Nobody can be this happy!

Here is Katy before a 10 hour ordeal of a car ride:
Here is Katy at the end of a 10 hr ordeal of a car ride:

OK - it is the same shot taken at the end of the car ride, but still... this is one seriously happy baby girl!

Skating at HP

Sam was pestering me with dates and times for our first skate of the year so I committed to Wednesday evening. True to my word I packed the two boys in the car and hustled over the Heritage Park for a quick skate. We were the only ones there! They had lights and some nice Christmas music floating in the air, but otherwise it was pretty quiet. Sam was laced up and Max fitted with some 'Bob' skates on his boots. They both did pretty good - making it across and back a few times. Max refused any help, but Sam eventually wanted to be pushed around a bit so he could go faster :)

Coming home from music/swimming

For the first time in a while, I took Lily and Max to music. Sam and Ro went to swimming with Jacquie... I've loving the new camera - easy to carry, and I can take shots I'm happy with.

Goalie?

Here is a shot of Sam in his goalie gear. I made him the blocker and mask out of some cardboard and a stock photo that I purchased for the purpose... I searched on 'flames' and he picked this one ;) He took them for show and tell on his VIP day at preschool and the kids were impressed. Now that the rink at Heritage Park has opened up he can't stop talking about learning to skate, too. Last night he said: "Dad. You have a key to uncle Matt's house. While we're sleeping can you sneak over and get my skates for tomorrow?"

New rink in town

Heritage Park now has an artificial rink in the town square... I took Sam, Max and Andrew over to check it out today. I was disappointed to find out that it was just plastic, not an artificially cooled one like in Butchart Gardens in Victoria. But then, it is free! Can't wait to try it out... Andrew ran around and around it, while my two just sort of stared at it:

Having the two boys to myself this weekend, it was nice to have Grandpa here as well. The boys waving goodbye:

Hot chocolate from Grandpa

Grandpa walked down to the coffee shop with the boys and got everyone hot chocolate and coffee. Here we are back at Ali and Matt's:
I tried taking some B&W shots with my new camera - I'm loving the square format and blurred backgrounds...

Celebration!

To celebrate my recent photo assignment win, we had a rousing game a Rock Band last night. We put the kids to bed at their regular time, and then rocked out until the wee hours!

Katy gets her first tooth!

Not to slow down from her rolling progress, she is now sitting basically unattended and today her Aunt (as usual) noticed her first tooth. I'm starting to wonder why Ali always has her fingers in my kids' mouths at this age :)

Happy Halloween!

Six kids and six full bags of candy:

Two pumpkins, no candy :)

It was a beautiful day yesterday, but the wind picked up at night so it did get a little chilly.