Revisiting Fall

My sister and I were chatting yesterday about how hard it is to get back to blogging now that we're so behind and busy with other things.  I thought of diving right into the here and now, embracing this no longer very new year and forgetting those four months in between.   If I don't bother to blog, I fear I  forget to remember the highlights of seasons, the many reasons to give thanks.  My apologies for the delay, for the ensuing photo bombardment and for also covering insignificant aspects of life.  

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Buried in layers in the midst of an exceptionally cold winter,  it's rather comforting to download my photos at last and remember that under all this snow is a lovely Winnipeg world.  It's still lovely in its own right - stunningly so on crisp white days when the details of snow flakes and ice crystals are clear even to my dulled eyes.  It's rather magical.  Most days, however, it's far too cold to stay out long in this winter beauty . . . at least with the kids.  On my own, not lugging 40,70 or 80 pounds of child on a sled behind (depending what combination of kids I pull), the cold can be totally do-able.  I just miss the days where I can double-check for traffic before crossing a road the normal way - turning my head, versus turning my whole body thanks to the many layers bulking my upper portion.    I can honestly say I don't long for Spring quite yet - still too many winter projects yet to do and a body still in hibernation mode?  I'm not sure.  I mainly miss the ease of hopping on our bikes to get around and I'm sure come mid-February I'll be ready to quit Facebook for the photos of blooming flowers and buds that will crop up on Vancouver friends' pages.  I think I already saw a few already . . . But here at the end of January, I'm still okay with the deep snow and cold during this exceptionally frigid season we've had.

Taken in November . . . it's far deeper at this point

Anyway, back to Fall.  It fell so quickly, it faded too soon.  November 14th was our snow that came and has yet to leave, making it a short two months - busy, but lovely.  S was travelling much of it, so we enjoyed only a few bigger outings together - to Fort Whyte and to a nice park in the Island Lakes, both areas in the south of Winnipeg.  At least these are the only ones I had my camera along for . . .  

S and A crossing the marsh

the synapsing cyclist

My girl of many expressions - I'm just thankful she lets me take photos since big sister doesn't . . . 

Such a sweet big sister, carrying a tired out Iz

Lost in thought or jet-lagged.  Likely both . . . 

A rare time she let me take her photo without bribery 

We enjoyed using our zoo pass one last time for the year before it expired, getting to see the two Snow Leopard cubs - so very cute, not that you can tell by the photo!

Most of the Fall found us busy with school, in the neighbourhood, under the leaves and around the table.  Just busy, just like most of the other families I know . . .

Iz with neighbours Sue and Sprite

Waking sleeping Lily - a favourite pastime

Life before snow pants . . . I forget how nice that is!

In the midst of the hustle, I love when I stop to enjoy the humour of my kid's daily engagement in play.  Maybe I do it so infrequently that that's why I take photos of some of those glimpses?!  I hope not.  

Iz often has imaginative mini-worlds set-up around the house and overhearing her dialogue is so fun:

The dinosaurs contemplate left-over cereal, T-rex toes or the weird paper guy
(who attends our church - not that he's weird, just the photo illusion is!)

I like finding scraps of A's writing and drawings, something she does prolifically.  If there are voluntary  carbon offset programs for paper consumption the way there is for air travel, we should likely start purchasing some on her behalf.  She goes through paper the way I do chocolate . . . 

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Found after a sibling play-time where A did most of the orchestrating, the rules were pretty thoughtful but I was surprised at the short list of planned activities!  :)

As for Ai, I should start taking photos of his Lego creations or the way he constructs elaborate train track lay-outs.  While he enjoys a good Playmobil afternoon of pretend with his sisters. he loves putting things together and is getting quite good at it (though not quite as good as cousin Lewis at his age).  It's usually pretty easy to get him occupied with focused toy-time.  

Dancing sequins in the kitchen's sunlight

I can't recap the fall without briefly recounting the highlights of Hallowe'en and our dead mouse, both creepy treats in their own way.  :)  

While sad to hear the mousetraps spring in the cupboard behind me one afternoon, it was such a relief to have caught our little rodent after literally losing sleep for over a month and a half.  That, thanks to its scratching in our bedroom wall behind the headboard and the cat madly springing on me throughout the night vainly trying to catch it.  Thanks to Lily following its sounds as it made its way through the walls of the house, I was able to figure out that it could access one food cupboard.  It seemed to prefer oats over peanut butter, cheese or chocolate but managed to get food from the traps without getting caught for the longest time.  At last I went overboard with an assortment of snares, which did the trick - he set off four of them!  Because I'm not great with insects and rodents, Iz offered to do the task of disposing it for me and was rather disappointed when I said that, "No.  Mommy should do it because I should learn to do the things that make me afraid when I shouldn't feel afraid."  It was sweet to walk back in the door with an empty dust pan and have my youngsters cheer for me with "You did it!" and "Good job, Mommy!"   I have no idea how wimpy me ever lived two years in rural China . . . 

As for Hallowe'en, the kids and I took advantage of the Museum's Trick-or-Treating event on Friday night - an exclusive event for members only, which made me realize that they must have A LOT of members.  It was packed!

While fun in theory, it was super tiring standing in line to get in and then remain in that same line-up to walk through the museum stopping periodically to have a goodie put in the bag.   The kids enjoyed the novelty of being at the Museum at night surrounded by folks in some very creative costumes (unlike ours which we threw on in a mad-rush after dinner).  My regret that we'd come changed once the kids all received a plastic buffalo in the mix of their other stuff. Pathetic, I know . . .

Thankfully S returned home from a trip and was able to join the kids for their Hallowe'en excitement. Along with our friends/neighbours, Dave & Chantal and their son, we walked the neighbourhood enough for the kids to have a decent bucketful.  We were surprised by how few houses participated and similarly, while passing candy out at my place, I was amazed to only have perhaps 25 knockers in total, at least half of those teens or adults!  Some adults didn't even have the shame to attach to children or dress-up, one couple lying that, "Our babies are in buggies behind your fence." Which they weren't.   Feeling kind of disappointed, S turned out the lights and put a sign on our door by 8:30 "Sorry - out of candy."  Our mistake was leaving the sign on the door and the bucket of candy inside the door so that as A went out the next morning, she caught the fact that Daddy had told a lie!  It does happen, though I can hardly think when. :)

This 50-something-year-old woman happily tagged along with our kids to collect candy.  She then asked S to have a photo together and have us drop the photo off at her house later!  Does this happen elsewhere?!

Ai's third year as a fireman since he's super resistant to dressing up.
At least this year I persuaded him to wear a hat!  I don't even know what A and Iz were . . .  :)

Our neighbourhood, where many houses don't have to try to look creepy for the occasion!

And there we are!  Not only can I can now move on to Christmas at long last and perhaps be up to date in time for Valentine's Day.   But I just remembered that we'd stashed a bunch of Hallowe'en candy in the big pot atop our kitchen ledge.  I can look forward to some treats tomorrow while enjoying the feeling of being back at the keyboard again.