Mahone Bay magic

We spent the first part of the weekend in Mahone Bay and at the cottage. This is one of the busiest weekends of the year in Mahone Bay because it has the scarecrow festival going on as well as the magical pumpkin walk. We had fun walking around checking out all the scarecrows while we waited for darkness to fall so the pumpkin walk could begin. Olan had an absolute blast, I was worried that he wouldn't be able to last because his teachers said he'd been flying high all day with the excitement of the late night pumpkin walk ahead of him. I shouldn't have worried, he didn't fall asleep until just as we turned into the cottage road at 9:30. For those not familiar with the walk, two women in Mahone Bay carve over 200 pumpkins (sans patterns!) and they are arranged all over the place on a little road that goes up behind the three famous churches. It is so magical. It was a warm night, still 21 degrees when we went to bed, and there was a blustery warm wind blowing right in off the ocean. Perfect for a spooky pumpkin walk! The walk culminates in a dead end where there was a HUGE phantom of the opera scarecrow playing an organ, Olan was mesmerized and easily could have stayed there all night!

This one is for Rhiannon, and Isabelle!

Scary witches!

I'm a scarecrow too!

Dinner break at the pub

When darkness falls, he turns into a dragon!

What is Dora doing in Mahone Bay?

Refreshments with Alice...

ROBOTS!

Here we go…

Terry Fox, superhero

The Terry Fox run is a big deal at Olan's new school. Terry's brother came and talked to the kids at Assembly and yesterday they had another special assembly to watch a movie about Terry. Then today, the big run! All of this has had a fantastic impact on Olan, he's been very interested in talking about Terry, who he was and what he did and why it was all so important. After watching the movie yesterday he said to me last night "Terry said that he wasn't special, but he was very special wasn't he mommy".

Last night I made him a special t-shirt to wear today for the run and he was over-the-moon excited when I gave it to him after breakfast today. That's the kind of superhero t-shirt I can deal with.

He did a great job of the run, only stopping "one time on the hill for a rest" and then ran for the duration. They even staged another run in the after school program because the kids had so much fun.

Here he is, *trying* to be patient while I took his picture

Horses, rides and books, oh MY!

What a fun weekend! From the Windsor fall fair with the flashing midway lights and smells of cotton candy to picking out new books and laughing with friends, what a blast we had. One of those weekends when you just look back and smile, and smile and smile, and then stop because your cheeks hurt.

All the carnie loot a kid could wish for!

Riding the Merry-Go-Round, a favourite for sure

Word on the Street 2010. It was a huge success and I was so happy to have been involved this year.

Happy kids with cupcakes and faces painted.

Libby and Olan are at different schools now and were SO happy to be back together, the invincible duo.

So much love and fun with these two!

Olan took the stage in the kids tent and put on a bit of an impromptu show. He was telling me after "everyone was taking pictures of me!". Ahh the life of a star. :)