Being Thankful for Forty Years (one day early)

Alice is cute, but that is neither here nor there!

To say that Mom and Dad have had a tough year is like saying Three-Alarm Chili is warm. Tomorrow is the 40th Anniversary of Mom and Dad saying I do. Andrew had the day off today so we had our Bacon family Thanksgiving Dinner/Anniversary Party one day early. Before we had dinner, Ken, the girls and I met Mom and Dad in Newmarket at Fairy Lake. It was a beautiful day and Kate enjoyed playing at the park, Mom, Dad and I sat in the shade while Alice tried to eat leaves, sticks and grass, and Ken enjoyed chasing after Kate.  

We talked about having a turkey, but Andrew and Dad wanted roast beef so Mom obliged. That's right, Mom made her own anniversary dinner...  I must say before I forget, the roast potatoes were particularly amazing.  You haven't had roast potatoes until you've had my Mom's roast potatoes.  

Andrew enjoyed playing with his nieces. 

Best picture of the evening... did I mention my Dad is pretty funny?

Mom tried to suggest that she didn't care for dessert and protested at the suggestion of cheesecake and only wanted a tiny small little bit. Ken made a "small" pumpkin cheesecake - yum. Mom and Dad both had a piece and then split another one and then we left the last two pieces for them...  not that I was surprised by this!

After cheesecake I asked to take a picture of Mom and Dad.

They are cuties.

The best part of the evening was yet to come. Dad has been taking steps.  It was the most amazing/scary/wonderful thing I've ever seen. He pulled himself to standing and then walked across the room. He has such tenacity. I'm glad he's such a fighter.  

We (Suzanne, Jon, Andrew and I) made a book for Mom and Dad and got them flowers - that were supposed to be red in honour of their ruby wedding.  Mom and Dad loved their gifts. We their children are so thankful for their unique relationship and for all the beautiful things they have taught us (and some other memorable things too!). Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Nicole and Matthias come to play

If I had lots and lots of money I would love the fact that so many people I love live so far away.  But since I don't have lots and lots of money I am grateful when people I love that live so far away come to visit me.  Nicole lives in Vancouver but her Mom still lives here.  I usually get to see Nicole once a year, sometimes more.

Nicole and Matthias made the trek up from North York (where Nicole's Mom lives) to play.  I had a great time visiting with Nicole as we ran interference for the kiddies.  It was a gloriously beautiful day today so we made a trip to the park.  Nicole took awesome pictures of our day.

Until next time Nicole... perhaps next time Kate won't hit or push Matthias at all?  (Lady Screams-Alot is such a genteel little lady.)

In search of the perfect family picture, a museum and a party

Family pictures... where to begin?  When my sweet friend Sacha got married in May and her photographer began posting pictures I thought, wow, I love these, I want her to take pictures of our family.  I messaged the photographer in June and we planned to do pictures in October.

On July 30th we got together with another sweet friend of mine - this one a photographer herself, and she took some family photos.  I thought about cancelling the October shoot, but I really wanted some fall pictures and well, is it possible to have too many family photos?

Fast forward to today, the long awaited for shoot but we messed up.  We didn't get up early enough and the photographer didn't have time for us to be late (shocking).  We hustled as fast as we could, we were supposed to meet the photographer in Barrie at 9 a.m.  We left the house not knowing if it would all work out.  After a brief cell phone conversation with the photographer confirming that it just wouldn't work out, I decided that I wanted to see the location she had suggested and Ken obliged, so we drove up to Barrie anyway.

It was so cold this morning and so overcast and the outfits that I had put together - casual but all co-ordinated weren't meant to be covered up by jackets.   I almost called to cancel the night before when we saw the forecast, but I just hoped the forecast would be wrong.  That combined with the hope that we'll reschedule helped ease the pain of our lost session.

Even though there isn't one of the four of us all together we still had fun wandering around the train tracks and taking some pictures. I thought given Kate's train obsession a photo shoot by some train tracks would be awesome.

As we were driving to the train track location we drove past the Simcoe County Museum.  After taking some pictures we decided to check it out and as fate would have it, we got in for free thanks to "Doors Open Ontario".  The Museum is pretty awesome for a County Museum.  We all enjoyed it.  The indoor exhibits were good, but it was all the stuff outdoors that was awesome - lots of buildings and machines!
Kate kept calling the Long House a monster house... not sure how I felt about that.

Kate LOVES train trestles. 

Kate is looking at a train track.  There was a red button beside the window which made the train go around the track.

Kate who is used to trains moving was freaked out by the train, we kept telling her it wouldn't move...

Ken had to pick her up.

 

The school house was cute.

There was a cow on the chalkboard.

The fall colours are SO beautiful this year!

The bell beside the school was so loud, it scared all of us.

 

Have you ever seen a steam tractor?  

We both had to try out the penny-farthing.

Fun!

From there we went on to the "toy store" to buy a present for Cooper, then we had a gourmet lunch at McDonald's and then on to Keswick for Cooper's party.  Cooper turned three a few days ago.  His Mom Shawn is one of my friends from high school.  There are all of three people that I keep in touch with from high school and wouldn't you know that we all had babies within a year of each other.  So the party, Shawn threw Cooper an awesome garbage party, it was awesome.  Every time I go to an awesome theme party I think, eek, I'm never going to be able to do this.  I want to have cute parties for my kids, well maybe, if someone like Shawn helps me!  From the decorations, to the food, the food containers, the cupcakes, Shawn did it all and it was so great!

Me and Shawn!