Lauren, this is for you...

Dear Lauren,
I remember many a year ago, you attempted something in the kitchen, the result of which scarred forever your conception of your ability to bake a cake. On that day, you were convinced you had ruined Mom and Dad's anniversary and I believe you barricaded yourself in your room crying after we got home. The cake you baked while everyone else was out of the house had fallen apart, and what parts hadn't fallen apart had been mauled by the icing job - the crunchy icing job. We were all impressed by your attempt and we ate the cake anyways - after your sobs had been duly comforted.
This picture is for you, that you may publicly know that other people fail at making cakes sometimes too. I can't just post a picture of the nice one! I'll have you know that last year I also made two cakes for Peter's birthday: the first one was great, and the second one melted into an unrecognizable mess. This year again, the first one was great, and the second one melted into an even more unrecognizable mess. I hope you enjoy eating this cake with us this evening when you visit! And I'll have you know, my icing is crunchy too :D

Last year's cake failureThe current year's cake failureDespite the ugly cake, Peter enjoys playing with his presentsPeter's new tractor-loader hard at work in the...cereal?All I can say is HAHA!!

Happy Birthday Peter!

Has it already been two years? Today we celebrate Peter's 2nd birthday, and I have no idea where the time went. Peter has grown so much in the past year, learning new things all the time and changing each day more and more into a little boy. You are such a blessing to us, Peter, and we love you very much! May you have a happy day and a year ahead full of blessing and laughter.

Opening his presents this morning

Product Analysis

A few weeks ago I came across a coupon for a free box of 6 pieces of chocolate-dipped fruit from Edible Arrangements. I don't mind free things at all, and I found the time to drop in there this past weekend to pick up my free fruit. The small print on the coupon said it was worth $14.99 and I was interested to see how much you actually got for 15 bucks. Here goes my product analysis:
As you can see, it comes all wrapped up in a lovely little box. I didn't take a picture of the bag, but it comes in a gift bag as well, with some curly coloured ribbon on it. The box is sturdy quality, with an attractive pattern and a ribbon to keep it closed. I would re-use the box more readily if it didn't have the company name and logo printed on it. Here is our first glimpse of the product. There are 6 chocolate-dipped strawberries, each in their own little waxy paper wrapper. Chocolate was of medium quality, and fairly thick. This made it somewhat awkward to eat the strawberry, for the first bite containing chocolate causes chocolate fragments to fall off the berry or melt on the outside of your mouth. The berry tasted fairly good and quite strawberry-ish, but definitely not field-fresh or sun-sweet. $14.99 value divided by 6 strawberries = $2.50 per strawberry. Keep an eye on the flyers and you can buy a pint of strawberries for that price, and who doesn' t have a few chocolate chips sitting around in the cupboard waiting to be melted onto a strawberry. $2.50 for a single strawberry is ludicrous. Here we have a strawberry that doesn't even look ripe. Hard to tell if this is a normal occurance for this product or if they give the un-ripe fruit to the people who come in with the free coupons. Disappointing anyways, although I realize that the un-ripe fruit has to go somewhere or else it is wasted. However, this strawberry would have cost $2.50 if I hadn't had a coupon that made it free, and I would have been more upset if I had paid full price for a sub-standard berry.

November November November November

Hi Mom!Look who's making pancakes for breakfast!
Peter likes to "help" out in the kitchenLook who got wheels! I got a great deal off Kijiji on these two cozy
coupe cars, which Peter has been living in since they arrived. What
a great early birthday present! Aaron didn't seem to mind
his new matching roadster either :)Peter woke up on this particular morning with a high fever, and
hence doesn't look 100% in these pictures, but he was having a pretty
good time despite feeling sickAaron in his cozy red hatWe enjoyed sitting out in the yard on a warm November Sunday
afternoon - have to take advantage of those warm days when you still can!Mmmmm cookies...Can't be sure, but I think he likes themSometimes weird things go on in our home
Looks like someone's having a birthday! It is Peter's 2nd birthday
tomorrow, and this was Cake #1 for the Strathroy birthday party
for Peter and Matthew, his cousin who turned 1 last week.

Fall pics

Aunt Danielle found this crazy hat at Ikea, and Peter was okay with
wearing it until he saw it off his head... those horns are a little freaky!
Two soothies should help overcome the fear, though

Look who's sitting up all by himself! (still with pillow insurance though!)

So, sometimes Peter gets jealous of Aaron's toys - the exersaucer,
the jolly jumper, the pack-and-play, the Bumbo, and the carseat -
strangely enough, all items in which he is physically contained.
Maybe nice for Mom but it's a little odd that he enjoys them so muchEnjoying a beautiful fall day playing in a pile of leaves"Hey Aaron, did you know you look silly with a leaf on your head?"

Mid-October

Halfway into October, and time certainly is not moving any slower. We are in the middle of sharing the flu with everyone here at home - last week Mike was home sick for a day, and soon enough everybody got sick. No fun, especially for the little guys, since this seems to be a lingering flu. We're past the fevers now (we hope) but the loss of appetites, sore throats, coughs, and runny noses continue. Joy oh joy, winter is on its way! (Blah)
Aaron is now 6 MONTHS, how did that happen? Half a year has flown by, and he's now sitting up on his own (a little tippy still but he can sit for quite a while if he feels like it). When he's healthy, he's got a fantastic laugh that melts your heart, and he's such a happy kid - even now after a coughing fit, where I can tell his throat is so sore, sometimes he'll look up at me and give me a half-hearted little smile. What a little trooper!
Peter is one month shy of 2 YEARS - woah. He's learning so much, so fast, and it is quite exciting for us all. His mind is a little sponge (oh, a sponge with a mind of its own sometimes) and he catches us by surprise all the time by what he knows. He knows how to count 1-10, and a few random numbers higher than that, except he almost always skips '6'. Our mealtime prayers for a few days were: "Lord, thank-you four 5 6 7 8 9 10 this food and drink four 5 6 7 8 9 10 Jesus' sake Amen". It's kind of hard to keep the smile off your face...
I've got a few new pictures to share. I've been shrinking the photos before uploading them to shorten the time it takes, so if you would like a good-quality picture please let me know and I can email it to you. Enjoy!

Always on the hunt to find a good picture of the two boys together...Peter looking like a bit of a goofAaah, love this smileJust chillin' in my rocking chair, MomTwo boys looking spiffy for churchHugs outside on a fall dayHanging out with MomOne of my new favourite pictures :)And another favourite, a boy and his truckPeter's current favourite book is Curious George

We have had an abundant harvest out of our little garden, and

with limited freezer space, I tried out canning this year. A few
batches of salsa, some crushed tomatoes, blueberry pie filling,
lots of peaches, and some peach jam. I'm sure we'll enjoy
these in the coming months! Looks like another batch of salsa is on the schedule...homegrown
tomatoes, onions, green peppers and jalapenos, and garlic cloves from
the neighbour next door. The only thing I didn't grow was the vinegar :)

Peter loves to "help" me pick the vegetables, especially the cherry
tomatoes. I usually end up with a good number of small, green tomatoes
and little marigold buds in my basket. No worries, there are lots to spare
It's so nice having a park so close! We've enjoyed it a lot this summer.
This is Aaron's first time in the swing, and he really liked it
Peter enjoying the swing (as long as Aaron was also swinging beside him!)
Glee!!!It takes a few more than one picture to get a good shot of a child in a moving swingHaving fun with Mommy at the park

Bathroom Renovations

After a few weeks of long days, lots of work, lots of mess and lots of cleaning, our bathroom is finally back on-line and functioning. As I mentioned before, there was no ventilation fan in there when we moved in, and although we had installed one, there was still water damage and mould issues in there which needed to be addressed. We took some pictures along the way, and I kick myself for not taking better "before" pictures, but these will have to do...

This is the bathroom as it was when we first saw the house, a few
days before we bought it. Cozy enough I guess, but it was missing
a fan, was much lacking in storage, had some nasty paint finishes,
was hiding some water damage, and had stick-on vinyl tiles that
were shifting and not looking all that great. This is move-in day, with Lauren adding in some of our bathroom
stuff to make it feel more like home. We left that wicker unit in
there for convenient storage but never really liked it. We did
replace that toilet seat, but never did any painting in there until now.
And the tearing out begins! We did this for a few days before moving to my parents... it's not exactly the most convenient thing having one bathroom and renovating it. We were very thankful to be able to stay with my Mom and Dad! My Dad also trucked back and forth to St. Catharines with Mike helping him with all the work, which was greatly appreciated.
Our home was built in 1934, and you can tell the house is old by the way it was constructed. No drywall here! It was all plaster, with mortar and lathing behind. If you look carefully at the mortar you can see horse hair in it to keep it together. And of course, no insulation anywhere.
We discovered this lovely paint colour behind the shelving unit by the tub. Sick! Probably also lead paint, so it was high time that the kids and I got out of there, and we purchased some good dust masks and filters. I think it was first painted this colour, then pink (which the bathtub also was painted at some point), then blue (which the front, visible part of the bathtub was painted) with sponge paint and very thick wallpaper. The windows were all replaced before we bought the house, but we
found four of these old window weights in the wall beside the new window.There are only two closets in our house, one in the laundry/entrance room and the other in Peter and Aaron's bedroom. Both of these jut into the bathroom... and don't go all the way to the ceiling, leaving some empty, unused space. Space = storage! We claimed these spaces for the bathroom, and it will be nice to have some extra storage in there, albeit a little inconvenient. I'll have to find a step stool. Down to the bare bones! The walls are down to the studs, the floor
tiles are off, and we're ready for the expensive stage of rebuilding. Ex-bathroom material makes a big pile of garbage outsideNew insulation was installed on the exterior wall of the bathroomMildew-resistant drywall goes up, a lovely shade of blue. Dave came to help out Mike with the work and helped
install the wainscoting and a few other thingsWainscoting installed and walls almost done mudding
Oh, my house was such a disaster! Dust on every possible
surface throughout the whole place... it took a lot of
cleaning to get it back to live-able
Dad Vander Deen came to help Mike cut and install the porcelain tiles
I came the next day to help grout the tiles and paint the bathtub
and trim. It's a little nerve-wracking to watch the grout
drying on the tile surface while it sets but we didn't have a
problem getting it off againNewly tiled and grouted floor, all cleaned up.
We are so happy with how it turned out!
The bottom of the tub, which probably won't be seen again for
a very long time. It was made in Toronto on June 10, 1930
and weighs an awful lot. It waited in the kitchen during the
renovations and got a new coat of paint.Bathroom walls and ceiling painted, a fresh cool blue colour on the walls
Oops! Mike, you forgot to put the shower curtain back up...and
do you always shower with your clothes on? There were very
few complications putting the fixtures back in, for which we were
thankful. Mike's a pretty good impromptu plumber!
Bathroom just about finished!
Medicine cabinet and shelf underneath is installed... this is how
it is now. The over-cupboard storage still needs to be finished off,
and a cabinet needs to be built for behind the tub. New medicine cabinet and sink area

Carrots!

After being away from home, with a few stop-ins, for 3 1/2 weeks, it was nice to get my hands dirty again in the garden. I harvested my carrots and onions, gathered what I could from the beans, and picked a "few" cherry tomatoes... I sure hope I can use them in salsa or something because I have a few million of them. I was happy to pull out carrots that actually looked like carrots, especially in comparison to last year's dismal harvest!

These are ALL the carrots I picked last year... some more pictures
are on a post from September 2008. A lot of these weren't useable,
as they were way too tiny or weird looking to qualify as safe to eat. These were the carrots I picked this year that are good for eating!
Thinning them out and giving them loads of manure made a huge difference!
Of course, there were still a few baby carrots in the mix but I didn't
mind quite so much this year - kind of fun to have a few carrot "jelly beans"
This carrot looks like someone mushed their finger into it... weird
Aaaand there were still a few vampire carrots. Here we have Dad Carrot, Mom Carrot, and Baby Carrot
And you can't forget about Alien Dad Carrot, Alien Mom Carrot,
and Alien Baby Carrot!

Life in August

Well, time keeps on ticking, and here we find ourselves at the end of August already. How did the summer get to be almost over? Mike has two short weeks left until school begins again. He has a new classroom and a new grade, Grade 7 this year, which will be a fun challenge. It has been a busy summer "off"... I think people are mislead when they think teachers have the whole summer as a big vacation, because, as far as our experience has been, that's definitely not the case! However, we have had a chance to do some fun things and enjoy life at a different pace for a little while... none of those 5 am till midnight exhausting days and wild marking frenzies during the summer, and we can say they are not missed.
Peter and Aaron are growing so quickly! Peter is talking more and more, and it is so fun to watch him learn! He can point out some letters of the alphabet, he constantly wants us to read to him, he's starting to "play" with things for more than a minute at a time, and he surprises us with the big words he's able to say... bananana, motorcycle, helicopter... very very fun. He's developing quite the little mind of his own, and we can see the "terrible twos" creeping in already. It is encouraging to see him picking up the things we are teaching him though, from cleaning up his toys to saying "please" and "thank-you" for things (and sometimes even "you're welcome!" :)
Aaron has somehow gotten older than 4 months, and he's getting so big! He has his four month apointment tomorrow and it's hard to believe the time has gone by so quickly. He is such a happy little guy, smiling from ear to ear so easily, and generally content as long as he gets lots of cuddles, which I don't mind at all. Can you ever get enough of snuggling with a little cutie? Well, maybe at 4 am when he's wide awake and ready to go... can't say I'm overly eager to be up with him at that time, but I have to remember that before I know it, these kids will be all grown up and they won't want to sit on my lap and snuggle, or hold my hand walking into church. Gotta enjoy these time while they last!
Anways, on to some pictures of the last little while :)

Mike and I went to a Blue Jays/Yankees game with some friends
at the beginning of August. They had a good start but ended up losing,
but we still enjoyed the game. Jodi, me, Hannah and Jill
Simon, Mike, Gary and Corey
Aaron out like a light on a hot summer night
Peter and Mom goofing around with the camera
Aaron didn't have quite as much fun with the camera but oh well!
And out comes the Jolly Jumper again!
I think he likes it! Not too much jumping yet but he liked standing around
Hmmmm maybe he's just a little too big for it Mike?
Oddly enough though, he LOVED it
Driving on the QEW... anything look strange to you in this picture?
Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Karen and "Unco Dafe" came for a visit
Big boy underwear? Well, he tried them on but it'll be a while
before that becomes a normal thing! He didn't really care about
them at all... no toilet training here yet
Having fun at the park
Apparently, it's hilarious if the stairs are wetAaron and Uncle DaveI LOVE this picture! I'll have to do some fiddling in Photoshop!