Halloween hangover

Farewell October...with your birthdays, thanksgiving and Halloween and Hello nice quiet November. 

The kids are all settling back into their post candy school routine and I'm looking forward to a month of mellowness and quiet Christmas planning. 

Halloween has come and gone (can I get a hell yeah from the audience!!!), not that I don't like to celebrate the scary season, but it does make my kiddos a little crazy.

I'm one of "those" parents that lets my kids gobble up all their candy straight after Halloween. The sooner that stuff is out of my house the quicker the sugar induced mood swings are over.

I worked this Halloween, in full costume, at the store handing out candy to all the wee little downtown trick or treaters. Within 2 hours we had around 1100 trick or treaters... that's a lot of "Happy Halloweens" and "ooooh look at YOUR costume" and " What are you's?????" 

Shortly after my shift I ripped home, took off my bat lady costume, made myself a thermos full of hot toddy, grabbed the kids and headed out for some trick or treating. The weather was nice and mild, no snow which meant the kids could show off their costumes without having to cover them up with winter jackets.

I managed to snap a few pics of the kids before they left for school, so fun that they get to dress up and wear their costumes all day. Zoe put so much work into hers, the hot glue gun, scissors and makeup were out for days as she put her outfit together. I think I might have a future Tim Burton on my hands!!

Marley put her own outfit together also and when I asked her what she was her response was " I'm a little kid who goes to pubs and kills people in the washroom". 

She looked semi sweet in her outfit until she declared her evil plot...........what do you think??

Zoe, was a mixture of the mad hatter and the evil side of the Cheshire cat. 

I'm happier that the girls are embracing the creepy side of Halloween and have grown out of the princess dresses, tiara's and cutesy costumes. 

I hope everyone had a spooktacular Halloween. 

Tootles,

Kj*

My happy little vegemite.

It's official...Miss Marley is now officially an Australian citizen. Only took me 7 years to get my butt organised and get the paperwork done. 

She received her certificate in the mail yesterday and now I can get her an Aussie passport to complete the process....woohoo.

I will now teach her the happy little Vegemite jingle (Zoe's favorite), the slip slop slap song and other random Aussie trivia that she will be needing in the future if she wants to "blend in"!!!!

Next big thing on my humongous list of things to do is to get my Canadian citizenship, and from what I have been reading is quite a bit more complicated that Marley's simple application process. Oh the joys of marrying someone from another country. 

I am, at this point, an expert form filler outer lady, I think I should get myself a government job after all of this is over. 

I'm thinking the passport office could use my expertise!!!

Public transport......who wants to go on a bus trip????

Living in the country means that, aside from the morning school bus, there's not a lot of times come by where I've had the need or opportunity to catch a bus, train, tram or otherwise. 

I've got my every loyal red jeep to get me from A to B but this mornings little video clip has me yearning to jump on a bus.

This fantastic bus as from Denmark gave me a giggle and I wanted to share it....just because.

Does anyone else out there feel like going on a road trip after watching this.....or is it just me?

Kiddo's

Its been a while since I've blogged so I thought since the kids are back in school it might be time to add blogging back on my "to do" list. 

I'll keep it short and sweet today though and just post some pics of the girls. 

Summer has flown by and now that fall is creeping up on me I thought I'd flick back through some of the pics on the camera from summer and share some of my faves with you all.

I can't believe how much my kids have grown this summer. I probably feel this way every year but this year in particular, especially where Zoe is concerned, I'm struck with the realization that my little babies are turning into little ladies.

This year Zoe was lucky enough to earn the title of May Queen. I've seen a lot of growth and change in her since then and her confidence is slowly starting to show.
As part of her commitment to her role of May Queen she has had to make appearances and speeches at community events and participate in parades.

Here's some pics from the Armstrong IPE parade.

Now for the fun stuff......

First day back at school : Zoe (grade 7) and Marley (grade 2).

Miss Zoe striking a pose during a visit to Surrey to see Dad last weekend. Sporting a new haircut. 
She had been begging to cut her hair off for 6 months so, as you can see, her persistence paid off.
I'm kinda glad the blue streaks she wanted with the haircut didn't take!!!!

OK, you're all caught up now. 

Tooth fairy

Another milestone reached yesterday, Marley lost her second tooth. Now the second tooth is usually not as big of a deal as the first but in this instance it was a pretty big deal as Marley did not want to part with her first tooth.
She wrote the tooth fairy a nice little letter asking her to kindly leave her first tooth with her as she was not ready to give it up to the tooth goddess quite yet.
Who knows where that tooth is now, probably sucked into the vacuum cleaner or buried deep into the carpet in her bedroom.

But last night daddy helped the natural course of things along by wiggling Marley's tooth out. He has come to be known as the neighbourhood "assistant" to the tooth fairy, helping not only our kids but one or two others along the way. He has it down to a fine art now with a combination of distraction, gentle pressure and trickery!!!!

Now I don't know if it's just my upbringing, but the tradition in my childhood home was to put your tooth on the kitchen window sill in a glass of water and overnight the tooth fairy would visit,  inspect the tooth and reward accordingly.
No tooth under the pillowcase stuff at my house, I'm sure the tooth fairy remembers me from all those years ago and just knows that that's the way we roll!!!!

So before going to bed last night I checked to make sure the correct protocol had been followed and was surprised to see that the kids had implemented a new tradition of their own with the tooth fairy...........begging!!!!!

I think she may have had a little assistance from big sis on this one.

Marley awoke to $6 in the jar this morning, she sounded a little perturbed...I think she was hoping for a substantial amount more.

Better luck next time kiddo!!!!!

My little forest nymph

We recently had some company stay at our house from Alberta, it's summer here in the sunny Okanagan and these parts are usually flooded with out of province folk, looking for some fun in the sun.
My dear friend Lisa and her family graced us with their presence for two nights for a long overdue catch up session.
The kids get along famously and I really enjoy seeing my kids faces as they reappeared from behind their electronics and closed bedroom doors.
The girls decided to do a re-enactment of snow white in the lush trees surrounding our house and unbeknown to them, I was able to sneak up and snap a few shots while they were in the middle of their story telling.
I just wanted to share a few shots of Marley as it's been a while since I've blogged and I'm starting to receive complaints and death threats. I thought this would be a great jumping off point as I attempt to return to blogging.

There, that wasn't so bad after all. Stay tuned for more summer fun!

Home envy

I recently stumbled across a new blog somehow or another through the web.........most likely pinterest, and now have a major, humongo case of home envy. 


If you haven't already stumbled across The lettered cottage yourself then please, please, please go directly to TLC; do not pass Go; do not collect $200.
Take a peek at this budget savvy duo, Kevin and Layla Palmer, and their uncanny  ability to know exactly how I want to decorate my next house.


The before and after of their kitchen had me at hello and I can't wait to see what they do with the rest of their home as they renovate one room at a time.

Standard builder, straight out of a box type decor. Their home has great bones.
Just look at the transformation below............I'm in lurve!!!!!!

Their laid back, airy home speaks "Australia house" to me. Ocean breezes and sandy toes, nothing too stuffy and oh so kid friendly.

Not to mention the fact that these guys have obviously not experienced renovator "burn out" yet, so they have the attitude that anything is possible and are eager to do as much of the work themselves. 

To see more go here.