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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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:
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| With my cousin Claire, and her two little boys: Evan and Xander |
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| The kids got to hang out with their way-cool cousins: Sawyer, Ethan and Ali |
... and then at the farm:
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| "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.
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| Juniper even got Yvon to read to her outside! |
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| 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?
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| What is this magical glowing thing? |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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).
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| 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!
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| The fall elf princess. |
