The Witch in the Ditch

I was awoken by the youngest of the house coming in at 7am shouting "hallo Hallo Halloween" over and over and then he climbed into bed with me and just looked at me till I got up.

This morning it was wet beyond belief. It had obviously been raining all night. The kids were supposed to be doing a parade in their costumes through the Hamlet today. This morning was a disaster. I decided to check how Small's blood had dried on his shirt - it hadn't! It was sticky and wet and made the whole shirt useless. I found another one and cut it up, sewed on the hair and poured nail polish on it instead. It wasn't great but all I could do in such short notice. Grandma got up and helped and the boys were useful too.

I bought a Brain jelly mould yesterday with jelly grubs but I forgot to make it up so had to do it this morning. The mould didn't stand on its own so I rested it in another bowl. When I moved the bowl to the fridge, it spilt everywhere, on the floor, in the fridge - EVERYWHERE! Once we cleared it all up we had breakfast.

Grandad and I drove out to Walmart and the Tire, both with our respective lists, we split up and shopped. We got almost everything and drove home in the thick fog. Once home we picked up Grandma and headed out to school to watch the Halloween Parade. Because of the rain, they paraded inside.

Each class, starting with the kindergarten, went from class to class picking up more costumed children until they ended up in the gym doing a circuit. We left and came home. Grandma and I made a soup and bread, I had lunch and then I scooted back to school again to carve pumpkins with Smallest's class.

I got there at 12:45 and we weren't carving until 2pm so I did jigsaws with them and helped them set up for games. They went off do gym and the teacher and I set up the pumpkins and desks. A couple of other mums turned up and when the kids came back we spilt into four groups. I carved for the kids and they drew their designs. We decided on one part from each child. I.e. Smallest drew the teeth. They looked really good.

They went out for recess and when they came back we had lit the pumpkins for them. SPOOKY.

I stayed to tidy up and then I left them to it and came home. We finished making the soup for dinner and the bread was baked beautifully. Not long till the boys came home, mad and full of sugar. Smallest read his library book and some of his reading book. They went and 'trick or treated' The Royals and then played till Huffle came home.

We had dinner and then went out for Halloween.

Grandma stayed at home and we all went in the car as it was raining hard. Once parked we walked around one road. Lots of people, lots of sweets, lots of scary houses.

I was a witch and Grandad pushed me in the ditch!!

Many many pumpkins

We were absolutely wet through and cold so visited one more home of Smallest's friend and came home.

Grandad sorted through all the sweets and lined them up beautifully and then when he went to say Goodnight to the boys, we moved them all around. What a lot of meanies we are.

TIRED!!!!!!!

 

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Carvery

I forgot some silly dreams from previous days. ***Grandma had a baby, she forgot she had it for five days. She thought Grandad had Monty Don hair. Luckily Cousin Jane had been looking after the baby. She was holding the baby and she thought it was a boy but it was fully clothed (as soon as she had it)***

***Huffle was tobogganing through a shopping centre and managed to just get through the doors as they were closing. He shouted wahooooo***Dreams over for now......

Huffle had a day off though he probably wished he hadn't after the many emails and phone calls he received. After we got the kids off to school, had our breakfast and skyped the Floridians, we set off for Port Hope. It was over an hours drive and by the time we got there we were a little peckish but not quite ready for dinner. We walked to the 'famous for cookies' cafe and had a drink and famous cookie. Grandma chose Apple pie which was of course, the biggest thing in the whole place (we had to bring it home for later). The cookies were very yummy.

Grandad's latte cup was as big as his head and the cookies were actually smaller than they seem!

We poddled around some shops much to the men's disgust and then drove to Cobourg.

We wandered till we found somewhere to eat and ended up in Crabby Carol's Oyster lounge which was very nice with not an oyster on the menu. We had a bit of a rush and didn't have time to walk along the boardwalk so we drove along the harbour wall and looked at the beach and empty harbour. Big difference to Summer when it was packed.

TL: wafting under the Dutch oven. TR: Huffle fins a hat that fits

BL: man in the middle made Grandad and Huffle feel slim. BR: ahhhhhhhh

Where ate.

Harbour

Huffle drove us home and we got back with five minutes to spare before the boys came back. We promised them they could carve the pumpkins so we got right on with it.

This cheeky little chipmunk was sunning himself on our porch!

Three big pumpkins, six helpful people, lots of seeds, much pulp, sawing, scraping, cutting, drawing.........

Grandad and I worked very hard on the 'welcome' carving - we were very happy with the results (Huffle and grandma were jealous!!!!!).

Pumpkins were displayed. The boys had their dinner and then we sorted out costumes for tomorrow.

The boys played on the Wii - Winter Olympics. They used the mii's of Grandma, Moo, Betty Brownie and Grandad but they weren't good enough so they made a new team. Once it was dark we lit the candles.

L: Small's TR: Mine and Grandad's

BR: Smallest's and Grandma's.

 

TL: Small's Cub pumpkin. TR: Smallest's Beaver pumpkin

Bottom - all of them. Lovely.

 

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The Unwashed

We have recently upgraded the Guest Accomodation and installed some Pensioner/Junior lighting for the night. Apparantly this makes the loft much nicer and easier to find the 'loo'. Small especially likes it because he doesn't have to put the main lights on and he can get downstairs in the morning without his torch or lamp. Today we further upgraded the Accomodation by adding a set of drawers, a blanket box and extending the hanging area. Rates will have to be increased.

Huffle stayed at home today. The boys went to school.

We skyped Madame Courvoissier (only just up and not yet combed her hair!) and spoke to MrGator who was telling us how hot it was while I had frozen cold hands!!! Truly Scrumptious was still in bed though we can forgive her as she is injured.

I left the big boys assembling the wardrobe and went to work after raking some leaves to take with me. Four of us at work chose, dug and planted bulbs - hundreds of them before stopping for coffee and pineapple coconut shortbread - yum yum. We tidied up and were home by 12.

Grandma had just made some scones so we had one with our cup of tea. Huffle was just about to take a work call so I helped Grandad with a wardrobe door and we moved it into position. Looks good. We have decided the wardrobe is for me as it has a noisy door and Huffle gets up early, also I know he loves to come out of the closet every morning.

We moved the drawers and the blanket box up to the 'Penthouse' and came down for lunch. After lunch we went outside while Grandma continued to make scones (cheesey ones this time). We fixed the mower which was a nightmare and took ages but eventually we did it, though we did lose a push nut in the grass.

The big boys started a fire pit while I put the dahlias to bed in their peat moss box, then I raked more leaves for the compost bin. The boys had a lovely fire and got through a lot of trees.

Grandma started dinner and the boys came home. Smallest and I Cycled to the library to renew our books - it was very cold and we didn't wear gloves! Books renewed and a quick chat with Nan and we cycled back and got warm again by the still puthering fire.

We had a huge Roast Dinner with Grandma's grandma's Pie and the boys watched TV before bed while the big boys cleared and cleaned the kitchen (what a good pair they are - every home should have some).

 

P.s. Grandma won at cards (though they were brand new and she may have marked them earlier in the day, just saying....)

 

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Personal Waste Activated

After all the boys (Grandad excepted) left for the day, Grandma, Grandad and I left to get everything on our big list. While we were getting ready Grandad read a gardening book by Bob Flowerdew who said that comfrey should be 'activated' by using our personal waste. Right, Grandad set up a loo next to the compost bin!!!

First stop was the Police Station where I handed in my letter to get a police check for volunteering at the school. Next we drove to our local town where we popped into the Thrifty Store.

We got a Monopoly set for Small for $2 and a Bakugan Tin for Smallest which should have been $16 but we got it for just $1. BARGAIN. We walked to the coffee shop where we had and drink and a 'little muffin'. Then we visited the bank, collected pumpkins and walked around the Consignment shop where I haven't visited since Moo asked to buy a rug, waited for them to move all the furniture off it and then changed her mind when it was too high a price!

Both Grandma and Grandad wanted this rocker and stool but Huffle said NO!

Walmart, Dollarama, Winners and Canadian Tire was next. We nearly had to put a call out for Grandad in the tire as we lost him (nothing new there then!).

The last two shops on our list was Home Depot where we were looking for Peat Moss - "no, we've put that away" was their response several times. Not too helpful. We went to a garden centre but they had sold out. On the way out I reversed onto the main road and drove on the wrong side. I knew something was amiss but couldn't work out what until Grandad said "you are on the wrong side of the road". We were at a major junction as well!!! Whoops, don't suppose I will hear the last of this!

Eventually we came home, realised we had missed a meal and sat and had tea and toast and waited for the boys to come home. They were very happy to see their massive pumpkins and we sat and discussed designs. While Grandma played cards with Smallest and made the kids dinner, Grandad and I went and picked up a wardrobe from BoingBoing in the Hamlet. He managed to manoeuvre it in the car and Huffle picked up the drawers (though I wasn't supposed to buy them).

After the kids dinner we played the new monopoly (Smalest said one of the properties was called Vagina Avenue - we checked it was a Mis-pronunciation and not a naughty version). It seemed to be a brand new set and never used and we set it up and as we started playing we realised there were no tokens to use so we had to use them from another set.

Huffle took the kids to Cubs and Beavers where they both carved pumpkins and made a lovely job.

Clever boys

The kids went to bed and we all played cards. I posted this before I won we finished so I I don't know who won.

Night night.

 

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Popcorn, Peck, Parsnip and a Pokemon Master

Last night before playing cards, we moved a sofa from the sun room into the living room. I won at cards by they way (I said I wouldn't mention it but I thought it was only right!) Before we went to bed we moved the furniture around so it fit in better, though it does look a little like an old people's home now. (no, not because G&G are in there!!). When I came down this morning, Small had one Sofa and Grandma and Smallest had the other. They thought the seating was great.

Breakfast was a porridge festival with Grandma making a magic pot for the whole of the Hamlet. Smallest greeted Grandad with "can you build us a tree house with a popcorn dispenser". I am not sure what his answer was but I do know he hasn't built it yet!

Another slow morning of breakfast, clearing, chatting and Skyping of CousinE and CousinD..............

CousinD showed us his Halloween costume

.............before getting ready to go out to our local farm shop. We were hoping the lovely singing entertainment would be there but it finished last week. We bought a half peck (small bag) of Spartan eating apples and a half peck of Courtland cooking apples and a few butter tarts and mince pies and sat looking over the golf course eating.

We could see the lake and straight across the lake we saw Rochester USA (we think).

Then we split up, boys in one car and girls and Small in the other. The boys went to the Tire to purchase rope and night lights (for the more senior people to see where they are going at night) and the girls and Small did some grocery shopping.

Once home the little boys went off and played, the big boys put the outside table and chairs to sleep and fixed some guttering for the Winter and I picked some parsnips from our garden.

Grandma and I made dinner. We had roast beef and all the trimmings and then Grandma made a Gruffalo crumble and an Apple crumble with custard. It was a huge dinner and ended up being our lunch and tea in one.

Grandma went to sleep while we played the Pokemon game again. This time we played much quicker because we knew what we were doing and Grandad was the Pokemon master. The little boys did their maths, Huffle downloaded some music for us, Grandma slept on and Grandad and I tried to be geeks and work out which Pokemon belonged with which!!! We are definitely not geeks, we have no idea!

Smallest eating one of his treats from his party.

 

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One Dice Short, No Rules and a Dead Mouse

When we woke up the rain was lashing down and the wind was blowing wildly. We had a very slow morning starting with a croissant breakfast and showers. Then we sat down and made Huffle read 16 pages of the rules of a game that Aunt Pear sent for us called Pokemon Trader. This was Cousin Pest's game and Unc Pear dug it out for the boys (we half expected a dead mouse). We played happily for half an hour before we realised one of the dice was missing, then the game properly got started. Grandma slept on while battles happened, Pokemon were won, lost and traded. Two hours later and Huffle finally won. Thanks Aunt Pear. Small said after the game "I'm exhausted!"

We had a tea and hot chocolate break and then all got ready to go out. Two cars, six people, lots of rainwear and a trip to Uxbridge Tin Mill and we sat down for a lovely meal.

This was a photo on the wall. Look at hair!

After a lengthy stay, we went to the Halloween shop and kitted Grandad out in a costume we like to call 'frankenporter'. I cannot reveal his costume until Halloween evening. We also got Grandma a little something, Smallest a light up Sword and a Dracula ornament that lights up with a candle inside.

We popped downstairs to the charity shop and bought a furry scarf to finish off Small's costume. Grandad tried on all the hats but didn't buy any this time.

Huffle, Grandma, grandad and Smallest went home while Small and I walked to the cinema and asked if my watch had been found. It had, I am so pleased.

Small and his fake hand in the cinema

Once we were all home, Smallest got his Halloween costume on and I took him to his party at Ew's house. He had a lovely time making a ghost, doing a scavenger hunt and eating cake and pizza (maybe not in that order).

Grandma and I played scrabble while the boys watched the football and then we all played Monopoly Deal until it was time to pick Smallest up from his party.

We had tea and made jellies and a trifle for tomorrow's tea and Grandad recounted stories of TV in the UK and during this he mentioned Craig Revell Horner!!!!!!

 

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Brainy and Bucket

Huffle and I went off to the school assembly today. Smallest received an award for 'reading fluently and for providing detailed thoughtful answers in his written work' - WOW! Small received an award for 'excellence in all subjects'. WOW again. Well done boys. The first lot of awards were for team work which neither of them won so we now realise they are clever selfish boys (ummmm sounds familiar ha!).

Huffle left early and went to work before going to the airport. I came home briefly, picked up my wool and needles and went off to Knitting. It was a beautifully sunny day but crisply cold. It was only me and Donna today and it was very very quiet. I finished off a sleeve of my cardi and popped into the supermarket on the way home for some treats.

I just had time to get home and make a pot of tea before Huffle, Grandma and Grandad arrived back. Hugs, cups of tea and a lunch later and the cases were opened to reveal a lovely stash of goodies, Christmas presents, books, calendar and a mahoosive bag of Yorkshire tea bags.

Grandma had bought us a lovely bauble for Christmas in honour of the little mouse 'Diddle' that Huffle caught in our UK house and carried it across the village in a pink gift bag. On closer inspection the bauble said "baby's first Christmas 2013". We have decided to change the 'first' to 'tenth' and then it will apply to Small.

Silly Grandma

Ummmm lovely things to eat

We ate lunch, chatted and waited for the boys to come home. More hugs, lots of oohs and ahhhs over the stash and then they got ready for swimming after a few wine gums. Grandad and I took the boys swimming. Small did lots of swimming and smiling and Smallest did jumping, diving, swimming and crashing into Barry Beaver. Today was progress day so they finished five minutes early so the instructors could go over their prgress with us. Smallest's instructor said that even though Smallest was by far the youngest in his class, his endurance was 'unwavering'. All he needs to work on is keeping his tummy up whilst on his back and keeping his legs straight when kicking. Small has already succeeded in his flutter kick and distance swim and just needs to work on his other strokes to improve them. They are both doing excellently. We asked Smallest what one of the boys was called and he said his name was 'Brainy'. It was actually Brady. Last year he had a Boy in his class called 'Bucket' whose real name was 'Duncan'.

Smallest and his hat. This is used for when they do their stride jump to see if they can go in without knocking the hats off.

We came home and dinner was waiting for us courtesy of Grandma and Huffle. The boys did their maths, grandma fell asleep and woke up every now then to remember to tell us something.

 

 

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