November Remembered

A photographic review of November:

A princess tea-party:

Ballet classes:

The gymnastic studio:

Smiles:

Play dates:

Bigger smiles:

Playing with trains:

Fun with aunties:

Thanksgiving:

The day after Thanksgiving:

Busier than a one-armed paper hanger

If you knew my Nana--the one that I lived with growing up--you'll know where I got my title for this post. My Nana was FULL of expressions like this one which has come to my mind often this week because I have temporarily lost the use of my left hand. I feel so SLOW in everything that I do, including typing, so please excuse my break from blogging/short posts in the meantime. I've been one-armed a couple of times before, but never with kids and a household to run...I think my grandmother's expression should be altered to, "busier than a one-armed mom."

How have I lost the use of my hand, you ask? Don't read on if you get queasy. I cut off the nail, nail bed, and a bit of bone of my left ring finger with a serrated bread knife. It is impossible to use stitches, so we are just keeping it clean, dry, and well packed, but today (I did this Tuesday) it looks like it's almost done bleeding--yay! The doctor says the flesh should fill back in the nail bed in 3 weeks or so which means I can ditch the huge dressing then. I should have my nail back by February or March.

All in all, I'm grateful it wasn't worse, and I'm even more grateful for Andrea and Whitney who watched my kids, got me to the hospital, and helped me do my one-armed grocery shopping and for Malcolm who has taken over dishes, baths, and as many diaper changes as he can do while he's at home!

Good night for now...I just can't type one-handed anymore! Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Halloween

OK--this is the last Halloween-related post, I promise! For some reason, these pics downloaded in the exact opposite order of what I thought I was doing, so here is our Halloween backwards!

At the end of the night, we drove to my Aunt Linda's house and Karina got to play with my cousin's daughter, Lily...pretty in pink!

A pensive Aidan.

Empty buckets ready for trick-or-treating. We just went to the houses in our complex...about 20, which was PLENTY (we still have candy!)

Our Jack-O-Lanterns...can you guess which kid chose which pattern?

My Camera's Last Shots

Sorry about my long blogging silence. My camera finally gave up. When, you ask? ON HALLOWEEN!!! It died at the preschool Halloween parade...grr...
So, I went to the local camera shop to purchase a camera which turned out to be really bad (Nikon s52...takes great pictures in backlight or low light and lousy ones in normal light,) so I returned it after a week of trying out all the settings and got a canon after doing a lot more research...which is pretty much all I've done with my computer for the last week and a half.
Anyway, here are the pics I managed to shoot before my camera froze open and went all white-noise screened.

And a video of the singing at the end:

Halloween Party

On Saturday, Karina's Primary teachers threw a Halloween Party at their house for their CTR5 class! Here is a picture of them on the porch with their pumpkins. Happy Halloween!

Leaves!!!

After completing our leaf hunt last week, we found this convenient pile of leaves in our yard to play in!

Two great smiles!

Caught in mid-air.


Laughing in the leaves.

Cute little guy!

Aidan throwing the leaves...note that his tongue is sticking out.

Removing the leaves he caught on that tongue!

Happy Columbus Day (observed)

The Sandwich Fair

First Sewing Project

Friday afternoon, during Aidan's nap, I decided to mend a couple of popped seams on a shirt of Karina's. Karina asked what I was doing and I told her that I would teach her how to sew. Well, at first I just gave her some scrap fabric and a needle and thread to mess around with, but she was so into it, that an hour and twenty minutes later, she had made this potpourri bag with minimal assistance...she cut, she pinned, she sewed (with me holding the fabric.) Who'd have guessed???

For The Birds

A year or two ago, I bought a small bird feeder for our back deck. We had all kinds of birds coming to visit us until one day, last winter, a little gray mouse discovered the bird seed in our coat closet. Now, I'm not afraid of mice...I used to catch them for my grandmother and let them loose outside, but I do think they're pretty yucky, so once we sealed off the mouse's entrance to our home, we threw out the bird seed in the closet so as not to tempt anything to seek an alternative route. Well, after several requests, we've decided the time is ripe to welcome the birds to our home again...with a stronger container for the bird seed!

Karina filling the feeder...

...and Aidan.

Bird Calls

Here's our little bird feeder patiently waiting for some visitors.

GO RED SOX!!!

Applesauce

...as promised...

In my house this year:

1 bushel of apples=11quarts and 7 pints (not all pictured) of applesauce, one apple crisp, and a whole lot of snacks