Playing around in Photoshop

I've been reading alot online, trying to learn a few more tricks & played around with a pic of Sweetie tonight. The idea was to get a black & white conversion with a little more tone to it & the tutorial showed it with a bit of brown so I tried that. Here's the SOOC (that's pro talk for "straight out of camera") image:

and my conversion:

not quite like what I'm seeing from the fancy folks on the forums but fun to try something different anyway!

Joel on the Job!

Very glad to get a surprise visit from Joel yesterday! He's going to be expanding our entranceway for us. He mentioned needing to get some cement pillars poured before the freeze so I assume that's a good sign and that we'll see something soon! (it's not getting any warmer around here!) He came to get some measurements & said he's going to work on some blueprints to show us soon. Yay!

Happy Halloween!

We packed in a lot of spooky fun today! We had the playgroup Halloween party to go to this morning. The kids get all dressed up & everyone brings some treats to hand out, which are distributed to different areas around the church. We then go around "trick or treating" at different doors. It's a good way to get a quick tour of the place if you've never been! The kids decorated paper bags to collect their goodies and were quite pleased with their creations.

My lil punkin!

One of our regular blog fans' kids.

My pretty kitty!

How many kids can you fit on a rocking horse???

Here they come, get your loot ready!

Even the sanctuary was hit with trick or treaters.

Time to dig in!

After playgroup, we headed for gymnastics. The trick or treating took up so much of the time that we never got a chance to decorate the cupcakes or colour the Halloween pictures so this year's party is being extended to next week's playgroup too!

Knowing there would be a lot of candy & junk involved today, I tried to get them to eat good breakfast this morning & on the way to playgroup gave them cheese & tortillas with peanut butter. Since things ran late, they really didn't get a chance to pound too much junk into them & when we got to gymnastics we had a mini lunch in the car, yoghurt tubes & kiwi & vegetable/fruit juice. Teena & Boo didn't make it to playgroup (vehicular issues...) but met us at the gym & Boo was dressed up as a dog, complete with whiskers & a black nose. I think tonight she was being a princess though.

Gymnastics went well today. They stayed with the group and did the activities pretty much as they were explained. I think Lovey finds the agility exercises a little trickier than her sisters. I worry that she'll get discouraged so I was really excited that she tried really hard today & she was soooooo pleased when I congratulated her on doing such a good job. I forget how they really eat that stuff up. : ))) They worked on doing headstands today & Sweetie pretty much bent down & just flipped her legs right up onto the board they were leaning against for practice and was in position in no time. It probably helps that she's constantly climbing, hanging off of, jumping into, or swinging from, SOMETHING here in this house. We're almost to the point where it seems useless to warn her of impending danger when we see her scaling the kitchen chairs. I mean, she just did that 5 times at lunch with disastrous results... if that's got no meaning to her, what can I possibly add? I think we'll change her name to "Precarious".

This whole Halloween thing had them really hyped up. They came home & were all over the place, playing, singing, dancing around. There was a real buzz to the place today. I was in the kitchen trying to get supper prepped so we could get an earlier start when they tell me they've cleaned up. My first instinct is panic. Oh what in heaven's name have they gotten into now? I'm picturing wet drippy rags all over the furniture, soppy puddles on the carpet... I walk into the living room & they've literally picked up all the toys & put away their books & gotten all the clothes off the floor. The carpet is fully visible! I was ECSTATIC! I hugged & kissed them, gave high 5's all round. It was a wonderful surprise and so unexpected. I have no idea what brought it on but I'm hoping some of that positive reinforcement will encourage future repeats!

They were sooooooo antsy at supper! They did just about anything to get the show on the road. Sweetie was the only one who even attempted to eat any of her meal. The other two had to be threatened with no trick or treating in order to get them to eat 3 bites. Seriously. They ate THREE whole bites of their dinner. and pretty small bites at that but they did it & had some fruit so that's all I could ask for. They got ready with hardly a squabble and were off!



Murray took them down one end of the street as I waited for trick or treaters & cleaned up the kitchen (and made our little Halloween card). Then on the way back they picked me up & we did a few more houses. When we left the last one, Honey burst out with "I had a really GREAT time!" They hopped in & out of the stroller like pro's and loved knocking on doors or ringing the bell. They were pretty good at remembering to say "trick or treat" but weren't so hot on the "thank you" part. A little prompting was required on that! We got home they danced around, then settled in for a Halloween picnic in the kitchen. Honey was eating something and I asked her if it was good. She said "It's SUPER good Mumma!" LOL

We cut them off after a few treats & they started zipping around the house some more, singing and laughing. It was funny but almost scary, too much happiness & frivolity at bedtime can be very bad signs! We quickly got them into bed, said prayers and lights out before things went bad. They were asleep in NO time tonight, not much wonder after such a fun filled day.

Hopping out, ready to go for that candy!

Halloween picnic

Snow? Are you KIDDING me?????/

Yep, it's official. Our first snowfall of the year, before we even hit daylight savings time! Ack! Mind you, it wasn't much but did it ever bring a chill! The kids could hardly eat their breakfast they were so excited to get outside and "play" in it. They kept looking out & saying "it's not enough to make Frosty the Snowman though..."
I soooooo did not enjoy digging out the winter stuff and getting them dressed in it. I know it's only going to get worse as more layers and thicker garments are needed.

Sunday Family Fun

Piggyback rides were a big hit!

After our company left, we headed out to church & then after lunch we decided to enjoy the sunny day in the woods while we could. I hate hunting season! The girls had a blast playing & checking out the puddles. We took them to see the beaver dam & they were a bit disappointed that they didn't get to actually see the beaver. Sweetie got a little too enthusiastic with those puddles and we had to pour out her boots a couple times when she ventured too far in to the middle!

After an hour and a half in the woods, we got back home & hit the road for M&D's. I must have had a rough weekend because I fell asleep in the car & as soon as I got in their house, I crashed out on the couch for an hour. I felt bad leaving Murray to fend for himself with the kids but found out that he had fallen asleep too! Oops! I bet my parents really appreciated that!

In laws, in town!

Murray's parents called us earlier in the week to let us know they were planning a visit this weekend & they arrived Friday night just after the girls had gone to sleep. We figured that with a busy couple of days ahead, it wouldn't be wise to start the weekend off with them overtired!

They were quite excited to wake up Sat am and find Nanny & Grampy there! Grampy went out & brought back breakfast sandwiches which I thought were delicious but the girls didn't appreciate one bit. Fussy kids, don't know a good thing when they see it!

The kids had fun playing with them for awhile & I whipped through a couple loads of laundry while they were occupied & got things ready for the multiples' Hween party that afternoon.

If you've ever wondered if God answers prayers, Sweetie can tell you He definitely does. A week or so ago, she was talking about how she missed Nanny & was getting a little upset. I thought a phone call might make her feel better. Nope. Once she heard that Nanny was too busy to visit, she just started crying harder "but I MISS Nanny!". She didn't much care about Nanny's school work or students who needed her. She was crying & getting pretty worked up. I suggested we tell God about her problem & pray about it. So she did. Night after night. He must have gotten the message because the plans for a visit came out of the blue and we hadn't mentioned Sweetie's prayers to them at all.

They left early today to go cottage hunting on the way home and Sweetie immediately threw herself to the floor crying once she saw the coats on & bags on the step. Nanny tried to settle her down but she wasn't having any of it. Thankfully, the other two were able to handle the departure a little better!

Thanks for the visit, but don't wait so long next time that we have to call in the Big Guy eh? : )))