The week leading up to Halloween is always magical for me. Seeing all the decorations .. which I might add have vastly improved since I was a kid (wow that made me sound old). Now there are fog machines, animated ghouls, ghosts and goblins, fake rats, bats and spiders, air inflated decorations and ones that glow and blink. Back in the day you were lucky to find cardboard cutouts of pumpkins, witches and black cats. Forget about the lights and decorations they have today. It's impressive!
We were in a store in Halifax (Bayers Lake Business Park) called "Spirit of Halloween" and it was amazing! They had almost every costume, accessory and decoration imaginable. Very impressive! Imagine, having entire stores dedicated to Halloween now. It's getting almost as commercial as Christmas.
Rianne is going to be My Little Pony this year. More specifically, Pinkie Pie. She saw it on the Walmart website and set her mind to it. Jon bought the costume in Edmonton before he left. He went to three different stores before finding it too. He's do anything for his little girl and he was determined to get this costume for her. She was so excited to get her costume she wanted to wear it everywhere so we had to take it away and hide it before it got ruined. She gets to wear it to Story Time @ the local library this week and she is excited about the idea of wearing it again. Then the big trick-or-treat event on Sunday. The Abrdeen Mall is hosting a treating event starting at 2 PM so we will probably take her to that before Jon takes her house to house in the neighbourhood. I will stay home and hand out treats to the kids that come. I hope we don't get A LOT of treaters because as of this moment we are only prepared for 40 and I've been hearing about numbers ranging between 80-100 so I'm nervous. We are supposed to buy more treats this week for a back-up.
I will post more pictures of my front step next week. I have to wait until Sunday to put some of it out or it will get ruined. We've been getting some very high winds the last couple of weeks. I hope the weather is fabulous on the 31st.
Here's wishing everyone a SAFE and HAPPY Halloween!!
Today is the day that Rianne and I have been waiting for since April.
Jon left Alberta this afternoon. He is presently in Saskatchewan driving East and he isn't going to be stopping for a sleep until he reaches North Bay Ontario. That's one heck of a long drive and it's going to be keeping me awake tonight no doubt. I get so nervous when he's on the road doing long drives like this. Thankfully this is the last long drive!! Once he gets home he won't be going away for work again.
He visited IKEA for one last time yesterday and I sent him on a hunt for Rianne's Halloween costume since the odds were better that he'd find it in Edmonton. He found it at the third Walmart he went to so it's official .. Rianne is going to be a My Little Pony (Pinkie Pie) this year. She is excited!!
Rianne's face lit up when I told her this morning that it was October. She knows her daddy is coming home in October and her smile went from ear to ear knowing October was finally here.
Monday is going to be a GREAT day!
This morning Rianne and I got up early and I turned the Wii Fit on after breakfast and worked out for 60 minutes. HUGE accomplishment for me lately since I have been slack and idle and the scale is showing my lack of efforts ... unfortunately, but I'm the only one to blame. I'm not going to beat myself up over it though, i just have to get back on track and keep plugging.
After I finished up with Wii Fit and cooled off a bit we went for a walk. Well Rianne rode her bike and I walked/jogged around the track at Victoria Park and it felt awesome. I could have ran more/longer but Rianne's legs got tired so I had to stop. I wasn't even really gasping for air at that point which I normally would be.
So we came home and the little stinker was pedaling down the hill and I had to get mad at her because her bike is just a baby one and doesn't have brakes. Because it doesn't have brakes I had to hold her back and she was really make me work due to her pedaling. Like I didn't workout enough by that point!
After lunch I changed my clothes and we walked over to Foodland for a few items. She wanted to take her pink unicorn so there she was carrying it around in the grocery basket. On the way home we stopped at the playground for a bit before coming home.
When we got home she didn't want to come in so I left her out on "Trigger" and came in to put the groceries away then I went out and we did some yard work. Well I did the work and she undid it right behind me. All in a days work with her.
Rianne eventually heard the voice of Sophie next door. She doesn't live there but her grandparents do. Rianne loves playing with Sophie when she's there. Sooo ... off she went up the little hill between our yard and theirs and she was on the swing set for a while. After a while I hear her shout over that she's staying for cake. Okay! Then I look and there's a big banner about a party. Oh crap! I think she was just invited to a birthday party and she didn't have a gift. I asked Sophie who the party was for. She said her baby brother was turning 1.
I came in and frantically looked for a card. The only thing I found were blank note cards so that was going to have to do so I wrote in it and put money inside and went back out and gave it to Rianne and told her to give it to Sophie's mom for the birthday party.
Then I hear "are you coming over to the party?" Who me?!! Ummm okay. I've been sweating like a pig all day and was in the middle of yard work so pardon my scent and appearance while I invade your home and have munchies and cake. LOVELY!! What a first impression to make huh? The only good thing is that quite possibly the next time they see me I will undoubtedly look and smell better than I did today .. haha!!
It was a big party too. Lots of food and people .. aka strangers! I was totally out of my element and comfort zone. The only person I knew in that entire house was my 4 year old daughter. Awkward!! A little while after we had cake Rianne went outside ... my chance to escape the chaos. Everyone was leaving by that point too so they were all witness to the hissy fit that ensued when I dragged Rianne down over the hill kicking and screaming because she didn't want to leave the swing set. She's a tenacious little creature when she sets her mind to something. Stubborn isn't the word for it!
Wow what a busy day! I'm glad it's bedtime for her and relaxation time for me. My favorite time of the day :)
If you were lucky to catch the Full moon last night .. which happened on the Fall Equinox, it is known as a Super Harvest Moon and it only takes place once every twenty years or so.
My moon pictures never turn out great so what I posted above is as good as it gets I'm afraid.
There's nothing like owning an expensive camera and knowing nothing about it as far as settings are concerned in order to take decent pictures! I need a Canon Rebel for Dummies book to guide me through it.
This afternoon was Rianne's first experience with story time at the PARL (Pictou Antigonish Regional Library) and as much as I was hoping and praying she'd sit and behave, the thought was always in the back of mind that we'd have to do the walk of shame out of the building , never to return. Thankfully she did very well and loved being in with other kids. I think there are only 5 or 6 other pre-school aged kids in the group.
After the story was read they got to do a little craft. Today it was a caterpillar bookmark and a coloring page:
She was never one for coloring anything (other than herself) so poor Raggedy Ann will continue to live life in black and white with a hint to purple hues. I thought the mutant caterpillar bookmark was cute though :)
Rianne's books of choice to borrow this week were as follows:
Her eyes lit up when I found The Black Stallion so I hope she enjoys the book. We'll see tonight.
All the other moms just sit around tables so here's hoping I meet someone to talk to in future weeks. I overheard one mom say she was moving out of Westville soon though because she doesn't like the small town life. She is originally from Halifax .. for me personally, small town life is just perfect! To each their own though. I do know that I'm not a big city girl at all. That's a proven fact.
So it looks like Rianne and I will have plans on Thursday afternoons all Fall and Winter which is good. It gets us out to socialize a bit ... even if it's only for 30 minutes a week!
Not literally though Rianne could have probably belted out some fine rendition of Hannah Montana if she wanted to.
I had errands to do today and the one rotten thing about not having a car is the rain. It's been raining all day with no sign of letting up anytime in the near future so I had to suck it up and get us dressed for the weather. Rianne was sporting her ladybug rain coat and rubber boots. She loves being out in the rain because she can take her red umbrella.
Me on the other hand. No cute ladybug rain coat and no rubber boots BUT .... I did have a red umbrella! Off we went on our errands looking rather stylish under our red umbrellas as I avoided the puddles while Rianne ran and or jumped through them.
By the time we got home our pants were wet. Mine wet from being too long and soaking the puddles up and hers wet from being a puddle loving 4 year old.
One of the first things on my shopping list when Jon gets home are rain boots because in theory, if you are all prepared for something and anticipate it to take place then it inevitably won't .. so, if I'm waiting to wear my rain boots outside to walk in the puddles, we will probably have a drought! (haha!).
Well it's been a long time since I updated the ole blog.
So, our Summer was wonderful and it flew by very fast for us which was great!
We went to Cape Breton on the 2nd of July and only came back to the Mainland on the 10th of September! That's how great the Summer was!
First of all the weather was great so that was an added bonus for us. We discovered the Chimney Corner beach. Apparently the tourists all know about it but we didn't. It's a little gem on the shore road that was enjoyed by myself and Rianne a few times over the Summer.
Inverness Gathering Days were fantastic for Rianne this year. She was old enough to enjoy it. She went on her first fishing boat ride during the Fisherman's Picnic at the wharf. Then there was Horseman's Day at the race track. She played games, won prizes and went on miniature horse rides courtesy of "Alf" who resides in Dunvegan. Rianne LOVED it and talked about it all Summer long! She renamed the horse and in her mind he's "Butterscotch". I wonder what he'd think of that :)
While in Cape Breton I picked up a job that lasted 3-weeks. I was traveling around hooking up computers in the schools of the Strait Regional School Board. Moving old systems, unpacking and plugging in new systems, throwing out VERY old systems. It was fun! Then I volunteered for a week at the local used clothing store because they were short handed due to vacations over the Summer. I loved being there and organizing everything. I managed to pick up some great stuff for Rianne and I while I was there because I had the time to go through everything.
I spent a lot of time "treasure hunting" at various used clothing places between Cheticamp, Mabou and Orangedale as well as Inverness. It's a great way to waste time and find some brand name stuff for cheap. My kind of shopping since we are a tighter than tight budget.
Then there was the pool and "slip and slide" ... Rianne spent many many hours in her Dora pool and the slip and slide this Summer. She's all tanned up like a beach bunny even with the thick applications of sun screen. Her Hannah Montana bathing suit was well used, as proven by her tan lines!
My cousin Brad came from Ontario for a visit in September. We picked him up at the Sydney airport on Sept. 5th. Rianne was excited to go to the Airport so we had to leave home at Noon and his flight wasn't scheduled to land until 6:30 so we spent time at the Mayflower Mall. That place really changed since the last time I was there. It's a nice mall with a good variety of stores. My favorite being Winners!
The mall closed at 5 PM so we had no choice but to leave and head to the airport. Brad's plane landed and we headed to Inverness where he stayed until the 11th.
Since being back in Westville I've been keeping busy with housework and yard work. It never ends!
Jon only has 2 more weeks of work in Edmonton and then he's heading East. It's going to be the longest 2 weeks of my life waiting for him to get here. I'm glad the Summer went by as fast as it did because that really helped a lot.
I took Rianne to the race track a few times over the Summer as well because she loves horses. She loves them way more than I do as a matter of fact. They make me nervous for some reason. Especially race horses. I had to get over that nervousness a bit and take Rianne into the barn where she made a new friend names "Sadie" (aka: Kilkerran Sonnet) who is owned by a friend of ours. Here he is introducing Rianne to the mare.
Rianne was in her glory being in with the horse. She must have worked with horses in a past life or something because she has a love for them like no other. Even before meeting a real horse she had a passion for them.
So that was our Summer. A very condensed version but a version none the less. I will have to remind myself to keep this blog more up to date in the future. Maybe it will be my 2011 New Year's resolution because we all know I CANNOT give up chocolate!
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