October Wrap-up

I love fall.  I always have.  And, believe it or not, I love it for more than just the new school supplies :)  October in particular, with it's colours and crispness, has always been my favourite.  This year, however... this year was a little crazier than I typically like my October.  Crazy for some wonderful, wonderful reasons, but it was just completely non-stop. I simultaneously find myself happy to have been able to do everything we did, and relieved to call it done.  Mostly, I just want to be able to settle for the first time in...  well, in a year and half, I guess.

Checking out the sunset over Quisset Harbour at the Knob

The first half of October I actually covered in my last post, so in this one, I might as well just wrap it up, all neat-and-tidy.  I think it will feel satisfying. 

Linden turns ONE

Yes, I know - hard to believe, right?  In my recollection, it took Juniper about 10 times as long to reach a year.  I just kind of blinked, and all of a sudden I was no longer counting Linden's age in months anymore.  

I've been wanting to make a "happy birthday" banner for three years, and finally did it!

As it turned out, we had multiple festivities in celebration of Linden's birthday - in Cape Cod,  in Fredericton and at the farm.  That also means three cakes.  I would never have allowed such blatant sugar debauchery in my early days as a mom, but now... well, let's just say things change. 

On Linden's actual birthday, Clark, Juniper, Linden and I had a small celebration complete with a banana bread "cake" with a natural foods peanut butter nutella-type thing as frosting.  I figured that was a relatively healthy alternative to just regular old cake.  Linden had no complaints.

Trip to New Brunswick: Deborah and Yvon's Wedding!

Staring longingly at the wedding cakes that her aunt Liz made!

Clark's mom got married!  So of course, we packed up and took a road trip back to good old Fredericton.  This wasn't a small feat, especially since while we were gone, our kitchen floor was getting re-tiled.  This meant we had to completely empty out the kitchen, and be ready to boot it out at 8am the morning we were leaving, as that was when the floor guys were coming. But, we did it!  And we had a lovely visit.  Unfortunately, the one thing we forgot was our good camera.  Of all the times to forget it!  Consequently, we have very few pictures from the trip at all, let alone post-worthy ones.  Here's a little video, anyway, from between courses at the reception, while we were trying to keep the kids occupied (it at least shows off their cute outfits!)

While we were in New Brunswick, we obviously had to celebrate Linden's birthday another couple of times, right? First at my parent's house:

With my cousin Claire, and her two little boys: Evan and Xander

The kids got to hang out with their way-cool cousins: Sawyer, Ethan and Ali

... and then at the farm:

"Man, where have these never-ending offerings of cake been all my life?"

Deborah and Yvon visit

Deborah and Yvon decided to honeymoon in New England, so very shortly after we made it home from NB, who showed up for a couple of days but the newlyweds themselves!  Yvon, in particular, put in a lot of on-demand play time with a very insistant little 3-year-old.  This was especially true after Deborah and Yvon hauled out the new present for the kids - a full IKEA kitchen.  Juniper hasn't stopped playing with it since.

Juniper even got Yvon to read to her outside!

Deborah tries to prevent Linden's escape attempts

Sandy

Just as we said goodbye to Deb and Yvon, we welcomed the temperamental Hurricane Sandy into our lives.  We weren't hit nearly as hard as some of our neighbouring cities and states, but we had one very windy, rainy day, with mostly no power.  Really, more exciting and fun for the kids than anything else.  When else to you get to have peanut butter sandwiches for supper by candle light,  followed by a glowstick party? 

What is this magical glowing thing?

Glowstick madness

Hallowe'en

I wasn't sure what we were going to do about Hallowe'en this year.  I didn't have time to think about making any new costumes, and Juniper hadn't been talking about trick-or-treating, so I figured we would just play it by ear and see what happened. To tell you the truth, I was skeptical that Juniper was even old enough to enjoy going out at all (she is still painfully shy around strangers), and I wasn't keen on all that sugar coming into the house.


The day we got back, however, there was a Hallowe'en party at Clark's office, so I hauled out last year's wizard costume for Juniper, and fashioned together a make-shift lumberjack ensemble for Linden, complete with a cardboard axe, slung in a tool belt.  I have to say, Linden was the star of the show!  We went out for dinner after the party at Friendly's, and Juniper insisted on keeping her costume on, and everyone made a big deal of her.  Fun was had by all.  So all in all, it was a successful pre-Hallowe'en party.  I thought that was likely going to be the extent of things.

Hanging in Clark's office, post-party

When Hallowe'en actually arrived, however, the excitement just couldn't be contained.  Pumpkins were carved, the costumes came back out, and Juniper REALLY wanted to go "trick-or-treating".  I don't think she even knew what it was, but she REALLY wanted to go.  We had no idea even where to take her - as far as we knew, we were the only family with kids on our whole street.

Linden got into the spirit and tried on the wizard costume. He was enthralled with the lit pumpkins.

We figured it wouldn't hurt to just see if any of our neighbours were giving out treat, so with the wizard costume on top of a belly-dancing costume (handed down from Ali), Clark and Juniper ventured out into the night with a flashlight.  Lo and behold, they met one other kid out doing the same - a little 4-year-old boy named Kunio.  As it turns out, he just lives down the street, and we've already had two play-dates!  So Hallowe'en was a major score all around.

Back at home with a bucket of treats.

The other awesome score was that I was looking at a blog I follow and found out about the little-known Hallowe'en fairy!  Did you all know that if you want, you can choose out a few of your favourite Hallowe'en treats to eat, and then put the rest out in your bucket, and then the Hallowe'en fairy will come while you're sleeping, and replace the candy with art supplies?  It's true!  So stinking brilliant. Juniper woke up the next day, and had big girl paints and paint brushes in her bucket!  She was VERY excited.  This was the first thing she painted.  It is her interpretation of Mary (my mother).

Not bad, eh?

And that about wraps things up for the whirlwind that was October.  I have visions of November including a lot of walks and yoga and knitting and sewing and just generally taking nice big deep breaths and trying to settle.  And hopefully also taking some pictures and videos along the way, and sharing it with all of you.  I'll leave  you with one of my favourite pictures:  Juniper in the leaves.  I love it for any number of reasons, but especially because it looks as though Juniper is conjuring the leaves into dancing around her. Happy November!

The fall elf princess.

The Evolution of Movement

Juniper's recent grocery list.  Clark transcribed the dictation.

Just a quickie - here is one of the videos I promised. Amazing what can happen in a few months!  Here is the evolution from pre-crawling to full-on dancing.  Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Besties

We're back in blog land!  And though you wouldn't know it here in sunny Cape Cod, it is a special (Canadian) Thanksgiving Monday.  Special enough that I figured I'd tackle the seemingly impossible task of summing up the last few months of our lives. What could have possibly been keeping me from posting for so long? Well, a few things have been keeping us busy - for instance, finishing/defending a PhD thesis (that was Clark, of course, but the slack from all that was picked up by me), and moving to Cape Cod.  Juniper turned three, Linden started walking...  trust me when I say that it seems as though a whole lifetime has happened over the brief lapse of time since my last post.

I also thought about writing about the trials and tribulations that accompanied all these crazy events, but decided I would never post if I went into any sort of detail.  So instead, a load of pictures, with promise of some video to come.

Back in Halifax....

Screen door reflections

Naming Ceremony

We managed to pull together a naming ceremony before we left for all the new babies (Aven, Ewan and Linden), as well as for Isabella, who was sick when we had a naming ceremony a couple of years ago for the older kids.  It was wonderful! We even had a bunch of people (besides the families, of course) who were able to attend: my mom, our friend Matt (who had bicycled from Fredericton!), Theresa and Scott, and Jeremy's parents.

Here is Linden's special naming ceremony onesie. My attempt at a Linden tree, of course.

Juniper playing Bella's accordion.  She LOVED it.

At the farm

We were fortunate to spend a bunch of time at the Richards' farm this summer. In fact, Juniper had her first no-parents experience there while Clark was at Shad Valley, and I was in Fredericton with Linden.  Theresa took her down to the farm, and Juniper spent time on her own with her aunt and her grandparents for a few days.  Apparently, she didn't miss me at all.  We also went down before we took off for the states.  Result: loads of great farm shots.

On a boating adventure (on the Saint John river)

Reading with grandma

Working the bubble machine with uncle Bradford

Who needs clothes at the beach?

With grandpa in the field

One of Juniper's favourite aspects of the farm: independence. On her way back from a solo trip to the sand pile. 

Climbing the ladder in the hay barn

Linden must do EVERYTHING his older sister does.

Linden helps load the hay into the loft

Riding the tractor with grandpa. Is there anything more exciting?

Apparently, hay makes for an irresistibly large number of photo ops.

Mr. Mod, posing by a ladder

Juniper in her birthday dress.  I made it from an old dress of mine (in fact, the first  big gift Clark ever got me, circa 1998). 

Riding a trike in a muscle-shirt onesie.  How much cooler do you get?

Fredericton

As you might imagine, we spent a whole lot of time in Fredericton this summer, as well.  I took refuge there with the kids while Clark was sucked into Shad-land, and then again when we were waiting for Clark and his dad to finish up packing all of our stuff in Halifax. The extended visits meant that we got to see loads of wonderful people!

We spent a lot of sunny days playing in my parent's backyard:

Playing in the hanging house I made for them (inspiration from  here)

Juniper helps Bob and Sawyer rebuild the front garden

Linden discovers some sweet, sweet dirt (in three parts):

We somehow managed to be there for a whirlwind weekend that Andrea and Dinesh made it home:

Hanging with their soon-to-be-uncle

Andrea lets Linden get into something messy

Especially fun times at Cathy's pool (another favourite daily activity for Juniper)

We had play dates with lots of wonderful people:

Juniper clearly adores her cool older cousin, Ali.

George takes Juniper and Zack for a canoe ride at Yoho lake

On a playdate with Christie and Bea, and Erin and Zack (Juniper was at the farm at this point)

Juniper's 3rd birthday party!

Juniper, with her  traditional "3" cake

The party-goers (Noni, Simon, Ali and Linden, Juniper, and River)

Liz, Juniper and River

In Cape Cod!

A beach within walking/biking distance from our house

Our new-to-us double chariot. It is amazing!

At a lighthouse we went to on a biking adventure

At the beautiful Spohr Gardens (just down the street from us!)

Juniper and a big anchor

Linden and a Millstone

Playing in the dirt, of course

Our day trip to Boston:

Checking out a crazy eel at the Boston Aquarium

Eating at Wagamama's at the Quincy Market:

Hanging at home:

Linden, hanging out in our new toy shelves (one of our many, many Ikea purchase)

Stories on the couch

 Judith and Simon visit for Thanksgiving weekend!

Picnic in the village of Woods Hole

Simon and Juniper doing some watercolour painting (with homemade watercolours !)

Saying goodbye:

Jane and Michael come for Thanksgiving lunch on Sunday:

Bearing Harvard T-Shirts for the kids!

And there you have it! A little photo journey from the past little while. We had a bit of a rough start here, mostly because this house was not ready for anyone to move into it when we first landed (let alone two ridiculously exhausted people with two very young children).  But after a whole lot of work, cleaning, and more money than we had ever hoped to spend, this place is starting to really feel like home.  And Cape Cod truly is beautiful.  I'm also beginning to tap into all the great programs for kids that are available, and the places to go that are fun day adventure.  I think this is going to be a pretty fun adventure!  Videos to come!