Scenes of Autumn

 Beautiful fall colors along Highway 20

 My Grandma's cheesecake updated to include pumpkin and spices...YUM!

Clouds and autumn colors in the distance.  

October Special Day at School

On Wednesday, I joined Arabella in her class at school for her special day.  She gets so excited about it and couldn't wait.  She was even talking about her special day the weekend before.  I love being able to go and to see what she is learning.  It is so adorable when they are singing the songs they have learned and when they are speaking French.  It is amazing to hear her talk in French - she knows way more than I do and will even correct Jay when he pronounces a word incorrectly!  Since it is October and close to Halloween - we learned all about bats, pumpkins, witches, and all things Halloween.  One of the fun activities of the day was playing with shaving cream on pumpkins - it was a lot of fun! 

We even made a special treat for the class to enjoy at snack time.  (I remember making this treat when I was little with my mom.  It is one of my fondest Halloween memories and we made it every year for I don't know how long.  And the best part was that it tasted the same as I remember!)  Arabella loved helping decorate the brownie to make it into a Jack-O-Lantern!

Happy Thanksgiving

You would think that in the 3 years that we have lived in Quebec, I would be used to celebrating Thanksgiving in October and before Halloween.  It still strikes me as odd when you hear "Happy Thanksgiving" and it is warm out, the trees are just starting to change and Halloween isn't truly in full force.  At least this year, I wasn't the only one still pondering the "Happy Thanksgiving" greetings that were a good 6 weeks early - Lori was here visiting and the look on her face was priceless when she heard it the first time.  She looked like she just stepped into the Twilight Zone!

Our Thanksgiving is celebrated on the same day as Columbus Day in the United States and the reason it is so early is because the harvest is earlier here in Canada.  We celebrate in the same way - turkey with all the fixings and giving thanks for what we are thankful for.  Arabella loved helping me make mashed potatoes and even told me that the house smelled "delicious" when she arrived home from the park.  We had a nice day, enjoyed yummy food and ended it with a fire in the backyard.

Social Butterfly

On Saturday, October 6th, Arabella made the rounds on the party circuit.  She attended 3 birthday parties in one day!  It makes me tired to think about them all over again, but she had so much fun and couldn't choose between 3 of her good friends. 

The fun started at 9:30 am at the Ecomuseum where we celebrated Emily's 2nd Birthday!  It was rainy and cool but that didn't stop the fun.  We basically had the whole place to ourselves and some of the animals came up super close.  It was so much fun even if it did rain.

After our rainy walk, we headed inside so the kids could get up close and personal with a turtle and snake.  Arabella wasn't afraid of them at all!

Then it was time for lunch, cake and presents.  We all had a great time.  Happy Birthday Emily!

Before we knew it, we were on to party Number 2!  Arabella's classmate, Parker had his birthday party at Le Petite Gym and all the kids got different superhero masks and t-shirts for the Superhero Party!  The kids had a blast running around and playing games all over the gym!  Arabella loved going on the high bar and had fun doing her moves!  It was a great party and just the right length of time - 1 1/2 hours.  Happy Birthday Parker - thank you for letting us be Superhero's with you!

After a quick stop at home to pick up Jay, we all headed to Zig Zag Zoo for the final stop on the party circuit to celebrate Christopher's 4th Birthday Party.  At this point, Auntie Lori and I were all worn out, but Jay and Arabella were able to keep up with the rest of the party animals.  At party at Zig Zag Zoo is always great - the kids get to let loose and run around like crazy and the adults have a place to relax and watch the happenings.  It was a great way to end the day!  Happy Birthday Christopher, we hope you had as much fun as we did!

We had a great day and were worn out at the end, but we wouldn't have missed any of the parties!!

Birthday Celebrations

On October 4th and October 7th, we celebrated mine and Jay's birthday's.  Sometimes, we try and combine the celebration if we are away but more often than not, we are home, so from our anniversary on September 30th until October 7th, we have a week full of parties.  We are the same age but Jay still likes to joke that he married an older woman!    Silly boy!

My birthday was great!  It may have been a dark and gloomy day but it was brightened by Arabella, Jay and Lori.  Arabella was so excited to wish me a "Happy Birthday" and helped make my day even more special.  She helped me blow out the candles on my cake, read my cards and open my gifts.  Thank you Arabella.  But before all that, Lori and I went out for a very yummy lunch at Elixor (similar to The Cheesecake Factory) - we enjoyed it and it was nice to have a relaxing lunch and be able to talk and spend time with my best friend.  Thanks Lori!

What made the day extra special was Jay cooked dinner for me - a total treat.  It wasn't anything fancy, but it was nice to have the evening off from cooking duty.  There was even an extra special dessert - Jay found a new bakery and picked up a very yummy raspberry tart and then 4 different types of mousse cups.  So delicious!

We had fun celebrating Jay too!  His birthday fell on a Sunday so it was a nice day for him to relax.  He got to play Littlest Pet Shop with Arabella...

And Arabella made very special chocolate pumpkin cakes for him...

And we loaded them up with 37 candles for him!  Arabella helped him blow them out!

And then it was card and present time - Arabella helped again and got so silly!