Happy Halloween, and good bye October!

When I woke up this morning, Nathan greeted me with "Happy Halloween Dad! Did you know that tomorrow is Josh's birthday month?" WHAT?!?!? What happened to the first 5/6th's of the year? It seems like 2011 is headed our way at an unrelenting pace!

On Friday morning, Nathan and I drove his grandparents to the airport, as their two week visit has drawn to a close. There were a few tears and long, heartfelt hugs after climbing out the car to say our farewells. After they disappeared into the airport, Nathan and I headed to my office. I think being in my office, a new environment for Nathan, was a great distraction for him. Liesel and Josh arrived about 20 minutes later, and then they all left together, to get on with their regular Friday activities.

Saturday was a highly productive day for Liesel and myself. It started off with a family photo shoot at 9am! Nathan was a superstar and Josh was, um, Josh... After getting home, I took down the broken blinds from Josh's room and replaced them with the blinds from our guest room. I then installed some spare blinds in the guest bedroom to replace the ones that I moved to Josh's room. I also took this opportunity to cabinet door that Josh had previously broken. A little later Nathan and I headed down to JC Penney to sort out an issue that we had when buying pots from them recently. And that was all before lunch time! After lunch and Josh's nap, I fired up the lawnmower (hopefully for one of the last times) and mowed the yard. Liesel's day was just as productive, and by the time 8:00pm came around, the boys were bathed and in bed, and Liesel and I were exhausted!

On Sunday morning we headed to Church. It was good to see some friends we hadn't seen in a few weeks! Once we got home we had lunch and then shortly afterward, Liesel took Nathan in his Skeleton Halloween Costume to meet up with some friends at the local shopping mall to go trick or treating amongst the stores. The stores handed out candy and some discounts to the children. Josh and I stayed at home where it was a cosy, and controlled 67F (19C) and played together around the house during this time. Once Liesel and Nathan returned from the outing, there was only enough time for a quick dinner, before Nathan had to don his bony suit and go trick or treating around our neighborhood with a good classmate of his, who lives around the corner. Both Nathan and Troy had the same skeleton suits, and Liesel soon returned with an overflowing bucket of candy, which she left behind and took another empty bucket for Nathan to continue with his candy collecting capers! Liesel accompanied Nathan (for the first time) and got to know Troy's parents fairly well. It seemed they had a lot to chat about and Liesel was even introduced to many other neighbors by her new friends who had been living in the neighborhood since 2003! After the 90 minutes that were allocated by the city for trick or treating had passed, Liesel and Nathan had returned to the warm comfort of our house, after walking around in cold temperatures of lower 40's (6C). Josh had been eying Nathan's bounty and soon was carefully sorting through the loot and picking out his favorites! And thus endeth October! Now prepare for the onslaught of Christmas Carols and Christmas trees and decorations!

The Falls in Fall!

Having spent an action packed week with Norman and Gabi, we kept the upbeat tempo going and headed to Niagara Falls for a whirlwind tour of one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. We left just after 8am on Saturday, arrived at 12:30pm. While Liesel put Josh down for his nap in the hotel room, I led Norman, Gabi and Nath to their first look at the Falls. We also donned our blue ponchos and took a ride upon the Maid of the Mist, which took us within meters of the cascading waters! Afterward, we made our way up a staircase that is adjacent to the American Falls. This adventure, left us soaked, with the blue ponchos offering very little protection! After wringing out our jacket sleeves and socks, we headed to the top of the falls, for some photographic opportunities above the saturating mist. Then to add to some more moisture to our already dripping attire, it started to rain! So we called it a day and headed back to the hotel.

On Sunday, the clouds had passed, and it promised to be a better day. Liesel and Josh went to the aquarium, a far safer option to having him run around the raging rivers. Norman, Gabi, Nathan and I headed back to the Falls for a Cave of the Winds tour, which takes you to the base of one of the falls, and then you get to walk up along some decks that are literally built above the tumultuous waters that are cascading down the rocks. We all made it to the Hurricane Deck, a platform positioned under a part of the falls. There is nothing like being pelted with globs !of water bigger than bricks, and are thrown from a few stories above you. It was cool! Literally and metaphorically!

Enjoy the photos!

Nathan's Birthday Surprise!

So you've been waiting 8 whole days for Nathan's Big Birthday Surprise??

On Saturday, just before Nathan and I headed for his last soccer match of the season, Liesel took Josh and headed to the "shops". She actually headed straight to the airport to pick her parents! They have some business with a few churches at the end of October, so they took the opportunity to come out a couple of weeks earlier, which put them in Cleveland, the day before Nathan's sixth birthday! So after Nathan's soccer game, we drove home, and came inside as we usually do. He was curious whether the parcel his grandparents had promised for birthday, had arrived. As he walked towards the kitchen, his Oupa and Gogo were sitting in the dining room waiting for him - so their parcel had arrived safely!

He was literally speechless, and didn't say a single word for at least 5 minutes, and only responded to questions by nodding his head. He had a huge grin plastered on his face the entire time. He spent a lot of the time hugging his grandparents, probably proving to himself that they were really there!

And then the crazy weekend schedule kicked into high gear!

Going back to Friday, the day of Nathan's birthday party.... I left work early, to help Liesel with the Birthday party logistics. It was being hosted at Chuck E Cheese, a party venue for children. There are plenty of arcade games to keep the children entertained, and all the guests of the party received a bunch of free tokens to use on the games. They also serve pizza, and cold drinks for the kids, and Nathan is treated like royalty for a couple of hours. The Chuck E Cheese mascot (a giant mouse) came to our table and crowned Nathan with a special inflatable crown, and gave him a Birthday Star medallion. He loved his party, and told us that it was the best party ever! We also loved it, in that there was no mess in our house to clean up afterwards, and Chuck and his helpers had to clean up after us! By the way, Liesel did a stellar job, creating a volcano cake for Nathan, complete with lava!




Now back to the crazy schedule on Saturday. That afternoon, we all headed out to an apple orchard for an afternoon of apple picking. It was a beautiful fall day, and we all had a great time, Nathan was climbing trees to get to the apples at the top, and we all enjoyed the tractor ride into and back out of the orchards!



Sunday morning was Nathan's actual birthday. When he woke up, his first activity for the day was to open up his presents. He was thoroughly spoiled. Next was a pancake breakfast followed by Church. Straight after church, we went to Moe's for lunch. That afternoon, I stayed at home to mow the lawn, but the rest of the clan headed to the pumpkin farm and corn mazes to round off Nathan's birthday.

Update coming soon!

I know you are all dying to find out what the surprise was, but unfortunately I have been in a meeting from 8 to 11:30pm, so I have had not yet had a chance to publish a blog! I will do so as soon as possible. Please accept my apologies!

Beautiful weekend

North East Ohio continues to dish up surprises. After the cold, wet days from last weekend, the weather we've been having since Wednesday has been near perfect! Bright sunny days with the temperatures in the 70s (mid 20's C). So it's a no brainer that we need to take full advantage of these beautiful Autumn days!

Liesel, Josh and Nathan's weekend began right after school on Friday, when Liesel picked up Nathan from school and headed to a local farm for hayrides, corn mazes and pumpkin picking!


When I got home from work there was just enough time to mow the front yard, before jumping into a shower and then heading off to our friends for dinner and games. We all had a great evening, with delicious food and much laughter. Even Liesel stayed awake way past her bedtime!

Saturday, another glorious day, was our most productive day of the weekend. In the morning, Liesel got to clean her car a bit, and then applied a coating of weatherproof stain to the boys' swing set. I finished the mowing of the front and back yards, tidied the garage, moved our pool equipment indoors and washed my car with a little help from Nath. That evening, Liesel and I decided to reward our hard work, and headed out for a little bit of shopping and then some delectable dessert at Starbucks! We had arranged a babysitter to be with the boys, while we spent some quality time together.

Sunday was a little quieter. Nathan was still catching up on his sleep from Friday, so we let him sleep in until after 9am. Liesel, however, was on Nursery duty at the church, so she left well before 9am and only got home after 12pm. While at home, Nathan had a long chat with his Aunt Rachel in South Africa and were excitedly discussing his birthday next week. Then, just before lunch time, I took the boys to the Westlake playground to enjoy the outdoors. We spent half an hour there before heading back home for lunch. Later that afternoon, Liesel applied the final coat of stain to the swing set. When she was done, we headed to some dear friends for dinner. The food and fellowship were great, and Nath loved playing the piano and watching VeggieTales, while Josh chased their cat around.

Another great way to finish the weekend!

Next week Sunday is Nathan's 6th birthday! We are so excited because we have one HUGE surprise lined up for him! You will need to read the blog next week to find out what the big secret is!!!

T.I.C

In the 2006 movie "Blood Diamond", Leonardo DiCaprio plays a South African mercenary and coins the phrase, "T.I.A" which stands for "This is Africa". This phrase was used every time something happened that could only be attributed to the fact that they were in Africa.

The weather in Cleveland over the past week has led me to coin the phrase, "T.I.C" or "This is Cleveland". For example, last week we had record high temperatures for Autumn of 90 degrees (32C). So we had our air conditioner running to keep our house comfortably cool. One week later, this blog is being typed up with the central heating running! The temperatures dropped significantly with persistent rain all weekend long! The mercury struggled to make it into the 50s (lower teens C) today. T.I.C!

On Friday, before the temperatures plummeted and the rain set in, I strapped the bikes to the back of my car and we set off for a family bike ride in Westlake. We only managed one lap before the sun started heading south of the horizon.

Because it rained all day Saturday, we spent the day indoors, and that means a lot of playing in the basement. That evening, two of Nathan's best friends, Sarah and Faith, came over for a sleep over. The three of them had a great time together. It seemed that even Josh was jealous of their fun, and just wanted to be included in their happy group! Things finally settled down after 10pm with a bit of adult intervention, and soon all the children were asleep.

On Sunday, the two girls, Josh and Liesel were up at 7am. I arose around 7:45am to see a family of deer saunter across our back yard! We all sat down to breakfast and got our Sunday clothes on for church. At church, we had Christian Contemporary artist Scott Krippayne lead worship, which was great. The rest of the day was typical for a lazy, rainy autumn day. After dinner, once the boys had bathed, some good friends came over for a time of fellowship and to watch the Amazing Race together. Great end to a chilly weekend!