Pumpkin Carving

Pretty happy that Jason made it home in time for us to get a pumpkin carved a few evenings before Halloween. He's been working hard, and with the longer commute it can be tough to make it home. But he did it and we were pretty happy to have him there.

This year we got a pumpkin carving kit which was brilliant because those little saws are perfect (and quick) for cutting out the pumpkin face/drawing. And they were really easy to use with the kids. I love doing this tradition each year. The kids love getting right in there to get their hands dirty and we all love getting to snack on the roasted pumpkin seeds afterward. It's a win all around.

I love this picture. Don't let Atticus' expression fool you. He tried licking it next!

After the kids scooped out the pumpkin insides, Jason drew on our stencil and got to do a little bit before the kids and I took over.

It was serious business. I tell you.

We were all pretty excited about the finished result.

I'm pretty impressed with those kids' focus to work to the end on this one! They are already talking about their pumpkin for next year!

Halloween 2013

I'm really wishing that I had brought out the camera for the kids' first, full on, Halloween, but the rain persuaded me otherwise so I really hope these blurry, slightly orange-casted, iPhone photos capture the sparkle in those kids' eyes about this new found "treat day".

The kids were over-the-moon about receiving some Halloween cards and a some fun pencils from Great Grandma and Grandpa Hochstein. We had received the package in the afternoon but I had the kids wait until Jason was home to open it. By the time it was time to open the package the kids were brimming with excitement. 

Oh man, they love those cards.

And they think those pencils are treasures - seriously. Thanks Great Grandma and Grandpa!

Then we had some friends come over for a Halloween dinner before we all headed out Trick or Treating. I was a little put off by the rain that greeted us for Halloween night but the kids were not deterred. I snap some quick photos of the kids in their costumes while Jason was at the door giving out candy to the waterfall of trick or treaters.

The kids' picked costumes that are pretty representational of what they see when we are out in Montreal.

Milayla is a pumpkin. And we cannot go anywhere without her spotting every single pumpkin. There are still quite a few out and around.

And Atticus was a squirrel. We have a LOT of squirrels around here and the kids are completely enthralled by them. Whatever the squirrels do is completely fascinating to the kids. "look! It's climbing the tree!" or "look! It's eating a banana peel!" or anything else to the like is the cause of constant stopping while out and about so that we can admire all those squirrels being squirrels. When Atticus found the squirrel costume I'm pretty sure it was instant love. The Thomas, Mouse and Firefighter costumes didn't stand a chance; he was going to be a squirrel and that was that. And he made a pretty cute squirrel :) .

The kids all ready to go!

Hitting the street.

I was interested to see how the kids would do with the Trick or Treating rituals, particularly speaking with all the different people at the door and they did AWESOME. They both spoke at a good volume and clearly and made sure to say 'Thank you" or "Happy Halloween". I was impressed.

Between homes I was talking to the kids about when to say "merci" instead of "thank you" and Atticus piped up to inform me that if someone speaks German that he should say "danke schon". Man! We worked with him on using his German words for 2 years and he chooses now - when we are living in an english/french speaking city - to start breaking them out. Nice kiddo. And impressive.

Once we made it to the end of our block Tali had grown tired of being rained on and headed home. These are the only pictures that I got of all the kids together (Thanks, Rani!). They look really happy, don't they?

I particularly love Atticus' facial expression in this one.

I kind of wish I had though to grab a photo of all the kids before heading out in the dark, rainy, night, but alas, I did not.

Mila was a trooped and made it another block before her and Rani headed home. I thought our kids would want to make our way home as well, but they wanted to keep going. They did another block and then asked if we could stop at the bishop's house as well. We drew the line and declared that the bishop's house would be the last stop. They walked a pretty good distance and their buckets were very full. Milayla's bucket was so full she was dragging it behind her and still wouldn't let Jason or I carry it because she was determined to make it to the end.

When we got home, the kids were excited for their turn to give out candy to trick or treaters but we stayed out so long that we only had one trick or treater come and Jason, not realizing the kids wanted to give the candy, gave the candy to the kid. Our kids were crushed that they didn't get to give any candy.

So Jason played along with my brilliant idea and played "Mr Pumpkin Head" and came trick or treating to our home.

The kids could not stop giggling. I think it was their favorite part of the entire night. I'm so glad that Jason was such a good sport because the kids' loved it.

Then after getting to pick out one treat each and brushing their teeth, the kids were off to bed and sound asleep within minutes of their head on the pillow. Tired kiddos.

And we were left with a ton of candy to give to trick or treaters that never came. So Jason trucked a whole lot of candy to work. We also sorted through the kids' candy to take out opened packs, soggy packages, and thinned things out a bit. The kids are pretty happy with the arrangement of getting one treat every couple of days. Maybe it's just me, but even those small treats seem to give me kids uncontrollable energy. And when I see them just as excited about our home made larabars (that have no crazy ingredients) I wonder why we even have the treats. Then I remember their sheer excitement on Halloween night and chalk it all up to childhood fun. Though, that's not to say they'll be overloading on those treats any time soon ;).

September Date Night - Botanical Garden of Lights

Since our Mosaic Cultures International passes were good for two days, we brought the kids back on the second day in the morning to check out the Insectarium then Jason and I came back in the evening to check out the garden of lights in the chinese garden. It was nice to get out just the two of us especially since I don't foresee it happening all that often with how expensive babysitters are, how busy Jason is and how pricey things to do here are. But for now, I am still enjoying the pleasant memory of getting to go to the Garden of Lights together. It was lovely. We even got to check out the Japanese exhibit which was so cool. I love the Japanese culture. It's beautiful.

Chinese Garden of Lights:

The chinese Scholar rocks were really cool. I seem to think there was another name for them but I cannot seem to remember it. Basically, they are naturally occurring rocks that look like something and are gifted to scholars (or to a hostess...or something like that...I really should have read the information better in here but it was pretty packed).

moon cakes. Jason was pretty over-the-moon (hehe) about these.

Love, love, love the architectural lines.

After I took this photo I turned around and promptly walked smack dab into some man. We're talking a full head on collision. It was pretty dark in those gardens I tell ya. Good thing too, it helped to hide my embarrassment.

Thanks for the fun night, Jason!

Botanical Gardens - Insectarium

It was pretty neat that our pass for the Mosaic Cultures International was good for 2 days and also covered the Insectarium and the Garden of Lights in the Chinese garden. So when we were able to we took our second day and took the kids to check out the insectarium. It took us a little while to get to the insectarium because Milayla was so excited about seeing some of the Mosaic Cultures sculptures a second time that we stopped to take a few pictures. She wanted her picture with every single one. It was so sweet. Though, she asks for a picture, pulls me into the picture and then will smile at me. Perhaps I am too often the one behind the camera. I do like being the one to see those smiles though!

Once we were finally inside the insectarium the kids were hooked. It was pretty cool. And I just have to say that I hope I never encounter any of those spiders the size of a bird. Seriously. Not cool.

The kids got to watch ants at work, hear insect sounds, learn interesting facts and find out all about how bugs can camouflage.  

Pretty sure this was the perfect outing for two incredibly inquisitive kids. Loved it.

The Driving Quirks of Montreal

Before I go any further I would like to ensure that whoever is reading this post understands that I love Montreal. In spite of, or perhaps even because of, all the playful banter that I am about to embark on I love this vibrant, sometimes backwards, often controversial city. Pretty sure I must be crazy, but if that means I can love where I live then I will take it. I'll certainly need some extra love for this city once winter sets in.

Which brings me to the meat of this post; all those driving quirks of Montreal. There are some serious quirks in this city and I would like to document them so that I can look back on the humor of it all on days when I am having trouble actually finding the humor in it.

If you are planning to visit or move to Montreal anytime soon, please do yourself a favour, and study the following quirks so you are equipped to keep your senses alert on the road.

Let's start with the roads:

There are potholes. They often look like sinkholes. I wondered why they didn't spend some money on taking care of the roads a bit better until one day I drove over a freshly filled pothole with a big smile on my face knowing that I no longer needed to swerve around it to save my car alignment. The next day I drove over that same pothole and it had already sunk to be just as bad as it was before. So why bother in the first place? Smile. And enjoy the ride. It's a bumpy one. I suppose one should be grateful for winter - the snow fills the potholes.

Bridges. They're everywhere. And not in the finished form. It would seem that someone, somewhere gets a bright idea to replace one of the badly worn bridges and they set to work building a new one only to decide halfway through that A: the bridge won't work or B: they came up with a new idea or C: (and seemingly the most popular choice) they would rather go build a partial bridge somewhere else. If you would like to know what they do with all those partial bridges you just need to drive around Montreal a bit. You are likely to see them on the side of the road in seemingly random places. We've dubbed it 'Road Art'. I know there are others that aren't so kind in their naming of these bridges, but we don't use those words around here.

Lane lines. On a large portion of roads around this city there are no lines. None. 4 lane traffic. No lines. I would love to say that everyone figures it out. But they don't. It's a free-for-all.

Which brings me to my next quirk for mentioning - Road Rules.

Are there any!?

I had heard driving in Montreal was an interesting experience, but I was not expecting this (and we've driven in some pretty crazy cities - Paris, Rome, Athens - none of which are particularly known for good driving). It seems that every time we go out we get to see at least a hand full of close calls that boil down to the lack of road rules (or at least the lack of observance to them). For example, stop signs are more often a suggestion than they are an actual stop sign. If you actually should stop at your stop sign (as we do) be prepared for at least one other person to roll through their stop sign just to go ahead of you.

And signaling is overrated to change lanes. This is especially true if you are driving a taxi. In which case, feel free to cut everyone off to change three lanes to the right just to turn left across all those 3 lanes in order to get passed about 2 cars. Happens every day.

There are nearly no turn lanes here. There are turning lights, but if you are in the nonexistent turning lane and happen to be behind someone going straight when the turning light comes on you get to sit and wait until their light turns green at which point you no longer have a turning light to turn. So you get to sit and wait for a turning light again. I'm not sure I understand the advantage of this. Perhaps there isn't one.

When there are lane markers - ignore them. Play pacman and hurdle your car over the dotted line to gobble up all those dots. It's the only way to truly look like you belong here.

And before you start worrying that I am suggesting that no one should follow the road rules. I'm not. I think they are a great idea. But they don't work if the majority of the people aren't following them. Definitely follow the rules. Be safe. And pay attention. Also, don't forget that on the island of Montreal there is no turning right on red. Never. Nor can you turn right if the people going straight have a light. You must have a solid, green light. And those flashing green lights aren't because the light is broken, it's because you have priority - as long as no one else has decided to run their light.

And in the event you should ever get lost it is important that you know that true north does not exist here. The compass on the map of Canada that says which way north really should be in Montreal has no bearing once you are actually in Montreal. In the theme of ease they have rotated the island on the maps and given Montreal a new sense of direction. To give you an idea, if someone tells you something is in East Montreal, that is the north part of the island. If you are supposed to take a road north that means you are really taking a road west with a slight northerly slant. Learning the new directions can be fun but the confusion comes in figuring out how to give directions off of the island. At which point does north become north again? Do yourself a favor and don't get lost. Or learn to love getting lost.

It's a fun adventure, this driving thing. Though I am still a little nervous about what winter driving has in store for us.

Should be fun!