Pumpkins

We finally got around to doing our pumpkins last night. Better late than never I guess. Mason mostly just sat and ate his cookie.

Snow!!

We had our first snow fall last night. The kids are so excited. They were up early throwing snowballs and finding their snow gear. Grant went to school with his snow suit coat on, his waterproof gloves, and his snow boots. Too bad all the snow will be gone before lunch. Bailey was pretty excited about the whole thing too. He keeps going outside, and I'm pretty sure he is eating the snow. In case you can't tell the snow is on our roof, its not usually white. We didn't have any in our front yard, but more in our back. I guess the wind blows from behind us. The houses across the street have snow on their driveways. Its pretty dark in the mornings when we go to catch the bus, so its hard to get good pics. When it starts to last all day....or the rest of the winter, we will get much better pictures with the kids.

Gymnastics

Another field trip. The whole school is spending 2 hours at a gym for their gymnastics component of PE. Today was the first day. I went with Grant's class. They seemed to have a lot of fun. What a great way to introduce kids to different things. And it was in one of those bubble tent things. I just don't get how that works, but it obviously does.

Mason had as much fun as the other kids. He climbed up and down the bleachers, crawled under them, and loved sitting up like he was a big boy. Of course he had a few stomping fits when he couldn't make things work the way he wanted, but they were short lived. And he took a great nap when we got home.

Swimming anyone?

Well, you will never guess what we did today.....we all went swimming! We went to the nearest City Rec center. You can swim or ice skate, all in the same facility year round. Mason mostly sat on me while I swam, but they did have a very small slide he could use, balls and basketball goals, and noodles. The big boys got to swing on a tarzan rope, go off the diving board (including the 10 meter one,) and go down a large slide.

Getting ready to go home wasn't all that fun though. It was freezing in the changing rooms, and trying to get fully dry and completely changed with three boys around is a wasted effort. By the time we left everything was wet, but at least its about 50 degrees outside. I don't think this is something we will be doing when its very cold. But everyone had fun, and everyone is tired, so isn't that the point?

Strathcona Wilderness Center

These are just some pics of where the class went for the field trip. We had a beautiful day.

Field Trips

Tyler got to go on a field trip, and Mason and I went along with his class. They explored nature, learned about trees and vegetation, and found their way with a map. I was a little worried when we set them loose in the woods alone, but they all found their way home.

The Scarecrow Festival

This weekend we went to the Halloween Festival. Its a fund raising event where the kids get to wear their costumes and play games. Grant made me a witch hat to wear on Halloween. We all made a scarecrow for our front porch, and Tyler got a bullet hole painted on his face. Of course after making a scarecrow with hay none of us could breathe. Tyler's looking pretty bad, even without the bullet hole. Mason didn't spend too much time in his costume, but I think he will love it when he gets to see it on.

NHL

Frank and Grant went to see the Edmonton Oilers play Friday night. Unfortunately, the team lost, but they had fun anyway. Here are Grant's souvenirs.

Jasper

Well, we made it out to the mountains this weekend. Its a 4 hour drive one way, and not a whole lot along the way to make the trip interesting. We only had one night, so we didn't get to do a whole lot, but we saw the mountains, went to the top of the tallest, and saw a cavern carved by thousands of years of water runoff. Next time we would like to see the glaciers (another hour away) and possibly swim in the hot springs. This was the last weekend most of the places were open as they close down for the winter. Which I find quite confusing, because I thought people went to the mountains in winter for skiing.

I don't think Mason was quite ready for another trip. He didn't sleep much during the day, and hardly at all that night. But after we got home he's pretty much been asleep the whole time. I think he was afraid where he might be when he woke up, so he wanted to stay awake so he knew what was happening.

At the top of the mountain the boys got to play in the snow, and snow was falling on us. It was only 40 degrees, so I wasn't sure how that worked with snow falling and snow on the ground.

I also discovered if you are traveling East on a road in Canada the sun will always be shinging in the passenger window, no matter what time of day it is. The sun still rises in the East and sets in the West here, but its about 45 degrees above the southern horizon, not overhead. Your shadow will always point North!

You can see all of the pics here.

http://photoshare.shaw.ca/view/10305951910-1191882986-65844/

"Read-In" Week

This week is "Read-in" week at the boys school. They have parents, local media personalities, and govenrment officials all reading in the schools to promote literacy. So, yesterday I went up to the school and read to both of the the boys classes. Grant's class seemed to have fun, but Tyler's class wasn't really all that interested. Mason, also didn't have a great time. Tyler's teacher had to take Mason on a walk so I could finish reading to the class. I could hear him out in the hallway calling "Mmmmomy, Mmmmmomy!"

This weekend we are going to the city of Jasper in the Canadian Rockies. The hotel is on Pyramid Lake. Monday is Thanksgiving here, so we are staying Sunday night. It should be fun, and you can check back next week for pictures. There should be some snow, even though it hasn't snowed here yet. Hopefully we can stay warm!

Oh, and Mason loves watching himself dance on the web page. But his face gets very serious when that baby starts playing with his toys. He usually turns around to check and make sure his airplane isn't mssing.

Dancing with......Mason

This is Mason watching dancing with the stars! The video was taken with my digital camera. The sound doesn't really work.....I'm not sure what all the static is when doing video with this camera. Anyway, Mason was having a blast.