Happy Halloween !

 It is finally time to reveal this years' costumes!  The kids wore one set of 'easy' costumes to school and then the ones we made in the evening.  Max's worked out a little better than Sam as it was easier to attach the 'armour', but I think they both looked great until the 2nd time in and out of the car seats!  Life was easier when you could just throw the kids in the hatch all dressed up ;)  I suppose I should add that Sam is in red as Iron Man, and Max is in green/gray as Boba Fett - since you can't see their faces...

One last sneak peek

Yes, it is one last sneak peak at the boys' costumes.  Hope they work out well...

One last day of summer?

Yesterday was a beautiful day in the afternoon, but this morning we had snow!  The kids played outside and we had Claire and Ali's families plus Laura and Allie over for dinner.  Tomorrow is Hallowe'en!

Pokemania hits our house

It is kind of a long story, and involves Sam getting paid money from a kid at school to carry something for him, but we decided that since he didn't know it was wrong to take money from kids who offered (!), and he was so good as to return the money, we would treat the kids to some Pokemon cards that so many of them seem to have.  Apparently keeping up with the other kids has started already!

One area we aren't giving in on, at least this year, is buying Sam's costume.  It would really be super easy to just buy the costume, but I've spent a lot of time with Sam cutting and painting and trying to create something that looks cool.  Sam seems to enjoy it, but I really do too - it is a lot of fun working on a project like that!

Few more days until Halloween...

Yes, it is another teaser picture from Sam's Halloween costume.  Only a few more days until the big reveal!  Hope he likes it :)  Plus a shot of me and one of Ian crawling...just in case you thought he was always smiling.  Mom has gone back to Victoria this morning so we are once again on our own in Calgary.

Dinner in Victoria

Mom came to Calgary so I took advantage of the help to pay a visit to the Victoria office.  Tonight Dad and I met up with Grandpa (Harold) and Trudy for dinner - nice to see them in my brief day out to Victoria...

Karns are ready

The Karns appear to be fully ready for Hallowe'en !

Kids at first swim meet [video]

Sam, Ro and Laurel (plus Andrew on the timer) at their swim meet yesterday...

Kids at preschool

Another VIP day for Max, and another bunch of photos of the kids.  The big kids were at the park after, so I have a few shots of them too...

Cute pair

Katy and Henry always seem to have fun together, especially when they are outdoors and on their bikes!

My superhero loses another tooth

Yes, this is only the beginning of the fantastic super hero suit Sammy and I are making for Halloween!  Stay tuned!  And yes, he lost his 2nd tooth yesterday in the middle of the night :)  I wonder if the kids will look back on this blog years from now and wonder about all the semi-colons and parentheses at the ends of sentences ???  Max's suit will be cool too - but he is not technically a super hero...

Fall basketball

I picked up a basketball, and now that I'm done my photos with it I passed it on to the kids.  We went down to the old Y and threw it around along with the baseball.  It was an action packed weekend without Darcy.  Today we biked over to Southland, I worked out, then we met Matt and the kids in the pool.  We rode home and played baseball and worked on Halloween costumes while Katy napped...

Slippers at MEC

Had a fun little trip down to MEC with the kids today to get slippers !

Happy Thanksgiving !

Happy Thanksgiving!  We spent a really nice weekend in Golden this year at the Blaeberry Mountain Lodge.  Here is a family photo of the 9 grandkids, parents and grandparents from today...  Plus video:

Getting ready to go

The last day always involves a bunch of last minute running around and busy work.  The Dad took the kids out on a quick bike ride, then returned and helped load cars.  I treid to get in a few shots as we got ready to go, leading up to the final group shot...

Test shot...and a rare shot of me!

Tricky to feed Ian using the back of his head !