Excavating

When we bought our property, we weren't big fans of all the extra buildings, fences and "stuff" around the yard. So, for the last 2 months, things have been slowly improving.

Back in September, Erik's dad almost single-handedly dismantled the old pig pen...

Most of the material could be burned, but there was a lot of concrete and cinder blocks left at the end which has been a bit of an eyesore.


The area became our unofficial fire pit with plenty of burning fuel! You can see "the pile" in the back left.

The kids were pretty pumped about finding pieces of wood to toss into the flames.

After the old fence posts were removed and everything was burned that could be burned, we were still left with a mess.


Cue the excavators!

The smaller one in the back is living at our farm these days. We're storing it for a family friend, and it's come in handy for many jobs already. But, we hired the big one to come in for a day to do some more heavy-duty jobs.

It was like a live episode of Mighty Machines.

Now we have a nice clear space to put our garden in the spring.

He also dug up some old sidewalks around the shop. And we got rid of some fencing and a brick pillar in this spot.


This space (the back side of the shop) was previously un-usable because of animal fencing and other paraphernalia. Now it's a nice clear space.

We're liking the feeling of some cleared land...

Another area of the yard that's been slowly improving is this little section right behind our back deck. What you're looking at here is a dog cage made from chain-link fence that's been nailed to several trees (including that short stumpy one in the front).

Erik tore down the fence quite easily and then Micah got to work chopping down the stumpy tree with the backside of Erik's work hammer.

He actually spent about 3 hours one day working on this and made quite a bit of progress. But then Daddy & Grandpa had to come in to give it the final push-over.

After which we were left with a slightly shorter stump for a few weeks.

That is, until this past weekend, when Grandpa pulled out the little excavator to dig it up.


Now, the space is chain-link fence and tree stump free.

It's Tool Time

It's that pumpkin carving time of the year again. And in true Toews style, we got the job done with some help from Erik's power tools.

I mean, how handy is a hole saw (with various sizes) for making perfect holes in a pumpkin...?

And after trying some traditional knife-carving on Micah's jack-o-lantern design, Erik thought to himself, why struggle with a knife when you can use a drill and a skill saw?

I don't think pumpkin carving will ever be the same at our house...

Yesterday I snapped some pictures of the kids before they went to school.

My princess.

My monkey.

My elephant (watching the excavators that were hard at work on our yard all day).

(btw - this elephant costume has gotten a LOT of use. Micah, Keziah & Silas have each worn it at least once before!)

Since there wasn't much happening on our street for trick-or-treating, we headed to Doug & Elissa's for the evening.

After a wardrobe change on Micah's part, we got a picture of our motley crew of trick-or-treaters... (posing beside our power-tooled pumpkins).

Unfortunately Micah started dragging his feet about 20 minutes in, and Erik brought him back with a fever and a headache :(

But the other three got to enjoy a few treats before bedtime!

Now there is a LOT of candy and chocolate in the house. I think I may have to hide it from myself...

She's Broke

The tooth fairy that is.

The teeth in this boy's mouth are dropping like flies.

And the tooth fairy is getting lazy.

Let me rephrase that, the male half of the tooth fairy is getting lazy. The other morning Micah woke up to realize that he was given the same little ziploc bag of coins that he had received just a few nights before. For a different tooth.

Yeah, you can't pull too many fast ones on this 6-year-old.

In other news, this is how we found Silas last night when he was supposed to be sleeping.

I'm thinking it might be time for a big boy bed...

Starbucks in the Oven

'Tis the season of all things pumpkin flavoured and I certainly haven't held back from trying out all sorts of fall pumpkin goodies. The first recipe on my pumpkin to-do list was the Starbucks-inspired Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes:

My finished product may not look as good as the picture above, but they definitely passed the taste test. (I opted to skip the caramel drizzle).

And since I ended up buying a whole tin of espresso powder in order to have 3 tbsp's worth for this recipe, I could make them a few times over yet.

They were delicious! Now, if only they fell into the healthy recipes category...

On another note, I recently learned that mini cupcakes/muffins actually fit perfectly in an empty egg carton. A great idea for gifts.

You could even decorate the outside of your egg carton and tie it up with some pretty twine if you're so inclined...

(image found here)

The second recipe I wanted to try was the Starbucks Pumpkin Scones:

Mine turned out pretty well, except for the icing part. There is a white glaze and a brown spiced icing which was supposed to be a bit thicker for drizzling, but mine were both pretty runny and, once again, not at all like the impressive picture above. But, it really does come down to taste, and they were pretty good!

Also on my pumpkin baking list was pumpkin cheesecake bars (they were so-so) and pumpkin muffins (a big hit with the kids - made these twice so far).

I have to admit, I'm getting a little bit pumpkin'd out.

But, there is one last recipe I'm interested to try. It's called pumpkin pie dip and it promises to not only be addictive but actually kind of healthy too since it's made with greek yogurt. (A tad healthier than the apple dip I've been making with cream cheese and loads of sugar... )

But first I think I'll take a little break from pumpkin. If it's true that "you are what you eat", I won't be surprised if our whole family is round and tinted orange by the time it's Halloween...

Potty Humour

Potty training has begun. The candidate is prime, but the trainer (yeah, that's me) is having a hard time being 100% devoted to this process. We've had a few successes, but Silas has great bladder control which makes for fewer teachable moments throughout the day. And life still needs to go on for me and for the rest of our family so I can't always be "on" Silas at every moment. The afternoons kind of go downhill after he naps (in a diaper) and then we pick up the kids (also in his diaper) and then I just kind of let it slide since the older kids and dinner prep and all those other things are keeping me too occupied.

But the kid cracks me up. The first time he went successfully in the potty he thought it was hilarious...

Fireside

My most favourite thing so far about living on an acreage is having evening bonfires. The fire ban was lifted at the beginning of the month, so for the last few weeks we've been having fires at every opportunity.

Let's just say there've been an awful lot of hot dogs and marshmallows consumed this month so far...


We've been enjoying a string of clear sunny days that are finished off with crisp, clear fall evenings. And if we've learned anything from living in the lower mainland, it's that we'd better enjoy them now because we all know the rains are coming.




Our life has become a fine line between country and city living. Our fireside was accompanied by the honking of Canada geese, the howling of coyotes and, of course, a few low-flying airplanes and a helicopter (all equally entertaining for this bunch).


I think Keziah still had some supper on her face...


And the only way to end off a fall fireside?

S'mores of course.

What I Did Last Weekend (Point Form)

1. I had a birthday.

I turned 32 on Friday. In this stage of life, birthdays pass by in a blur, a busy day among every other busy day... But it was good - and special "luve" notes like this one from Micah made it extra special :)

2. I painted. A lot.

The kitchen project isn't quite finished yet. But it's getting close!

And on a side note, I totally sucked Erik into the painting vortex (just as I predicted!).

More pictures will come, but here's a glimpse of how it's been going:

After painting the backsplash in the blue-green colour I had chosen, I didn't like it at all and thought it looked pretty tacky. So, I painted over it with an ivory to match the cabinets. I'm still planning to paint the other walls in the blue-green but haven't felt totally happy with the colour choice. Anyway... I'll have to devote a whole separate post to that once it's all complete!

3. I pulled out the potty.

Let's just say a certain little boy is getting over his fear of the potty and a certain mommy is getting over her chronic procrastination... There has been no success yet, but there also hasn't been much time devoted to this. Hopefully soon I can put my energy towards this next endeavour...

Maybe when the painting is done.

4. I ate turkey.

We hosted the Toews family Thanksgiving dinner at the farm on Sunday night where we all squeezed into our sunroom-slash-dining-room for turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie. And then we ended off with a bonfire to enjoy the rest of a warm fall evening. The perfect kind of evening where the grown-ups visit around the fire while the kids run around the yard, chasing cats in the barn and trampoline-jumping under the stars, and claiming they're not tired enough to go to bed even when 9 pm rolls around... Which makes us all thankful for holiday Monday to recover :)

Hope the rest of you enjoyed a happy Thanksgiving weekend!

The Fine Art of Dawdling

I'm trying to figure out how to make the school mornings less chaotic at our house. It doesn't matter how early we all wake up, it seems to take the e-n-t-i-r-e time to eat breakfast, get dressed and get out the door. There are 100 excuses in the book to keep these kids distracted from just doing what I'm asking them to do...

Micah is still having a tough time with school. Some mornings seem to go OK while others are filled with whining, excuses, tummy aches and teacher-peeling-him-off-of-my-body kind of good-byes at his classroom. Today was one of those mornings and I drove home feeling frustrated and discouraged.

Yet, every afternoon when I pick them up, Micah is in good spirits and eager to share about his day. So, I'm learning not to let the morning frustrations get to me. Instead I'm trying to enjoy my 6 hours with just ONE child.

And he's a handsome one.

I needed an updated photo of Silas for his child dedication coming up at the end of the month, so we headed out to the "backyard" for a few poses. I had a "he's-really-growing-up!" moment as I snapped some pictures.

One of my favourite thrift store finds ever has got to be this blazer/sport jacket combo. Thankfully Silas loves wearing it too :)


(And, come to think of it, these Gap jeans and Converse shoes were also from the thrift store!)

What are you doing on the ground Mommy?

With all the school drama I've nearly forgotten my next big challenge:

Potty-training this little elf...

I've learned a few things about dawdling myself.

In grown-up words, we call it procrastination.

I'll start potty-training...

eventually.