Trick or Treat

Boo! Hope I didn't scare you.


In case you don't recognize the school bus, it's me, Avi. Don't worry, I'm just dressed up for Halloween. Tomorrow I'll be back to my normal, little boy self.

My Halloween wasn't just trick or treating tonight. It's lasted almost all day. I got to wear my costume first thing this morning to my "Movement, Song and Make Believe" class at the Arts Umbrella. My teacher Laura didn't recognize me and wondered why there was a bus in her class. I surprised her!

After lunch I went to Mount Pleasant Family Centre. Everyone liked my costume and we sang "Wheels on the Bus" during family time.


Grandpa's birthday is on Halloween so I always start my official trick or treat evening with a visit to his house. In the car, I decided to wish Grandpa a "Happy Treat." That's my way of saying Happy Birthday and Trick or Treat all at once. Mommy made some cupcakes which I helped her decorate and we sang happy birthday and gave Grandpa his gift. Grandpa gave me a gift too. It was a new fire truck! What an excellent way to start my trick or treating!

After Grandpa's house, we went to see Bak-Bak, Moh-Moh, Carolyn and Brenda. I think they were really surprised to see a school bus at their front door. We had a really nice visit and again, I got a lot of treats! There was a whole bag of goodies for me and the best treat from their house is my new apple hat that Carolyn knitted for me. It fits perfectly.

Two more stops till we get home...I don't mind. I'm a bus and buses have lots of stops to make along the way.

Next stop was at Aunty Tosh, Uncle Ernie and Jessica's house. I always like to see their house because they decorate it with so many neat Halloween things. There were pumpkins, lights, ghosts and spiders outside, witches and more Halloween decorations inside. And the candy! It was everywhere! I received a huge and very nice treat bag from them. It had a book about spiders, another book about a witch, a great spider balloon and lots of differnent sweet treats -- all of them the good kind. The bus was getting hungry at this point and this bus needs Smarties so I at a box of Smarties here before heading out for our last stop.

Final stop before supper was to Sonal and Tejal's house. They're my babysitters and I like them very, very much. Uncle Mukes, Aunty Taruna, Tejal and Sonal were all home and I received an extra special goodie from them -- ghost chocolates. The bus needed some fuel again but Mommy said we'd be home soon. Instead of opening the ghost chocolates like I wanted to, Aunty Taruna fed me something even better. Roti - one of the foods on my favourite food list. It was delicious.

At home, I had a quick dinner then it was dark outside so Mommy took me out for real trick or treating. Daddy stayed home to answer the door for all the kids who came to our house. I went to a lot of houses and Mommy taught me to look for the houses with the lights on. Those are the houses with candy. We went all around our neighbourhood with a special stop at Aunty D and Uncle Craigy's house. They were dressed up as doctors. After a few more houses, we went back to Aunty D and Uncle Craigy's because I needed to go to the potty. Mommy says it's nice to have friends who live close by - whatever that means. After a trip up 13th Avenue and back to our house I was pretty tired. The bus needed Smarties along the way to give us enough energy to get home.


It's been a very exciting day and I've had lots of fun but now I'm really, really pooped. I think the bus has run out of gas. Time to go back to the bus depot and go to sleep. Good night!

Getting Ready for Halloween

Wow! I've been busy! There are so many things to do before Halloween.


We had a party at school today. It was lots of fun. Everyone dressed up in their costumes and we sang all the new Halloween songs we learned. I think all the Mommys and Daddys liked it. Mommy said she hadn't heard me sing those songs before and that I did a very nice job. After singing, we had an extra special snacktime. Not just fruits and vegetables today! There were cookies, cakes, popcorn and juice. I like juice boxes. The juice inside tastes better. Sorry you can't see my costume in these photos. It was a little big to wear all day in the classroom so I took it off. Visit my blog again tomorrow if you want to see my Halloween costume. In case you don't recognize me, I'll be the one in yellow.


After school, Mommy and I carved all the pumpkins we've collected. She scooped all the goop and did all the cutting but I drew the faces. She cut them out exactly the way I drew them! Mommy thinks they're kind of ghosty looking.

Jack-o-lanterns

Cathy, my teacher, talked about pumpkins on Tuesday. She showed us how a pumpkin turns into a jack-o-lantern.

Today at school, I made my own jack-o-lantern. Some extra adults were at school to help us do the cutting but I drew the face and helped scoop out the goop.

Here's my jack-o-lantern from school. Mommy says we'll light it with a candle on Halloween and put it outside with the other two pumpkins we're going to carve this weekend. Maybe she'll let me design the faces for those jack-o-lanterns too.

What? Daddy's Got Hair!

What happened to Mommy and Daddy? Last night they went out to Aunty D and Uncle Craigy's house but this time they were dressed kind of funny. Daddy had holes in his squeeky-clean teeth and (giggle, giggle) he had hair! Mommy had BIG hair too. Here's a family picture of us but I'm going to tell Mommy that I don't think we should mail it with our Christmas cards this year.

Full-Circle Dinner

One of my favourite things is our regular, Sunday morning, full-circle breakfasts at Grandpa's house. I call it a full-circle breakfast because Grandpa's table is full of people. There are no spaces. It's a full circle!

Last night I went to a great, full-circle dinner. It was Great Uncle Henry's birthday and the circle that he had was HUGE! It ran from one end of the restaurant to the other with no gaps!

I have a big family and this is only one part of it. I had a nice time seeing all of Mommy's cousins and all the Auntys and Uncles. I especially liked seeing my cousin Kennedy. I don't get get see her very often but she's one of my favourite people. She plays with me and makes me laugh and she's a good dancer. He's a nice photo of Kennedy and me. We're working on a puzzle together.


I also got to see Uncle Wasson and Sandy for the last time before they go home to California. Mommy tells me that we won't see him again until after my birthday. That's a long time away.

Final Sunflower Update

Summer's over and my sunflowers don't look very happy. They've been very droopy. Mommy said it's time to cut them down. Daddy helped me do that this morning and look what was in the middle. Seeds! Just like the ones I planted in the spring time. Boy! I can grow a lot of flowers next year. Mommy said we can also roast them and eat them. That sounds much yummier. I think I'll save some seeds to grow in the spring and I'll ask Mommy to roast the rest of them so I can share then with Grandpa, Uncle Kelly and Aunty Wendy when they come over for Thanksgiving dinner tonight.

A New Trick

Bubbles bubbles everywhere.
When will they stop?
Mommy hopes very soon...

Cake for Breakfast!

Uncle Brian must be a pretty special guy. We had cake for breakfast today! Mommy doesn't like me to eat too much cake and I've NEVER had it for breakfast before! I hope Uncle Brian has another birthday soon!

Happy Birthday Super Trooper!

Shhhh! Daddy's friend and partner, Uncle Bhasker, is going to get suprised tonight! Mommy and Daddy are going to a big surprise party for his 50th birthday. Daddy has to do a speech and he's been practicing a lot. Mommy and I have been helping him. Daddy, in case you forget your speech, here's the song part of it.

Corn Maze

Daddy and I are having lots of fun together. Mommy is taking some time off this weekend so it's up to Daddy to look after me.


Today, Daddy took me to the corn maze. There was corn everywhere! We had lots of fun getting lost and trying to find our way out. I ran up and down the maze trying to find the right path but it kept going on and on and on. Good thing Daddy is smart and knows a lot of trivia. He was able to answer questions at some of the intersections and that gave us hints on which way to go. We met a family who couldn't answer all the questions and they'd been in the maze for hours! Still, it took us a long, long time to finish the maze. After all that running I had to climb into the wagon for a rest and Daddy pulled me the rest of the way.


After we made it out, there was still some fun stuff to do. My cousin, Jacob, and I found some trucks to play with. There was also a bridge to climb up on to see the corn maze from above. Here I am with Aunty Wendy.


When it was time to leave, Uncle Kelly, Aunty Wendy, Jacob, Daddy and I stopped for a new kind of snack. I've never gone to Tim Horton's before and Daddy let me have chocolate milk and a double-chocolate donut. Mmmmm! chocolate! I think this is my new favourite snack. I wonder if Mommy will let me have it another day.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

What a great morning I had! Mommy, Aunty Melodie, Marissa, Aiden and I went to the Caplilano Suspension Bridge. Mommy thought I might get scared going over the big, wobbly bridge but I thought it was fun! When we got to the other side we found so many things to do...


First we did the Treetops Adventure. It was a lot of small suspension bridges that went from big tree to big tree. We were up really, really high. At first Marissa was a little scared so I held her hand to help her across. After a few bridges she was okay and didn't need to hold my hand anymore.


Next we took a walk around the lake and Marissa and I saw fish jumping out of the water. I think they were very hungry for their breakfast.



Mommy and Aunty Melodie kept trying to take pictures of Marissa, Aiden and me but they couldn't get a good one. On our walk around the lake we found a bench so they asked us to sit on the bench for a photo. I think we were pretty wiggly because I don't see any good pictures of us.


Nobody ever takes a picture of Mommy and Aunty Melodie so I took one of them. Oops. I think I forgot to wait for Aunt Melodie to get in the picture.


After our walk around the lake, we went back across the huge suspension bridge. I found lots of speakers on the sides all the way across.


Back on the other side, we all had a nice snack, listened to some music, did a bit of dancing with a guy who was playing the guitar then it was time to go home. I was really tired when we got in the car. I had to walk and run all morning because we couldn't bring the stroller with us. It was worth it though.

Bikes & Buses

Brrrm, brrrm. Oh, hi! Just remembering the big, police motorcycle I sat on this afternoon. It was very big and shiney!

Mommy and I went to the Cops, Kids and Commercial Drive fair today. I learned a lot and had lots of fun too! My favourite parts were checking out the police car (bad boys in the back, good boys in the front), riding the tricycles and sitting on the motorbike. Did you know that the policeman has to wear boots because his bike gets really, really hot? He showed me where one of his cabels got melted onto the bike.




The Bike Rodeo was really fun. First I had to put on a helmet, then I got to choose a bike. I chose a green tricycle. To start the race, I had to wait for the light to change from red to green. Next I had to walk my tricycle across the crosswalk properly, then I had to stop at a stop sign and signal which direction I was going next. It took three tries but I got it! After that, Mommy let me go three more times then it was time to go home.

Before we got into the car, I also talked to a lady about 9-1-1. We practiced dialing the numbers on her cell phone and then we talked about when I should call it and when I shouldn't. She didn't think that losing my Bertie bus was an emergency but I did. I got a balloon from the Bike Safety tent and a loot bag from the Welcome tent too.

After a snack on Commerical Drive, Mommy had another interesting thing for us to do. We went to the Avalon Country Fair. I didn't know there was an old dairy in the middle of our city and neither did Mommy. I saw some cows, horses and chickens. I learned that milk comes out of the cows udders and I saw some old trucks that used to deliver milk. I played the milk game and squeezed some udders under a pretend cow. Milk came out into a bucket but when I wanted to drink it Mommy told me it was just for pretend.

I saved the best part to tell you about for the end...I saw a very old, yellow, city bus! Mommy said this is what the buses in Vancouver used to look like. It was a great day!

A Request

This one's for you Uncle Eddie...

Playland

Daddy is away on a golf trip this weekend so for something fun to do, Mommy took me to Playland. There were lots and lots of different rides but I'm still kinda short so there were only a few that I could go on. The ones I liked best were the Kettle Creek Rollercoaster (I wasn't scared because Mommy had her arm around me), the Cars and KC's Raceway.


I also enjoyed the Flying Elephants, the Helicopters, doing wheelies on the Stunt Cycles and riding in the Paddle Wheelers. Oh! I almost forgot about the Glass House. I banged into the windows a few times but eventually, I helped Mommy get out.




Mommy says going to Playland once a year is enough. I hope next year I'm tall enough to go on some of the big kid rides.

First Day of Preschool

Today was a big day - my first day of preschool. It was a very short class today and the teachers asked Mommy to come with me so that they could show both of us the routine and so that I wouldn't get scared. Since it was a nice day, Mommy said we could walk. It's a little too far for me to walk all the way so I rode my tricycle.


I have four teachers, Cathy, Erin, Wendy and Justin. They are all very nice. They showed me where my cubby is, where we have circle time and they gave Mommy some papers and showed her where to sign me in and out. I had a little time to check out the toys in the classroom. There are only two buses but that's OK, there are lots of cars and trains to play with. During circle time we sang some funny songs, heard each other's names, learned what to bring in our backpacks and listened to a story about a bear and a flashlight. I had fun today and am looking forward to Tuesday when I get to go back.


After school, Mommy took me out for a treat and I asked if I could have not-hot chocolate at Starbuck's. It was delicious.


So I don't forget the words to the new song Cathy taught us, here they are...

Two little robots standing on the moon,
One named Beep-Beep the other named Zoom.
Run away Beep-Beep, run away Zoom.
Come back Beep-Beep, come back Zoom.

The Zoom part is said really fast each time. It makes me laugh so much!

A New Bus

Daddy went to "Guys Night" with his friends yesterday. Mommy says this is like a playdate with his buddies. Since we would be at home by ourselves, Mommy said I could have a playdate too. I haven't had a playdate with my good friend Marissa for a long time so Mommy and I invited them to join us for dinner.

We had lots of fun playing in the playroom. Marissa's little brother Aiden is growing up and we had lots of fun playing "run-run" together. He can only run frontwards but I can run sideways and Marissa showed us how she can run backwards.

After dinner, Mommy had a fun treat for us. She baked some mini-chocolate cupcakes and made chocolate frosting. Marissa, Aiden and I got to decorate them. The hardest part is not eating all the decorations. Here we are with our beautiful cupcakes.

































It was a really fun playdate. The best part of all is Aunty Melodie's surprise for me...a new bus! This one is like pee-pee bus except it has headlights that I can turn on and off. I've named him "Flasher." Aunty Melodie always finds great surprises!

Don't Save Them For A Rainy Day

So, if you want to go to the beach and play in the sand but you don't like it when the sand gets in your shoes or sandals, I've found the perfect solution. Wear your boots.

Poppin' Wheelies

I was watching very closely at the PNE motorbike show on Monday and now I have a new trick for my tricycle! Here I am trying to pop a wheelie!


I don't have the fire balls behind me that the guys at the PNE had. I'll have to add that part after I can do the wheelie without putting my feet on the ground.

Last Weekend of the Summer

Mommy says this is the last weekend of the summer and we should make the most of it. PLUS, Daddy is off this weekend so there's even more reason to do something before the weather starts to turn cold and I start school.

GRANVILLE ISLAND - Saturday, August 25, 2007
Daddy found out about the Wooden Boat Festival on Granville Island and it sounded like it might be fun. I heard some sailor music, watched a man make a rope and, of course, saw lots of wooden boats. Here I am with Daddy on the docks. We saw lots and lots of boats and Daddy explained how some of them work.


After looking at boats on the docks, Daddy said we could go an a boat ride. I didn't know it would be a BUS ride too!


Here I am with Mommy on the AquaBUS! It's a small boat that scoots on the water to another dock near the bridge that takes you to Grandpa's house. We went on the cruise so it took us back to Granville Island where we started. I had fun watching the other Aquabuses on the water and the regular buses passing over us on the bridges.


LAZY DAY - Sunday, August 26, 2007
Sunday morning is always full-circle breakfast at Grandpa's house. This week Grandpa made lots of food but best of all, he made pancakes. I think I ate 100 tiny, spare-tire pancakes.

My cousin Jacob is walking now and can even run a little bit. We had fun playing Run-Run. I can run very fast. Jacob can run almost as fast as me but he gets a lot of help from his mommy, Aunty Wendy.

After breakfast, Mommy went to the Farmer's Market while Daddy and I played at the playground. I think lots of other families do the same thing because the playground was very busy. Mommy wanted to go for a forest walk after our shopping but I said no. Instead we went home to work in the garden.

There was lots to do in the garden. Mommy and Daddy spent a lot of time pulling weeds while I helped them move some dirt around. I helped Mommy pick some green chili peppers from the veggie patch and she also taught me how to pick the red tomatoes off the vine without having all the little green ones fall off. Here I am in the garden. See my sunflowers behind me. They're making seeds that I can plant next year.



PNE - Monday, August 27, 2007
What a busy day this was! In the morning, I met my friend Marissa for a playdate. We haven't seen each other all summer. We played at the Fire Engine Playground then had a hot chocolate party at the coffee shop.

After lunch, Daddy came home from his golf game and our family went to the PNE. There was so much to see! First we saw the jumping motorbikes and quad-cycles. That was very exciting and noisy. Then we went to the SuperDogs show. Mommy really cheered for our "Bow Wow" team. On our way to Farm Country we saw the Canadian Forces and I got to sit in a real jeep and jet!



That was one of my favourite parts. After the jet, we finally made it to Farm Country where I saw a gigantic bull, lots of cows and some horses. I petted a goat and I really liked the small animals like the bunnies and the baby ducks and chicks. Then, we spotted something that looked really fun...tractor races. I went three times!


We ended our day at the PNE by sharing a bag of mini-donuts. They were pretty tasty.

I didn't know what the PNE was before we got there, while we were there I wasn't sure that I wanted to stay, but after we left, I sure wanted to go back for more.