invisible drawings

invisible drawings
Originally uploaded by the four mckays.

So, a friend turned us on to a new artform, and since Kea's obsessed with decorating our front room for Halloween we thought we'd combine the two and make a bunch of skeletons! They turned out great - and I actually FINALLY pulled out the x-rays of a child's body that I'd bought about a year ago thinking they would be interesting and educational, and we looked at all of those. The plan is to hang them up on the back of the door as well, but I haven't gotten quite that organized yet!

Kea's skeletons

Kea's skeletons
Originally uploaded by the four mckays.

Pumpkin waffles!

I love fall, it is definitely one of my most favourite times of year! And part of what I love about it is the chance to slow down and spend more time sharing meals with friends. This weekend we had brunch with some good friends of ours, and enjoyed my all-time favourite October treat of pumpkin waffles....

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbl cornstarch
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 large eggs, separated
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 Tbl melted butter

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Mix egg yolks, milk and pumpkin in another bowl, then add to large bowl. Stir in melted butter. Beat egg whites in with electric mixer until soft peaks form, and gently fold into pumpkin mixture. Place in waffle maker!

Soooooooooooooo delicious, especially with whipped cream and pumpkin maple syrup on top (half and half pumpkin puree to maple syrup, with a pinch of cinnamon).

This afternoon Jamie and the girls have joined another family at the Richmond Pumpkin Patch (far more commercial and hyped up, and therefore much more popular with the kids!!!!) so I'm enjoying a quiet afternoon at home, catching up a bit on my emailing and setting up my sewing machine in my office. I'm feeling the need to create these days, so hopefully I'll find the time in the evenings to try my hand at a few projects. Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Signs of fall around our house...

Here's some photos, primarily from our very muddy trip yesterday to the pumpkin patch but also a few from October celebrations going on in our house. Kea's definitely reaching the age where everyday she asks, "Can we do some more decorating?" Hard to keep up with her! I think we'll focus on making mini-lanterns over the next couple of days, in time for the Riley Park Lantern Procession on Fri - the weather is even forecasting sun for that day, so I'm really looking forward to it!

Today Jamie needed the car for work, and Kea had her heart set on biking to Tiegan's preschool even though it was raining. I tried my hardest to convince Tiegan it would be so much fun to stay home this morning, but that was a no go, so we piled on our warm jackets and froze our knuckles off riding up to the school. I may be a Vancouverite, but I have to say, I still don't enjoy biking in the rain!!! Oh well, this afternoon we're enjoying a mellow, dry afternoon in the house, good music on the stereo and fresh tea brewed in our pot, and the kids are begging me to read some books so I may just get my butt off the computer and spend some quality time with them!

Kea's heart

Kea's heart
Originally uploaded by the four mckays.

So this morning Kea woke up with a desire to draw out her heart! So while I was preparing french toast for breakfast, she looked at a couple of anatomy books and found a cross-section of a heart and decided to draw it! Which of course led to all sorts of further questions that we'll need to research more. Does anyone know why we use the heart symbol, that really looks nothing like a real heart?!

It's official....

I have a heart, and it's beating! I had my heart ultrasound today - both the midwife and the doctor thought they detected a heart murmer that they thought was exasperated by the pregnancy and extra blood flow, and were a little concerned so sent me for this ultrasound. But apparently the technician could not detect a murmer and in fact was constantly exclaiming over what a beautiful heart I have - how strong it is, how perfect it looked and she'd point out various charts and lines and say things like "I mean, just check out this flexibility here" in an excited voice! Ummm, ya, wow - as long as you say it's all good!!!! My theory is she's so used to seeing older and diseased hearts, that mine can't help but look fabulously young and healthy:-)

It was actually great, because she brought Jamie and the girls in afterwards to show them pictures of my heart, and then said "hey, wanna see what your heart looks like?" so they each took a turn hopping up on the table and seeing their hearts! She showed them the heart from a few different angles, turned on the sound so they could hear all the different sounds, turned on colour so they could see the blood flow in and out - all very cool! Poor Tiegan's heart was beating a mile a minute, she was obviously a bit nervous about it all, but Kea was much more relaxed once it was her turn! Another section for our unit study on the human body!

A quiet weekend at home....

beginning to fix up the fireplace!
Originally uploaded by the four mckays.

After a very busy week, we are now enjoying a quiet weekend at home - and it's the perfect nesting weather, with fog and rain outside. Nothing we can complain about as we've enjoyed such a long spell of sunny weather, and in fact being Vancouverites for so long now, I have to admit that I'm actually looking forward to the beginning of the rains! Time to enjoy afternoon teas, knitting on the couch listening to the radio and basically slowing down our lives!

We're also focusing a lot on fixing up the house - Jamie found these big chunks of cedar and has sanded them down to frame the fireplace. We're going to stain them, and then fix up the inside a bit - so exciting to see it all getting done!

Last weekend we had a great time in Princeton visiting my grandparents and celebrating Grandma's 80th birthday. We saw a lot of family, including Mom, Ian and Tyson, so it was nice to catch up with them. And we always love traveling to that beautiful part of the province!

And this week has been full of birthday parties, dinner parties and preschool meetings, leaving us exhausted from too many late nights and craving a day or two of doing not much at all. The kids are watching "Shrek 2" right now (a movie they never seem to tire of!), I'm zoning out in front of the computer and Jamie is puttering in his shop - I love weekends!!!

Oct. 14th - 22 1/2 weeks

Oct. 14th - 22 1/2 weeks
Originally uploaded by the four mckays.

So, I guess it's time to update with the monthly photo of the ever-growing lump - it sure is active these days and Jamie's even able to feel the kicks when he has his hands on my belly! Everything is still going great - the heartbeat is at about 150, and I'm still enjoying the second trimester where I'm energetic and able to bike and skate with the girls. I'm excited about meeting this new being, but I'm also hyper aware that the time is just going to fly by so am trying to get as much done as possible before Feb!

Happy Birthday Victoria!

Today is October 2nd so we wanted to send out huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY hugs to Victoria - wish we lived a wee bit closer so we could share in some birthday cake, but instead we'll indulge in some homemade plum ice-cream and think of you!

It's another Monday morning here, and the girls and I are spending a very quiet day at home after another hectic weekend! A fun weekend, but definitely tiring! My friend Jackie came to visit for the weekend with her daughter Zoe from Victoria. Jackie is due a couple of weeks ahead of me with her second child, so it's neat to have someone to compare pregnancies and growing bellies with, and I'm excited that our third child will have a friend the same age! The girls had a blast running around with Zoe, jumping on the bed, playing hide and seek in the same two spots over and over again, and pulling out all of the My Little Ponies for some quiet play.

And then after they left on Sunday morning, we held our Cordwood Fence Building Workshop for the neighbourhood - both as a way to spread information on alternative building techniques and living roofs and also to get the neighbours together, discussing other potential get-togethers and projects. Oh, and we've also discovered that by setting a date and advertising to neighbours, it forces us to get things done - too bad a funky front fence and bulletin board are not REALLY priorities right now! I just don't think the neighbours would quite go for a "help us put up all of our old trim and baseboards" party!!!! Anyways, we completed one section of the fence, and will hopefully finish the rest of it in the near future - for now Jamie's feeling tired and his muscles really hurt - thank goodness for Peter the masseur, who is scheduled to visit us tonight!!!