More pre-Halloween

Here are some more friends who attended the Tuesday Tea Halloween-style before Halloween. The children had just been dancing round and round singing "Ring a Rosie" and we managed to get them to sit still to take this photo. L-R Ivan, Alex (Rabbit), Anna (Minnie Mouse) and Lukas (teletubby).

And then the following Tuesday we had another Halloween parade at a nursing home/retirement home. Here are the babies of the group, Sebastien is in the back with Alex just behind him. By this stage, Alex is starting to get the hang of Halloween - you walk around saying "Happy Halloween" and "Trick or Treat" and then at the end you get candy. At least I didn't have to coerce her into this costume!

Thanks, but no thanks!

Imagine spending time to write thank-you's to all the generous people who had made your family meals or given your baby a gift. Then imagine seeing how that ended up - after just a quick trip across town via USPS. I shudder to think - must have been a pretty rough trip to end up torn in 3, and put into a plastic bag...no thanks! (Thanks to Jen for the photo - otherwise I may never have known!;))

The leadup to Halloween 2007

Warning - lots of photos!

Well, it's almost Halloween and Daddy (who once famously said "I won't take 'em trcik or treating until they can at least say 'trick or treat'") is contemplating being a werewolf - surely to avoid shaving again...

So this past week has been hectic! Between a halloween party for a Moms group I belong to, an afternoon tea in costume at a retirement home, a Halloween playgroup followed by pumpkin hunting at a pumkin patch and a Halloween parade at the county retirement/nursing home, it has been busy, busy, busy!

Some pictures from the past week:

Alex and Andie - Bumblebee and Ladybird. Alex was so unimpressed by her costume - it doesn't have a zip and so has to go over her head which for some reason really freaks her out at the moment. She hadn't wore her costume up until this photo and the only reason she decided to wear it was because I told her only kids wearing costumes got given Halloween candy...

Sebastien, on the other hand, was asleep the whole time in his 'My Little Pumpkin" suit.

After the moms group party, some of us headed out for lunch - aptly described in one of my friend's blogs as "a restaurant patron's worst nightmare" we were seated in s nice section to (almost) ourselves and had a pretty enjoyable time.

Here's Alex, on the big kids table, with Anna, Brynn, Evie and Brayden...

...And here are the rest of us - six mummies, eleven kids (five in infant car seats) - fun all round!

Playgroup saw Alex and Anna squeeze into an armchair to read together (Anna is in her Minnie Mouse costume - Alex's rabbit costume, thanks Aunty Lyndall and Uncle Pip, is in the stroller).

And off we go! After Playgroup, Jen was kind enough to get directions to a local Pumpkin Patch to go get some Halloween pumpkins! Here are Alex and Anna ready to go for a ride in the wagon.

One for you and one for me...some of the smaller pumpkins on offer - actually Anna was choosing a pumpkin for her little sister Olivia.

Alex taking our pumpkin up to pay the man - not bad for $2!

Then we headed home - but not before getting a shot of the girls with the biggest pumpkins I'd ever seen for sale! They're as big as the girls!

Look for the posting of next week which will have Halloween trick or treating itself!

Sebastien hits the big ONE MONTH!

Can you believe it?! We can't (perhaps we're too sleep deprived) but it's been a whole month since Sebastien joined us. So in the same tradition we had as with Alex, we're taking an anniversary photo of him with his own "Council of Friends" - though his is significantly smaller than his sister's! Alex was just so excited to see Great Nanna's quilt being placed on the ground with Sebastien's toys, that she wanted to joing right in - and here's the result!

How many balloons are enough?

Ah yes, the philosophical questions that arise from attending a birthday party...and we're all about the BIG questions!

It takes a village

The saying goes that it takes a village to raise a child, but in our household - once there's "mummy's milk" in the fridge - it just takes one very independent 2 1/2 year old!

Visitors from Australia!

How busy our lives have been! We've been very excited to have had Granddad and Grandma visit from Australia. They visited the week after Sebastien was born and spent a week here during their grand 'round world holiday. We spent time at a Hayrack ride picnic, Monday Mania, and generally running around to make sure we got out of the house each day (for Alex and mummy's sanity). They also bought Alex a pair of red sparkly shoes that have only been off her feet for baths and bedtime...very much loved shoes!

There's no place like home, there's no place like home...

Anyone reading this blog should know all about Alex's shoe fetish (no, I'm sure she's adopted - no wait, I have stretch marks to prove she's mine...) and this fetishist has her very own enablers. No, not her mummy, but everyone else in her life. Having just had a visit from Grandma and Grandad, Alex is now the proud (very proud) owner of some red sparkly shoes a la Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

She has worn them at least every other day ever since she got them. To be fair, Grandma did try to steer her towards the BLACK sparkly shoes - but I figure that's just because I happened to be there - Grandma looked like she was having way too much fun!

I'm feeding him mummy!!

These were the words (very delighted and excited indeed) that I heard as I brushed my teeth, leaving Alex and Sebastien alone in the living room...can you imagine the 101 things that immediately flashed through my mind?!

As I raced into the other room I was greeted with this image - so I had to take a photo. Alex has absorbed more of her brother's arrival details than we'd thought! At least it was an unwashed finger and not the contents of the fridge or pantry (or toybox)!