Going ons.....

Leah thoroughly enjoyed her woodworking class this year.  She came home with a beautiful coffee table.  She is not quite finished it since she missed 3 classes during our vacation.  Also we are going to shorten it a bit and use it for an entrance bench.  When complete I will take pictures.  But she loved it so much she has made a few things since.  It is fun to have her just go out to the garage and use the table saw and other tools.

We got together for our annual chocolate making day last weekend.  Between basketball and youth conference, we didn't help as much as usual.

It was another fun day with the in-laws.

Myrna feed us for the weekend and ended with a very delicious soup.

After we were all done and cleaned up, I stayed over so Blake could play with his cousins for a few hours.  Dave was working on his talk, Cora was gone and Leah was studying.  Later in the afternoon we got ready and headed to town for the Folk Club.  Valdy was performing.  Blake did not want to go.  He wanted to stay and play with his cousins, but just a few number into it and he was glad he had come.  Valdy is a great entertainer, with stories and music.  It was a wonderful evening.

I had brought money for treats, but not for a CD.  Blake really wanted one.  Uncle Jason kindly lent him some money and Blake got it signed.

As we were walking out, Blake passed Valdy.  He turned to him and said, 'See you later Blake'.  It made Blake's day.  On the way out Blake saw this poster and posed.  Such a tough dude.  :)

We are full swing into basketball, drama, YW, Scubs, and piano now. Blake started a club at school and piano this year also.  It is the season of packed dinners and using the bean bag cooker often. Cora has a great coach and Leah is really loving being back at it.  She finally passed her learners.  After asking me for months if she could drive, today she was legal and didn't want to.  (She doesn't like the car we had taken)  I made her anyways.

We are just plugging along.    As I am helping to coach Cora's team it was more difficult for me to run everyone around.  Dave has been a huge help.  Every morning we figure out which of the three drivers is taking which car where.  It takes juggling, but I think it is good to keep the kids involved in things.  Cora has taken on a lot.  I worry she is going to burn herself out, but she loves everything.  Dave and I often pass on the road and wave.  :) So that's us lately.  We are running around and loving it all.

What's In a Name?

I love old stories.  Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Pride and Prejudiced are some of my favorites.  I love the dresses and the customs.  It makes me laugh how they can be rude as they seem to be being so polite.  It is the only romance story I can read.  I enjoy the countryside and their balls, the parties, and 'The Season'.  And I love how they name their houses.  I have always wanted to name my house.  When we started building this house, I started thinking about names.  A year ago when we moved in, I even started getting a few suggestions from my parents and siblings.  When I was talking to my kids about it I always used the example of Rose Cottage.  While we were walking around the Pusey Estate in England, there was a sign outside of one house that said Rose Cottage.  Cora started laughing and said, 'Wow, it really is a thing!'  She then caught the vision and has helped me think.  We went through the whole using something to do with our last name, using Poverty Flats somehow, looking at significant things around us.  I went on a few sites that help with house name suggestions.  I looked at translating words into German.  I even used a thesaurus for the word house.  But everything that came up there sounded like a retirement center or a half-way house.  I knew that when I found the right one it would just hit me.  And we finally did.  Sunday we officially christened our house................ 

Windy Peaks! 

 Dave is not a big fan of house naming and pointed out that we don't live in the mountains, but there are a lot of peaks on our house and so it works.  The kids and I love it.  So come visit us sometime.  Take a drive out to Windy Peaks.

Such a Great Weekend

Thursday I went to watch Leah in the cardboard boat races.  It is an all day event.  They are in teams of 4 and have an hour and a half to design and build a boat.  Then they race it across the swimming pool. 

 If you make it to the other side, 3 people get in and see if it can stay afloat for 60 seconds.  Leah's team made it across.  They tipped over when trying to get in.  

To bad, I think it would have held.  They had a great time and it was neat to see all the different designs and watch them try to cross the pool.

That night at fire practice, Cora got her uniform.  Pants were to big, but the smallest they had.

Friday Blake and Leah were out of school.  Blake had gotten some play-dough for Halloween.  Two tiny tubs.  They wanted a lot more to play with, so they looked up a recipe and made their own.

When Dave got home we quickly got ready and headed into the college basketball game.  For a few years now, Blake has tried to win the half time pizza.  He never does, so this year Dave decided to take us all for pizza beforehand.  (I have no idea what he is doing with his smile.  Blake gives us all these lovely poses lately.  Not sure why.)

And then Blake won.

Saturday Cora was off in the morning.  It was the Annual Fire Dept Roast.  They put on a prime rib dinner and an auction.  She was helping to get all the food ready and everything set up.  Leah made all my fondant for me this year.

She loved doing it.  For the last batch I didn't even stay in the kitchen, I had gone to get ready for the Roast.

When I got back down it was all done and cleaned up.  It was fabulous.  

Dave had started on our trim Saturday.  It is looking awesome.  I love the straight clean lines of the trim we chose. 

Then Dave and I went into town.  We snuck a few pictures of Cora working. She was pleased about that.  (Not really)

Cora and one other guy are the newbies so they had to hold all up the stuff for auction.  Better than doing dishes.

It was an entertaining auction.  The auctioneer did a great job, kept us all laughing and excited.  He teased Cora and the other guy and made it fun.  One thing that I had wanted started out higher than I was going to bid (local honey) and the second I should have kept going a bit, I think I could have got it (a basket of stuff from our recent town celebration, T-shirts, water bottles, etc.)  Cora loves the fire department.  So much that she was considering not doing drama this year, and has already looking into the department where she is going to school next year.  Sunday we watched a broadcast.  I had thought it was a Canada wide broadcast, but was wrong.  Some great messages.  Then we had dinner at Pierson's.  It was nice to hang out with them a little again.  When we got home the kids watched a movie and then to bed.  So many fun things we got to do this weekend.  It was great. 

Trick or Treat

This Halloween was so fun.  I'm not a hater of Halloween, but I don't put a lot of effort into it either.  After lots of asking from Leah, we finally went and found our few Halloween decorations.  The kids were all old enough that I didn't have to do anything for their costumes.  They did it all themselves.  I helped Leah put together this little gift for her friends.  Then for lunches I drew faces on their oranges to look like Jack-O-Lanterns and made a mummy filled with candy out of toilet rolls. 

Cora dressed up as Castiel.  Some dude from a TV show called Super Natural.  Blake was going to go as Dr. Who and last minute changed his mind.  Blake and Leah weren't allowed to dress up till last period, so I didn't get a picture of them.  Leah helped with the school haunted house.  She painted her face with bruises and cuts and dresses all in black.  For the school party she was going to be a robber, but didn't feel like changing.

When the kids got home we had a quick dinner and they changed back into their costumes.  Cora wanted to be robbers together with Leah.  Leah was being grumpy and didn't want to dress up anymore.  I was very tempted to leave her home.  So no pictures of her this year.

We then headed off to the Toone's.  Maycie and Emily had invited the girls for a movie party.  Later they asked if the rest of us could come and hang out.  It was a lot of fun.  As soon as we got there, Blake, Avery, Dave and Joe went into town to trick or treat.  The girls were hanging out in the basement.

Natalie made me a lovely cup of herbal tea and we sat in the front room till the boys came home.

 

I enjoyed sitting there with the warm tea and loved that I didn't have to be the one to take Blake out.

When they got back, Blake and Avery watched a show with Sophie.  I told them we needed to leave by 9:30 since it was a school night.  They were a little surprised.  Apparently in their school district they never have school the day after Halloween.  How nice is that!

But of course as we talked and the girls wanted to finish the show we stayed way past 9:30.  But loved every minute of it.

We ended up getting home just after midnight.  We may have slept through scripture reading time this morning. :/  We all had a great time and the kids got plenty got of candy.