Back in August, while we were in Ontario, my sister spotted a casting call for 2-3 year old models. She emailed the photographer a picture of Elisabeth, and then let me know about it. Of course as soon as I knew, I submitted a second photo. Well, Elisabeth's photoshoot was yesterday and I had no idea what to expect.

Not true. I totally snooped on the amazing photographer's site and knew I loved her work. But I was remembering back to last year's Christmas pictures and how torturous those were and wondering what we'd be up for.

Shouldn't have worried. After about 3 minutes of shyness, Elisbeth totally found her groove. I think we only had to make suggestions two or three times and other than that she was twirling and bouncing then squatting, then lying then twirling...

...and today I got a little sneak preview! I can't wait to see the rest!

The pictures from Andrew's Camera*

As promised, here are the pictures from Andrew's Camera*.

We've just arrived at the farm and Elisabeth is very excited to begin the fun!

With her pumpkin. Like I said earlier, I was really surprised she could carry this. The rule is, the kids can take home any pumpkin they can carry. Elisabeth had to carry this one about 50 metres, and it looked pretty big for her. But she managed it! Amazing what they can do when they have to :)

Here she is on the wagon with a pumpkin she picked before she decided on her big one, and one I picked so we'd have one each.

And Elisabeth with a bunny. Bunnies are cute. Maybe we should put some down in the orchard.



*I say Andrew's camera, but actually it's my dad's. He had sent it in for repairs and Dave thought it would be good if we tested the camera before we send it up north to dad.

On Tuesday Elisabeth had her first school field trip! Andrew took the morning off to come with us too. And yup, you guessed it, we were at Aldor Acres!


Ellie was super excited, can you tell?

The first thing we did was take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. Once we landed in place, Elisabeth was off and trying to find the perfect pumpkin!

She tried out a couple of little ones before deciding on this medium sized pumpkin. Truth be told, I couldn't believe she could carry it!



Next it was time to visit the animals. Elisabeth's favorites were the goats and the bunnies (the bunny picture is on Andrew's camera though).

Elisabeth insisted on getting this picture taken.

Traditional How Tall This Fall picture.

And a picture with the sheep. I'm not a huge fan of petting zoos like this. It was insane the day we were there, and the poor animals are run ragged by these little kids. All of them want to hold, pet, chase them all and you can tell they don't love it. The turkeys were mad and actually trying to attack some of the kids. Yikes. So we didn't stay long.


And we go back tomorrow and next Friday for two more trips. woo hoo

The weather was so nice last Sunday that in the afternoon we decided to head to the beach for a long walk. After all, this is BC and you never know how many non-rainy weekends are in store for fall/winter. Or any time of year for that matter!

The Dr. Who booth very close to where we always park.

Some fall colour.
These hydrangeas were so beautiful. I'm going to have to figure out my backyard this year so I can plant a bush or two myself!


We walked right down to the end of the beach where the stairs and bridge are, and then we played. There was a big pile of gravel that the kids had a great time climbing up and jumping off.

My big five year old was being such a ham :)



After he'd finished posing, David threw some rocks in the water.

Wow. STRONG boy!

Then David and Andrew had to go for a little stroll so Elisabeth took over being my model.

Also a little ham!!

Both my kids are all about jumping right now.


The tide was coming in pretty fast, so it was time to turn around and find our boys. On our way there were too many signs of fall to ignore. You know, it really is my favorite time of year!





Oh dear, what could have Elisabeth looking so shocked?

And a little worried?

ugh. okay, I see it now. Yuck!

David's Birthday

After the huge birthday extravaganza we had for Elisabeth back in August, I really struggled with what to do for David's birthday. On the one hand, he was expecting something pretty amazing, but on the other, well, I don't believe in huge EXPENSIVE parties. Plus, David doesn't really know anyone from his kindergarten class and we couldn't afford to invite his whole class. So in the end we decided to have three parties. Over Thanksgiving we had what we called the Uncle Party. It was really just the normal Thanksgiving Family Dinner and we had some cake aftewards and Dave and Rob gave David presents. And played with him. He loved it.

Then on his actual birthday, we started off the day with pancakes. Davey's were human shaped. He LOVED that!

Then, in the evening we had home made pizza at Grandma's house. And gave David our presents. We got him this talking Transformers card. I think it was a big hit.

Grandma and Grandpa Menary sent a sweater and some great books for David.

And then when Uncle Dave and Alexis got home from work, we had Treatza Pizza (at Uncle Dave's request!)


Yum!

Then on the weekend we had Natasha, Riley, Mayah and of course Jade and Ashlie come over for some Star Wars games. And the Abelmans slept over. I'm not sure who had more fun...the kids or we adults! We stayed up late playing Dutch Blitz and continued on again first thing in the morning!!

Lately, David is obsessed with us training him out to drive. His words. So the other day we're in the car and he says, "Mummy, I think you need to train me how to drive because I don't know how to drive a car."

"Oh sure, honey. Is that so you can drive around the world to find your wife instead of walking?"

"Yes, only what happens if I get lost? What will I do then? I guess you're going to have to train me" we haven't told him about GPS yet.

*********************

Today my sister, Elisabeth and I were driving around town. We were talking about her blackberry and I asked her a few questions about the options she has on it. Then I wistfully said, "I'd love to get a blackberry one day."

A little voice piped up from the back seat, "Mummy, don't you know we get blackberries from the forest? We can go there and get you one."

Happy Birthday, my big FIVE YEAR OLD boy!!

Fall Nature Walk

Yesterday David's kindergarten class was supposed to walk to Sendell Gardens and have a picnic there. Because it rained, the field trip was postponed. I must have misunderstood because I thought it wasn't happening this week at all. Turns out the class went today.

Unfortunately, I had made plans that I couldn't cancel. The one time I've done that. I managed not to cry but only because Andrew was there. Yeah, wuss much?

Anyway, the weather was pretty nice today so we decided to go back there this afternoon. Here's our before picture - the kids in front of Kathi and Cody's fence.

David took this picture of me and Libs while we were walking.

We took a slightly different route to the Gardens then David would have taken. But as we walked, David started to recognize landmarks and was really excited to be showing me how to get there. It was really cool to listen to him because he obviously had noticed landmarks on the way and was remembering them as we walked.

For instance, he said that there would be a house with the address on it. An address is like a phone number only it's your house number and we put it on the house. Sendell Gardens is right after the house with the address on it mummy.

I love it.

Then he was very particular about which way we should go once we were in the park. He really wanted to retrace his steps from this morning and show us everything he'd seen when he was there with his class.

There's a lot of pictures of Elisabeth here. Not because she's cuter than David, just she sits still more often. Which makes it easier to get pictures!!



We brought a plastic bag with us and picked up leaves and pinecones and other signs of fall we found along the way.



When we got to the pond where the ducks, geese and swans were David gave us a lecture on the proper method of feeding the ducks. He also warned us not to put our fingers through the fence. It's good to know he pays attention when I'm not around :)

This is Mr. Sendell who the park is named after. David told me all about him this morning and also told me that this statue is 'on top of the man the park is named after." I asked him if that meant he was buried in the park. He's pretty sure he is, though the memorial plaque didn't indicate that he is!!

We also got lectures about staying off the ornamental rocks in the garden, on keeping to the path, and on not picking from the garden.

But we did pick up some acorns.

What a cute little face!


It wouldn't have been a good walk without some climbing and jumping.

Or hugging.


And a little posing :)


And this look below? It's the look of pure adoration when a little girl looks at her daddy. Awww...