Nothing much to say...

Uncle Tom helping Peter with his new birthday present
After eating almost all of the very melted and odd-looking cake
that I posted about earlier, there was one piece left in the kitchen...
we noticed it seemed to be looking at us with its little cake-face,
perhaps saying, "please don't eat me!"Look familiar? Peter's favourite book at Aaron's age is now
becoming Aaron's favourite book too...

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