Halloween tricks and treats

I have recently learned that both of my children suffer from a rare disorder called "Brad Rice Syndrome", or otherwise known as "I can't stand for my hands to get dirty syndrome". Don't be alarmed if you, or your children, have been in close contact with mine, it is NOT contageous and studies have shown it is a genetically inherited disease. Haley's case is very mild and selective; for example she is okay with covering not just her hands, but her entire body in paint( See photo at end of post). However, putting her hands into pumpkin guts is out of the question. Carson's case is far more severe. He cannot stand to have any medium(i.e. food, paint, glue,etc.,) on his hands, especially not pumpkin guts. So I tried to "trick" them into cleaning out their pumpkins with their hands, but to no avail. Haley ended up with a spoon, and Carson disappeared completely from the whole process. I think toy trains were much more interesting, and cleaner, than pumpkin carving.

You want me to put my hands in there?

Haley only appears to have her hand in the pumpkin. Trust me she isn't touching anything in that pumpkin. It is all part of the illusion of Halloween.

Next on the agenda was painting squash ghosts. This they both really liked, at least until Carson got some paint on his hands and decided maybe this project wasn't for him either.

So now for the "treats". We made sugar cookies and Carson stuck around for a while for this(although he asked me for "a wipe" about 50 times.)

P.S. Right now there is no known cure for "BRS (Brad Rice Syndrome) but as you can see with serious and persistant intervention progress can be made.

Presenting their Royal Highnesses

Here they are......the King and Queen of 99 Royal Appian Crescent patiently waiting to go trick-or-treating. Haley of course knew what that meant and when I explained to Carson that people would put candy in his spider bag he said "wooow, cool"! Boy it only took him one house to see what I was talking about and he was off and running(literally). They had great fun first going out with Brad and then I wanted to take them out too. Few things are better than Halloween!

The emporer needs new clothes! Once trick-or-treating was over, not only did Carson's costume come right off, so did everything else(except Haley's crown).

Chudleigh's Apple Farm

A week ago, Monday, the kids and I went to Chudleigh's Apple Farm. I was introduced to Chudleigh's when I went a couple of years ago with my good friend, Faith, when she lived here in Toronto. Another good friend, Melissa, and her kids, Grace and Luke came with us this year. We were a little late in the season for picking apples; It was more like apple hunting than picking, but we had a great time anyway. There is a couple of big slides in a hay playground. You can also go through a hay maze, see the farm animals, go on hayride out to the orchard, play on big tractors or in the huge sand area, and pick pumpkins(there weren't many left, we kind of missed out on that too.) Here are a few pics of our little farm adventure!

Melissa with the kids(L to R) Carson, Grace, Luke, and Haley. Ready for the hayride to start!

Carson had way more fun picking the apples off the ground and throwing them than he did picking them from the trees Good thing, because there weren't really any apples in the trees anyway.

Haley found this big perfect apple and was so happy. Too bad she'd rather die than eat an apple, or any fruit for that matter.

What a bunch of ANIMALS!

Notice all the apples in the trees? Ummmmmmm, no.

I love these slides as much as the kids do. WEEEEEEEE!

I was sitting down watching while all the kids were having a hay fight, but it turns out that throwing hay all over me is much more fun.
This is me : "Carson. Grace. Look here. Smile. Haley look up here. Hey Luke, look buddy. Come on guys. No, Carson sit down. No, up here guys. Say 'I love pumpkins'." And as you can see they did everything I asked them to do. Right! This is what you get when you try to force 4 kids ages 5 and under to take a "cute" picture with the pumpkins at the end of a long day of playing. Not interested!

Party for Jesus

A couple of weeks ago, Haley got her first invitation to a birthday party that will be held on Sunday. So we had the talk about what we do on Sunday and going to birthday parties is not something we do. So, tonight we were riding in the car and we had this conversation.

Haley: Mom, I saw Nikki's mom at school yesterday and I told her I can't come to her party.
Me: You did? What did you tell her?
Haley: I told her I couldn't come because I have to go to church on Sunday and learn about Jesus.
Me: Well, I am really proud of you. I know that was hard for you.
Haley: But, mom, I really want to go to that party.
Me: I know you do. But we don't go to birthday parties on sundays. We go to church, learn about Jesus, and do quiet activities at home with our family.
silence for a minute
Haley: Mom. I know! We could have a party for Jesus on sunday. That would be good wouldn't it.
Me: yeah maybe we could do that. But that is what Christmas is; It is celebrating Jesus' birthday.
Haley: Oh, well can we decorate with streamers? Do you have any Barbie streamers? And we can use them to decorate the Christmas tree for Jesus' party.

So I hope you all learned something here. It is okay to have a party on Sunday as long as it is for Jesus. Thanks, Haley

Happy Thanksiversary!

Yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving and also mine and Brad's 9th wedding anniversary. (Shout out to Brad's brother and his wife, Katrina, it was also their anniversary-2 years!) Having both occasions on the same day was good and bad. Good because Brad took the whole day off of work and we spent time as a family, but bad because there was nothing open, so we couldn't really do anything fun. But somehow being together was enough for me. Cliche'. So, Brad being the thoughtful guy he is, had these beautiful flowers delivered the Friday before, and I really was surprised. I want to brag on him a little and tell everyone how much I love my guy! Not just because he sends me flowers on our anniversary, but because he has sent them many times over the years for no reason at all. Because he has more patience for me than anyone I have ever known. Because he is smart, funny, hard-working(a little too hard-working), loyal, generous, forgiving, understanding and dedicated. He does the dishes, vacuums, folds laundry, and makes dinner every Sunday. He makes me feel loved even when I don't love myself. He holds me as long as I need him to when I cry(and you all know that is a lot) and listens no matter how stupid and looong my stories are. For these reasons and so many more, I could not be happier to be his wife.

He also had a flower delivered to Haley to tell her he was proud of her for not crying on the bus(but that's a whole other story)

Our Summer

We had a pretty great summer! We had a season pass to a huge themepark that is about ten minutes from our house called Canada's Wonderland. We played in the back yard, in our baby pool, on the slip-n-slide, and spent a lot of time gardening and working in the yard. In July we went on our annual beach vacation. The kids and I went to Florida for two weeks before the beach(Brad came for the beach) and during that time went to Sea World twice and had so much fun with all of the cousins. We also made a couple of trips to the Toronto Zooand Haley went to a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game with Brad. In August Brad's parents came for a week, and we went to the Canadian National Expo(huge fair)and the kids got spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma Rice brought one 50 lb. suitcase full of just toys for the kids! So here are a few pics to recap the fun!

I'm trying to be like Jesus (kind of)

Tonight when we were putting Haley to bed I said "okay, are you ready to say your prayer?" She responded "yes, but I am just going to say it in my brain like mommy and Daddy do." And thus the habit of falling asleep while saying your prayers begins for Haley at the early age of 4.

Also, as many of you know, Haley struggles 'just a little' in the music category, both in remembering the tune and the lyrics to songs. So I was suprised to hear her this afternoon start to sing "I'm trying to be like Jesus" to her baby doll "Petito" while putting him down for a nap. It went something like this:

Haley: "I'm trying to be like Jesus." ( I, in the other room, am so proud. Then comes the next line.)
"but nothing happens"(in some made up tune, as is the rest of the "lullabye" that went something like :
"As the still small voice whispers, you're my baby, you're my baby"
"I'm trying to be like Jesus, you're my baby and you're going to sleep"
Ummm, yeah, can you tell we sing primary songs at home all the time. I am still so proud. At least she got some of it right.

Hair Don'ts

And the award for using the most barettes in one hair style goes to Haley Rice! Haley has been really into doing her own hair lately. First it started innocently enough with just brushing ("styling" ) her own hair after she got out of the bath. Then she moved on to blowing it dry and attempting to use a round brush. Tonight, however, it escalated to this. She also, if you look closely at the bottom of the picture has "styled" her bunny, Hatty's, ears with barrettes, too. Luckily Carson likes putting barrettes in his hair too, because I am sure she'll move onto styling his hair next. How do you spell barettes anyway?

The Blog Train

A few months ago after receiving a few invitaions to some friends' blogs, I commented that "I guess I need to get on board the blog train". Well, as any good procrastinator would, I waited, and waited, then got some more invitations to more people's blogs. Then, I waited some more. In the meantime Spring turned to Summer, and Summer has turned to fall, and I am now fianlly taking the plunge. I'll try to blog more than every few seasons. Thanks Faith and Melissa for the encouragement...You know I would have never done it without you.