Busy September

The weather this fall has been so warm and pleasant it has made the transition from summer freedom to fall routine much more tolerable. In addition to both kids starting school, we've been busy with lots of other activities. 

Hailey loves her friend Lexie and is always happy to look out for her. One day she was VERY excited to have an opportunity to hold her and feed her a bottle. Hailey also likes her friends Olivia (below) and Alex, happily looking out for them when we're together. 

Hailey loves perler beads. We got some as hand-me-downs from Jackson and Montana and Hailey is nuts about them. She is busily making a flower (see below) for "everyone I know, even Gramma in the basement." Sometimes she doesn't want her picture taken, though.

Hailey is also busy preparing for her, as requested, Robin Hood birthday party. We made our own invitations last week.

And last week we met up with my friend Kara and her daugther Anna at Terra Nova Park and then went for lunch at Tim Hortons. It was precious to hang out with Kara and our girls, as we'd spent many hours at parks and on walks with our boys 6ish years ago.

Hudson's creativity continues to know no bounds. Here is a picture of his room this afternoon. I have no idea what's all going on in there with masking tape, a white board, and 30+ post-it notes with pretend NFL team names on them.

Today was a Pro-Day for Hudson so we went on a date to Tim Hortons while Hailey was at preschool.

When we got home he wrote out his own rules for the new Uno cards we'd bought.

Hudson took part in the Terry Fox Run at school and is VERY interested in Terry's story. On Friday after the run he asked me to print of a map of Canada and then to draw a line where Thunder Bay is. He then coloured the map (note the key at the top) to clearly show what provinces Terry ran in and which he was not able to.

And he loves Ethan, with growing toleration for Riley. On Saturday both Keith and Mike were working so Juliet and I took the kids to Campbell Valley Park. The boys have a "hideout" called "Mountain K2" that they like to climb to and inevitably slide down from. Here are their bums at the end of our time at the park. We pack a change of clothes for the kids to put on before we get in the car to go home.

One day at that park Hailey made me lay like this so she could push me. Not as easy for a 35 year old as it is for a 3.5 year old.

Hailey and Reese continue to enjoy each other and to be weird together. Above, the girls made "beds" for themselves and then lay in them to watch a show. Below, they shared two pairs of sandals, each wearing one sandal from each pair, for our walk to pick-up Hudson at school.

Our kids are often united by the power of a "popcorn night" where they can eat popcorn and drink juice on a blanket in the living room while watching a movie or, in this case, football.

And Keith's mom visited last weekend, marking the second anniversary of Jeff's passing. As with last year, we took a picture on the steps. I continue to be proud of Keith's mom for the path she is blazing for herself in this new, unwanted phase of life.