Pumpkin Carving - Au Chapeau

Every year the preschool has a pumpkin carving night just before Halloween.  The last 2 years Clarke has been able to go with both Carson and Jay while they were in Au Chapeau.  He had to work this year so mommy got to go carve pumpkins.  Nathan loved pulling the guts out!

I bought a carving set for $1.49 that I thought wouldn't be that useful.  It came with a little punch though that Nathan could smack while I held it in place and then with some guidance he was able to carve his pumpkin.  They only part I did without his help were the cat's eyes.

Dressed for his school party!

Nathan was very proud of his pumpkin!

Jay's School Party

Jay goes to kindergarten on Tuesdays and Thursdays so they had to have their party early.  His teacher had a conference on the 28th so decided that Oct 26th would be the best day for the party so she could be with the kids.  I went to school at lunch to paint up Jay's face and get him ready.  He was so very excited.  One of the other boys in the class had a Frankenstein costume as well but he didn't get painted up.  After all of our painting (including his hands going green as well), Jay wanted to go to the bathroom to see his face.  His teacher had a mirror in the class and let him look.  He just beamed!

You can just make out the scar on his face.  We used fake blood on it and everything!

Sitting down right before the party started with a big grin!

Jay reported that he had a terrific time and that he was excited for the rest of Halloween to come.

Field trips!

Jay has had 2 field trips so far this month.  One to the fire hall and just yesterday he went to Medicine Hat High School where the beauty culture class painted him up, literally.  I got home late from the hospital and Clarke was already gone to work so some of the make-up was off but here are some of the views:

Clarke is getting old, or so he says!

Clarke told me I didn't have to buy him anything for his birthday.  I was very tempted to listen.  I was in Calgary on Friday and Saturday so managed to pick up a Cheesequake Cheesecake for him from Cheesecake Cafe.  I made him ribs and had planned on having some friends over but they got held up in Calgary and I was on call at 6.  In the end we had cake in the afternoon and then Clarke and the boys had the ribs while I was at the hospital.  I am not a fan of cheesecake but this one was pretty good.

Lazy afternoons...

While Carson and Jay are at school on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, Nathan likes to hang out on my bed and watch movies.  His favorite is Curious George.  In fact, he often asks when daddy will get up so that he can watch Curious George.  He gets all comfy and settles in for about 20 minutes.  He has learned to pause the DVD player and loves that he can go back to it 3 minutes or 3 hours later.

Lounge monkey

"I've been framed, They got the wrong guy!"

While we were getting ready to have a garage sale the Thanksgiving weekend, I was cleaning out the boys stuff and hung up the costumes that were too small to sell.  Clarke is sad that the bat costume is going.  He made Nathan put it on for pictures.  Sadly though the forecast is for snow and there is no room for warm clothes underneath this one.

Connaught Stars

We got a call this week to tell us that Carson was to get a surprise award at the assembly on Friday.  Every month the teachers pick kids from their class to get awards for various good deeds.  Clarke & I went to the assembly.  Carson didn't notice us there and walked right past us.

Unfortunately, his teacher was away.  The substitute gave him his award and read the comments off of the back for him.

This is the first video I have tried posting here from my camera.  Hopefully my focusing ability improves with time.  I also didn't edit it prior to loading which probably would have helped!  The first 34 seconds is Carson's part.   I must also say that with the amount of time it takes to load a video we won't have very many on our blog!

Carson and the substitute (sadly, I don't know her name!)

     After the presentation the teachers pose with the students for pictures which are then hung in the hallway for all to see.
    This is what was written by his teacher: "Carson, bravo! Tu es toujours gentil et tu penses toujours aux autres.  I love how Carson is always thinking of others and helping everyone in our class.  His kindness is contagious and is helping our classroom to be a wonderful place.  Thank you, Carson!"
     Clarke was very happy that they started the assembly with the grade 1 classes so he could sneak out as soon as Carson got his award.  I was just impressed that he came as he didn't think Kindergarten celebration was worth going to!  I also hate to think how much he will hate it when we have the boys in grades 3, 5 & 6!

Cadbury Buttons

Fiona was able to come visit before the long weekend.  As one of multiple treats she brought the boys (they inherited a great deal of classic Lego that they play with daily!) she left some Cadbury Buttons.  They had had way too many treats while Fiona was here so Fiona and I agreed that they boys could have their Buttons on another day.  They opened them this last week and, being my boys, turned eating them into a game.  Here are a few pictures of the boys with Button eyes and the resulting chocolate evidence left behind from them being silly.

Jay's Button eyes

 They would hold the Buttons over their eyes prior to eating.  As you can see they were left with yummy "black eyes" at the end.

 Jay actually looked a bit like he had 'allergic shiners' from his.  Nathan was just generally dirty with his after shot as we got the eye residue as well as additional remnants.