(Mallory and I in costume, silhouetted by streetlight.)
It is strange to think that our kids are old enough now to be jumping on trends, but apparently, they are. The very first craze to take over the Cook kids are Silly Bandz. (Since I'm sure my parents have no idea what I'm talking about, these are elastic bands that, when unstretched, take on different shapes: cars and trucks, animals, princesses and crowns, etc. The point is to collect as many different shapes as you can so you buy a package and then trade the duplicates with your friends. In the meantime, you wear your collection around on your wrist.)
For the past several weeks Mallory has been commenting on how much she enjoys being cold. She no longer wants me to tuck her in with her sheet and quilt and she doesn't want to wear a coat. "It's OK mom, I like being cold," she says.
These pictures were all taken at a Halloween party the kids attended on the weekend. Halloween crafts and cookie decorating - it doesn't get much better than that.
So, I have a new job. This is still a bit strange for me. I wasn't looking for a new job. But my company did some reorganizing and a new spot came up... and I got slotted into it. So now I am heading up a department of my own. I used to think I would be doing this someday... many many years ago... in recent years, I haven't given it nearly as much thought. I am definitely more of a family-first person than I thought I would be before I had a family of my own. Funny how that happens, huh? Anyway, I gave it a lot of thought and decided to try. So here we are. I do expect to be busier and more time constrained than before, but I expect that to happen on my own terms - i.e. I still plan to get the kids to their activities etc. and I if I have to finish some work up at home that night as a result - so be it.
Mallory has skating tonight. I hope she gets to go - she has missed two weeks in a row. Two weeks ago we were at Kalahari, and she missed a lesson. Last week we fully intended to go, but as we were on our way to the rink, she got her hand caught in an elevator door. I swear, I couldn't make this up even if I tried. It was all very traumatic but she was finally freed and is making a full recovery (I did have several minutes of envisioning her as a cripple, and they were scary as hell. Thankfully this was one of those times when it looked a lot worse than it was.)
How about that Rocky Horror Glee Show? Finally... a good episode this season! As I'm sure you can tell, I am not feeling the Glee love in Season 2.
How about that windstorm, huh? It blew away my mums but that's OK. They were mostly dead, anyway.
I went to the pool this morning. I have been going once a week since the start of October and it is really disheartening to see my time for 1500m increase week after week. I suppose this is to be expected since I used to swim twice a week, but still... it was a lot more fun when it went the other way, watching the numbers drop.
(This is Mallory's drawing of herself in her Halloween costume. I just love the way she fringed the outside of the hat, and the dots on her pants are the cowprint chaps. She is also holding her ghost treat bag in her hand. She takes up only a tiny fraction of the page and crams all that detail in. Love it.)
(Here she is in her actual costume. She is dressed as Cowgirl Jessie from the Toy Story movies, which have been VERY popular in our house this year! As you can see, her drawing was pretty darn accurate.)
(I had a heck of a time getting Mallory to both smile and look at the camera for me. I think it must be the age, because a few years ago, this was Liam - unable to smile and look at me for a simple photo. Every shot I love of him from that time is a candid, because posed shots just weren't working. Now, Liam can totally perform on command. We spent 15 minutes trying to get one shot of Mallory, and didn't even wind up with one of her smiling and looking at me. On the other hand, Liam was done in literally 20 seconds. He makes a fine Cowboy Woody, also from Toy Story.)
(Liam drew this a few weeks ago - his interpretation of himself and Mallory dressed up for trick-or-treating. He later decided that he didn't like how he drew the black lines on his shirt to make it a plaid shirt, though, so he decided to do another drawing.)
(Liam's most recent depiction of Halloween night. Here we all are setting off to go trick-or-treating together. That's Chad and me with the kids. Little do they know we will be dressed up right along with them! I'm pretty excited for it.)
Now I just need to get their costumes finished up so that I can spend a bit of time on mine... which is a surprise that they don't know about. And work on it will definitely have to wait until they are safely sleeping in their beds.
A few weeks ago, I made it to one of Liam's hockey practices for the first time in a couple of weeks. Chad and Grampa Bruce were already there watching him. I searched the ice for him and had trouble picking him out of the crowd of identically-dressed little skaters. "Where is he?" I asked Chad.
When Chad pointed him out, I could hardly believe it. He was skating so, so fast. I mean, it's all relative, right? He was skating so much faster than I had ever seen him skate before. He was handling a puck. He was weaving in and out of cones. In the three sessions I hadn't seen, his skill had markedly improved.
And so I felt bad for him this past Saturday, when we took him back to hockey for the first time after missing two lessons on account of his illness. Two lessons is a lot of time to lose. He was noticeably slower this time, more tentative and unsure of himself. He had lost a bit of what he'd gained and of course, the other kids had gained more.
(Liam gives one of his trademark shy-smiles after catching Grampa's eye.)
Once we got home from Sandusky, and Liam rejoined the Land of the Living, we finally made it out to the pumpkin patch to get our gourds for the year. Though who am I kidding - we don't go to a 'patch', we go to a farmer's market where the pumpkins are already picked and piled and we just mosey around until we find the right ones.
There was all this talk about a pumpkin shortage this year, and I heard that canned pumpkin was really hard to come by a few weeks ago. Well, pumpkins in our neck of the woods are selling dirt cheap right now. If you ask me, there is more of a pumpkin surplus than a shortage. We got in on the 5/$10 special so I let each kid pick out two pumpkins and then chose one myself.
For Liam, the pumpkin picking is all about bigger=better. He will try his best to hoist his pumpkins into the wagon but is even more pleased with himself when he cannot manage it. For Mallory, it is all about the 'twirly stem'. She found a few pumpkins with more than their fair share of tendrils dangling and thought they were awesome, despite their diminutive stature.
This year, in addition to all the decor, the market we were at also had somebody dressed up in a costume, trying to wave people in off the street and get the cars to honk their horns. He was dressed in a black cape and had an orange pumpkin head and long orange fingers. He scared the crap right out of Mallory. She took one look at him and burst into tears and clung to me for dear life. Luckily, we had already gathered our pumpkins by then and were just checking out the rest of the market. Liam was not scared by him but did not turn his back on him, either. He was constantly monitoring where Pumpkin Man was and what he was doing, and reporting back to us.
By the time we got back into the car, Mallory had calmed down a bit about Pumpkin Man. As we drove away I was explaining to the kids that the guy in the costume was probably just a high school student trying to make some money on the weekends. We went home, picked up Chad and Liam's hockey gear, and turned around to head to the arena. On the way we drove past the market again, and this time Mallory was laughing and telling Chad to watch for the funny guy out front in the costume. I think the layers of glass and steel that separated her from Pumpkin Man were a big confidence booster.
Liam is finally back to normal. The poor little guy was miserable for more than a week. His first day even remotely back to normal was last Thursday, but even then he had a few bouts of tummy soreness and didn't go to his swimming lesson because he was still too fatigued from the illness.
As luck would have it, we had planned a mini-vacation of sorts for last week. We were set to leave for the Kalahari resort in Sandusky, OH on Monday, and despite the trip to the ER on Sunday, we decided to go ahead with the trip. There was nothing we could do for him at home so we decided the best thing for him would be to go someplace fun where he could keep his mind off of it. So (after checking on our international health coverage, just in case), off we set.
Kalahari is no further for us than Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls and we decided that it was time for a change of scenery. Chad took care of all of the arrangements and I mostly stayed out of the planning, and I was pleasantly surprised by pretty much everything. We had a huge suite that included a full kitchen and the price was really reasonable. (Of course, our trip was mid-week and off-season, which helps immensely.) The main benefit to Kalahari over GWL is that there is more to do outside of the water park. Kalahari has a whole zoo on premises as well as more play spaces for the kids to burn off some steam once they are out of their swimsuits. There is also a larger area for very little kids to play, and Mallory really enjoyed this. (We had trouble even coaxing her into the kiddie pool at GWL, so this was a plus.)
Our trip did not start off well when our GPS got tempermental and crapped out on us while we were on the road. That's the bane of becoming dependent on technology, I guess - when you don't have it, you are SOL. We vaguely knew that we were trying to head south and east but we wound up heading west on Telegraph Road and eventually stopped at a store to pick up a new GPS - after we tried stopping a couple of places to buy a map, which they apparently do not sell anymore. Note to prospective GPS customers: it's impossible to find a GPS with Canadian maps when you are shopping in an American store. They all come loaded with Puerto Rico as the only international destination instead. The GPS was later returned, but not before it helped us find our way to Ohio.
The first 24 hours of our trip were pretty much a write-off for Liam, who was still very unwell at that point. He would enjoy himself for ten minutes and then suffer stomach pains for equally as long. We did manage to visit the zoo and hit the water park for less than an hour, but we felt really bad for him and so spent a lot of time in our suite. The next morning I called the doctor's office back home and the nurse OK'd us to give him some Advil, so we ran out to pick some up, and with that Liam's condition improved remarkably and we could get on with our vacation.
Definitely one of the highlights of the trip was visiting the zoo, and we paid a ridiculous amount of money to buy some animal feed so the kids could interact with the animals. It turned out to be well worth it because we are still talking about the kids feeding the animals now nearly a week later.
Since it was off-season, we did miss the camels and giraffes, who have moved to their winter quarters already. We also weren't able to use the outdoor waterpark features or adventure activities (zip lines, rock climbing walls, etc.) but we had enough to do in our time there without those features. We came home on Thursday and Liam was well enough to head back to school on Friday and to hockey on Saturday, so I think I can safely say that this little episode is behind us. Thankfully none of the rest of us got sick, either, though Mallory was being testy today and my first thought turned to: is she coming down with something?
Following two days of non-stop throwing up, Liam spent the past two days complaining of stomach pain. And when I say 'complaining of stomach pain', I mean sometimes he seems perfectly fine - and two minutes later he is writhing around on the floor, clutching his belly and sobbing, and it seems to be getting worse, not better. Finally this morning I took him into the emergency room. It was getting scary just how suddenly and how hard it was hitting him, and the fact that he has barely eaten for the past 5 days was kind of frightening, too.
That's why I was so surprised to see this come home in Liam's backpack the other day. Of all the things to be thankful for... why the damn cat??
Speaking of cookies, how do you like our new seasonal cookie jar? It came out of the cupboard last week. It replaced my previous cookie jar, a big red apple complete with leaf and stem that I found at Value Village for $3 - very apropos for September and a great score! I don't have themed cookie jars for every season/month but I am headed in that direction. I wish I'd bought the gingerbread man-shaped cookie jar I saw a couple of years ago... when I went back for it, it was gone. Lesson learned: no more indecision!
This weekend, I am very VERY excited that the Ironman world championships are being held in Kona. The NBC condensed broadcast doesn't come on until December, but you can bet I will be hanging out in front of the computer as much as possible on Saturday to catch the live streaming. Watch this highlight reel from last year and tell me you aren't inspired to go out and accomplish something.
A few weeks ago I was talking to my sister and mentioned that I recently started a subscription to National Geographic. (I think it's a hallmark of being a child of the 70s/80s if you grew up with musty old boxes of this magazine lying around - which you then used for every single geography project you ever did. I would like my kids to have that same option, despite the fact that I know they will use the internet for everything instead... sigh. I will at least enjoy them in the meantime - the recent one about the Gulf oil spill is just amazing.) I got a rate of about $15/year and honestly, it's just such an interesting magazine.
The kids and I had to make a speedy getaway from Chad's race on Saturday in order to make it to Thomas' birthday party at Springridge Farm in Milton. I felt bad leaving Chad with several muddy miles to go, but he was understanding. We didn't want to be late and miss the wagon ride. Luckily, Pinehurst is not far from Milton, but the rain was not quite so bad there. Still drizzly but we managed to fit in all of the farm activities we had been told to expect.
Springridge hosts an annual Fall Festival and is exactly the kind of place I would take my kids on a regular basis if we lived closer to it. It was beautiful, and you could easily spend a day there with the kids. The whole region is beautiful at this time of year, really. There were several spots on the drive in from the 401 where I almost pulled off the road to take a picture because it was so scenic. But we were trying to make good time... so onward we pressed.
When we first arrived at the farm, there was a wagon ride part way up the escarpment to take in the view. Then it was into our own private party room for lunch.
Following that, the kids decorated little baskets before heading back out to the farm, where they were allowed into the chicken coop to collect an egg. I think that was the highlight of the day for both Liam and Mallory. 
Clearly, the pony ride was not the highlight for Mal. She is not one to turn down a pony ride, but she has yet to look like she is enjoying herself on one!
We petted the farm animals and went through the Boo Barn a few times, then went back inside again for some cake.
With that, the party was over, but we spent another hour outside before I was finally able to convince the kids to get into the car and head for home. We petted some more animals, played on the slides, jumped around on the hay bales, ran through the corn maze, and otherwise got ourselves filthy dirty. It was pretty fun.
I had uploaded a photo of Thomas here, but it seems to be missing. Oh well... the complete set is on Flickr, if you are so inclined. Happy birthday, Thomas!
On Saturday, Chad once again took part in The Run For The Toad at Pinehurst Conservation Area. He's done this once before, last year, on a day when we had much better weather. This year was cold and raining: not a good mix. Chad left the house at the crack of dawn and the kids and I followed behind not long afterwards. The rain made for some slow driving conditions but we made it there in time to see the race start and catch a glimpse of Chad before he disappeared into the woods.
This race has a tent city set up on the premises to take care of the hordes of runners and onlookers, and I'd baited the kids to get out of the car and into the rain and down to the starting line to see their dad off by promising them a trip to the Tim Horton's tent as soon as the race was underway. Then I had to make good on that promise. We spent the first part of the race blissfully drinking hot chocolate and eating chocolate doughnuts under the shelter of the food tent. We stretched that little activity out for as long as possible, but eventually we evicted ourselves. Our next stop was at the children's tent where colouring materials were available, and the kids busied themselves with a few crafts to pass some more time. By this point the lead runners were done their first lap and I figured Chad would soon be making his way out of the trees. I asked the kids if they wanted to come outside to wait for him with me and with a quick glance at the sky and the rain pouring from it, they both said no. So I set off on my own (still within eyesight of them) and was able to catch Chad on his way past. That's a picture of it at the top. As he was running by, Liam was coming out of the tent to tell me something, so Chad is waving at Liam as he sees him coming through the crowd.
After the colouring had run its course, we wandered down to the beach. We were already in rain gear and couldn't get much wetter so I saw no harm in letting the kids splash around a bit. Plus, it helped to kill some time. The race was a 25km cross-country run on very hilly terrain, so as you can imagine, it was a fairly lengthy event. By this point I was starting to hear some complaints from the kids about the wet and cold, and it was nearly time for us to leave anyway. (We had driven separately from Chad as we had another place to be by a certain time and knew we'd have to miss the end of the race as a result.) Luckily, the course crosses through the road we had to take back to the car with 3km left in the race, and we waited there to see Chad one more time before leaving.
