Happy Halloween!!! - Forsyth's Spooky Party!

Cindy and Brent held their usual fun and spooky Halloween party!

Here's all the girls... we had some great costumes!

Me and the hostess with the mostest (I really need to do something about those dark roots!)

Pouring a drink!

I helped Cindy and Brent out by carving a few pumpkins for them. Check this one out carefully - can you see the outline of the moon behind the bats?

Whooooo! Scary!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

AK and I headed off to Camana Bay after work today for trick or treating!

Check out these cutie angel dogs we saw!

We stopped in for a quick visit with Uncle Mike and Aunty Julie at the end of the night.

This was at the end of the Camana Bay trick or treating - doeesn't the look on her face say "I'm done!"?

The only picture with fairy wings... AK complained immediately that they were falling off and ripped them right off. Oh well, it was worth a try!

Soup's on!

One of my yoga teachers shared this amazing butternut squash soup recipe.

I made a few changes - I had a small butternut squash, and a big hunk of Cayman pumpkin, so I used those. I didn't have an apple so threw some applesauce in. I also used thyme instead of sage and left off the poppy seeds altogether.

This would be a good way to use those pumpkins after Monday night! Mine are already growing mold so I won't be using them - boo!

Punkins!

On Thursday night, my trusty assistant and I carved "punkins".

The truth is more like, my trusty assistant said "I'm not touching that, that's ICKY" and "Mommy, don't get Ariel dirty!". She was a great supervisor though! I think I need to apologize to my folks for all the "icky" things I wouldn't touch as I was growing up. Sorry... but I wouldn't have changed a thing anyway. Ha!

I think AK may have a career in "punkin" modelling.

Bat pumpkin

We could find only one of the eyes from last year, so I did a winking pumpkin. This one was AK's idea and she directed me on how to carve. There originally were teeth in the mouth but AK decided she didn't like them and we knocked them out!

Our little "punkin" family

I just roasted the seeds today, one batch with Cajun seasoning and one is in the oven right now with salt, pepper and dill. They are smelling good!

To market, to market...

...to buy mini-donuts!

You're very welcome for the song that will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day, ha ha ha!

AK and I hit up the Farmer's Market after work yesterday. We noticed some dark clouds in the sky so we were ready and armed with our umbrellas! We wandered around and looked at the fruits and vegetables on display. AK wasn't too interested in that. We found the craft section and AK decorated a picture of an owl with glitter glue and a pen, and then we glued that onto an orange plate. Very Hallowe'eny! My nose picked up the scent of mini-donuts and I splurged and bought a small bag of them for AK. Unfortunately they seemed to turn into supper, rather than just a treat! I rounded it off with some fruit and cheese when we got home. Donuts are good carbs, right? :)

My two purchases were a big hunk of Cayman pumpkin and a loaf of Outback bread, which seems to be Black Russian bread minus the caraway seeds plus blackstrap molasses. Yum. I think I will be roasting the pumpkin to make soup of of it. I've also got a butternut squash in the fridge that will be going into the soup. Wish me luck!

We bid goodbye to the market and then made our way to the pharmacy for new tooth-brushing stuff, and then to the grocery store for milk. Exhausted, we made our way home!

Hunter came by for a bit as his folks were busy so AK got to bed later than I'd like... but it was quite a lot easier to get her to bed and she didn't fuss at all even though she proclaimed several times that she didn't want to go to bed. I forgot to talk to the daycare ladies about naptime... I wonder if she's having a hard time settling down there too. But bonus - we slept til 7am today too! The sleep-in was quite nice.

I think tonight might be our pumpkin carving night. Anyone have any good pumpkin seed recipes to share? xo

Hanging with the Cowans

Our friends, the Cowans came for a vacation to Cayman! We were able to get together with them twice, which was really nice!

Our first visit was a bit of a gong show. Well, the second one was too, but the first one... wow...

First we met at Camana Bay. Sofia had asked to play in the fountains with AK so we decided to honor her wishes. 1. AK was super duper shy and wouldn't go near any of the Cowans at first. 2. It was an overcast windy day and AK thought it was too wet to go into the fountains. (wimp!)

However, Sofia was all over the fountains!!! It's easy to see she's got some great memories here and got right back into it.

Finally, AK warmed up to Sofia and the two of them strolled around holding hands :) AK told me that her stripe-y pants were like "rainbows".

Whee!!! We didn't go into the big fountains at all as the breeze off of the water was pretty cool and it would have been uncomfortable for the girls in their swim suits.

We decided to go to Michael's for supper... what a mistake. 3. We moved tables to escape the rain, which seemed to drop us off the radar. We waited AN HOUR just for our drinks. At that point, we'd had enough and I decided to pick up some chicken for supper and we'd eat at the Cowans' accommodations.

4. I hit a pothole on the way there... and got a flat tire. Can you believe that? John confessed that he had never changed a tire in his life but he shooed me off inside and did it all on his own! It's still on the car so he must have done a good job!

Despite all that, we had a great visit!

Our next dinner together was much less eventful, thankfully! Poor Liam seemed to have come down with hand, foot and mouth disease, and it rained pretty much the whole time they were here... I do hope they got to relax though!

Slacking off!

I'm sorry that I've been such an unfaithful blogger lately! It has been busy around these parts lately. I had a busy week last week - saw Footloose with my friend Julie, gave Jenni a hand with the kids, and babysat Hunter. Since then, AK and I have been up to our usual antics as you can see from the pictures below!

Friday night we decided to hang out with our old friends, the Cowans. I'll do a separate post about that night as I have a few sweet pics of the girls together. We had a great visit, even though it seemed like everything else went wrong that night!

AK put her jammies on when we got home... bwa ha ha ha ha!

Saturday morning, we got out of the house early as Miss Shernett showed up just past 7am to clean! We went out for breakfast and then had our usual ballet class, which was loads of fun as always. Afterwards, we headed out to the "punkin" patch with Hunter and Jess. AK picked out a little "punkin" for herself and a bigger one for me. I think we have enough pumpkins now! There was a bouncy castle that interested AK for about two minutes, then we went looking through the store to see what was in there. AK was quite enthralled with the Halloween decorations, and of course we couldn't pass up some face art! Check out the beautiful fairy. I know the picture is out of focus but it's the best one I got. I may go back later this week to try to take some pics of AK amongst the pumpkins. I think she was just too overwhelmed and distracted to let me take any pics on Saturday.

Once we got home and had some lunch, a nap was in order. Guess Teddy was having a hard time falling asleep as there was light in his eyes? This kid cracks me up.

We ended up going over to the Forsyths for games night on Saturday. I almost decided against going as I was feeling a bit tired but I got my second wind and it was a lot of fun for both kiddies and adults! The kiddies had a popcorn party and watched Dora - they partied hard, I think they were up til about 1030pm! Mind you, the adult party didn't break up until about 1am either... thank goodness AK slept in a bit on Sunday morning! It has been so rainy here lately and it rained most of the weekend, so we took advantage of the weather on Sunday to just chill out at home. We didn't even make it to church, we were so lazy. The sun peeked out for a bit in the morning, and we ran outside to blow some bubbles.

On Friday, when I picked up AK from daycare, I was wearing her cross. I like to wear it sometimes when she's not with me as I feel like I'm keeping her close to my heart in a tangible way. When she saw me wearing it, she asked me to take it off, as she didn't want me wearing it. What she didn't realize was that I was happy to take it off... but I wasn't going to put it on her! I want her to wear it only for special occassions and as we were going out to meet the Cowans, the risks of the chain breaking and the pendant being lost were too great for my comfort. AK threw quite the fit... and when she stopped crying, she made a point of telling me so, thinking I'd give her the pendant then. When I told her that I was still not giving it to her, she threw another fit. Goodness! Thankfully two fits were enough to get over it. I explained to her that she would be able to wear the cross to church on Sunday, and she accepted that.

Well, because we didn't go to church on Sunday, that plan fell through. AK asked me at one point when we were going to church as she wanted the cross. When I explained to her that we'd already missed it, she started to get upset, so I told her that she could wear it when we went out for supper with Sofia that night. That satisfied her and we were both happy. I had to wake AK from her nap to go for supper... as soon as she opened her eyes, she asked "I get to wear my cross now?". Smart kid... she's got her eye on the prize! She wore the cross with pride that night!

Look at this crazy outfit AK put together one day. I think she looks like the toddler version of the crazy lady from West Bay. A too-big dress, shoes and socks that don't match the dress and beautifully gaudy jewelry. She insisted on wearing the earrings to school just to show her friends, and happily took them off and gave them to me for safekeeping as soon as we walked in the classroom door. The dress stretched so much as the day went on that AK's teachers put a shirt on her to keep her decent.


AK came home on Friday with a special award... she got the classroom award for listening to direction and following rules! How special! I am very proud of her! We had to take it back this morning, as I guess there are several awards that are given out for special behavior each week. We also took our compost offerings... I've never seen ladies so happy to receive fruit and vegetable peels!

I spent some time tonight preparing for a new venture that I'm particpating in next week... I'm going to be a volunteer for Junior Achievement and will be teaching a course to some elementary school kids starting next Monday! I hope I have what it takes! I'm not nervous yet but I'm sure I will be as I get closer to the first class. As for the running, I'm not getting out there as much as I had planned but I am seeing progress and that's all that matters right now! My body is starting to complain a bit already as I increase the length of the runs but I'll just balance the running with yoga to stretch everything out and keep it all balanced.

Well, it's taken me a while to write this up! Time for bed. I'll do a post about our time with the Cowans tomorrow.

Hanging out with friends!

AK and I are so lucky to have the social life that we do. We are always on the go, and it just makes us appreciate and enjoy the downtime that much more! On Saturday afternoon, I woke AK from her nap to go celebrate Gracelyn's first birthday. Check out this beautiful birthday girl! She's hanging out at the coolers like a true party girl!

Gracie's party was a great time. AK was pretty stuck to me as she was still trying to wake up from her nap but after about half an hour, she was in party mode and nowhere to be seen! The birthday cupcakes were wonderful and the birthday girl pretty much inhaled hers. If we weren't sure before if Gracie was Jenni's child, well now we know that she's got her mother's sweet tooth :)

We gathered all the three year olds together for a photo. Feels like just yesterday that this gang was born. From l-r we have Molly, Lucas, AK, Hunter and Matthew.

Matthew, Hunter and AK in the hot tub just seconds before the noodle "plane" took off and AK ended up in over her head... sigh...

Cindy sent this photo from our dinner date the other night. Aren't these two so precious?

AK ate an amazing dinner last night. I had done ribs in a bbq sauce in the slow cooker on the weekend (what a treat!) and I wasn't sure if AK would eat them. She inhaled them!!! She also had some rice, edamame beans and cheese. I don't think I've seen her eat this much in weeks! I took the meat off the bones for AK but ended up sharing my still-on-the-bone ribs with AK as she was fascinated by the bone, and the process of eating the meat off of it. Strange girl...

I told AK that Anna and Sofia (our friends from North Carolina) were coming for a visit. She said "I know Sofia!" and "I can't wait to see Sofia!". They should be landing right about now so I'll see if I hear from them today or not, but I hope we'll be seeing lots of them this weekend!

My adventures in Toronto

Wow, did that weekend away ever go quickly!

My flights were all fine, no delays or significant issues. I had a wonderful visit with my friend Lindsay, I got to meet her little boy and her boyfriend, and see her perfect house. She took me shopping, which was so nice, I got everything on my list knocked off, no problem. She was amazing during our 3 (should have been about 1.25) hour drive back to Toronto! It was so good to have the time to just chat and visit though. We met a bunch of other friends for supper in Toronto, which was SO lovely, it was a really great group of ladies and conversation just flowed. One of them offered to walk over to Dean's condo, and she delivered me safely after a 45 (should have been 15) min walk :) ah, it felt good to stretch my legs!

It was such a pleasure to spend the weekend celebrating with Dean and Trish, and our family. What a beautiful bride, handsome groom, and they are so blessed with loving family and wonderful friends.

Cousins Dawn and Karl

Aunty Barb and Uncle Jerry - parents of the groom

Aunty Connie and Uncle Bill - unfortunately I did not get a picture of Jon and Ben

Me with Cousin Dean

Me with my new Cousin Trish and the infamous last drink that I probably shouldn't have had...

Absolutely gorgeous couple... here's to a wonderful wedded life for you! xoxo

The weekend went by so quickly that it almost seemed a dream... but a sweet dream at that!

Catching my breath!

Oh, it's been a busy week!!!

AK and I have been busy being social butterflies. We got a last minute invite to Forsyths for supper on Wednesday night. AK and Molly were in matching outfits! How funny is that? AK asked me on the way there if "Molly was in a different house" as we took a different route than we normally do to beat rush hour traffic. She then told me that she hadn't been to Molly's house "in a long long time". The girls had a ton of fun playing together then watching some movies while the adults ate. AK was happy to go home until I asked her to put back a toy of Molly she was trying to sneak out the door... she has developed a habit of wanting to take something home with her from everywhere that she leaves. Doesn't help that daycare let her take a little lego piece the other day, saying that it was okay as long as she brought it back. Well, now I can't find it and they've created a habit!!!

Last night, we picked up Hunter and took him to Jess' work. The kids snacked on the way there and chatted up a storm. Every time I told Hunter we were going to his mommy's work, he'd say "no way"! After we dropped him off, we picked up some chicken and headed over to Huys for supper. AK and Matthew had an absolute blast playing together. I don't think Jenni and I have ever seen them so silly! AK called Jenni "Matthew's mommy" and demanded to know where the "stuff" for the Cars desk was. Jenni said that AK could come over another day to color. We tried to read stories to the kids before bedtime but they were both acting up and both ended up going to bed without any stories! AK even earned a timeout on the side of the road walking back to our car... that's a first! Whew!

Tonight we just chilled out. We collected Hunter again today, and he and AK shared some snacks and attempted to play bingo. I said to Jess that whoever invented bingo games for 3 year olds was somewhat cruel... or very very patient. Which I am not. AK spoke on the phone briefly to Grandma, Grandpa and Baba tonight. While I was on the phone with Baba, AK got a sparkle in her eye and dug out her harmonica for some music practice. Baba really seemed to enjoy hearing it in the background! Hope she doesn't have a headache now from the noise!

Tomorrow is a big day - ballet lessons and a birthday party! I hope the weather stays sunny.

30 in 30

***I just noticed this in my drafts folder. Somehow I neglected to publish this a few weeks ago!!!***

Well, here's the official announcement that I've finished my yoga challenge. I successfully attended 30 classes in 30 days. That was a bit of a tough accomplishment considering I was away for 3 days and wasn't able to go another 2 days. I only got one babysitter!!! How's that for amazing?

Now I'm on to my next challenge starting tomorrow... I'll begin training to run my share of a marathon. I've signed up with three other girls to do a relay team for the marathon on Dec 4th. I'll start off this week with some 5K runs... hopefully they won't kill me!

***update on the running - it is killing me - well my knee anyway. Boo!***

Tea Party!

AK's class has been exploring the biblical theme "Jesus ate with his disciples". Matthew 26:26 says "While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples". How better than for the children to practice this theme than by having a tea party?

Unfortunately the tea party was held on Friday while I was in Toronto so I was not able to attend. Why is there this trend of me not being able to attend WEE Care events??? Anyway... the school shared some photos with the parents.

The class was working on the color blue and the letter B recently.

The current theme that the class is working on is 'I am Special". It will be interesting to see how they learn about this!

Tonight, I am going to a PTF (Parent Teacher Fellowship) function. My friend Jess is on the executive committee this year so she's roping me into volunteering for all the functions, which is fine by me :) it's good to have a push to participate and be more involved.

AK's Great Adventure!

Jess took AK to ballet on Saturday morning and snapped these precious pics. Didn't I tell you about how AK admires herself in the mirror? Caught in the act!!!

And how she spends time watching the adults in the observation windows instead of paying attention to the teacher?

AK made a new friend at Thanksgiving dinner - Jacquie helped Jess take care of AK. I understand they even went swimming together!

All the kids bunked down to watch some TV together. I'm not sure why AK is all alone on the far side of the bed? Perhaps she had gas :)

Watching color TV

I got some great big hugs and smiles from AK when I walked in the door last night. Didn't take long for her to whine at me though, and Jess was stunned as she had not heard one bit of whining all weekend! AK said that she had a lot of fun and that she'd stay with the Babbs again one day. I told AK some stories about all the family I had been visiting with. She remembered Great-Aunty Barb and Great-Aunty Connie the best.

Thankfully she slept until after 7am this morning as my eyelids were not cooperating with my attempts to open them. Boy oh boy, I'm tired!

Happy Thanksgiving - Project Grow

It is ironic that as Canada winds up the harvest and celebrates with a big meal, here in Cayman, AK's school is just now planting a garden as part of Project Grow.

Project Grow is a school garden project helping students and teachers learn the principles of gardening through the development of sustainable school gardens. This project aims to teach children about nutrition and sustainable agriculture. As everywhere, obesity is becoming a serious issue here, and having the children learn where their healthy food comes from can only be helpful. I think it will be exciting for the children to participate in caring for this garden, and then ultimately enjoy the harvest.

AK was selected to be a representative for her classroom for the ground-breaking event, at which media was present. I happened upon the Project Grow website today and was able to pull these three photos of AK participating in in the Plant Day. Unfortunately I was tied up during training at work that day and could not attend, but I can see from the pictures that AK did me and her classmates proud!




I am so thankful that AK's school cares so deeply about their students and participates in a program such as this. Between reading about this and a local farm, I'm almost inspired to plant my own garden... but I also accept my limitations, both in terms of my gardening skills and my lack of space for a garden... but perhaps there will be a bit of a patio garden starting up in the near future. I'll keep you posted!

I just opened the newspaper this morning and found this article about the garden! There were a couple of pictures in the paper that aren't online but they aren't great quality and the ones above are much better. My little girl's a celebrity!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone... no holiday here, and I sure could use it after the whirlwind of a weekend I just had. There will be further posts detailing both my and AK's adventures.

Well...

My bags are packed and I'm ready to roll!

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be on my way to Toronto for Cousin Dean's wedding! I am really excited about this trip, as short as it'll be. My dear friend Lindsay will pick me up at the airport tomorrow night and I'll get to spend most of Friday with her and her family. We'll meet up with some friends for Happy Hour in Toronto, and then I'll make my way to my cousin's condo where we're having a pre-wedding gathering. The rest of the weekend will be spent with my aunts, uncles and cousins.

AK's bag is also packed and ready to roll... Jess took it home with her last night. AK will have a special weekend of sleepovers with the Babbs. I know she will have a ton of fun! Jess is over the moon at the opportunity to take AK to her ballet lessons on Saturday.

Tomorrow will be day 25 of the yoga challenge and I'll have 28 classes down as long as I wake up on time tomorrow to go to the 630am class. I will just have to do one class each on Monday and Tuesday and I'll have successfully completed the challenge.

Cayman has had some awesome stormy weather lately. Monday morning, the clouds were SO dark, it actually felt like it was nighttime. There was not a bit of sunshine to be seen. There was some great lightening and thunder as well, the lights at work flickered quite a bit. I guess it must have stormed all night last night as Jess said that Hunter didn't sleep :( he is so frightened of the lightening and thunder.

Work has been very busy this week but I am feeling good about leaving for the weekend tomorrow. Next week will be busy too but that's how quarter-end goes!

Jamming on the mouth harp!

Baba bought AK a pretty special gift this summer - a harmonica! When we returned home, I thought I had left it behind :( but after I finally unpacked my last bag, I found it packed in a bag in a bag, no wonder I couldn't find it!

AK was showing off on the harmonica the other night - she can play and dance at the same time! Don't think I'll let her quit her day job any time soon though! Click on the word "Harmonica" below to go to the video.

Harmonica

September's schoolwork!

AK's teachers sent home her work binder on Friday for me to look through. Check out the awesome things AK's done in the last month!

Cutting and pasting with yellow paper in "numero uno"

Tracing the letter A! How exciting!

This is the alligator I watched AK color one day. Alligator starts with "A", so does AK!

Red circle

Coloring "la manzana roja"

Tracing the number 1

AK's teachers have commented on how well she does with her schoolwork. I'm thinking all the workbooks Grandma Z did with AK this summer have sure helped! I hope you enjoyed this look at AK's schoolwork as much as I did. xo