life lessons

Maggie has been in swimming lessons for the past couple of weeks.
swimming is an important life skill.
I love that for the first few lessons she was the only one in her class-
private lessons for public lesson price- you have to love that!
-but now there is another boy in her class.
but anyway,
this morning she told me-



it's all worth it.
important lessons have been learned!

last week

the flu hit a few of us.
Sadie had it Monday-
she camped out on this chair, snuggled in and spent the day. then most of the week was flu free, until Jack had it over night, but was fine the next day.
But Ben- well, he came home from school on Friday, grabbed a bucket and headed down stairs. I think I saw him for a total of 1 hour all weekend. poor guy.
but I was happy to see him well, and off to school this morning.
here's hoping that was the last of it. we shall see!

a wedding

cory's brother got married on the weekend.
I think it was the coldest weekend ever.
I got to take some pictures.
but it was so very cold that my camera froze up.
so I didn't get too many.
but this is one I did get that I like a lot.


I told him to whisper something in her ear.
I think it was something about the yummy food we ate at the dinner.
or maybe not!

too small

I got some boots for Maggie, from someone,
and she would try them on and say they were too small.
so I put them up to her feet.
they definitely should fit.
what is the problem?
then I thought about it.
maybe there was something in the boot.
lo and behold- a little sock wadded up in the toe of one boot. I pulled it out, and now the boots fit.
thank goodness!
I felt like a bad mom for getting a little mad at her for saying they didn't fit, when I knew they really should. shame on me.

for Taryn (and anyone else who wants to know!)

so, Taryn-
my dear roomate from back in the day, ( the good old days!)
asked me how to get big pictures on her blog.
well, I learned this somewhere, but of course can't remember where, so I will show you what I have learned-
how I get big pictures on my blog:

upload your picture, then when it is on your post, click on the little tab that says Edit Html-
it should be right about here-

then all that fun computer lingo will pop up- and it will look like this-
you want to highlight the part that says something about width...all the way to the height, and whatever numbers and the px that are there, then delete it all.
it is a bit scary, but it works. (and if the picture dissappears, you can always upload it again.)
and it will dissappear, unless you do the next step which is where the magic happens.
or so I like to believe.


find the part that says s/400- like this-

delete the 4 and replace it with an 8.

magic.

try it,

and let me know if it works.

and I hope it does, because I really know so little about computers,

this is my one piece of magic!

It all began innocently enough

Or- Who needs Vegas?

so, Sunday night, I am washing dishes, Jed is drying.
he gets to the salad spinner. trys spinning it to see how many times it will go around.
Jack comes and trys to get it to spin more times than Jed could.
then, as things do, it evolved into this-



a roullet game in the basement.
all five of them. putting in stuff they found around the house-
pennies, army men, plastic cars, magnetic toys. whatever can go into the kitty.
calling out the number they wanted.
cheers and boos depending on if they won or not.

they were all having so much fun, no harm done? right?
(if any of them end up with gambling problems later in life, I guess we can trace it back to that sunday night with the salad spinner.)

knitting fool

yep, I have been busy,

knitting up a storm.

you see, I have a friend who is a photographer.

I think I have mentioned her before!

anyways, she has a blog for other baby photographers,

with tips and etsy shops, and stuff, for others to learn about,

and this week she is giving away this hat from my shop.
consequently, a bunch of people are buying stuff from my shop,

so I am keeping quite busy.

I think I am going to head downstairs and watch a movie with the girls.

and knit,

of course.

I am loving it!

her blog is here, if you want to see it!

I remembered, but I was late

so today at school, they had a remembrance day program.

because next week we have fall break and no school.

great. not sure what we are doing to fill that time, but sleeping in sounds good to me.

anyways, back to today.

programs. plural. two schools. same time.

no van. Cory had it.

which is fine, the schools are close to our house, and to each other.

Maggie had the brilliant idea of riding bikes.

but I couldn't find a lock.

so we walked.

I decided to try to hit Jack's first. his band was playing O Canada.

I thought it started at 10:30, but that was Sadie's.

his was at 10:45.

incidentally, the sound of bagpipes, and that trumpet song they always play on remembrance day always brings a tear to my eyes.

I love that the kids still get a tiny bit of time every year to think about and learn about times past, and people who fought and died for our freedom.

Jack's school had a bag piper playing in the hallway, and when she walked past the classrooms, the kids were supposed to follow to the gym. love it!

so, listened to the band, the trumpet song, then headed back to Sadie's school,

and totally missed her choir. and they even sang two songs.

it was too bad.

I wonder if I had gone to Sadie's first, would I have missed Jack's song?

who knows.

but I tried.

maybe I will have better luck next year. and no kids to bring along, and maybe a van!

halloween recap

well, it's over again for another year.
sadly, I was really bad with taking pictures.
this is what I got from the school-
Maggie in her class room after the parade and a couple of little songs, and story reading in the gym-



(pretty sweet puffy sleeves, right? makes me think of Anne of green gables, and her desire for puffy sleeves! funny)



Sadie in the actual parade- I made her dress from a real dress pattern, as opposed to a costume pattern, not a fake pattern, as you might be thinking.
I was thinking that maybe we could just shorten it a bit, and she could wear it to church,
but since it has no zipper, the neck opening is kind of big,
and i had to pin it both times she wore it.
I might try to fix it and make it smaller, and less gaping, but then it might not fit over her head.
not sure what to do about that!
(digging the captain underpants guy behind her! hilarious.)

there was one girl in the parade, just wearing a normal dress with her hair in pony tails, and I was wondering what- if anything- she was supposed to be,
then later I found out it was a boy.
yikes.

Jed was a Calgary Flames fan. he wore a hoody he already has, red pants, red coloring in his hair, and red face paint. then he carried a stuffed hand with the finger up- like #1 (sort of like those foamy ones, but this was smaller and stuffed, we found it at a thrift store.)
easy enough.

Ben went to a halloween dance on Friday night, and wore a plaid jacket he picked up at a thrift store a bit ago- just to wear,
drew stubble on his face with a marker (himself- I was gone until he was done!)
wore his hiking boots,
carried around a fake axe and called himself a lumber jack.

Jack made a kissing booth. I can't believe I didn't take a picture. I will have to see if it is still around and take a picture of it!

my clown costume turned out pretty good. I have no pictures of it. my sister did take one of me on Sunday. I will have to see if I can get it from her!
and Cory ended up getting tickets to a football game on the night of the church party, so he really had no need for a costume. phew.

and that was halloween.
over except rounding up the costumes and decorations to pack away,
finishing up the candy,
and of course,
picking up the wrappers all over the house.