When You're The Best of Friends

Lately I have found myself really appreciating my two little boys. I have a part time job now and every time I come home I get these great big hugs and kisses. I definitely think that is one of the unexpected joys of having a job. Obviously the pay cheque is great but I was really reluctant to enter the work force again. So far it has not been bad at all though. The boys get to spend a couple of days with their Dad and I get to have some adult time too. Now that I am gone for a couple days a week I feel like everything they do is 10x cuter. Eli is getting so grown up and Simon is just adorable. Earlier today he said the word "cookie". What?! He's getting so big. I am such a lucky mom because most of the time they are best buddies and do pretty much everything together. I just wanted to share some of the pictures I've gotten of the two of them palling around together lately. 

Snack time

He insists on using an easel

Sit on my lap, Simon!

So in the picture above I had gone out for a girls night in Vancouver and basically 15 minutes after I had left I got a text from Bruce saying that Eli had woken up and peed the bed. That's why Eli looks so put out. Bruce had to give him a quick rinse in the tub and let the boys cuddle in front of the TV for a little while before putting them both back to bed. 

Little artists

Literally answered one email and this happens

Apple buddies

All Hallows' Eve

This little post about Halloween is going to be pretty quick. Eli was so excited this year to go out and get candy. He got to wear his costume tons because at his preschool they had a Halloween party on Monday and he also got to wear is again for his class on Friday. This year he decided to be Wolverine and I thought it was pretty awesome. We decided just to use Simon's Superman costume again this year to keep things simple so I had two superheroes again. I think that I might just be buying superhero costumes every year for Halloween and to be honest that is totally fine with me. 

I thought that Eli would go trick-or-treating forever when we first left the house because he was so excited. Not so. We made it about a block and a half before he wanted to turn around and go home. Turns out he was just too excited to start eating the candy to wait any longer. Simon enjoyed every second of it and was chattering away the entire time. We had a pretty wonderful Halloween and I am already looking forward to next year!

Preschool Halloween party

He followed this poor girl around the entire time.
I think he was pretty taken with her Elsa costume.

Ready to save the day

Party time!

 The next morning our house looked extra Halloween-ish. There was a pretty thick fog and the water droplets were clinging to all of the spider webs on our railing outside. It looked pretty spectacular so I had Bruce take a couple pictures. On a side note... look at all the spider webs around our house. Yuck.

...And Many More!

This past month has certainly been a busy one. On October 29th Eli turned 4! I have been wanting to put up pictures of his birthday for a while but we didn't have his party until Saturday so I had to hold off for a few days. It is amazing to me that I now have a 4 year old running around my house. Even in the past couple months he has grown up so much and I know before long I'll be wishing I could roll back the clock. He is such an amazing and quirky kid. Our home is always full of laughter as he chases Simon around the kitchen table, dances to "fast music with the man singing" (his personal favourite), and fights off the zombies that hide in my bed. I love that he is such a social boy and makes friends with everyone anytime we go to the playground. I am so blessed to have this little man in my life!
For his birthday we just had a family dinner of his choice (Chinese food), some ice cream cupcakes, and he got to open his presents. The next morning he was up at the crack of dawn to play with them again. His love affair with Batman continues and he loved every one of his gifts! On Saturday the lovely Gasser family came over for pizza and cake. Eli had so much fun playing with Liam and all the adults got to have fun chatting while the kids played. Here are some pictures of the birthday boy!

Happy birthday to you!

He's a little embarrassed

Sparklers?!

The family party 

A shot of Simon amid the chaos

Presents!

Thank you, everyone!

Dad Days

Not a whole lot has happened in our little family over the last few days. Mostly, we've been doing our own routine and trying to get ready for Thanksgiving. I honestly cannot believe that it is already October and I'm going to have to start preparing for Eli's fourth birthday. Anyway I have managed to get a few good pictures of Bruce and the boys goofing around. I think that Eli's favourite thing in the world is to wrestle with his Daddy. This morning as he was drinking his milk he was telling me how he was going to be stronger than Daddy because he finished it all and he would win the wrestling. We also decided to start a new tradition for General Conference and so Bruce and Eli made us some delicious soft pretzels while we watched.

Wake up, Dad

Pretzel time

Brotherly love...

...sort of

Belated Birthday

Well I have finally gotten around to asking Bruce's mom to send me the pictures of Simon's birthday. I have no idea why I kept on forgetting to ask but I feel like my brain is a sieve lately. She got them all to me that very same day so I can finally share them with you! We had such a great time celebrating his birthday with family and the kids were so excited to see their Nana, Papa, Great Grandparents and Aunties. Simon got to do an awful lot of his most favourite thing... eating. To be honest I feel like I don't remember a whole ton of details from the actual day other than his birthday cake. I'm a terrible mom. Anyhow here of some of his birthday photos!

Delicious chocolate chip pancake breakfast!

Cake! And chubby fingers.

Guys, what are you doing?

Guys...

STAHP!

Oh never mind. Cake!

Summer in September

It is becoming pretty obvious that summer is starting to come to a close. The days are shorter, the nights are colder, and even some of the leaves on the trees are changing colour. Although, school still isn't in session here in BC, with Eli in preschool it still feels like fall. A couple of days ago we had a very beautiful and sunny day that happened to land on one of Bruce's days off. We got very lucky! We knew that we would have to take advantage of it because this week the rain is going to start and we won't see the sun for months. Off we went to the beach. The boys had so much fun digging in the sand and looking for seals out swimming among the sailboats. Eli decided it was his job to keep all the seagulls away from us because we packed a picnic lunch. The seagulls here are insane and if you aren't careful they will literally take food straight out of your hand. They are the rats of the sky. It really was a wonderful way to soak up the remaining rays of sunshine and hopefully they will sustain us!

Digging up dinosaur bones

Yummy sand!

Burying toes

To The Batcave!

So yesterday the power in our house went off at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon and didn't end up coming back on until around one in the morning! How did I know that the power came on at that time you ask? Shouldn't I have been deep asleep? Yes, I probably should have been however, the moment that the power came on our landlord's house alarm starting blaring. I know it must have only taken them a moment or two to get the alarm turned off but for me it felt more like half an hour. Naturally, this woke up everyone in our household and the remainder of the night was pretty restless. That's enough of complaining about the power being out, there were some fun parts too!

I couldn't really make dinner so we all got to go to Fatburger! I haven't had Fatburger since we moved to BC and it was so yummy. Even Simon got a grilled cheese sandwich and Eli and I both got chocolate shakes. Delicious! When we got home from dinner and the power still was not on Bruce and I found the candles and some little LED lights that he had used for a project once. Basically the house had that awesome and mysterious feeling that only candles can provide. It was a very exciting little adventure for the kids. I even got to read Jane Eyre by candlelight after the kids went to bed. How gothic! 

Living in a basement suite means that even when the sun is shining you need almost every light in the house on to feel like a normal human being. So before we went to dinner and I was trying to occupy the kids for a little while we decided to make the most of the semi-darkness and our new couch. Thus, construction on the Batcave commenced! The boys had so much fun crawling around inside and eating a little snack in the different "rooms". When eventually I needed to get the cushions back in order they were both in tears. They cheered up though when I started tossing them back onto the couch. All in all the power outage wasn't so bad and Eli is still talking about it this morning.

The finished Batcave

Batface!

I'm sure I've given Eli the same look, Simon.

You're so funny

Batman and Robin