Halloween 2011

The night before Halloween, Jess set up a photo shoot for the kids so we could take our time taking pictures of them in their costumes (and avoid those winter coat stuffed under the costume type photos!) So, here are some pictures of their costumes for this Halloween.

Hudson:

Hudson was happy to dress up in an old dragon costume that I bought a few years ago so I was glad there was no sewing required for this one. And he really liked being a very fierce fire breathing dragon. There are no sound effects with these photos but you can imagine him hissing and roaring as he poses for the camera, making his very fiercest dragon noises.

Maira:

Maira was such a little poser for this photo shoot, she makes me laugh. She decided right from the start that if we were going to take a picture of her as a mermaid, it was absolutely essential that she be sitting on a rock. So, we used a quilt and a foam chair to make a rock for her to pose on and then she took a seat, made sure her feet were tucked under her tail, and started posing away. Too funny.

Connor:

Connor is fascinated with anything military. So it was very important to him that his costume this year involve weapons and armor of some sort. He settled on a Roman legionnaire as his choice and I gladly turned over the costume construction to Jess on this one. And no, he's not going to be bringing that sword with him when he goes trick-or-treating. That sword is Jess's, he just let Connor hold it for the photos!

Shae:

This is her last year going trick-or-treating, and I only reluctantly let her go this year and only because she didn't get to go out last year since Halloween was on a Sunday. She decided she wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood. She picked a costume pattern that was much more involved than I had expected but I managed to finish it in time and she does make quite a pretty Little Red Riding Hood.

Fall Happenings

I really love fall, even though I still miss the vivid fall colours from Ontario, it's just not the same here where almost all of the trees turn yellow. But it's still really beautiful, especially because it's so fleeting. We didn't really need an updated family photo but we had such beautiful weather in September and the trees were just starting to turn so I dragged everyone down to the river valley and asked Jess to bring his tripod and here are some of the pictures we got.

And while I miss the flaming oranges and reds from Ottawa, I have to admit, the rich golden yellow in the background of these pictures is pretty gorgeous.

And, here are a few outtakes from the same day.

In September, we also got to go and visit our newest little niece/cousin, Brinsley Strickland.

Here's Hudson kissing/eating his cousin:

And then in October, we visited again so we could attend her baby blessing.

One of our fall traditions is to visit the corn maze near our house. This year, they added a giant pillow type trampoline and the kids had lots of fun on that.

This isn't the greatest picture but it shows that we got to go to the corn maze with our wonderful cousins, the Bench family. We sure love having them in Edmonton, we'll miss them when they leave.

Maira will especially miss Amelia.

Here are a couple random pictures of Hudson from the fall. I can't believe how grown up he looks in these pictures, he's definitely not a baby anymore (as he likes to remind me every day now: "I big boy")

And finally, a couple more pictures of my kids out enjoying the beautiful golden leaves of fall.

Back to School 2011

Grade 2

Grade 8

4 year old Playschool

Maira started school a week and half after Connor and Shae. This is us literally running to school because she was so excited to finally go!