This Post is Brought to You by the Letter D

Our Halloween preparations are in full swing. This evening, Amy and I began the much anticipated ritual known as the stuffing of the Halloween bags.

When I was young, my Mom used to lay out brown paper bags on the kitchen table and write each child's name on the bag (small community!). Various treats and goodies were then laid out on each bag . . . meticulously . . . no repeats and she was mindful of sibling groups, meaning each child in each family would get a different coloured pencil. If someone did not show up for trick-or-treating (which rarely happened), it would be delivered to her the next day.

I am my Mother's daughter, and although I don't use brown paper bags, I do lay the colourful plastic bags out on the table and the contents of the bag are checked for duplicates. Sibling groups are also taken into account (given I'm a psychologist, Robin insists I should be able to get help cheaply and easily!). And so, Amy and I stuffed the Halloween bags tonight. It began by making a list of the children we know and creating a bag for each one of them. I don't go so far as to write their names on the bags - that's crazy! Actually, I think I used to do that too. Then we place the candy in each of the bags. Amy loved it . . . for the first hour.

Then she was off to work on her letters on her easel. I was called over to admire the letter D for Dada, but she would not sit still while I took her picture. The following pictures are what resulted after a number of tries. I think she must have absorbed tonnes of sugar by osmosis.

Pumpkin Carving

Today was pumpkin carving day in our house. As soon as Amy and I got home, we broke out the pumpkins and began to create our masterpieces.

Amy first scooped out the guts . . . . . . okay, truth be told, I snapped this picture just before she declared this part of the job to be "too yucky for a little girl" and then I was quickly informed it was a "Mama job".

After I scooped the guts, she drew on the faces. This has been the area of much discussion over the past few days. Should we have a happy face? A sad face? Goofy one? Mad?? In the end goofy won out. I'm not sure, however, that it was that much different than the sad or happy she had been practicing on paper. They all tended to look the same.

It's a good thing I'm not a plastic surgeon as I somehow managed to connect one of the eyes to the mouth. And the tooth picks? They're not there to create just another pretty face, but they are actually holding the pumpkin up so the face does not cave in. I guess I should have suggested that the mouths not run over half the circumference of the pumpkins. My favourite part is the tiny little eyebrows on the big pumpkin. It makes it look surprised.

Happy almost Halloween!

Amy, the Chef

Ever since Amy joined our family, I have encouraged her to cook and bake. In the beginning, there were more eggs on the floor than in the bowl, but now she is quite the master chef. She knows where most of the basic ingredients are kept (better than someone else who lives in this house!) and has her own set of bake ware and utensils. As soon as I mention that we are making muffins, out comes the flour, sugar, eggs and her bowl. Most things are accessible to her (that's what happens without cupboard doors) and whatever isn't soon is with the help of her Learning Tower.

Tonight, we had our usual Sunday Night Supper; a gathering of a few close friends and family for dinner, usually a traditional roast. With the approaching holiday, I thought it would be fun to serve the potatoes as ghosts. Amy was all over this! I piped the majority of the ghosts, with her help on a few of them, and then she placed all the eyes. They were great, and very few ghosts ended up cross eyed! After dinner, Robin found her lying on the kitchen floor with one of my Martha Stewart cookbooks. She was busy explaining to Kelsey, one of our dinner guests, the finer points of various tomatoes.

Martha would be proud.

Corn Maze

We have now been to The Corn Maze three times this year; once with our friends from FCC, once with my work and today, we went with some friends.

Amy loves it there, but it's not the petting zoo, the Pumpkin Barn, the hay ride or even the mini donuts that she loves the best - it's the hay pyramid! She could climb that thing for hours. The worst part is that you can't help her. She has to do it herself.

And sometimes, that takes time.

She does enjoy the horse ride, but it's a little tame for her.

I really hope we're done with the Corn Maze for the year.

Coming Home

I returned home to a very happy little girl. She had a great time with Daddy, but was very happy to be held by Mommy and Mommy was very happy to hold her. As great it was to have a little break from my family, I sure missed my girl.

The remainder of the week flew by. Amy and I attended a social event for my work . . . at her favourite farm. She got to visit with the farm animals and the goats greeted her with enthusiasm. Well, after all, she is a tasty treat!

Here are a few more pictures taken last weekend of our friends Maureen and her daughter Jenna, and Heather and her daughter Lily.

And Honker, of course. He's just checking up on Amy, making sure everything is okay.

Dad's Version of a Fancy Lunch

I totally agree with Linda that a well assembled lunch box is an art form; however, as with all art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Men have different perspectives on art - as simple beings, we prefer simplicity. It is not because we are lazy, we just have many other important things to think about (hockey, football, baseball).

With Linda's absence Amy and I have had the opportunity to enjoy doing a variety of things Dada's way. Linda has usually made Amy's lunch - not because I wouldn't, but because, if I did, Linda would inevitably feel compelled to "fix it". Fortunately, the distance between Winnipeg and New York made it impossible for Linda to do anything about today's lunch, which was beautiful in its own way.
Most importantly, when I picked up Amy after school and collected her lunchbox I realized, in a moment of great joy, that the lunch had been entirely consumed (which, I quickly point out, is not always the case with certain fancy lunches!). Score one for the boys!

(Sadly, I do recognize that this blog will likely only exist until it is read by Linda ...)

Tonight, in addition to spending a few hours cleaning up in preparation for the return of Mama (nothing really - of course, the house has been spotless all weekend!), we were outside playing school bus, which involves one of us waiting patiently and the other driving up in the imaginary school bus. A password is required to get on the bus and then the rider follows the driver all around the lawn. Fortunately, it was dark out as we were doing this, so no one should have seen us wandering around the lawn for a half hour.

Mama is back tomorrow. Two people cannot wait.

Roll with It

The number one attribute that parents either have or must develop is, of course, patience. Although the degree to which patience is required may decrease as kids get older (although some teenagers require more patience than others - I am not naming any names, but she knows who she is), it is always a necessity.

Today contained a moment where a large dose of patience was required. But first ... we had a fun morning at home. Yesterday I mentioned my attempt at pony tails. Today I did better and the evidence is below (the 2nd and 3rd pictures don't really show off the pony tails, but I liked the faces).

We then had the arrival of our friends Isabelle and Adrian. Izzy is two months younger than Amy (and Adrian is about two decades younger than me). The kids had a great time downstairs and continued the fun outside, with a ride on a pirate ship. Amy was the Captain and Izzy the navigator. The leaf pile provided a perfect opportunity to rest up from the voyage.

Our visit concluded with lunch at the Half Moon (yes, I know, two visits in less than 18 hours seems a little excessive, but our guests requested them!) and, after burgers and hot dogs, ice cream cones for the girls. After saying our goodbyes, Amy polished off her Triple Tornado in no time as we headed to her dance class.

It is about a 40 minute drive, and Amy crashed five minutes into it. Unfortunately, when Amy has a sleep during the day she either awakens ready to go (as was the case yesterday when Maureen woke her up) or she is groggy and unenthusiastic. Today was the latter - she had no desire to attend dance class. No amount of cajoling or amateur child psychology could change her mind. Although a wee bit frustrated at the thought of driving that distance for nothing, Tannis (Hope and Frankie's mother - Hope is in the same dance class) offered sensible advice - "roll with it".

That is, of course, the only thing to do in those situations. As a result, we eventually watched most of the class, with Amy occasionally dancing from the sidelines. Although I inquired with some frequency as to whether she might wish to change and join the class, she was content not to and I, in a brilliant flash of insight, decided that attempting to compel her to change would likely be counter-productive.

After class, we headed to our old neighborhood and, since it was a beautiful, sunny 15 degree day, we spent several hours on and around various play structures. Amy's daring on most climbing equipment occasionally causes her father to have heart palpitations, but we avoided a trip to the hospital.

An almost perfect day concluded with a trip to Auntie Carol's to take her some food, which turned into an impromptu visit while I went to the office for two hours. Amy is now asleep and I have been engaging in my nightly struggle with downloading pictures. I miss Linda and am keenly looking forward to her return, for all the usual reasons and one that I will not disclose to her - attempting to blog has not been nearly as easy as I had anticipated ...

Hair and There

One of the challenges of being a Dad with a little girl is dealing with hair. I have much less than I formerly had but, even when I had hair, I never spent more than 10 seconds on its arrangement. Although I tried some "fancy" braiding of Kristin's hair when she was little (probably scarring her forever) I have never acquired the skill which seems to automatically exist in women, particularly with respect to installation of "Krissys", as Amy long ago named the tiny rubber bands used to put her hair up. Today, however, was different - at Amy's request, Dad did two pony tails. Although hardly very professional, they were not awful, which I considered to be a major victory.

After that major success, we went to Auntie Carol's. Although she admired the pony tails, when I returned to pick up Amy, she now had gorgeous French braids, which made my amateur attempts look ... amateur.

When we got home we had a great visit with Maureen and her daughter Jenna, who is now 8, and Heather and her daughter Lily, who is 3. Jenna was in charge as the girls played downstairs and outside. Amy loved the visit - Maureen always makes her silly, but Jenna was able to maintain control.

The visit concluded with a trip to the Half Moon for ice cream, where Amy had her recent favourite, the "Triple Tornado". It is a vividly multi-coloured creation of unknown flavours, which Amy considers to be delicious. We then said goodbye to our friends and came home to wind down after several hours of frivolity. That took a while.

Special Guest Blogger

Linda is in New York for a conference, so I am in charge (of course, the reality is that it is, as usual, Amy who is in charge), so I get to try to blog. I will not disclose how long this short post has taken.

When I picked up Amy after school I was met by Miss Christina, one of her teachers, who nervously informed me that "Amy cut her hair today". After I determined that I had actually heard her correctly, Miss Christina told me that several of the girls had done so. I was more than a little taken aback, so I neglected to inquire as to how the girls had managed to open a hair salon in the school without being noticed. When I inspected the new coiffure, I did not immediately notice anything, but further review this evening has caused even me to detect where the clipping occurred. It will grow back.

After school, we attended to some errands and shopping and then came home for dinner. As I was tidying, a little voice invited me to join her for a dance. I turned around and saw this ...

The Wiggles

The Wiggles came to town tonight and what a show. A few weeks ago, we saw The Backyardigans, and it was terrible in comparison. The Wiggles have such a fun act with lots going on: great singing, dancing, acrobatics and general tomfoolery. And we all love their songs!
Someone had far too much cotton candy; he even had more than Amy!

I think Anthony Wiggle is hot. Especially dressed up as a blueberry!

The show ended with streamers falling from the ceiling and landing directly on us, making for one, no two, happy campers.

Sunday, October 11th - Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving this weekend. We started out with fifteen for dinner, but my sister wasn't feeling well and my Dad and his friend Alice were stranded in Saskatchewan due to a blown up alternator, so we were down to twelve.

My brother and his family were in attendance as well as my Aunty Marilyn and good friend Arlene. The most exciting guests for Amy were her big brother and sister who flew in from Toronto for the weekend. My niece, Sarah, is taking a pastry chef course and was in charge of making the dessert . . . and she didn't disappoint! She made a delicious pumpkin carrot spice cake, decorated beautifully.

The pumpkins were actually rum balls and were fabulous.

Aunty Marilyn presided over the dinner preparations from in front of the golf game . . . with drink in hand.

With my Dad not being there, we had a bit of a dilemma - who would carve? Glen, my brother, was supposed to be carving the ham. (I thought it was a bigger ham than what was served on the platter!)

Arlene started on the dishes as they were pulled out of the oven.

We got the turkey out of the roaster in one piece!

And Robin carved the turkey.

Glen, Jill and what's left of the ham.

The kitchen was a busy place!

To escape all the chaos, Amy took Sean into the living room to teach him the finer points of Mahjong . . .

. . . while Jill and I made gravy.

Of course, Aunty Marilyn was there to assist Robin in carving the turkey. Hydrating is important, especially with pumpkin spiced beer!

Finally, it was time to eat. Happy Thanksgiving!