november 2010

november 22

"who maked this?" exclaimed a very wide-eyed zoe when we opened the blinds on the first snowy day of the year.

we're not allowed to complain about the weather in vancouver. the rest of the country has it a lot worse than us for the most part [for example, in weather forecasts for our region of BC, they don't mention the phrase 'chilly with a chance of frostbite']. i'm sure we'll adjust to the lower temperatures eventually - the forecast calls for a HIGH of -5 tomorrow which will be more like -10 to -15 with wind chill so we'd better get used to it sooner rather than later.

enjoying the snow with jenna and justin:

while i'm NOT moaning, somehow in space of 48 hrs this weekend, i managed to sprain my wrist, superglue my hand, and then burn my hand. i shouldn't be moaning. we're all actually well this week [so far]. aly had a cough the weekend before last which turned into a nasty dose of flu for poor zoe. she had a temperature of 104 for a couple of days which we really struggled to managed. the poor little thing alternated between saying it was 'too hot' and 'too windy' [as she shivered in her blanket]

november 11

canadian's take their remembrance day very seriously. all the schools are required to have a remembrance day assembly. i'm not sure about other schools, but in ours, there is a wreath laying ceremony, the children wear white [and all have poppies of course] and any children who have a uniform [guides, scouts etc.] wear them. it's a very moving service and i think this year is the first year i hadn't been to the assembly [aly was home sick]. that was yesterday - today is a public holiday. they raise good citizens in canada. it's one of the reasons i love living here.

speaking of good citizens, aly spontaneously made a 'save the earth' placard this week and is trying to decide where to have a protest rally [apparently there is no point waiting for earth day at school because they are already pretty green there]. she has declared she would like to be an activist [and it really wouldn't surprise me if that's what she ended up doing]. she has a very strong sense of right and wrong.

as always, zoe is impressing me with her language. this week she was telling us all about the time [halloween] when we watched the fireworks in the car. "zoe sit with daddy in mommy car. zoe go in back mommy car. see fireworks. go BOOM. red! blue! green! blue! green! veeeeery noisy." i could go on and on about the things she does to impress me, and toby's amazing geography skills this week, but that would be showing off so i won't ;-p

november 1

so zoe kind of got the gist of trick or treating this year. she said something along the lines of 'choco treat' - which may have been chocolate treat or trick or treat. she is a big chocolate fan though [thanks sasch!] so i have a feeling it may have been the former. she was her usual polite self though with an unprompted 'thank you yady' [lady] or 'thank you boy' to the candy givers! our haunted hallway seemed to go down very well with all our visitors [and boy were there a LOT this year]. we did give zoe a turn at handing out candy but she was a bit possessive over the m&ms! anyway, a fun time was had by all and it turns out that noise from the fireworks doesn't bother zoe as much as it used to bother toby and aly which should make life a bit easier in the years ahead. the display at mclean park was great as usual.

tinkerbell

vampiress

our pumpkin collection

the front [grave]yard

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