Last weekend we made another trip up to Niagara-on-the-Lake, this time making it a family event. Jodie and Kerry did wine tasting for the first time. The highlight for Kerry was her new friend (below) and I am pretty sure the highlight for Jodie was coming back to London and finding a bottle that she had purchased in Niagara for $27 in the LCBO for $14. Awesome.

Everyone appears to be perturbed over Kerry's empty wine glass. It is confusing isn't it?

I guess no words are needed. Either that, or there simply are no words:

Due to busy family schedules, the Arthurs-Smith-Moody-McCann-Henderson-Clarke Family decided to combine Thanksgiving and Christmas and celebrate "thank-mas". Kerry requested we add Halloween, since it is her favourite holiday, and Taryn threw in Cinco-de-Mayo after we caught her drinking margaritas at the event. Just kidding, she wanted to make Mexican foods and we are glad she did, because the snacks were delicious. Anyway, here is a family portrait of the costumes that were donned:

Seems like we all should have picked this one:

Thank-mas-o-ween-de-mayo!

Here is the evolution of the pinata we used to celebrate both the "mas

" and the "de mayo" parts of this, um, 'holiday':

Obviously we have Ian to thank for engineering the suspension part of

this pinata. Jodie, Kerry and I put on several layers before we even discussed how to hang it, and we have heard that suspension is an integral part of all pinat

a celebrations.

Santa, you won't be smiling for long:

Some final touch-ups, because they clearly

really helped.

This is how we suspended it: Ian just held it on the end

of a plant stand:

Sisters:

Ryan:

Scary-Kerry:

Unka Gary:

Daniel:

Aunt Jenny:

And this last picture I just had to post...Daniel narrowly escaped death after one eager pinata participant failed to maintain his grasp on the stick and it flew directly at Daniel's head and put a dent in the steel door behind him. Great reflexes Daniel!

We haven't seen those neon wristies since 1988, or perhaps 2005 when I knit them. Here is Ian putting together some cabinets in our laundry room. Recognize them? Yep, they were removed from our tenant's kitchen, washed up and re-installed. Oh Ikea and your semi-disposable but so simple furniture.

There is my deep freeze! Yayyy! Thanks to the Burgess family who are so generous and always think of Ian and I and our renovation adventures.


So all that's left in this room is to install a better laundry sink, tile the floors, paint the walls, build a giant wine rack, ...OK, apparently there is a lot left to do!

So, fall is here for real and many people have been asking us why we haven't been renovating or blogging. Here are some activities we have been filling our time with:

Making delicious vegetarian sushi

Making delicious vegan cupcakes with mint sticks

hiking

hiking

hiking

hiking

hiking

and more hiking!

South Western Ontario is so beautiful in the fall, and we are both thankful to be so close to some beautiful forests...well, this is the Forest City after all.