As usual, the first half of October was gorgeous and sunny. We spent every second outside that we could.

Harvesting the apple tree. This photo makes me smile. Art picking apples. Mattias checking out the strawberries and Noah babbling to James in the bouncy seat.



Playing “Lady and the Tramp” with dad.

And with Opa.

After making apple sauce, which went remarkably well, I decided to also make apple pie filling. I was too ambitious. It ended with me in a tizzy, a kitchen in such a mess that even my husband remarked on it, a screaming baby and 2 little boys that were testing my patience. Let’s not do that again with a 9 week old baby, okay? But it started out quite well as evidenced by the photos. Mattias the perfect picture big helper. He peeled nearly all the apples for me.



Noah preferred to supervise.


It’s too bad that I don’t have photos of the aftermath.
A day out with Opa & Oma V at Bear Creek Park in Surrey.




There are times when Art wishes he were 5 again.


Opa & Oma V.


Proof that my father is goofy.

Self timer shot.

Noah had a field trip with his class to the pumpkin patch. Despite the rain and cold, the kids had a good time.

Three friends checking out pumpkins.

James is in the jolly jumper. Nearly 3 months old.

Lego bonding on Sunday. Mattias’ request fulfilled: firetruck with ladder.

October 31st. 1:30 AM. We woke up to our tenant’s phone call. “Can I please use your front door because there is a pile of water at the entrance of my door and if I open the door, it will pour into the basement.” Art mumbled something to me about water and went out to meet him.

Long story short, the basement in our home was flooding. The water was bubbling up like a water fountain where it should have been draining and then seeping into our house through any path it could find.

It was pouring out. It was pitch black outside. We have all of 4 streetlights over the span of our street. And water was running down our street like a river. A 3 foot wide river. It was clear to us that the backup was somewhere in the city main.

At 4:30 in the morning, the rain had subsided. The water was no longer pouring into our house and against every fiber in my body, we went to bed.

The next morning, the plumber came. The insurance company came. The city came. We drank a lot of coffee and so began the saga that is now our basement flood / renovation project.

The plumber put a scope down the lines to see if there was a blockage.

Our sump was full at the time of flooding. This is where it normally should be.

That evening, Art took the boys trick-or-treating. It was raining hard. They went to about 5 houses and came back with SO MUCH CANDY. Noah lining up his stash and teaching Mattias sorting methods.