Jam2MapleSyrup: You can't sit there......

Huffle got a lift to work this morning so that he could go to the pub with a work colleague (after work, not in the morning). Small, Smallest and I got ready as quickly as we could and made our way to the hospital. Or first stop was the cafe where the boys were disappointed to find there were no chocolate croissants. They had chocolate chip muffins instead. Then we went to the plastics department. Small got his cast cut off.

The man was showing him how it doesn't cut skin and then he added 'as long as I don't press down too hard!'

A shrivelled wrinkly thumb. It looked longer - we thought it had grown.

Then we went to XRay where we chatted with a lovely lady who was very interested in where we came from, why we came to Canada, how long we were staying etc etc etc. Back to plastics where we saw the doctor who was very happy with the XRay and said it had healed well. Back to the waiting room, moved to a bigger waiting room, called back to the little waiting room, into the physiotherapy office where a nice lady made a special cast for his thumb only. He got to chose the colour again and it was moulded to his thumb. He has to wear this for the rest of the school day today, then it can be taken off. He has to wear it at night, for sports and recess at school. Another $30, though I have to say that so far, our insurance has paid for the other casts in full so it's only the car parks and petrol we have really had to pay for. Not bad for insurance that comes with Huffle's job and covers all of us.

Thumb in the air, muffin in the other hand

Once the cast was made, off to the next table where a lady showed him what exercises he had to do and when. He can actually move his thumb a lot more than I thought he would be able to. The doctor suggested he couldn't go rock climbing in two weeks with the cubs, which is a shame as he was really looking forward to it.

We paid for the car park, drove back to school and chatted with the Secretary and Principal. Small went to his class and Smallest and I found his Taekwondo belt (yay) and went home. I cleaned up the kitchen. Huffle caught a mouse in the night, this morning he heard a skuttling sound in the bottom of the oven and opened the drawer. One dead and the other walked, yes walked away! I am not allowed to open the drawer in case there is another one caught. All the tins have been dishwashed and put in a different place, much higher up. The kitchen has been disinfected.

We skyped Moo and told her about Small. Telephoned Drew and made plans for the bonfire. Smallest had his lunch in front of the TV and then we went out for hotdogs (for the bonfire) and sparklers.

We got what we wanted and came home. Played on the Wii for a while, played table football and then curled up on the sofa and watched TV. I nearly fell asleep. I woke up at 2am this morning after having a bad dream that someone was chasing me. Then I could hear the water softener going and I was still awake at 3:30am, so I am really tired today. We got ready for swimming and waited for Small to come home. The boys had a quick snack and then we drove to Smallest's lessons.

I sat next to Small's friend's Mum. We had a really good chat. About the boys, about school, about the teachers, about the work. I learnt a lot and we agreed to talk again soon. We went home, got changed into warm wear, grabbed our hot dogs, rolls, beer, marshmallows and headed off to Drew's. She was already in the back garden with a lit fire and some skewers.

Our next door neighbour (who put out pumpkins before October) already has her Christmas lights up!

The boys threw sticks and wood onto the fire and then roasted their hot dogs. Drew put the potatoes and corn on the fire in foil (they were yummy).

Small is putting both thumbs up (because he can now!).

Oooh sparklers

It lsuddenly started raining. Really heavily. So we moved everything (except the fire which went out instantly) into the gazebo, lit some candles and sat and ate marshmallows. The boys made s'mores but without the fire they were really a Graham, Marshmallow and a piece of Choclate. They didn't seem to mind. Smallest got very tired (it has been a long day) so he sat and cuddled on my knee while we waited for the rain to stop. It didn't stop so we made a run for it.