This and that

The Fall leaves haven't all disappeared

I have no grand stories this week, but I do have a few pictures to share, none-the-less.  We are currently in the wind-up to December, and all the ridiculousness that entails, so I'm considering this a short respite.

1. School

Other than daily reading and the occasional math games that are brought home, the kids still (thankfully) have very little homework.  Juniper did, however, bring home a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) project to "build a bridge with whatever materials you have at home".  Clark was SUPER into the idea, as was Linden - so all three got involved.  One quick trip to Bulk Barn later, there were enough jube-jubes for everyone to create multiple bridge-like structures:

Testing the integrity of Juniper's creation. Linden's "tent" is in the foreground

2. Crowbar

Wednesday was a day off for the kids, so Clark took the afternoon off, and turned it into a Crowbar Lake hiking adventure:

Just getting started

On the boardwalk

Snack/binoculars break

Building a shelter (using the lashing techniques that Clark taught them

3. Visitors!

We had a short but sweet visit with Newlyweds Matt and Anna on the weekend! This is a rare treat, as they live in Scotland (though they are currently on a grand tour around North America). I have literally no good pictures to document the event (I included this one only after getting over my own vanity), but Anna and the kids were snapping pictures on Saturday afternoon, so if any of those surface at some point, I'll include them in later posts!

nice smile, Juniper

4. Budding composer:

Yesterday, Linden had a surprising request. He wanted some staff paper to compose some sheet music for a family band he wants to start.  This first part is apparently for the pianist (which I believe will be him).  Next up is the guitar part (for Clark), which he is actually super keen to get started on as soon as I'm done here.  This kept him busy for an inordinately long time, and while I'm not sure it will sound the way he imagined in his head, it's a pretty good start for getting no help from anyone!

hard at work

close-up.  Not bad for a little guy!

Lest we forget

Guest post from Clark this week -- I have finally managed to fix the computer issue that was preventing Tara from downloading and managing photos (basically, we take so many damn photos that the hard drive got filled up), and in the meantime I took the kids for a Remembrance Day family weekend to the farm (sans Tara) so they were mostly my photos anyway.

There were two big reasons to go to the farm last weekend. First, Remembrance Day was on the Saturday, and I wanted the kids to be able to go to participate in a ceremony in which two of their great-great uncles (Charles Richards and William Pickett) were remembered. They were quite keen participants, and helped dad (grandpa) lay a wreath for William. The second was that it was my Dad's 65th birthday, and there was a surprise party planned.

Remembrance Day

Charles (left) and William (right). Charles was killed during the liberation of Belgium, and William was killed aboard the HMCS Athabascan.

The purple-coordinated crew heading up to lay the wreath.

Quietly entertaining themselves after the wreath-laying, while many other wreaths were laid and names remembered. It's hard to see from the photo but Linden is drawing a picture with crosses and poppies. Sniff.

After the ceremony we brought the wreaths to the cemetery. 

Farm birthday (and cousins!)

The remainder of the weekend was spent hanging out at the farm -- including the aforementioned surprise party (on the sunday), and lots of cousin hangout time due to the fact that my cousin Eddy and his two kids (Merrick and Elsie) were also visiting that weekend.

A late afternoon hike. We started out by the river and went all through the woods and the fields.  

Cousins and buddies! Linden and Merrick are very close in age, and very similarly disposed -- they had a great time being silly together. Juniper is twice Elsie's age, but she just loves hanging out with and "taking care of" little kids. I'd have to remind her frequently that Elsie was perfectly capable of walking and didn't need to be carried ...

The birthday cake at the surprise drop-in party. Note the photo to Dad's right which is of him approximately 63 years ago. The house was packed with friends and family who stopped in for a visit.

Cousins scheming. I can't help but think that Linden had them up to no good of some kind.

The next day I took Linden out for a woods adventure (to burn off some excess energy). At one point I suggested we should head back to the house, and he exclaimed: "No dad, I want to keep exploring!". Win!

Two (silly) peas in a pod.

Besties!

Even Scott's dog Sam found a buddy in Woody.

The requisite final shot under the linden tree 

 Miscellany 

Our garden pumpkins didn't produce like we hoped, but the little one that did come out of it I decided was worth carving. For scale, it's sitting in an aloe plant

A good day at the Discovery Centre -- we arrived to find that they had set up a big area with "build your own roller coaster" parts (note the orange ball flying over the jump). It's amazing how quickly grumbles about how hungry they are turn to "later dad" when they find activities like this :)

The Hallowe'en Roundup

Warriors

I must admit, I'm a little out of my blogging element this morning.  We discovered the other day that the drive allocated to photos on my computer is now at 100% capacity.  That means that I can simply no longer upload anything to iphoto (and therefore I also cannot manipulate photos). Luckily, Clark managed to upload the Hallowe'en photos earlier this week to his computer, and I was therefore able to pick and choose some to go on the blog today.  But so far we have nothing from later on in the week, including a visit from Theresa and Scott.  Ah well!  We have ordered a larger drive, so hopefully at some point in the near future all will be well again in photo-land.  Until then, hopefully these will suffice!

The prep work: gutting, designing and carving the pumpkins:

We only bought two pumpkins this year - one for each of the kids to design.  We also left it to the last minute (these were done the night before Hallowe'en), but all turned out well.  It is always Clark's job to lead and oversee the pumpkin activities, as his main goal involves procuring and roasting the seeds.

scraping the last bits

Juniper took the job very seriously

pumpkin guts!

designed and ready to carve

Juniper's all lit up...

... and Linden's!

Halowe'en
As the title photo reveals, the kids opted this year to be a ninja and a knight, respectively.  Neither wore their actual costume to school (due to the no masks/weapons policy), but we made up for it with a massive photo shoot before heading out for the trick-or-treating portion of the evening.  Behold!

Sir Linden

Fashionable but fierce, like all good ninjas

Battle scene!

Sneaky and... flexible?

Coming atcha!

Oh look - just a sweet guy under the mask!

Intimidating duo

And that, folks, is all I managed to scrape together.  Hopefully everything is up and running next week... if not, then I'll see you when I see you!