Pumpkin Time

This year we somehow ended up with 8 pumpkins

8! To be carved in one night

I had a couple of unusual pumpkins, including a white one and a green one. I thought the white one would be perfect as a ninja turtle. Cut out the eyes and mouth, scrape off the mask, it will be the perfect Michaelangelo!

Until I started to actually cut it out and realized that the inside was green!

The kids really wanted to get involved this year.
Both kids said that they wanted to get all of the guts outside, except they didn't actually want to touch the seeds.

So Kyle and I took over that job.

We had all of the child-safe pumpkin knives and the kids had all of these ideas for faces so we let them go.

The night had lots of fun and laughs (x8)

Katheryn had her masterpiece

And Nick had his pumpkin too! (He really wanted the little one)

And I had my favorite too

We are all ready for Halloween!

JibJab Halloween

The kids LOVE JibJab! So I made up this funny e-card for them.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Under(sewer)cover for Halloween

Ever since I have been doing Halloween costumes for Nick, I wanted to have something for his wheelchair as well as his walker. Nick has been very specific that he wants to do Halloween in his walker this year, but I still wanted a wheelchair costume for Nick.
So I wouldn't do anything big, but something fun.

This is my inspiration.

So I would make a sewer grate.
Easy right?

Espeically when I found a guide! http://www.thescrapshoppeblog.com/2013/09/diy-1-manhole-cover.html

I got some foam and some sticky letters. I glued the foam down on the cake pan.

When I covered it in foil, the NYC SEWER didn't stick up high enough. So I did it again.

 I wasn't too sure about the painting, or my painting abilities.
But it doesn't actually  need to be neat or anything.

Overall, with some trial and error it took a couple of hours to get this. It should be able to withstand any rain if we have it, Nick really likes that he is sitting under a sewer grate.

The walker costume will be coming soon!

All ready for a shell-raising good Halloween!

When it was time to come up with our Halloween costume this year, Nick was very specific about what he wanted to be this year.
Ninja Turtles!

And also that he wanted to go trick-or-treating in his walker.
So then came the planning.

And of course it had to be some kind of waterproof alternative that I could paint and stick together.

We had all of these floor mats available, The bottom side provided a smoother surface that I can paint. The mats fit together, can be taped and glued, cut and painted. And waterproof!

The shellraiser (the new-age turtle van) is actually a subway car. So we needed some subway doors and windows.

 The windows are actually boarded up. So I got some wood-looking foam that I glued in place over the windows.  And the green roof is taped in place.

The design is the show combined with the toys to get an idea of what I should
The back of the shellraiser has blue rockets and some kind of red  bumper at the back. The Shellraiser sign is on the back too. And the back of the walker helps to keep it in place.

After putting it together I wanted to make sure I got the grafitti right. I practiced on some spare pieces to use my spray paint right, because I only had the one chance.
Purple, red, orange and blue graffitti, and of course 'Turtle Power' on one side, and 'TMNT' on the other side. I outlined the words to make it stand out more. We added a marshmallow shooter gun, and a roller-bumper in the front.

Nick-angelo loves it!

If you know Ninja Turtles and Michaelangelo in specific you may know that he is the party dude that also yells out "Cowabunga", in the 80's show, and "Booyagasha" in the current show. Nick likes both of them, so I added something in the front of the shellraiser to make it look more like a van/subway care.

And Cowabunga! Nick is all ready for Halloween!

Children's Police Games

In our second of year of what I expect to be an annual tradition of participating in the Durham Regional Police (DRP) Children's Games. The website is pretty awful. Just writing, you can't actually get how exciting and fun these games are!

We went last year for the first time. It is a free event hosted by the Durham Regional Police for children with physical disabilities to participate and compete in a variety of athletic events.

The kids get divided up into teams, the Grandview/Campbell's kids from the school were together in one team. Nick was part of the Auxiliary team this year. Actually Auxiliary police are part of our team as well. Last year Nick got tired and overwhelmed. This year he was excited.

The day starts with a parade of the kids coming in. Nick was all ready to lead the pack this year!

There was a moment of silence for solider, Cpl Nathan Cirillo killed at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider at the War Memorial in Ottawa in the attack on the Canadian Parliament this week. And honouring everyone whose job it is to protect us every day. It was very emotional having the moment of silence and bagpipes playing.

There were other speeches in the opening ceremony and then it was time for the games to begin!

Katheryn came for a little while, but then she got bored and left with Kyle to be with grandma and have fun.

Nick played the games, they had some practice shots, and then actual shots that counted as points for the competition part of it.

There was bowling

And basketball

There was golf

 And wheelchair rugby!
(That was my favorite)

There was a relay. To dress (and undress) the police man

And hockey

There was parachute game (Nick's favorite part was playing under the parachute)

But the actual game was the put the balls into the specific holes

There was a big ball that needed to be pushed from one end of the gym to another.
Nick ran in his walker, pushing the ball with is head

There was also curling

And some bocci ball

Nick got the spend the day with his friend Alej!

Between some of the games we had time for a team photo.
This is the kids on the team, the volunteer helpers (one of them Nick's EA from school and her son, another a retired teacher from Campbells), and the Police who were part of our team.

They also had Nova's Ark was there with a bunch of their critters, including this tarantula spider (but they also had some fluffy things)

 And there was Elsa.
Nick saw her while we were playing one of the games and all he wanted to do was have a picture taken with Elsa!

As expected Nick got tired during the games. Part of the day is spent in the tennis courts, and part is spent in one of the large party rooms. So this year we brought Nick's walker and wheelchair in with us so that when this happened...

We had a backup plan

"No Mommy, I'm not tired"

There was a big lunch with a live band and we got to have some pictures taken together

We even stole up on the stage!

After lunch they had a game of wheelchair rugby between the police and the highest team. The kids team won (of course) something like 20-1. It was a lot of fun to watch (even though Nick doesn't look like he is having fun)

At the end of the day every kid got to go  up and get a medal. And one participant from each team got a Spirit Award. And Nick won!

It was another great day! Can't wait until next year!