We had brunch at BJ’s (which was yummy, though, yet again, part of my food came out cold!) before picking up the car seat at Babies r us and from there, we made our way to the hospital to visit.  We said a quick hello, dropped off the car seat, Col went back home to work, and I was home for about 2pm.

We both went back to the hospital a few hours later, around 5pm, to take a family picture of the Maddens, just before they went home.  Col and I indulged yet again in a dinner out, at Pei Wei before heading home for some TV and cuddles (and Col was working!).

Wednesday I didn’t get up until 11am! I know, I have the cheek to say I was exhausted, but, I really was exhausted!! Magz needed a few bits (some of which I ordered online) and after another hellish pit-stop in Babies R Us (I’ve decided I hate that place!!!!), it was off to Magz and Sam’s house to visit and sit with Magz, while Sam went off to take the dog-a-bongs to the dog park to tire them out.

While I was on my way to Magz, I’d gotten another call, asking for help.  Another friend needed me to pick up her kids while she sat with her sick husband, just for a break.  As I was tied up with Magz, I told Col about my predicament, he very, very kindly offered to leave the office (which is something an SLB guy doesn’t do!) to pick up the kidlets from our friend and watch over them til I got back.

They were great, very well behaved, they watched Thomas the Tank engine, ate dinner, played with Col and I and I even got little Hazel to sleep for a while before we took her home! It was a lovely wee visit!

I can’t remember what I did Thursday (my notes are sketchy from last week!) but I think it was mostly laundry, cooking, tidying and catching up on my blogging for Liz 😉

Friday night brought more festivities up at Casa Madden with the Van der Waals! We had a delicious Indian dinner, courtesy of the Van der Waals making a stop at the London Sizzler en route – seriously, the butter chicken in that place makes my mouth water just to think about it!

The company was great (as always), our little group of six really warms my heart.  It’s so nice to feel like we’re part of a group here, people ask us out to do things, it’s not always me planning things like it used to be at home.  We’re invited places, we go to other peoples houses and just hang out and have a good time.  It’s nice!

Friday night was another first for me! Mummy Magz volunteered me to bath little Eve – which, I have to admit, gave me momentary nerves.  I’ve never bathed a newborn before, but, times have changed from when you used to hold the baby over a small bath or sink for a wash.  The bath has a little newborn seat in it and aside from the fact that Eve both hates being naked, and being wet, it went off without a hitch! We did good!

Saturday morning was my morning of pain! I did a Les Mills double, back to back 55 minute classes, Body Attack and my 2nd ever Body Pump.  It was killer! But I loved it! I think I’d suffer, even if I had an empty bar with no weights on it…it’s hard work!

When I got home, I discovered that Col had done some heavy damage to a chair and was enjoying a few races on F1 2011.  It was, from what I understand, a comedy moment!

We stopped at Magz and Sams en route to hockey for an hour, little Eve was sleeping, so we just chilled out in front of the TV for a while.  At the Toyota Centre, it was $1 hotdog night! At first, I thought this was a great idea, cheap dinner!! However, standing there, in the concourse, watching people order trays and trays and trays of $1 hotdogs (which, by the way, were called ‘kiddies hotdogs’ but to you, me and the rest of the world, they are ‘regular’ sized hotdogs) it made me realise just how much of a BAD idea it was – talk about over indulgence! And they were feeding their kids multiple dawgs!!

It was an interesting game, in the first 20 minutes, we were down by 3 goals, we faught back to tie the game 4-4 and lost in penalties.  Tough, tough loss, but a fun night all the same!

Sunday, we woke up naturally around 10am, we headed up to Magz and Sam’s for a Dominos B1G1F pizza (accompanied by the Indian GP) which was pretty uneventful by recent GP standards (though, there was, the ever recurring Massa/Hamilton tete a tete!)

We considered heading up to the Aeros, but by the time the GP was over, it was too late, so we went home and bought the Webcast for the last two periods of the game (which turned out to be a real cracker of a game with a 5-3 win at home for the Aeros!)

Monday mornings board meeting went quickly, in fact, I think it ended early for the first time in all of my two and a half years of service!! Crazy!  After we dispersed, some of us decided to go to BJ’s for lunch (again!!) – with the new parents and little miss Eve (of course there was Aunty Las cuddles!).

Back at home, I hacked up a huge pork tenderloin and made two different kinds of pork dishes (maple pork and marsala pork), before the trick or treating started!

I love Halloween, like, LOVE! When we were growing up, we had the best parties in the whole damn street! My mother ‘wallpapered’ the walls with black bin bags that she’d sliced open and taped together, then she covered it with a delicate white spiders web and a bunch of other halloween spooks.  We always had a huge spread including toffee apples (Candy apples for you Americans!), we played games (dunking for apples, trying to bite an apple on a string with our hands behind our backs), we ate pie (one lucky person always got a £1 coin in their slice of pie), we trick or treated and we had the best of fun!

I’ve missed that, the first year in the US, we were on honeymoon in Austin over Halloween weekend, last year, we were home AND had candy, but our porch light was faulty and went out, so no one came to visit!!

This year, I was determined to hand out treats, I didn’t dress up, but I wore my ghostie T-shirt and, after I called Col boring and no fun, he dressed up as a hockey player and came to the door with me every single time the doorbell rang!

All of our trick or treaters loved his costume!! My favourite costume of the night was a tiny little person in a giraffe get-up.  She looked ADORABLE!

Every time we sat down, the doorbell ‘dinged’ again!

I have minimal decorations, for Thanksgiving and Christmas, my supply is getting a little bigger each year, but, for Halloween, I have pretty much nothing…

Today, the day after Halloween, I decided it was time to ‘up’ my Halloween game, just because I don’t have kids yet, doesn’t mean I have to stop being a kid at Halloween! It doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the holiday!

I decided that next year Col and I are going all out (he’s agreed!) there shall be pumpkin carving, costumes, toffee apples, apple pie, a McMaster Halloween Party (complete with decorations and dunking for apples) and I hit shops to claim some discounted decorations!

I came back with quite the haul, outdoor decorations for the garden, six different sets of lights (two net sets for the bushes outside), baking supplies (of course!), party supplies (a bunch of stuff for 50c a piece!!) and some Thanksgiving stuff for my upcoming Thanksgiving dinner (I’ve decided that the kids table is going to be Halloween themed! LOL!!)

I may go back to Walmart to pick up a set of string pumpkin or ghost lights for across my fireplace, but I’ve not yet decided on that!

I’m excited! Check back here in 364 days to see just how FAB the Casa McMaster Halloween party is and I hope y’all had a ghoulish Halloween!