Update for November

Ok, so it's been a while since I last blogged. My apologies. So much going on that I just haven't had time.

Firstly, there is a job offer on the table for Andy. Details are still being ironed out so I won't elaborate but we're glad that it has come. We were starting to think that a trip home for Christmas might be necessary to enable us to return here for another 6 months.

Secondly, Jenna has secured herself an internship with a fashion boutique on Queen Street in Toronto. Very trendy. She is very happy.

Jesse is playing Michael Jackson in the school winter concert. He has been nurturing a 'fro to facilitate this and practicing his moonwalk. He especially likes to do this whilst cleaning his teeth which annoys his sister immensely as her bedroom is next to the bathroom. I should point out that the moonwalk practice is always accompanied by varying quality renditions of Thriller. Photos and hopefully a video will follow - concert is on the 11th. Can't wait. Had to buy him a black suit - just as well you can buy them here for under $20.

This is hail on our doorstep a couple of weeks ago - it hailed for about 2 minutes but was incredible. By the way expecting snow very soon. Jesse is hoping for snow for this birthday next weekend.

So, what else has been happening? For me, the highlight was going to Rochester, New York, USA a couple of weeks ago. A friend who invests in property there took me. We looked at houses and I have posted a few pictures for you. It was an amazing adventure and I was all hyped up when I got home sometime after midnight. Wanted to tell Andy all about it but all he wanted to do was sleep - how disappointing.

House before renovation - could scare the more faint-hearted away but you know I'm not in the least bit faint-hearted when it comes to houses. What fun!

After rehab - beautiful! (obviously not the same house)

Outside. This is a duplex property - note the two front doors.

This house used to be painted bright pink!

As you can see, they are wonderful houses, they just need some TLC. You can buy these houses for incredibly cheap prices and the rate of return is amazing. You can see where I'm going with this. Next week Michael (our friend) is taking Andy and I back so that Andy can have a look. Should be fun.

On Saturday, we attended a Marlies (Toronto ice hockey team) game.

Mascot

We took the subway into Toronto - just like you see on the movies. They come along every 5 minutes and they go incredibly fast.

This is the track out the front window - sorry it's so blurry.

Jesse's first subway ride - don't worry, he's not nearly as scared as he looks - in fact he thought it was rather boring.

After the subway, we caught a bus and then a street car to the stadium. OK, so I didn't take this photo but you get the idea.

Well, I think that's all the news for now. I haven't had any comments on my blog for ages - is anyone still reading it??

By the way if you want to see all the photos I've taken, you can look at them at the Mobileme gallery as usual.

Jonas Brothers Excitement

There was huge excitement in our house yesterday morning. I rushed downstairs to see why my children were running around screaming and yelling.

For those of you who don't know, Jesse is a huge Jonas Brothers fan. It is his life goal to BE a Jonas Brother (Nick in particular)!

For his birthday Jenna painted him a beautiful painting of ... wait for it ... the Jonas Brothers.

She put it up online as she does with all her art and it has caused quite a stir. To cut a long story short, she has been asked by the publishers of the Jonas Brothers Magazine if they can publish it.

Kevin

Joe

Nick

Now all she has to do is secure a meeting with them so that Jesse can meet them too.

House Warming Party

This is Ryan our youngest guest with his Dad Jamie. Don't worry, he's actually drinking water from that beer can. He amused us all by raising his can and calling "sociable" which is apparently something that's done in West (I think) coast pubs. When someone yells "sociable" everyone else in the bar raises their glass and calls the same. We did ask which one of Ryan's parents have been taking him to bars. Jamie assured us it was his mother.

Bryce is laughing in the background.

Now that we are finally settled in our house we decided to have a house warming party. We invited over 30 people and 21 attended. We had a great time and served a real Kiwi dinner which was novel for our Canadian friends and a touch of home for our Kiwi friends.

The party was great fun and our guests appeared to be having a good time.

Thanks to everyone who attended and helped to make our first Canadian party a huge success.

Fashion Show

After many hours of sweat and some tears the fashion show that Jenna has been working towards was yesterday. She put in five outfits. The brief was to design a collection for the modern working woman - what's that? She used mostly second hand clothing which she reconditioned with an outstanding result.

Her collection was called "Welcome to the Jungle" and here it is.

Jenna modelling outfit #1.

Jenna modelling outfit #2

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Diana looking way too grown up for her 12 years.

Our famous fashion designer with two of her models strutting her stuff on the catwalk.

Whew, it's all over now!

Diana, Jenna and Jesse after it was all over (Diana nicely volunteered to be Jenna's model as she was having difficulty finding them).

Well done Jenna. It was pretty tough getting there and there was lots of stress along the way but I'm very, very proud of you.

Halloween

It's Monday after Halloween and I must say it's been a very interesting couple of days. It all started on Friday when we collected Jesse from school. His communication bag (where his book is kept that tells us what he gets up to at school) was filled to the brim, not with books, but with candy.

There were people coming out of the school with HUGE pumpkins and trays of halloween cupcakes. We were forgiven for not knowing the protocol but a lot of the children had brought food to share and loot bags for their friends.

Jesse told us that they had a very exciting day including a shared lunch and a haunted house and jack-o-lantern carving. Sounds amazing. He also said that they did some work at school too.

He was very excited.

Andy and I had been in to get him a costume earlier in the day (hey, I had been sick so wasn't capable of making one). Last week there were isles and isles of them but this week there were only a few left. We ended up getting him an Indiana Jones costume which needed some "customization" but it looked good on the night. Andy went as a scary clown.

Saturday was spent "preparing". We carved out a jack-o-lantern - OK it was a bit late but as I said, I had been sick.

So the night was here! Jesse and Andy went with Jesse's classmates to trick or treat and collect non-perishables for the foodbank - they collected 83 items.

This is Jesse's haul.

I stayed home to greet the trick or treaters - there were about 30-40 visitors, a mixture of witches and fairys and Jason like characters with slasher knives. The cutest one though was a little boy about 18months old wearing a lion suit.

Jenna went on a pub crawl through Toronto dressed as the Joker.

After Andy and Jesse returned home Andy joined Jenna, still dressed in his costume. When they arrived home at 2am which was actually 3am because daylight savings changed (or is it the other way around???) they were chattering about how many people were dressed up and how exciting it all was.

For more photos including the carving of the jack-o-lantern click here. You know the drill by now.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!