Halloween

We had fun this halloween, Mom was still here and this was her first american halloween for a few decades!

The school had a parade for both boys...

Ashton the Skeleton pirate!!!!!!!

Tom the Army man....

We also went trick or treating around our nieghourhood for the frist time in years as our old ward would do a trick or trunk. My Mom came too.

As there was rain that night not many kids were about, so we had to empty our buckets into tom's backpack, they were a little full.

New additon to the Crew.

Tom had always wanted a pet!

And he tells us regularly that he needs one, so........

here is the long awaited one, a baby Guinea pig, just 6 weeks old and really cute!

She is a girl called... Hallie, Short for Halloween!!!

I love seeing Tom's smile!

Mon's visit

Well just a few weeks pass the move and mike's work is sending off accross country for 10 days... so my mom came to help me out for 2 weeks and we have done loads of stuff in the new area, here a few of them.

Just a few blocks away is a manor house which has been turned into a park with nice gardens, walks and playgrounds.

when it rains we have a stream out back of our apartment...looks like it was design just for little boys!.

We also exsplored the local widelife trails!

We've moved AT LAST!

Yes we finally got out of that place. and into a really big apartment ina nice area. In fact the school that the boys go to call our complex of apartment "THE apartment", as they are the only ones in thier catchment area!.
The move hectic, as would would guess, and we need to go back a second time with the truck.... guess my reducing binge wasn't good enough!
do we have photos... sorry no I can't seem to get hold of the camera when the boys are at school and the place look tidy. I;m sure over the next few months you will get to see it... somewhen.

Shark week

As I have a house full of males we lean towards very male likings, such as Pirates, army men and SHARKs. Last week discovery channel on TV had thier annual Shark week, where every programme talked about sharks. We all love it and watched it all week. Following this a few days ago the boys and I went off to our local second-hand store and found a great big pillow in the shape of a SHARK. with 2 litlle boys with thier puppy dog looks and a price tag of just $2, I too could'n resist. so home it came with us. 2 little boys carried it out the store one on the head the other holding it up by the tail. I relized then, with all the looks we were getting just what I had done!.

Anyway we buckled it in and drove home, and for the last 4 days Ashton has dragged it behind him, which is funny as it is bigger than he is. Ash takes this shark everywhere, inside. including the bathroom for potty breaks and has even been seen siting in a chair watching ash play on the computers. He also takes it to bed!

As with all big pillows and boys, it gets thrown around and used to bashed each other with, one time Dad and tom was have a 'shark attack' moment, Ash went mad and screamed that they are hurting it.So mike being a great Dad tried to kiss it better ....." dad that's a shark, you don't kiss them, they BITE"!.... so they learnt something form shark week on TV.

Oh and it's name, "sharkie" of course.

Finding a new home!

As Mike has started a new job, the commute to the new place is alot longer. So we have need of a new place to live, nearer to his work which is alot harder than it sounds. We found an are area liked near to the right train station. So we started to look and look and look. first at houses.... way too expensive, then townhouses, again toooo expensive then we finally realized that we are going to be in apartment again! this is the problem of moving to a better area with better schools and good shopping, it's more expensive!
I wasn't finding anything likeable let alone loveable and I decided I had enough when 1 last search turned up the one!
We are currently living ina 2 bedroom 1 bathroom ground floor apartment, that looks out to the main walkway into the building. It's a great like apartment and well kept complex, but it was just too small for us.
our list for a new place was:
1. Dish washer not named mom.
2. washer and dyer in the apartment.
3. ground floor, so I don't have to tell the kids to watch there heavy feet.
4. 3 bedrooms.
5. connects with outside ie patio.
6. lighter/ more sun.
7. allocated parking.

well, the list was largely got with new apartment. It is 1180sq feet ( acurrent one is 850). has 2 bedrooms and a office nook of the master ( for mikes office),second bathroom just for adults, washer and dryer in the apartment. and a bigger kitchen with a dishwasher!!! in fact while looking at this place we had a great kid moment. here is the transcript of that moment:
When I was looking at the dishwasher, when ash asked:

A: Mom, what's that?
E: A dish washer.
A: Don't you do that?
E: yes, but this will do it instead.
A: is there a person inside it then?
E: no it looks like this inside.
A: Hummm....I think you should do it.

Don't you just love kids!

So in 3 weeks we move.... finally. The bad news is that the kids will need to move to a new school and the school start a week before we move, so the kids have a longer holiday!. hey more help with the packing!!!!

4th July 2009

We had a great Day. It started early at 7am for flag raising and breakfast at the Chapel. This year as tom is on scouts he got to help put up the flag.

he was prcticing the day before and I was watching him, do the boogie!! here is a mini movie to prove that he can be good when he needs to.. oh and looks good in his scout uniform.

We stayed for breakfast afterwards and it was great not having to help out this year but be with the family and talk to people.

Everyone loved mike's artwork on our faces .

Afterwards we came home and SLEPT.

later we had a BBQ with the Kieslings at thier place and found out they have a new job in IOWA starting in august, just a few weeks away, we will miss them greatly!

After we had stuffed ourselfs we went to the college park fireworks.

As a kid firework explode into really big balls that seem to srink each year you grow, this year these fireworks were MASSIVE and we were not near them. I loved them especailly the really big ones... Ash wasn't so keen, but "the small ones were fun"!