A Thankful Family

Thanksgiving means that we see a lot of family, and do a lot of travelling from cottage to cottage. It was definitely more fun with this guy dancing away

The beautiful weather for Thanksgiving meant that we had a ready-made backdrop for some pictures.

We haven't had a nice family picture for a while. So I knew just what I wanted

And of course some fun of well

There were a lot of kids up at the Kushog cottage.

The older kids were all excited to show Katheryn and Nick how to have fun in the leaves.

Like rolling down the hill!

And running through the leaves

Dumping leaves on each other

Making a leaf pile

And of course jumping in the leaves

The lake was beautiful, even Sammie went in for a dip

The kids even wanted to pose for some pictures

This is the surf board pose

With 25 family members and 1 cottage we spent most of the time playing outside

It was a great time to catch up with family, the ones who live near and also the family that we only get to see once or twice a year.

What a weekend to be Thankful!

Thankful for Pumpkin Hunting!

 For Thanksgiving we went for our family cottage weekend.

All of the kids went to the pumpkin patch. The first things that they headed for was the maze. And found the way out. But after turning back in and making some other choices run through the maze

They had cow and horse wagons, so when Nick got tired then he could ride like the other kids. And Katheryn and Madi liked pulling each other too.

Nick liked taking some selfies!

Katheryn's favorite part of the pumpkin patch was the pumpkin gun! She got the target too!

Nick was very particular about what he wanted with his pumpkin!

While showing off his standing skills

The pumpkins were a great photo (and photo-bombing) opportunity.

The leaves were so beautiful! But I think that the kids got a bit tired of my pictures. But funny-faces are good too

Back at the cottage the cousins had some play time together.

And our last fire of the year.

And some hide-and-seek

 Talking about Thanksgiving, the kids were all very happy for their food and their family. And of course their cousins!

Shake it off

October is spina bifida awareness month in the US.
The parents and adults in my various SB groups are really knocking awareness up a notch this year!

A group put together this video, they asked for video's from the group to make up this video.
It is so fantastic!



In 5 days of posting, there have been over 17, 000 views!

Other part of their awareness campaigns are #embracethebif showing what spina bifida looks like, and a public group to show photos.
The SBA (American association) missed the mark (like the CEO... who does not have SB... advertising that she has a bum knee and can't run like she used to, as their campaign). All of this is driven by parents/adults with spina bifida.

Take a minute to watch the video and see what spina bifida really looks like!

Scout!

 Katheryn has been enjoying Sparks, the first step of Girl Guides.
She has had a lot of fun, selling cookies and playing games. Doing crafts and running around the gym with her friends once a week.

I thought that it would be fun for Nick to do the boy-version of Girl Guides as well. Which is scouts. I contacted them in the summer but didn't hear back from them regarding accessibility and the Beaver program.
OK, I thought, that is my answer.
But they contacted me the middle of September, and after a bit of back and forth we went to try out a night.

Nick had a blast!
There were games and crafts. They had some racing games the scout leader weren't sure he could play. I said that yes he could play and race, he will just be slow.
Nick felt very included. They do some hiking, so we'll see how he does in his wheelchair, but the leaders seem to be very inclusive with what they will do.
And none of the other kids seemed to treat Nick different at all.

So we officially have a Beaver Scout!

Nick is very excited

And if you want some girl guide cookies (mint-chocolate) we have some of that too!

(and popcorn coming soon)

Out Riding his Bike!

Katheryn has started Sparks, part of Girl Guides last month. She meets for an hour at the school gym.

The first night Nick and I dropped her off, went home, he fell asleep and 30 minutes later I had to wake him up and go and pick Katheryn back up.

Since it is in a nice and flat school parking lot (not like our street which is a hill) I thought it might be a great opportunity to pull out Nick's bike!

 

 

I posted a little sneak peak on facebook of Nick riding away from me (all by himself).

 

There were a couple of speed bumps in the parking lot. Nick would stop in front of them and ask for help. But I thought he could get over them himself. So he was going really fast, went over... and his bike fell over.

Now Nick is all strapped into his bike. A strap around his waist, his feet are strapped in.

Luckily he just got a bump on his elbow, (it is a 5cm bruise now), he cried a bit but wanted to go back out on his bike

 

He had a great time going where ever he wanted. Over here! Over there! In circles! He even went up on the ramp by the school doors.

He has so much fun we are looking for more opportunities to get him on the road (or parking lot)!