Thanksgiving & Halloween

Happy Thanksgiving!
Nile & Zola admiring the Pumpkin Pie

Nile being generally excited about Thanksgiving ..
I made a Turkey (my first!)

Spiderman
First Nile wanted to be a Prairie Dog for Halloween, which I thought was really cute but I was slightly stressed about how to make a prairie dog costume.. The he suddenly changed his mind and wanter to be a pirate, which delighted me because it's easy and cute. But that was short lived and he switched to Spiderman and stuck with it - he has been absolutely obsessed with watching OLD spiderman cartoons from the 60's on youtube .. So I picked him up the costume while I was in Chigago & he was thrilled with it. He wore it all over town for the week prior to Halloween.

On Halloween night we went to the Waldorf School for the Halloween Journey - this is our third year going to it and we love it. It's very magical.
The we came home, threw a chicken in the oven, did a quick round of Tick-or-Treating and then ate roast chicken for dinner. It was a fun night!

Nile's Art Project
we traced his body and drew his bones

Chickens & Chicago.

Pink & Shiny
A cake made by a lady from Kentucky.

I just returned from a week on the outskirts of Chicago where I was taking a course with Colette Peters (Amazing Cake Celebrity with a hugely successful shop in NYC..http://www.colettescakes.com/wedding_cc.html) at the Wilton school.

I learned so much! I got a scholarship to attend the course (http://www.lesdames.ca/scholarship_recipients.htm) & it was hugely valuable.. It was very humbling to learn from an absolute pro and realize how much i still have to learn. There were women there from all over the country & the world..Costa Rica, India, Holland, Vienna, Peru, and me from Canada.

My absolute favorite of the student cakes - made by a woman names Eva. Aren't those bugs awesome combined with the pink frilly look?

My Gum paste Flowers!
The Result of 2 full days of work!

Cakes made by students in previous classes..

My Class!
It looks like a Gum Paste Sweat Shop.

My Cake!
It's quite gaudy & busy.
I wanted to make something completely different than anything i'd ever made before. and i generally tend to do pretty simple cakes. We had two days to work on it - the assignment was to make a cake utilizing all the skills we learned over the course of the class... So, it's not really supposed to be entirely cohesive.

Me & Colette Peters!!
Getting my Diploma, which I intend to frame & hang in my kitchen!

These are some OLD pics from when Nick & Nile had chickens
(sadly they don't have them anymore because all got eaten by coyotes) ...

Nile enjoying a FRESH egg from the coop.

Eggs!!

A cute video of the chickens .. it was shot sideways but you can still see them .. & hear Nile's always-amusing commentary.

I Used To Love Doing This When I was A Kid

Step One: Dig a Hole in the Back Yard.
Step Two: Pour Baking Soda into the Hole
Step Three: Pour Vinegar Over the Baking Soda

Step Four: Watch the Volcano Magic Happen

We Even Added Orange Food Coloring to the vinegar so the "Lava" would be orange.

Nile LOved it .. Poppy too.

Pears!!! We have a pear tree and the front yard & it has been ABUNDANT this year. we have been eating pears, giving away pears, making pear churney & pear butter and putting pears in our oats every morning.

Nile & Zola Enjoying the Bounty

Sidewalk Art

Autumn is Here!!
Nile climbing the pear tree

Nile in front of my LAST wedding cake of the season!

Happy HALF Birthday Nile!!!

Sweet Nile is 4.5 today!!

We had originally planned to have a party for his half-birthday (since he declined my offer for a party when he turned 4). He actually seemed excited to have a party this time, but i wasn't on it and completely forgot to organize anything. Oops.

The plan had been to have half a cake and other things to eat that were halved like deviled eggs.

Instead we chilled out on the grass at the Saturday Market and ate pizza and watched people juggle. Nile seemed to enjoy it.

In other news, he has decided that he wants to be a Prairie Dog for halloween. Random!! NIle is the little king of randomness. He's been working on his prairie dog noises (apparently they go: "Yip Yip" who knew).

I am just so in love with my sweet boy - we are having so much fun lately. He is absolutely adorable & really into dinosaurs.

Happy half-birthday sweet boy!

oxoxox

Happy Birthday Zola!! & Nile's First Rally!!

Our friend Jess organized a rally today for Global action against climate change .. apparently thousands of cities around the world were participating with similar events .. We stood outside of City Hall in Nelson and made lots of noise at 12:18pm. Nile loved it .. We came armed with a kazoo, pots & pans to clank and various other noise-mailing tools.

There was a great turn-out & the rally was a success! yay Jess!!

And some cute ones of Nile & Kailash at Zola's Birthday party... She's 4!!

(probably) the last camping of the season...

We went camping this weekend with Gina & Zola to Wragge Beach - it was absolutely heavenly. We didn't want to leave!!

We originally picked that spot because it's pretty close to New Denver, which is where the Garlic Festival is held. We were planning to camp on Saturday night & then head t the Garlic Fest on Sunday. We didn't even pack any food for breakfast because our plan was to make coffee, give the kids cereal & pack up and head out right away. But when we woke up on Sunday there was not a single cloud in the sky and we quickly realized that we could not tear ourselves away from that beach - it was absolutely amazing. So, we ended up improvising with food (cooking up the last remaining turkey burger and putting it between corn thin crackers with lettuce & mustard to make "sandwiches". And then sustaining ourselves with multiple coffees and lots of tortilla chips.

Wragge Beach - Paradise!!
This is by far my favorite camping spot that i've discovered so far in the Koots.
The water is shallow and warm, we swam! In September!

Practicing the Alphabet
He's really into writing things these days - he can write his own name!

Grumpy Boy having a bath once we arrived home
He's super into wind-up bath toys these days .. he calls the "robots".

We didn't arrive home until 7:30 pm on Sunday & we were tired & grumpy from too much sun & lots of driving. So I left all the camping gear & cooler in the car & decided to deal with it in the morning. When I got in the car this morning all of our blankets were thrown around and there were crackers in the front seat - someone had obviously gotten into the car and rooted around in there last night. As far as I can tell nothing is missing except a tupperware full of homemade cookies from the cooler! strange. I'm really glad that our tent & other camping gear wasn't stolen - that would have been terrible.

Bannock... Autie Rania's Visit