Pumpkins for My Pumpkins

Well... since it's already December I figure I should post a few photos from Halloween... oops!

It has been a crazy month with me being back at work and I have been sitting on a few posts that I just haven't had any time to finish. This one is probably my favorite. Halloween is almost an obsession in our house. We LOVE dressing up and carving pumpkins. Our house is the one that is covered in decorations and is playing the creepy Halloween sound effects all night. There is something so exciting about getting the kids all dressed up and exploring the neighborhood together. 

The first thing we do is carve all of our pumpkins. The rule in our house is that there must be a pumpkin for each member of our family. This year we had six! Four for the Eliuks, one for Jennilyn and one for our sweet little Oliver. It was Jennilyn's first North American Halloween which meant that it was her firs time carving a pumpkin, wearing a costume and trick or treating! We all had a great time getting a bit messy and even Henry got in on the action. 

.

The next step was dressing up. Sydney had a big party at preschool on Thursday so she was able to wear her costume and take part in some fun Halloween activities. They even had a little Halloween parade to show off their costumes for all of the parents. It was an unbelievable dose of cuteness! Henry came with us to watch the parade and he wore his little dragon costume so he could be one of the big kids. 

On Halloween night I did Sydney's make up so that she looked like a sweet little witch. She was so patient and sat quietly while I finished up. David went as a Hockey player, Henry rocked his dragon costume and I made myself into a black cat. Jennilyn was also a witch but I forgot to grab a picture of her! 

This year was the first time that Sydney wanted to trick or treat with her friends. We coordinated with her friends from down the street and they were off! I tried desperately to get them to wait for Henry but they wouldn't. Thankfully we live in a quiet neighborhood and the parents were all able to divide and conquer. All in all it was such amazing night! It is always fun to spend so much time with our little family and there is nothing like finishing up the night with some Hot Chocolate and a candy or two.

Mrs. E

Oh The No's

Little Henry has learned how to assert himself. 

 I am proud of him for finding his voice but completely irritated that his favorite word is "NO". He started saying it every once in a while but now it is his favorite go to. He will tell us "No" he doesn't want to sit in his highchair, "No" he doesn't want to eat his food, "No" he doesn't want his bum changed, "No" he doesn't want to share and he definitely doesn't want us to take anything away from him. It has been very trying lately. 

Last night he actually ran away while yelling no when we put his playdough away to get ready for bed.... All I can do is hope that he starts to come around and uses his other vocabulary.

Mrs. E

Henry's First Skate

When you are a little brother, you get to learn how to skate wearing our sisters pink helmet. 

Our poor Henry is already getting random hand me downs. I know he doesn't care or know the difference... but how cute are these pictures of a tiny man in pink headgear?! This all happened a while ago... but we were finally able to take Henry out for his first skating experience. I will admit. I have been dragging my feet on this little adventure for a while. Let's just say that Henry is not the most accommodating or adventurous. I love my little sensitive guy but it sure does make things like skating difficult. 

We packed up the kids and Jennilyn and headed to the mall to give it a try. For some strange reason I though that it would be a good idea to have all of us our on the ice at once, including Jennilyn who has never been on the ice.... bad idea. Dave had to rescue all of us at one point. He is really the only one who can skate. Henry hated it for the most part (as expected) and Sydney really struggled to stay up on her new big kid skates. 

In the end it was an experience. I think next time we will attempt just taking Henry on his own and then Sydney on her own.... much easier to deal with. 

Mrs. E