No new pony...

Well, after some contemplation, research (what would we be without the internet?!!) and some advice, we decided not to look into the pony Kiwi today. We really don't want Erin to be turned off of riding or horses. From what we read, and from advice from a couple of people, a pregnant horse can be pretty nasty - like I don't understand that from being pregnant myself!!! - so we decided against it. Erin was a pretty sad little girl, but we will continue the hunt for the perfect pony for Erin.

I am beyond exhausted right now, and Erin fell asleep two hours ago, so I'm safe to say she is too. It was a great weekend, but it was a busy one for a 4-year old girl!!!

Halloween Party Pics

A good time was had by all!! Enjoy the pics!!

Counting to 100!!

Erin is learning things in leaps and bounds these days. I continue to be amazed at the things she comes out with. Yesterday in the car as we were driving into Brockville to pick up supplies for the Halloween party, Erin decided to tell me that she knew how to count to 100 by herself. With the exception of me having to fill in a few numbers (on the tens), Erin counted all the way to 100 for me - twice! It has become a habit after school days (and sometimes other days) to sit at the dining room table and write words. Erin is able to recognize and write all of her capital letters, and just about all of her lower case letters. I remember being so amazed as her language skills were developing so rapidly when she was one and beyond, but as we sat there spelling words last night, it struck me how amazing this next phase of language development is too. I woke up this morning thinking about that, so wanted to make sure it was captured here.

I'll post pics of the scary Halloween party tomorrow morning!

Boo!!

Grrrr....Minnie.....

Erin and I were sitting quietly enjoying the early morning of our Friday off together when the doorbell rang. I'm just thinking it's likely one of the neighbours, but am surprised to see it was the *!$% darn goat ringing the doorbell! This goat is unreal......

Another week has stormed by on us. They all seem like whirlwinds to me anymore. Work is so busy for me, Gord has the big commute and add on the running around between school and daycare and just the daily stuff of life - well it's enough to exhaust the best of us!! Of course all of us have been a bit under the weather this week. We all have a stubborn cough that is lingering and as such we have all been pretty tired.

Erin has had a great week. School is something she just loves, which makes us very happy. She has some great little buddies there. Daycare continues to be great as well. She has a great little friend there named Michelle. I have really noticed over the past few months that she is really aware of gender differences. Of course she still plays with the little boys at both school and daycare, she is really focused on her little girl friends.

Today we are going to do a bit of tidying up around the house then will venture in to storytime at the library, then into Ottawa for a bit of shopping. We need to pick up a few things for the Halloween party Erin is having tomorrow evening. I think Aunt Dee will be joining us as well for the trip into Ottawa.

The party should be fun. We have lots of fun things we are going to do! I always remember fondly about doing parties for our neices and nephews over the years, but they stopped for a few years as they all got older. I have to admit, I'm pretty happy doing them again for Erin and our friends' kids!

Sunday we are going to look at a pony in Quebec. I still can't believe we are doing this! This pony is a pretty good price though and Erin is still serious about it and saving her money every day. We found out from the woman selling it that the pony may be with foal. I thought Gord would be a little leary of that, but he said he didn't mind at all and thought it might be kind of fun to have a foal here. I imagine I'll have to remind him about those words one day if we end up picking up this pony!!!!

Then we will be into the last few days of October. Already. Erin will have her fill of Halloween parties, both at daycare and school, not to mention the party at the Community Centre and the whole trick or treating event!! Thursday we welcome November. Sigh. People are already saying it's only 9 weeks until Christmas and of course the stores have been decorated for Christmas since July (okay, I'm exaggerating, but it does feel that way sometimes!!). I do look forward to November 2nd when Jo and I head off to Quebec City for the weekend! Woo Hoo!! Girl's weekend away!! We are doing the spa thing on Saturday and a bit of shopping then just sitting in cafes for the rest of the time!!!!

Anyway, I can't remember if I have posted any of these Minnie pictures or not, but enjoy!

This is October 21st????

The temperatures hit 21 degrees today. It is hard to believe it is October 21st. Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer. Gord mowed the lawn today. Unbelievable...

Well we have made it through yet another hectic weekend. I think I last left off in procrastination mode while studying for my exam on Saturday. It was an early dismissal day at school, so I picked Erin up at 12:15pm. We decided to head into Smiths Falls for an adventure. We first stopped at the Hershey plant. You know, they announced the closure of that plant while we were in Cuba and a part of me thinks I should boycott to support the folks there, but at the same time, a part of me thinks maybe to support it would help instead. At any rate, Erin loves the self-guided tour. They were making peanut butter cups and packaging cherry blossoms. It smelled wonderful. Needless to say peanut butter cups and cherry blossoms made it into our basket!! Next we were off to Tractor Supply Company. I think this place ranks up there with Erin's favourite stores. Of course she loves it even more with her new found love and adoration of all-things pony. We picked out a riding helmet for her. She did not take it off while we were in the store. She also wore it most of Friday evening. I need to get a picture of her in it to post soon! Next we were off to do groceries and she talked me into McDonald's for lunch. When we got home, there was a message to call Erika. It seems Erin was going to be invited to their adventures in Smiths Falls!! Since we had just gotten home, we invited Erika to come over for a play. Erin was happily singing 'I love Erika... I love Erika...' over and over. They are becoming quite the buddies! Aunt Elaine came home with Daddy Friday night, complete with Chinese food. I even managed to get a bit more studying in after Erin went to bed.

Saturday came with a rude awakening - the alarm clock. I was up and out of the house at 6:30am, as was Gord. I wanted to take my time and get up to the College so I had some extra time to review. Gord was hosting the Merrickville Scouts for a skeet shoot, so he was off getting things set up early. So we left Erin and Aunt Elaine sleeping soundly.

So my exam..... I had 3 hours to write it and I finished it in 45 minutes. Of course you can't leave the exams before 1 hour had elapsed, so I had time to do a review of every question. I'm feeling very confident. Three years of work has culminated in the completion of the final requirement for my CHRP. I'll know my final mark in about 6 weeks, so I'll update everyone then. Finishing early gave me a chance to do some precious things on my own - a little shoe shopping, and a haircut topped off a great morning for me!!

I came home to one happy little girl. Erin and Aunt Elaine had a wonderful morning - including a big walk and some colouring! Gord came home shortly after I did, and then we were back off again, heading into Ottawa (2nd time for me in the same day!!) for dinner and the hockey game. The Senators put on a great show (well, the 2nd and 3rd periods anyway), and came out with a good win. Almost as good is the fact the Leafs lost!! A good day indeed!!!

Today we decided to go to Saunders Farm. What a fun day! Great weather brought the crowds though. That place has a license to print money!! We ran into Jo, Chris and the boys, there for a birthday party, so Erin even got to play with Cole for a bit!! We stayed for a few hours, then dropped Aunt Elaine off at home before coming home ourselves. Erin crashed within seconds of leaving Elaine's place, so it was a quiet trip home for me! The afternoon was topped off with meeting the contractor who is going to put our pool in! Sigh..... I am exhausted!!

Enjoy the pics!!

October is quickly chugging along.....

So here we are... another Friday and October is quickly fading away. Erin is at school today and I am off. Well, actually I am procrastinating right now. I have been studying for my last exam toward my CHRP designation, which I write tomorrow morning. I have the same feeling that I did when I wrote the first one this past May, so I am hoping that is a good omen!!! I have been plugging away with the studying over the past bunch of weeks and since this exam is of a practical nature, I suppose my daily job is a good study platform too!!

So the week is nearly done. This is a short day at school today. Erin is all finished at 12:15pm, so I am unsure what we will do for the afternoon. The weather 'gurus' are calling for thunder storms, so that could be a limiting factor for us. This week has included Erin's first picture day at school (the attached pics were taken the morning before school!!), a last minute notification that the daycare was going to be closed on Tuesday due to a heating issue (it was cold at the start of the week - of course today it is already 18 degrees!!), so this meant Erin was at home with Daddy for the day, as I had to be in arbitration.....again.....

Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful week. Aunt Elaine is coming for the weekend, to help us out with looking after Erin on Saturday. I will be in Ottawa writing my exam and Gord is hosting the local Merrickville Scouts at the gun club. Elaine has also snagged us tickets to the Senators - Panthers game on Saturday night, so we get a real treat! Sunday we will take Aunt Elaine back home, but I might see if she is up for a stop at Saunders Farm for a little pre-Halloween fun!

I don't think there is too much going on next week. Erin and I have some planning to do for her big Halloween party which is next Saturday! That should be fun!

Anyway, keep good thoughts for me as I write my exam tomorrow and enjoy the 'big girl' pics!!

An entire month has gone by....

Holy smokes! Where does the time go? I can't believe we are almost at the halfway point in October. I still have no idea where September went.

All is well on our end, but obviously busy! The School and Daycare juggling have been challenging, and combined with me doing some travelling for work, Gord being gone moose hunting for a bunch of days in September, it has all been somewhat of a whirlwind! We are getting into quite a bit of a routine though. Thank goodness both Gord and I have some great flexibility with our jobs.

I think I left off on the weekend Erin and I went to the Apple Festival in Kilmarnock with Richinda, Emma, and Erika. That day was lots of fun! Richinda took some great pictures that I will upload soon. The most wonderful part of the month of September was the weather! I took a few days off while Gord was away and I don't think I could have asked for better weather! That week was fun for me. I met up with Dee and did the spa thing - well just a manicure, but it was just heaven having someone pamper you!! I also did a pile of cleaning around the house, and made some donations of things and clothes that Erin and I just no longer use.

Gord made it back in one piece, without a moose (yeah for the moose!!!). It sounds like he had a pretty good time at his brother's fishing camp in Pickle Lake (this place is at the end of the road - literally - in Northern Ontario) despite taking a really long time to get there!! I'm glad he went though. I think it's important to be able to get some time on your own to enjoy different things in life.

I'm certain we did some other really fun things in September, but just like I said, because it flew by, it is really quite a blur!!

Then all of a sudden it is October. The nice weather carried over for a few days, then it really began to feel like fall.

Erin continues to really enjoy school, which makes me very happy. She has made a couple of great little friends who she talks about constantly! Just this past week she was the Star of the Day, which meant she got to do a bunch of special things, like leading the class and taking the attendance forms to the office with her own specially picked friend!! She was pretty cute after that day - she made Lamby the star of the day and was helping her fulfill all of her duties!!

October also brought yet more business travel for me. A career fair at Ottawa U - where I got to see my nephew John!, then straight from there to the airport to head to Toronto. I have not brought carry-on luggage on a plane for some time now. Of course you can bring liquids on board, but only in limited quantities - meaning they tossed my toothpaste! Oh well. They have a job to do too. It literally took me 15 minutes to get through security - which was not busy at all by the way! But, I did have time to sneak in a manicure at 10 Minute Manicure - that is a brilliant idea!!! I flew Porter airlines, which flies to Toronto island airport. Of course, that afternoon the island was covered in fog, so we had to land at Pearson and take a coach downtown..... during rush hour... sigh...

Anyway, I got home the next evening and poof, it was Thanksgiving weekend. We had Aunt Elaine staying with us for the weekend. We also had a good visit with Aunt Allison. Erin has also recently decided that she is saving her money for a Pony. She got the idea from Emma and Erika who are doing the same. Of course Erin loves horses, so we are seriously looking at getting a small pony for her to learn how to ride. We have a line on one for a good price (definition: cheap!!) that she would be able to use for a few years. Erin has been doing little odd jobs to get some money, and she already has about $10 saved!! Gord told her that she should save her money for some tack for the pony - it will take her a long time to save up enough in quarters for the pony on her own!! Of course she challenged me to the 'Mummy, if I can save $100, will you give me $100 toward a pony?' She amazes me some days, she is only 4. She is going to make one heck of a negotiator one day!!! Maybe she'll go to law school like I had always thought I wanted to do when I was younger!!!

So this weekend is upon us and I guess is even winding down now. Both Erin and I have been pretty sick this weekend. Erin had a wicked earache on Friday night. It scared me so much I almost packed her up to go to the hospital at 2:00 in the morning. It did subside shortly after that, but man the poor little bug was in some pain. Saturday was spent getting a haircut - for Erin, because Monday is school picture day - doing groceries, then watching a movie and having dinner with Emma and Erika, and their mum and dad! It was a fun evening and Erin positively crashed within 1 minute of their leaving just before 10:00pm!!! She slept in until about 8:30am!

So, another week starts for all of us. I'm knee deep in laundry right now, and Erin is helping Daddy with the destruction in the basement. So, I am going to sign off. I'll make sure I don't take another month before a post!!!

In the meantime, enjoy the pics from the fashion show we got last night from the girls!!