Couple of Maggie conversations....

Maggie quote of the day: Caroline said boobs. Haha, that's my favourite word.....

Me:  Maggie, did you forget to tell me that Caroline told you she was going to work?
Maggie:  What do you mean?
Me:  I thought she was still in the basement asleep
Maggie:  She is.  Her car's still here.....
Actually, not it's not Maggie, but never mind....

Pictures taken at Shaw Nature Reserve

We went to Shaw Nature Reserve yesterday, the weather was perfect, a little cool but nice and sunny. I took my camera with me so I could take some Fall pictures.  There wasn't too much going on, but I did find a couple of bushes with interesting berries on them

There were loads of these dried out grasses that stick to your clothes if you walk by them

There weren't too many colours on the trees, most of them were yellows, very little red.  This tree is out in the middle of the prairie and was worthy of a picture.....

These red bushes (weeds?) were in the prairie too, about the only red at the Reserve.

We found loads of these woolly bear caterpillars

Nice picture of the sun lighting up this tree

The reflection of the trees in the lake were really pretty yesterday

The colours are really nice this year, but it's mostly yellow out at Shaw.  The reds are all in the City where non-native trees are growing

I would not want this growing up our trees at home, but it makes a nice picture

We sat by the lake and ate a picnic, the views were beautiful

This is my favourite feature in the whole park

Halloween 2013

It's been a long time since Halloween has been rained out, but 2013 had the potential to be the year.  It rained all day and turned into really hard rain at dinner time.  The kids hung around waiting for the rain to clear, Maggie even fell asleep on her bed and I was convinced Halloween was not going to happen this year.  Luckily, the rain cleared off a little bit and so I got the kids ready to go trick-or-treating.  Maggie wanted to be a vampire and wear Ben's cloak from last year.  I painted her face so she looked a little more like the undead.  She was so excited to get her face painted.  She looked great

Ben was a pharaoh this year, it was a really impressive costume.  He wanted his eyes painted.  It made him look way too pretty!!!!!  I told him he looked a little like Rodrick in Diary of a Wimpy kid!!!!!

Ben wanted Maggie to pretend she was flying while he took a picture.  Sometimes they are so funny together

We decided to go over to Jan and Julie's to go trick-or-treating.  They have a huge number of kids that live around them now and a lot of people had their houses decorated.  It turned out to be a very successful trip and Sam thinks we should make it our new routine for a while.  Jan got to hand out candy this year, one of the perks of being retired and at home on Halloween.

Ghouls in the Garden 2013

We went to Ghouls in the Garden on Sunday.  It was a beautiful day and the kids really enjoyed it.  However, this event has turned into a huge deal and now you have to line up for every station, it has taken a lot of the fun out of it

The stations are pretty much the same as they are every year, but they are still very well done. The little kids especially love all the characters.  There was a guy dressed as Dracula who looked really good, but some of the kids (including Maggie) wouldn't go anywhere near him

This is Maggie demonstrating just how angry an Angry Bird can be!!!  I guess Angry Birds has become a little passe, but everyone thought she was a Cardinal, so she was really popular

Maggie wouldn't go near this witch either

Ben told me that "Pharaohs do not smile"

The fountain at the entrance was dyed red in honor of the World Series, pity that it's not helping the Cards win any games!!!!

Fuji apple picking at Eckerts

We went to Eckert's to get Fuji apples this weekend. They are our favourite and we just couldn't miss out on them.  I got a friend to pick up 10 lbs for us last weekend, but she got them out of the shop and they are never quite as good as fresh off the trees.  

We didn't pick pumpkins, but they had plenty of them there, some of them were huge.  The kids had great fun posing with them

The men like the apples.....

Sam had to lift Ben up on his shoulders to get all the good apples at the top

Ben found this bird's nest in one of the trees

Go! St. Louis 2013

We all ran in the Go! St. Louis Halloween yesterday. It was brutally cruel to have to wake the kids up at 5:00 am for a 7:00 am start on a Sunday morning.  Everyone was pretty happy once we got down town

Ben was ready to go

Sam was warming up doing squats with Maggie on his shoulders!!!!

Sam ran on his own, but Ben, Maggie and I ran together most of the way.  Ben has brilliant running form, but then he's trained to run right in gymnastics.  They spend a long time optimizing their running form for the vault.  As a result, even though he says he hates running and rarely runs, his form is spectacular.  He keeps his body perfectly steady and moves his arms enough to propel him along.  All his energy is going into his legs and so he just runs along barely breathing deeply and runs back and forth while I am almost dying!!!  Maggie is completely the opposite and her form is very bad.  Her breathing was awful and we had to stop and walk several times as I was worried she was going to keel over!!  At the end of the race, she just lay on the floor and would not get up-poor Maggie.  I really need to take her out running with me a lot more often.

Ben was very happy to get his medal, and his banana, and his bar of chocolate, and his chocolate milk.....

Sam doesn't even look like he's run at all!!!!

Sam had Maggie squatting to try to help her legs....

We can still summon a smile.....

Rock Hill festival 2013

The Girl Scouts walked in the Rock Hill parade on Saturday.  One of the mothers got them organized to make patterns of their hands in the meetings and then she made this banner that they used in the parade.

Unfortunately, the festival got rained out and they packed it up early, we never even got to go there at all.  It was such a shame because I know the people that put hours of effort into organizing it.

While Maggie was at soccer, I went to pick Ben up from SLGC.  I just had to take this photo of the appalling parking that occurs constantly there.  Some parents just cannot make the effort to park in the lot and walk into the gym to get their kids, so they park as close as they can to the gym and wait for their kids to come up, completely disregarding the safety of other kids crossing the parking lot.  

The gym even sent out a message in their latest newsletter to ask parents to come in and collect their kids and that the coaches would not let them go outside unless there was parent permission to do that.  Apparently, only words because there is no follow-through.  Here there is a van parked in the disabled spot and a car parked in the no parking zone that was assigned to give enough visibility around the entrance.

Ben was very happy.  He got a smoothie during practice and birthday donuts afterwards!!!!