Garden season is here

We had an unusually long winter this year so gardening had to wait until the weather got warm enough. I always look forward to Spring/Summer because I love having beautiful flowers in our backyard. It's so nice having a view of our colourful garden from the kitchen. The photo above is our new planter flowers. Isn't it pretty?

So many flowers ready to be planted.

And these are our picks this year.

Our planter arrangements.

My princess.

My prince.

King of the house

The weather was quite nice today. A little chilly, but sunny enough that we went outside to the backyard as a family and played. Your Vancouver grandpa brought all these toys from the neighbours house (don't worry, they gave us permission) and you played and played. It's so nice in Vancouver right now. All the cherry blossoms are out and they have way more exotic plants than in Toronto. I think you'll have a difficult time transitioning when we get back to Toronto because you literally are the king of the house. Your Vancouver grandparents cater to your every demand. They even started sleeping with you every night starting on the second day we were here. I don't mind because I'm kind of enjoying a little freedom.

Happy 2nd Halloween

Dear Aidan,

Oh what a night! Our neighbourhood is so family friendly so when we decided to give out candy this year we knew it was going to be a rough night. It didn't help that a house close by does a huge elaborate haunted house every year. All the neighbourhood kids congregate near our area just to see this house. Daddy and I got 5 big packs of candy at Walmart last week, but we ran out of it within an hour and a half. Daddy was so stressed out because while he was giving out the candy all the kids were stepping over our grass (that we laid out in the fall) and the shrubs that your Vancouver grandpa planted in the summertime. Plus, he was worried that our newly installed iron railings were going to get damaged just by the huge amount of traffic our house was getting. Actually one kids stepped on one shrub so it's a little damaged now.

Our friends, Jenn and Ed came over with their baby Nate and we (minus daddy) went out to check out the haunted house. It was AMAZING. Mommy was screaming so loud that it scared you and Nate. The haunted house had zombies that were actual people people dressed up as zombies and they kept jumping out at me and scaring the daylights out of me. I'm not sure if you can handle that when you are a little older. It might scare you silly. I think your tiger headpiece was covering your eyes so you didn't really see how scary it was.

Daddy, you, and Rosco posing for the camera.

Your trick or treat bag looks so much bigger than you.

Daddy got you to laugh for the camera before we headed out.

You were so annoyed with your head piece because it kept covering your eyes.

You looked so cute in your costume.

You and daddy posing in front of the haunted house. We went there at 5pm so that we could take pictures before it got dark and busy.

You were more interested in looking at the cars go by than look at all the tombstones and zombies buried in the ground.

Look how scary some of the zombies are.

Even at 5pm it was busy with people milling about. Look at the zombie crossing sign. So clever...

Finally, something caught your eye.

Could it be all the zombies popping out from the ground?

Boo!

They were donating all the proceeds to Sick Kids Hospital. Besides the haunted house, this house is known for their beautiful landscaping. Look at the outdoor urn arrangement in the background. Gorgeous...

Look at the goblin.

Mommy and Aidan.

Aidan and mommy admiring the decoration.

Back in daddy's arms.

Look at the zombie bride.

You were getting pretty tired and cold by this time.

Aidan, do you see the scary man behind you?

Back at our house. You can sort of see the iron railings that we put in yesterday.

Smile for the camera Aidan.

You in your full gear standing up. I love those booties.

Freedom!

You saw your reflection in the mirror. You love looking at yourself.

We took your head piece off. You were so happy.

One thing you loved to do was watch daddy give out candies to the trick or treaters. You were just hanging by the door watching.

Guess who's here? Jenn and baby Nathan.

Nate as a monkey.

Ed, Nate, and Jenn. Such a happy family.

We checked out the haunted house when it turned dark and I must say it was exceptional and very scary. Kudos to the family that set this up. See you next year!

Garden bloom

Dear Aidan,

It's only 10:04pm, but I am beyond exhausted. This whole week has been extremely tiring for everyone (your Vancouver grandparents, daddy, and me) because we were doing the interlock at the front of our house + redoing our back patio and garden. I'm happy to say that the interlock was finished a couple of days ago, the back patio and stonework around our front yard tree was finished yesterday and today, your Vancouver grandpa finished the stonework around the flower bed. Today daddy, me, and your Vancouver grandpa went to a couple of nurseries to buy flowers, trees, and shrubs for our garden. It was so exciting because I got to help grandpa choose what plants we wanted in our house. I've been waiting for this moment for so long because I've always wanted to garden. We picked some beautiful plants and I can't wait to get started. I also picked up some herbs to start an herb garden! I picked up oregano, Italian parsley, chives, basil (yum!), rosemary, sage, and thyme.


Your grandpa is 65 this October, but he has so much energy. He was up since 6am doing stuff for our garden. He worked 70 hours since last Sunday!



Look at all the plants. I especially love the boxwood shrubs. We're going to be putting that in a row along our interlock at the front. It's going to look beautiful!



Grandma was taking care of you all day today while we were out shopping at the nursery. Look at you and grandma watching us.




Apparently you got scared when grandma was chopping crabs in the kitchen while you were inside so I had to hold you outside for a bit while grandma was done chopping. What a scaredy cat you are. You seemed to be in a better mood however...



Grandpa is going to be planting trees on each corner of the garden. The tree to the right we got for free at Angelos! It was $179, but we got it for free because it was a little damaged (but totally rectifiable) and we also bought a ton of stuff there.



Look at grandpa go. He's planting purple hydrangeas. Love!



That shovel and rake did a lot of work this week.



Look at Rosco watching us all work. He wanted to go outside, but I've been scared to take him out because Auntie Jane and daddy saw a coyote in our neighbourhood! I'm scared something might happen if we let Rosco out.



Daddy taking a 5 minute breather. Actually he took more than 5 minutes! He and I were so tired.



Your grandpa, on the other hand, was working nonstop. He did all that stonework around the flower bed. So nice!



That straw hat in the middle has a bow and a flower attached to it. It's a woman's hat that your Vancouver grandma got in Hawaii. But your grandpa was wearing it this whole week while he was working outside! He even wore it to Home Depot! I was so embarrassed...



Here is mommy taking a break and tanning her legs.