Birthday boy........

Jonah was 8 years old today and very excited about his new 'Nerf Gun' from Nanny and Grandad.

I was most disgusted with their choice of present but then I had a go........

And poor old Jonah didn't get a look in as Daddy had to have a go too!!!

Another one of his favourite presents, money!!!  No doubt he'll want to buy another 'Nerf' with it.

And an England shirt that he was very pleased with too.

Oh and of course it was also Nanny's birthday today.

Party time......

It was the kids Halloween parties at school yesterday and the girls had a 'Boo Breakfast' at 8am.  I was amazed how well behaved they all were, their class is a really lovely little group.

Olivia tucking in to her cornflakes.

The girls enjoying a 'Spooky' story.

At the end of the party they went on a parade through all the classrooms.  The kids all looked so cute in their little costumes.  Olivia was a 'Pumpkin Witch' and Madeleine a 'Spider Witch'.

Halloween cookies.....

We had another lovely surprise parcel arrive from Ben's aunt this week.

This time it contained a selection of Halloween cookies.  I was really impressed with the decoration on them and the orange shortcake biscuit was delicious.

Olivia and Madeleine with their choice of cookie, Olivia went for the biggest!!!!

Jonah's new friend

One of Jonah's best friends from home sent him this puffa fish which he bought in Croatia.   He was so chuffed when he opened the parcel and had to take it in to school to show all of his classmates.  Not quite sure where we'll put it yet but Jonah has plans for it over his bed!!!

They're here......

Yay Nanny and Grandad have arrived and as you can imagine the kids are very excited, we were 20 minutes late for school as they didn't want to leave the house.  Maxi took all of about 5 minutes to get used to having Nanny around and now he won't leave her side, at the moment they are playing Lego aeroplanes.  We were a bit useless at picking them up form the airport as Dad had to come and find us rather than the other way around but I blame that on the arrivals board.

Time for a change.....

Not sure I really like my new Halloween/Autumn colour scheme but you'll just have to put up with it for a while until I tweak it or change it back :)

I should really do a post for the birthday boy but he's gone to the dentist and I'm sure you'd like to see a picture of him rather than just his cards and presents.  We've had a nice morning, I took the kids to school and then went on a bike ride whilst Ben lounged around with Maxi.  We then went for coffee and enjoyed the peace and quiet whilst Maxi entertained himself with the toy box.

I don't think we'll be visiting the ice cream parlour after Ben's trip to the dentist, let's hope he doesn't need too much work done.

Hoyt Arboretum

It was raining hard this weekend so we decided to go for a walk in the Arboretum and hope we could keep fairly dry.  We only managed an hour before the rain stopped play but it was lovely to be out in the fresh air and the wind was very refreshing.

We only made it as far as the Maple Avenue but hopefully next time we can track down the Giant Redwood.

Olivia managing to make an appearance in every photo :)

Busy week ahead.......

I apologise for the lack of blogging recently but things have been quite hectic the last few weeks.  We have another busy week this week, tomorrow is Ben's birthday and the kids want to take him to the icecream parlour for a special treat, not sure who the treat is aimed at though!!!!!!  On Wednesday Nanny and Grandad are arriving and then on Friday I have the kids school Halloween parties to help with.  Then of course the big celebrations are coming, Jonah and Nanny's birthdays on Saturday and mine on Sunday.  Phew I'm exhausted just thinking about it all, the kids have a Halloween party to go to on Saturday and Sunday is the big 'Monster March' when about 500 costumed kids march through the streets of Sellwood and then of course we will be trick or treating around our neighbourhood.

Fun with Ikea plastic.......

Maxi and I went shopping to Ikea this week to buy lots of plates and cups for the girls class.  As you can see Maxi had lots of fun sorting them all out into each colour and making patterns.  Could be an ideal Christmas pressie for him :)

washing them all.....

5 day till.....

Nanny Day 

This week.....

It's been a fairly busy week this week, I got to help out in Jonah's classroom on Wednesday morning which was fun.  It was nice to meet his classmates and see what happens during his day.  I'm also helping plan his and the girls Halloween class parties so I've got meet some other parents and have really enjoyed getting involved.

The girls went to a Pumpkin Patch today with school and came back with their very own pumpkins.  They really enjoyed their day out and got to ride on the yellow school bus for the first time.

Autumn or Fall is on it's way, the leaves our just starting to turn and we have some lovely clear blue skies.  Unfortunately I keep forgetting to take my camera with me so hopefully I'll be able to show you how lovely it is before the weather turns to rain.

We also got to meet Hayley this week who is a friend of Wendy's and could also be relocating to Portland.  She's already a big hit with the kids as she turned up with these fabulous cupcakes.

Chocolate cupcakes - yum!!

Another Halloween post......

Just because it's been a few days since I posted any ghosts and ghouls.......

Tree ghosts

The girls pumpkins

Our welcome sign

Sunday.....

We met Piet and Wendy at Skamania Lodge for an early dinner on Sunday and did a whirlwind tour of the Columbia Gorge on our way there.  It's lovely up here as to the right there's lots of rolling countryside and farmland which I much prefer to the waterfalls and steep drop offs!!!!

Stunning views!!

Madeleine having a look

Me and Maxi..

Saturday......

This Saturday we went to Scout World, lots of fun for Jonah but not so much for us.  He got to have try with a sling shot and a turn at archery, unfortunately we had to queue for an hour each time but good practise for Disney Land!!!

Jonah will probably come camping here as it's only about a 20 minute drive from our house.

Sling shot

Engrossed in Strictly!!

Our new shelving system which was given to us by a friend.  We're really pleased with it as we can now get all of the 'stuff' we seemed to have accumulated up out of the way.

Pumpkin carving.....

I think I should just scratch October out and rename it Halloween as that's all this month is going to be about (plus a very big birthday at the end)


I was quite impressed with Jonah's efforts as he managed to do most of it by himself, with just a tiny bit of help from Ben.

Concentrating

Working hard

Ta da.....

Maxi's monster jar stacking

We're starting to decorate.......

.....the house for Halloween.

A selection of our pumkins and gourds that we picked yesterday.  Thankfully someone pointed out that we couldn't eat the gourds otherwise Ben would've been chopping them up for dinner.

More pumpkins and our spooky orange cobweb.

Homemade milk carton lanterns, really need to paint the lids but we're too impatient.

And our favourite, the pumpkin jam jar family.

Our spiders web which was a bit tricky to capture in a photograph.  We have lots more decorations to make yet so watch this space........