C'est l'Halloween

Just a quick photo-centred post about Halloween.

(It's been fun to have Madeline coming home from school singing songs in French and practicing her words.  She's really loving it)

The pirate, hippie (is it hippie or hippy?), flapper, ballerina Layton family at the dance.

Madeline first decorated all the pumpkins with markers...which meant that as we held onto them during the carving process, we got marker all over our hands!  Fun times.

Ryan's not a big fan of the pumpkin guts smell, 

so us girls were on our own for scraping out the funny business.

Claire seemed to like the feeling of the innards.

Designing the fun faces.

Claire was very intent on her necklace at the time, but definitely perked up once the candles were lit in the pumpkins and the lights were turned off.

SHAZAM!

(If you're wondering why our house looks so cluttered and there's furniture covering every spare inch and computers taking over the world, it's because our basement is still a construction zone.  We're kind of living in half a house for the moment!)

Claire was very happy with the finished product.

Our silly girls...

Both girls got all dressed up for school.

Our 1920s flapper.

The kindergarten kids did a parade through the entire school before ending up in the gym for a party.

I made some Halloween goodies.  The tale of the spider cookies is legendary.  I think they're cursed (or I am).  After leaving the cookies on the wrong table at the kindergarten party so the afternoon class got them but not the morning, the ones we took to Claire's class got dropped in the snow.  

Maybe I'll try a new recipe next year!

Claire's class had a fun Halloween afternoon.

As we added more accessories to Claire's ballerina outfit, she started looking more like a flapper too, so we just ran with it.

The kids doing a spooky dance in the gym.

We capped the evening off with a fun party at the aunties' house.

Hanging out with auntie Stephanie.

Decorating with auntie Natalie.

Hanging out with cousin Noah.

Madeline being dramatic for the camera, although those bloody handprints were pretty cool.  

Trick or treaters kept putting their hands up to them on the outside of the door.

Rambunctious uncle Ryan.  

Always good for a toss in the air or feats of strength.

Our gracious hosts for the evening.

Someone was pretty excited about the party... (Yes, me.)

Madeline, again showing her complete lack of enthusiasm for the event.

Lots of yummy treats.

Madeline wanted cousin Adam to do a skeleton and was a bit surprised to see that he did a fish bone skeleton instead.  She needs to be more specific next time.

Claire having her food.  Ryan being sexy.

Because it was so cold, Ryan just took Madeline up and down the block and this is how much she got!

The haps

We had a busy month, as per usual.  Right now I'm listening to Demetri Martin's Standup Comedian routine on Rdio.  If you haven't heard of any of these things, you should check them out.  

Madeline started taking the bus a few weeks into school.  

When we ventured out on the first day,

 we saw this bunny hiding in a little indent in our neighbour's yard.

So exciting!

This was the first and only day she's actually turned around to wave.  Now she's busy socializing the minute she gets in there and is much too busy.  I still stand there like a goon, hoping she'll turn around and wave one day.  Oh my, I sound a little weird.  I swear I'm not a helicopter parent!

Madeline had her school pictures taken this month with a nice cheesy smile, a movie date with Dad and a playdate with Eric, along with all her cool school activities and afternoons with mom.

Luckily she has an auntie who actually knows how to curl hair so she gets the salon treatment once and a while.

She's been doing great with gymnastics, passing most of her level 3 skills and almost all of level 4.  

I got to go to Safety City with Madeline and her class to learn about crossing the street safely.  

First they had a tutorial.

It's nice to know that Madeline isn't the only drama queen in kindergarten.

Half of the class drove the quads around the little city roads while the rest practiced the 7 steps for safe crossing.  

They had a blast!

Presented without comment:

We sure enjoyed those last few warm days before the snow came!

Madeline loves putting on puppet shows.

Claire is always an appreciative audience member.

But has more fun as part of the show!

We had a nice Thanksgiving with the Laytons.

Music...

gun fights...

and laughter.  

The perfect combination.  (Also delicious food.)

Claire was invited to a neat sensory experience with the Cavalia group through the CNIB. 

She got to touch the horses' tack and other equipment.  She really liked this white bridle.  

We stopped to say hi to some of the horses.  

This one was really interested in Claire and her chair. 

(Cell phone camera, no flashes allowed = blurry)

The kids got to touch some of the horses' food as part of the sensory component.

It was fun to see the neat hairstyles of some of the horses.

The tents were really cool.

They brought a couple of horses in for the kids to meet.

It was lots of fun.

At the end we all gathered in a circle and four horses rode around so the kids could feel their hoofbeats and hear the sounds of their equipment jingling.  It was a neat experience!

We've also been doing family yoga once a week with the Cerebral Palsy Association of Alberta.  Claire had her picture day and we've had IPP meetings and a lifting/walking inservice for her helpers at school.

Madeline's doing really well with writing her letters and being creative.

This was a picture of Claire in the middle of a giggling fit.  

It was pretty funny.  I love her rosy cheeks here.

Madeline is very involved in meal preparation these days (whether I require the help or not...).  

She likes to be in charge of presenting fancy dinners.

She's even brought us breakfast in bed a couple of times.  What a sweetheart.

We've been lucky to have Noah over here once and a while when Stephanie visits the doctor.  It's exciting to know that we'll have a new little nephew soon!  (Plus another one a few weeks after that!)

He and Madeline had fun together one afternoon.

One night I tried to take a picture at midnight because it was so bright outside.  

This was taken without a flash, but it was more orangey than the picture showed.  It was pretty neat!

Claire fell asleep on the couch one afternoon and when we took the blanket off, we saw how she was laying.  Our little Egyptian mummy.

For some reason Madeline is doing some sort of gang sign in this picture.  

I wonder what goes on in her kindergarten at recess...

Anyway, Claire got a nice new chair (A Special Tomato) for home and she was testing it out.  We're also getting a new bath chair for her.  We're in the process of investigating a more supportive bed and a wheelchair accessible van but that's quite a daunting process.

Ryan and I went to the Smashing Pumpkins concert with some friends.  

It was pretty good, but really loud.  We're not as young as we once were [sigh].

Ryan's been over the top busy lately with teaching, the Apple store, master's degree courses, leadership course, being on the PD committee at school, doing a leadership retreat with students, deejaying a school dance, filming videos, conducting interviews at head office for the district and still managing to pitch in at home.  He's definitely looking forward to the beginning of December when at least his courses will be done...until January.

I've been doing my volunteer thing at both schools and with the park redevelopment project.  I've also been quite busy with transcription projects which has been nice.  I had a nice visit with Kathy one evening and have enjoyed being an occasional babysitter for little ones.