Wonderland!

Michael started working for a new company a couple months ago. It's a really great company with a fantastic crew. He's really enjoying it. I'm happy for him. It's right up his ally. One of the nice things about this company is they understand how important family time is so two weekends each September they offer free tickets to Canada's Wonderland for employees and their families. The day we chose to go was Sept 10th. The weatherman was calling for rain all day (and even a tornado watch) but that didn't stop us. It poured down rain on our drive there, but we were not worried; we had our handy dandy Dollarama rain ponchos and were completely prepared to be soaked.

However, the rain stopped, and despite the mostly cloudy sky, the day was perfect. Lineups for the rides were short (the park was not very busy at all -- probably due to those tornado warnings). The longest we waited for any ride was about 10 minutes.

We took a picnic lunch to eat in the parking lot. Healthier and much less expensive than buying park food. And afterwards we went to the Pickle Barrel for dinner.

We all had a blast.

Ethan and I

Owen and I

Michael and I -- gotta love that windblown roller coaster ride look.

My boys and I being silly -- Our "That's a Scary Ride" faces.

Owen and Michael getting ready for the Behemoth roller coaster (it's a biggie).

Lily and I being photobombed by Ethan.

Lily and I

We're already looking forward to next year!! :) Next year maybe I'll go on the two biggest roller coasters (Behemoth and Leviathan) with Owen and Michael -- MAYBE. This year I was too chicken, and don't worry, they don't let me forget it. :)

Yes, I've Been Knitting ...

I drop a bomb of "we've got a new kitten" and then stop posting; what kind of human being am I for depriving you all of the furry cuteness ... well, here you go ...

As you can see, Ruby is awfully helpful with both posing with FOs and WIPs. What you cannot see is her proficiency with chewing the cord on my knitpicks interchangeables ... little brat.

Oh, and would you look at that?! I've been busy knitting as well. My cousin just gave birth to a little boy and my co-worker is expecting a baby girl in mid-January 2017. :)

Ezra -- not to be at a loss for attention -- has decided a good way to get mine is to hunker down on my laptop.

Lucky 13

Last weekend was a weekend of birthdays. On the 19th my youngest son, Ethan, turned nine. We had his birthday planned out for quite some time. He'd been target shooting with Owen using Owen's bb gun and getting pretty good at it, so we decided it was time for him to have his own bb gun. He was over the moon. We live in the city so he hasn't actually used it yet, but this weekend we'll be heading to a safe place for him to use it.

Nine year old!

On the 20th my daughter, Lily, turned thirteen. I was planning to get her a Pandora bracelet, but hubby had other plans. I had shown him, like I always do, a cute SPCA kitten that had come into my store for adoption. I don't show him all the kittens, just the ones I think are exceptionally adorable. He must have had an epiphany, because when I got home from work he decided we needed to get that kitten for Lily for her birthday ... we discussed we'd sleep on it, but I had the girls at work put the kitten on hold until noon. At 11am I said "well, have you decided?" and he had. So we took Lily to my work on the premise we needed to buy cat litter but then would be heading to the mall. The cage with the kitten on it said "I'M ADOPTED." Michael opened the cage door and started petting her while I grabbed the litter, and then I came up, plucked her out of the cage and said to Lily "She's adopted, but would you like to hold her?" Lily said yes. Michael asked my co-worker for a marker and wrote "To: Lily" under the "I'M ADOPTED" ... Lily read what he said, looked at the kitten, looked back at the sign and said "wait! WHAT?" Michael said "she's yours Lily" and this is the picture I captured ...

I then said to Lily, "she's yours if you want her, but if you don't want a kitten we'll get you something else." To make a long story short ...

Meet Ruby. She's a little ball of adorable mischief. She and Ezra get along swimmingly, and soon we'll be teaching her about the excitement of RV'ing like we did Ezra. The dogs like her too (and vice versa) but they like everyone so that was a given. :)

PS. Lily will be getting the Pandora bracelet for Christmas. :)