with seeds!  Yum!

We went behind the counter at the cheeses and saw them preparing the huge parmesan cheese slabs - they cut a chunk off and then sliced pieces off for us to try!  

Then on to the meats section where they brought us out a huge platter with cheeses, meats, appetisers of cherry tomatoes, basil and mozzarella :) Mmmmmmm!!

We were shown all the aisles of oils and balsamic vinegars and even the locked cabinet that has truffles in it - and a bottle of balsamic vinegar for $249.00!!!!!!

After our tour we all did some shopping and then we all met up in the cafe where I had a cappuccino and a cake - we came home and watched the second part of the dvd about Southern Italy :)  It was a really good day and I feel like I know quite a bit more about Italy than I did before - I think I have a new favourite store/ cafe now too :)  

More pictures from yesterday...

Love :)