Tuesday 31 October 2006

Halloween

Jeremy was excited about Halloween this year. He kept telling people that he was going to be a ghost and he would imitate the sound a ghost makes. That costume didn't quite work - well, it never materialized. Halloween began with a trek out to the Windsor Essex Therapeutic Riding Association and their first annual Halloween Spooktacular.

There was much to do, much to see and much to eat. Plenty of treats and hot dogs to munch on. All the horses had 'costumes' and took on new persona's for the night. There were several games of chance including tic tac toe, fishing, bobbing for apples and so on. Guests could walk out to the stables and see all the horses. There was even a haunted house. Despite the intense downpour, the event was well attended. Our friends, the Karbs, also attended with their boys. Corbin and Jeremy went as pirates. Everyone had a spooktacular of a time.

Halloween went off without a hitch. The rain never materialized and the cool weather was welcomed. Tina took the boys out - Jeremy as Jack Sparrow the pirate and Corbin as the Faceless Ninja (yes there was a costume change over the weekend) - along with the Karb boys. Adam stayed behind and handed out treats. When everyone came back, Adam took out Corbin down Rivard to ensure we had a good supply of junk food for the coming weeks. Jeremy thoroughly enjoyed trick or treating and everyone found his pirate costume cute.

Tuesday 24 October 2006

Cold and Wet

The weather over the past two weeks has been crappy, and that is being nice. It's been unseasonably cold and wet. While the cold is not too much of a problem, the wet means that Adam can't do yard work and that Jeremy and Corbin cannot play outside. They, as in the weather forecasters, are calling for a mild winter. Naturally, Windsor's version of mild is much different from the rest of Ontario's version of mild.

On the home front, Jeremy has one more gymnastics class. He has thoroughly enjoyed this session. At yesterday's class, Corbin helped out behind the counter. Yup, Corbin is working ;) Supposedly he want to earn enough tickets to get a remote control car - despite the fact that he has one. Oh well. Tina signed Corbin up for another session of gymnastics. Jeremy will be taking a break until the new year when he will begin swimming lessons - he loves to swim.

Tina took Jeremy to the Sears Photo Studio and, as usual, got some excellent pictures of him. The boy is photogenic and knows how to ham it up. Corbin's school pictures should be in shortly. For Halloween, Corbin is going to be a Ninja and Jeremy is going to be a ghost (or a pirate if Tina does not get around to putting together a ghost costume).

Monday 9 October 2006

Thanksgiving Weekend

We decided to stay put in Windsor this Thanksgiving holiday. Good call because the weather was awesome - sunny and warm - allowing us to do a number of outdoor tasks. Staying in Windsor also enabled us to be on a very casual schedule.

Adam began the weekend on Friday afternoon. He ordered four yards of cedar mulch to be used to top up the Rivard flowerbed and to spruce up the corner bed, the garage bed and the herb garden (all future beds that hopefully will be planted in 2007).
The Rivard bed needed some serious topping up - the existing mulch was very thin - and there was some garbage that needed cleaning up.

The real work began on Saturday. On the corner bed, Adam dug up an edge and also installed some edging along the sidewalk to prevent the mulch spreading all over the corner. The existing soil was graded as best as it could and the weeds were sprayed with some Roundup. Some drainage stone was used where the existing downspout ends to prevent erosion. It looks good against the mulch. The Rivard and corner beds look real good - no more dirt and weeds. Adam even managed to buy some cheap perennial ground cover to break up the vast area of mulch. Its a start. Adam is hoping that new mulch will soften up the soil for the plants next year.

Tina and the boys divided their day between cleaning and playing. They eventually went out to Lacasse Park in Tecumseh where the boys had a wonderful time running around, sliding and so on. They also spent some time in the backyard playing with their outside toys.

Sunday was another relaxing day. We ended up at the Maple Leaf restaurant for what seems to be our weekly family breakfast. It was not too busy, so we managed to get a window seat. Both Corbin and Jeremy ate their breakfast. Afterwards we went out for a short drive and ended up at Canadian Tire. Picked up a few things, like new headphones for the boys, and some other items. We rested for a while and headed out to Ojibway Park for a stroll on the trails. The boys managed to see an eastern garter snake, a catapillar and either a King Jay or a woodpecker. It was a very nice day out with the family.

Monday was Thanksgiving Day. It was another slow day. We had a ham for dinner - excellent job by Tina. We went out to the river to a new playground that was jam packed with families. Man that place was crazy. Jeremy's highlight was climbing a big rock and then kind of slide-jumping from it. We took a short stroll down the riverfront trail to look at some sculptures before heading back to the van and driving home.

Monday 2 October 2006

Happy Birthday Corbin

Look who turned eight years old today? The day began with the traditional 'wake up the person' with a cake with a candle and the personalized Captain Zoom happy birthday song. Jeremy gave his present in the morning - a character from pirates of the Caribbean. Mom and Dad gave their present after supper - an mp3 player.