This Month is ALMOST over!

And today Lizzie got to dress up for school. Here she is doing her best superhero pose!

And clowning around with Teacher Leah (I'd like to point out here that Leah is almost as tall as me. And look how tall Elisabeth is on her!! Oy.)

Then we had to dress up for the Halloween Dance at David's school. Elisabeth and I went as cats.

Andy went as a pirate and David wore his shark costume.

More Pumpkin Patch

On Thursday Andrew took David on his field trip to Aldor Acres. Poor Andrew. It poured rain all day. Lucky for them it was a lot dryer (despite the rain!) there, and there was lots of cover. Here they are on the hay ride.

There they all are!



Have you seen the dancing pig? Here's David dancing to the dancing pig!


Then on Thursday night, the kids had their Harvest Party at church. David went as a Knight and Elisabeth went dressed as Little Red Riding Hood.

Pumpkin Patches & Puppies!

On Wednesday, Elisabeth's preschool (all classes) went to Hazlemere Pumpkin Patch. They're a cute bunch.

So cute, I couldn't decide which picture to choose.

The weather here has been pretty awful lately. Lots and lots of rain. BUT Wednesday started off a little misty and ended up being really nice. Almost hot.

Still, the ride to the pumpkin patch (and the walk through the corn patch) were a little scary!


It was slim pickin's on the pumpkin patch, but we still managed to find a couple of pumpkins to choose between.




Here's a glimpse of how nasty the fields were!

And then after school, I got to dog sit. This is Lucy. I'm in love!



Awwww....

Skating Lessons

Monday was the kids' last skating lesson. And of course, given the time of month, they had to go in costume. Lizzie wore her butterfly costume.

And David wore his shark suit. Both kids were mad that their hats (which are attached to the costume) didn't fit over their helmets.

It was a fun day. But neither of them passed their level. This is pretty common, but we're not very happy with the way the instruction has been going. Their teacher didn't seem to have a lot of joy in teaching. And though he would show the class how to do each exercise, he never corrected them if they weren't doing things quite right.

So for the time being, we're (and I use the term we loosely; I never learned how to skate so I just sit in the rink and give thumbs up every time my family skates by) going to take the kids skating at the weekend public skates.

But hey, they've improved in leaps and bounds and they both are confident on the ice. They can propel themselves and they can keep their balance. They're doing better than me!!

The Last Day in Victoria

I just have to do a little plug for travelzoo. We booked our hotel through this website and got the most amazing deal. We had two queen beds in the Queen Victoria (which is next to the Royal BC Museum) and two free tickets to the IMAX and two free tickets to the museum and free parking until 2 pm on Sunday. Incredible!

On Sunday it was pretty rainy so we were happy that we'd planned on watching Dinosaurs Alive at the IMAX and then exploring the museum.

The feature exhibit is one in which they turn the museum inside out and allow you to discover more about the things you normally see on exhibit. Which really just meant there were lots and lots of dead things to look at and sometimes you could put them under a microscope.

Oh, and there was a kids exhibit with costumes!

And a huge Mammoth. Yes, he was life size and not a painting.

We got up to the third floor where there were floor to ceiling windows overlooking the harbour. Wow.






And then our trip was done. It went by way too fast and we only got to see enough to make us want to go back very soon. But it was so much fun. Victoria is beautiful. I can't wait to go back!

What do you do at the end of a perfect day? Celebrate with ice cream of course! So we parked our car and walked towards the harbour. Stopping first at the Royal BC Museum for a photo.

And a quick picture of where we planned to eat dinner.




Finally made it back to The Soda Shoppe. Yum!

This was our view from the booth at the window. Nice, eh?


Outside we saw a famous Victoria busker. That's right: a violin playing Darth Vader. David was in awe. So of course we stopped for a picture op.


Then we wandered through town on our way to the Spaghetti Factory. More yum.

But Elisabeth only ate her greens.

Meanwhile David was ecstatic to have a bowl of tortellini. Most he ate all weekend!

Hatley House

Just around the corner from Fort Rodd Hill is Hatley Castle. We opted not to tour the inside of the castle since my brother has seen it before (and apparently it's not on his top 10 list). But we had lunch and wandered around the grounds. Again, really beautiful. And can I just note that we need more deciduous trees in this area.

I was hoping to get a good family picture while we were in Victoria. I think it would only be possible if I wasn't in it. However, here's one of all of us.



We had lunch in the Royal Roads cafeteria. Nice campus.
Hatley Castle:




Built in 1908.


For a small fee, you can wander the grounds. Which are more of a park. I bet they're spectacular in the late spring/summer.




This pond was gorgeous. I can so see getting family portraits or wedding pictures here, can't you?