Simon's Birthday, Pumpkin Patch, Halloween, Mosaic Vice

I never mentioned Simon's birthday!  Just look at how adorable he is:

 

We just had family over for some cake.  He was happy.
  

He still isn't saying many words, but a few new ones are "woof woof' for dog, and 'doo doo' for choo choo train (for when he wants to watch Thomas the Tank Engine).  We got him a 'big boy bed' (a.k.a. a twin mattress on the floor, like his brothers) since I was hoping it would be more comfortable for him so he wouldn't wake during the night anymore.  The plan didn't really work since he still wakes up with an angry yell or scream a few times a night, not necessarily for any reason.  He's probably dreaming that I wouldn't let him punch me or something.  Sigh.

In October we went to various parks on various days.  My brother Todd and his family came out for Thanksgiving, so we rode bikes around the seawall with them and I took this pic of Max:

 And this one of Callum at Second Beach:

These pics are just from a sunny Saturday morning with Jeff:
 

 We took our family trip to the Pumpkin Patch, this year with our friends the Sherwin family.  While waiting for them, I got some cute ones of my boys:

Picking out the perfect Pumpkin can be very stressful, according to Max.

Ruby is in my Primary Class (9 year-old girls) while Leo is Callum's age and Henry is closest to Max.

I'm very happy with a new jacket I got - I realized that my old heavy Marmot ski jacket is from 1997. The look on Max's face is what you'll see if you take him out in the rain, into trails when he knows there is someone walking their dog in there - he still has a rather irrational fear of animals, poor kid.  Simon is turning out to be not too fond of them either.

Of course there was Halloween, and I am so proud of myself that I actually made a costume!  Callum wanted to be the character from a computer game he likes, Minecraft Steve, and it was rather simple to make, but I was still happy when Max said he just wanted to be a Vampire (and a Vampire who wouldn't wear sharp teeth or make-up!).  Max only ended up visiting about 5 houses anyway since he was too freaked out by all the people who had dogs at the door or walking them with their kids trick-or-treating.  Poor kid.

November 2nd was the 10k Night race that I signed up for and actually trained for.  It ended up being quite rainy but not too cold, so it was a fun time.  My friend Rhonda happened to have signed up for it too so we ran most of it together but I was disappointed with my time (59mins) since it felt like I was running so fast!  Oh well, not bad for my first race since before Callum was born!  

Jeff's parents came for a brief visit Nov. 6-13th, so we just hung out at home a lot with them.  Well, actually, this picture was taken probably right around the same time that someone was smashing my van window and stealing my purse on November 9th.  So the boys spent time at home with their Grandparents while I drove around a lot to replace bank cards, credit cards, drivers licence, Nexus card, etc... Not too fun.

  
November 30th was Jeff's company Christmas party.  I had heard a lot about it since his Langley office was in charge or organizing it.  They opted for a Miami Vice themed party hosted at the oh-so classy "Pink Palace" hotel in South Surrey.  I think it was a success.  I'm just disappointed that none of these pics show the zebra-print pants I was wearing (with our friends Ben and Keiko:

And one last note:  I have given up being ashamed of my messy house since I have given up trying to keep up with the disasters made by 3 little boys.  This picture of the exploded blender, however, I took as a memento of my surrender:

At least it was just the soapy water and not the smoothie that Simon decided to mix up for me.  Yup.