I am finding it a bit of a challenge to keep up with life right now, so I haven’t had much time to post anything recently.

To start back at Thanksgiving, we had a really lovely weekend at the cabin where we celebrated my birthday, our 10-year anniversary and Thanksgiving. It was a beautifully sunny weekend with  lots of time to relax and give thanks for the many wonderful things we have in our life. Mark and Elise joined us for a rather impromptu Thanksgiving dinner. Ineke decorated the table (we used a sheet as a table cloth and leaves for the centrepiece!) Chris smoked a turkey which turned out beautifully.

The past week has been all about Halloween and it all culminated tonight with the big event! After two visits to the pumpkin patch (once with Willem’s preschool and one with Bas and Ineke at a birthday party) we had found the perfect pumpkins to carve. Last Saturday we spent the whole afternoon carving…the kids actually did their own pumkins!! Amazing. Other than helping them scoop out the guts, all three of them carved the pumpkins themselves. Personally, I think they look amazing!

Halloween tonight was great! Two ninjas and a mermaid princess! Way too much candy. But lots and lots of fun. They dressed up for school today and had fun doing face painting with their afterschool caregiver, Jen and her daughter Aura (who is in Ineke’s class). Tonight we went to Rann and Tara’s neighbourhood where we enjoyed walking through the misty streets going from decorated house to house! An embarrasing amount of candy to be honest. They really had fun and all agreed that it was the best day of the year!

Pumpkin magic!

Fall day at the beach

Thanksgiving turkey

toaster oven apple pie…yes it can be done

Ineke’s Thanksgiving decorations

Willem and his best buddy Oliver

Pumkin carving

cake for the school Halloween Howl!

Oom Mark’s airplane!

soccer star

sketching our garden flowers in fieldjournals

with Jen and Aura

Aura…the good witch!!

All ready to go trick or treating

Trick-or-Treat!

spooky!!….ok not that spooky

sparkler fun

the loot!

zombie princess and her dia los muertos mother!

Ineke, Ella, Bas, Lucas, Samuel, Willem