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Halloween!

We went to a pumpkin patch to find the best pumpkins...Therese painted her nose that morning, quite amusing :-)

Looking at the animals!

I love the pigtails on the girls :-)

The girls really enjoyed the live music there.  Greta wanted to talk to the corn characters, and did lots of dancing on the little stage.  When she was Therese's age she was really wary of the dancing corn, but not anymore!

Always a highlight--getting an apple at the pumpkin patch.  Look at those pigtails!!!

Yum Yum

Blue nose TT!

On the wagon ride out to choose a pumpkin!

Our third year with a picture like this :-)

Therese kept wanting to sit on the pumpkins, and then she would point to me and point to a pumpkin and say "Eh! Eh!" and I'd say "Oh, do you want me to sit down too?" and she'd nod her head and smile :-)

So sweet with each other...

Greta was really patient waiting her turn to sit on this big pumpkin tractor.

Of course, TT needed a turn too! I think Greta liked being in the back the best.

A few days before Halloween we went to a Halloween carnival down the street.  The face paint job Greta got there this year is a little crazy.....!

Our little kitty cat!  I actually wanted Therese to be a star, but we realized the costume idea might be too uncomfortable...and she LOVES cats, so this worked fine.

In the jumping castle!  Therese got so many compliments on how incredibly cute she is.  I completely agree.

The girls had a great time bouncing around!

Such a little squishy snuggler!

Greta, having such a great time!

Afterwards, a bit tired out and ready for some candy!

Pumpkin carving was our next activity.  Neither girl wanted to touch the insides of the pumpkin, they were quite disturbed by it!

Of course, Matthew ended up doing all the work.  Greta was adamant that it be a happy face (remember Halloween two years ago? take a look back through the blog if you don't...)

Ready to trick or treat on Halloween night!!  So cute.

Greta started out pumped up to be brave and tolerate the fireworks just fine.  She kept saying "I like the fireworks" with a bit of a nervous face...after about 30 minutes of being out and about she firmly changed her mind and there was no turning back!  She cried and wanted to be held and refused to even trick or treat at any more houses on the way home!  She said she did NOT like the fireworks anymore, and through tears she said something like "They're too loud, and they hurt my ears! THAT'S the problem with the fireworks!!!"

Therese had a great time trick or treating and only started becoming a little nervous about the fireworks when Greta did. But she didn't ever cry.  The girls both had little buckets for their candy.  Therese got many many compliments on her cuteness, especially from middle aged women :-)  Ever since that night she likes to carry her bucket around the house and go to the door and say "Hi", and she also wants to wear her special "kitty cat coat" often!

Time for some candy!!!

Happy Halloween!

Hanging Around the House...and White Rock

The other day it was raining.  Greta decided she wanted to draw a picture of the rain.  She spent quite awhile drawing, and then decided she wanted to turn her picture into a hat!  We turned TT's into a hat too :-)  This has happened twice now! The girls love their hats!

Matthew did some work for our neighbor recently.  They moved to a new apartment and were getting rid of many things, one of which was this beautiful futon.  We couldn't afford it, but it wouldn't fit in their new place...so they traded it for a few more hours work from Matthew! Come on up and stay the night! Greta will share :-)

Greta loves to get all her sleeping things out of her room and snuggle up on the futon.  There she is with her pooh blanket, her sleeping bag, and the cherry pillow and Tinkerbell scarf I made her. She often says how much she loves to be "cozy". 

Therese loves to snuggle up on the futon too!  It's much easier for her to climb up onto than our couch, but recently she's figured out how to get onto the ottoman first and THEN up onto the couch.  She's getting so big and strong!  At her 18 month check up last week we were told she is in the 90th percentile for weight! (...and the 30th for height!)

Showing off her muscles! So strong!!!

A couple weeks ago we met up with my mom and Shayne in White Rock again.  Greta told Nana Kaka many times that she's missed her, and at times just gazed at her with a big smile.  It was so cute.  When we left, Greta said that she didn't get to see Nana Kaka long enough and she wanted to be with her BY HERSELF too! Here they are admiring each others necklaces. 
Greta wears these 3 necklaces that she made nearly every single day! 

At lunch.

It was one of the last beautiful fall/summer days we had...and it was great to spend it in White Rock on the beach!  Here Therese is borrowing Nana's hat with Grandpa Shayne.

By the way, some of Therese's new words include: cat, woof, uppa (for star..."up above the world so high...") wabm (water) and apm (apple)

My mom made Greta a beautiful sweater (Greta made it very clear on our last visit that Nana Kaka should knit her a green sweater!) 

We also had a visit from Grandpa Dan recently.  He came up for the afternoon.  Greta loved every minute of it, and she said she wanted to come over soon and also told my dad that he should move closer (sort of tugged at the heart strings there...)! We went walking through Pacific Spirit Park and Greta did lots of bike riding!

It's been fun to see some family.  Soon we'll be heading down to Seattle to visit with Grandpa Paul and Sam, who are coming up from Arizona, and Melissa, Kristen, Ida and Poppy!  We are looking forward to some more family time! 

Summer Memories

Dancing in the living room!  I must say, this activity has been one of my dreams as a mother...to dance around with my children the way I danced around when I was a little girl!  And now Greta is really into it.  She wants to wear costumes and have "ballet class".

 Dancing to Vivaldi's Four Seasons

 A summer evening walk--so cute!

 I love it when the girls hold hands.

 Lately they even walk around the house holding hands :-)

And this is our garden plot: #4.  All summer we tended to this garden a couple blocks from our apartment.  It was fun to plant the seeds and water it and watch it grow and eat snacks from it.  Earlier in the summer we had great tall pea plants, and the peas were really good.  We spent many an evening walking to our garden after dinner, when the sun was still shining at 8:30 or 9:00, or even 9:30!  We'd water the garden, and Matthew would spray the girls with the hose, and we'd all run around in the grass.  The girls loved to go up the steps at the building (Ryerson Community Centre, associated with the Ryerson United Church nearby--a beautiful old church that chimes the bells at noon and 5pm every day...) At the top of the steps are some carvings of people in the stone walls, and Therese was always fascinated by these.  

Picking some kale and smelling some lavendar.  Every time we visited our garden Greta would eat several pieces of lavendar...she loves it!

 A big kale leaf snack! Yummy :-)

My neighborhood friend Andrea, who has two boys the girls love to play with: Benn and Eric, connected us to getting a garden plot.  This is her family's, with the big sunflower. Next year we want to grow one of those!!

Some tomatoes from our very own garden! Pretty.

Dancing to "Do I Hear A Waltz?" Greta loves it when I wear a twirly skirt--and this purple one is especially good :-)

She loves to dress up lately! This combo is one of her favorites: that dress, her fairy skirt, her "Chinese girl" pants, and her Pippi Longstocking tights :-) Oh, and don't forget the tiara and made-by-Greta necklace.  Recently she has made several beaded necklaces.  The first time she made one was with Matthew and apparently she kept saying how much she loved it, and then asked for clarification on whether Matthew loved her or the necklace more...that's how much she thought the necklace was AMAZING!!!

Greta loves to sleep in her pink sleeping bag from Great Grandpa Ronnie (and of course her beloved Pooh blanket from Great Grandpa Hope!)  It used to be that we just used the sleeping bag for overnights at other people's houses, but now she uses it at home every night in her own bed.  Here she is setting up a slumber party in the living room between the couch and the ottoman.

Another interesting costume Greta came up with...bloomers on the head, socks on the hands...of course! Actually, this one was rather disturbing!

Another variation of a bed, set up on a storage bin temporarily placed in the hallway...Greta and Therese worked together on making it cozy and then layed down on it together.  The girls do love to sleep...TT still often takes 3 plus hour naps! And Greta doesn't nap, so by dinnertime she's exhausted.  She will say things like "Can I go to bed now?", "I just want to go to sleep!"  And when I wake her up for preschool she often wants it to stay dark longer so she can continue sleeping...however, she does love preschool, and on non-preschool days (especially the weekend) she'll talk about how she wishes it was a preschool day!