Toot, toot

Oh my!! I was so flattered to read all the lovely things that dmillison had to say about my carrot babies on her blog. She sure has some lovely things in her Etsy shop as well and I am not saying that because she complimented me first. I really love her sock babies and to top it all off they are even organic.

I swear that I am in the middle of working on a big huge catch up post but I just had to sneak this in because I am so excited!!!

Long time...Long post

Well it seems that I am unable to sit down and blog more than once a week right now. This is going to be a big post....sorry. As you will be able to tell from the pictures the weather here is cold. The snow suits may seem like overkill but when the wind picks up it is freezing here.

This Friday we attended our local Waldorf school's Halloween alternative. It is called the Enchanted Garden and it is so nice. This was our 3rd year. There were wood cutters, gnomes, bakers, little red riding hood, a flutist, and angels. Unfortunately, I have no pictures as my snapping away would have ruined the mood.

This Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch with some friends. We went on a hay ride, picked some pumpkins and Olivia and her friends went on a ride that was just for them and got lost in a hay maze (she's the one in the red toque).

Sunday we went to an event at a local organic pear farm. It was so lovely. There was live music, free organic food and tea, crafts for kids, a farm tour and a huge pile of leaves to play in. We all had a blast. We went for a little walk in the orchard and found some HUGE old pear trees. Many of them had gnome doors in them. Olivia was thrilled to run from one to the other tree to find more and more doors. We even found a chimney in one tree.

On Monday we went for our regularly scheduled nature walk. We had missed 2 Mondays due to sicknesses and man did we miss a lot! The leaves have all lost most of their leaves and it is beautiful. I am so happy that I get to experience this with my children and even more happy that I will continue to get to do so even when they are "school age". While their peers are stuck in stuffy, poorly lit classrooms my girls and I will be out in nature enjoying all the seasons to their fullest. Even on Monday all of Olivia's friends were in preschool while were out on this walk.

We took our usual route through the "deep dark forest" which was quite light with the canopy of leaves gone, found a wasps nest (or was it a fairy home?) hiding up high in a tree once hidden but now exposed,we found a HUGE gnome door at the foot of a tree,

sat on a big rock watching the river flow by and tried our hardest to catch leaves as they floated down. It was a really nice day.

I am now off to try to come up with a costume for Tigerlily for tomorrow..... Wish me luck!

Off to the nut farm.......

I don't think that today could have been more beautiful. It could have been warmer but we really had a great morning together at a local nut farm. We were able to walk around picking up nuts and looking at them as well as enjoying each others company and seeing all the splendid leaves.

Look at this tree!!!! It took Todd, Olivia and myself holding hands to hug this one. It looks so sinister bare and gnarled against the sky.

Tigerlily carried this little hazelnut quite far.
These chestnuts made my day. the jacket is like a million sharp little needles and inside they are soft and furry. I always really enjoy finding chestnuts all huddled up together in there little homes. These ones are here in my home now. I just couldn't leave them behind.

What a weekend!!!

This was one busy weekend!!! Late Friday afternoon Olivia's new MEC snowsuit arrived in the mail. When we put Olivia's on to try it out Lily wanted hers on too so the two of them paraded around like some sort of deranged colourful astronauts.

I am doing a trade with an MDC mama. She gets a wool stuffed, wool felt Mama and baby bear and I get a Boob nursing shirt. I spent quiet a bit of time on Saturday working on the cub. Here it is. Now I have to wait for the felt for Mama to arrive. Wool felt is so wonderful. It is sofft and strong. It is in no way comparable to that craft felt that is made of plastic.

Sunday was Todd's birthday. I made him a HUGE breakfast of scrambled tofu, hash browns with green onion and red pepper and veggie sausage links. After that big rock was sitting in our tummies we went for a family bike ride downtown for coffee. Getting there was so hard on me. I couldn't figure out why it was so much work then Todd noticed that my rear tire was almost completely flat. We filled it up and then it was smooth sailing.

After the coffee we had a quick lunch and then just hung out until supper time. We had a pizza party (whole wheat crusts and soy cheese) and then this pie. The filling is made from tofu, honey and vanilla and was so good. My parents came to the party too.

Now I have a sick girl hanging on me. I guess that this weekend was a little too much for her to handle.

Just a little walk through the neighbourhood

Well tonight we heard a funny noise outside. Todd looked out the window to find an excavator knocking down some trees and an embankment. Off we went for a walk. Olivia was scared of the machine and Tigerlily just wanted to play in the lovely smelling dirt. It is in the picture behind Olivia look for the lights and you will find it.

We walked a little further along to look at the trees they had cut down up the street. They had mowed down a HUGE old tree.

Todd was just standing there looking around when he found a bird house that had been knocked down. We have taken it home and he and Olivia are planning to spruce it up for the birds in the spring.

Why are all the trees being torn up in our neighbourhood? Well, there is a new bike path going in. I have mixed emotions about this as I am sad to see these amazing trees being knocked down but at the same time this path may encourage more people to bike instead of driving. I guess I'll just have to think about it for a while.

Today is lovely!!

Well today is thanksgiving up here in Canada and we are having a lovely day off. This morning the girls and I took Todd out for the nature walk that we take every Monday and now Olivia is off to spend some time at my mom's house. We had our big meal of seitan, garlic mashed potatoes, corn, dressing and gravy last night so there's no pressure to cook something big today. We can just enjoy this extra day together.

I forgot my camera this morning so there are no pictures of the walk but maybe I will be able to get something up here soon. I personally dislike reading blog posts that don't have pictures. I promise to get better at remembering to take (and download) pictures so I can post them here.

Also, thank you to those of you who left me comments. I can't believe that there are people out there that are reading this!!

Happy thanksgiving!!!

Someone payed off my student loan :o

I can't believe it!!! It happened at the beginning of June and I only just found out yesterday. Todd and I have been saving up to pay of our 2 smaller student loans leaving us with his one big loan to contend with and we had just saved enough to pay my loan off. I called the student loan office to confirm my loan total and the woman told me that it was zero..nada...zip. No loan. She said that it had been paid off in full in early June. I sure am happy and wishing I knew how this happened. I don't know anyone who would pay it off.

So yesterday I went down to the bank and payed his loan off instead. I'm ecstatic about the fact that we are about 6 months ahead of where we planned to be in terms of getting rid of these loans.

Thank you universe!!!!!!