This Hallowe'en we had the best weather. It was "no jacket" weather (+15C), so the costumes of Robert and Jakub were well showing while "trick-or-treating". During the day, the kids were having fun with their friends in the leaves. In the evening, Anita (Jakub's girlfriend) and Esteban and Adrian (our neighbourhood friends) came over and we all went out hunting for candy. It was great fun, and Jakub and Robert got two full bags filled with candy and treats... for dinner that night we had chips and candy.

Finally I got my puzzle book published! The Hexa-Trex puzzle book (only $5.95) is available from Nucleus Learning. Thanks and enjoy.

On the long weekend in September, Jenny and John invited us to go canoe camping in La Vérendrye (the Northern Quebec super-park for canoeing / kayaking). We found out that dogs are allowed, so we were happy to go.

To make it a bit more exciting, instead of getting two canoes (one per family) we decided to rent a canoe for ten people, and pack the four adults (Bogusia, Alex, Jenny, and John), two kids (Jakub and Robert) and three dogs (Joxer, Guapa, and Whiskey) plus all our camping gear into this awesomely-huge canoe.

The weekend was awesome. We stayed two nights, and three wonderful days. Our campgrounds were on little islands (only big enough for us), so the dogs ran free, protecting us from the squirrels and mice. The weather was fantastic, the canoeing was great, and we even got to do some fishing. As usual, there was some competition among the two families: Who can cook the better meal, who can catch the bigger fish, who can swim the straightest in open water, who can lose a paddle fastest, who can make the biggest fire... This trip brought us back to our good old days of camping. Definitely the best fun in years!

Finally, I had a moment to write about my great achievement of the Summer: the triathlon. You can check out the results here, but I didn't do as well as I hoped (Overall time: 1:38:15, 159th out of 197 people). The swim turned out to be my worst event (20:34 min - 159th)). Swimming in a large group, trying to plough through 100 other swimmers was tougher than I expected. I did OK on the bike (44:05 min - 170th), but what I messed up on the swim and bike, I made up on the run (33.37 min - 136th)... I passed all the girls in my sight: what an awesome feeling to pass all these people at the end.

Because I think I can do much better on the swim, and if I train more on a bike, I think I can improve my 170th standing on the bike, I am definitely going to do another triathlon... maybe next summer. I'll keep you posted. For now, check out the triathlon slideshow.

Today, as we were shopping for groceries, I looked in the magazine section for the GAMES magazine (October, 2007 issue) to see if my puzzle Hexa-Trex got published... and it has! My Hexa-Trex puzzle is on page 40 of the magazine, and I am thrilled that finally my puzzle has been officially recognized - good enough to publish in a popular games/puzzle magazine. Cool, eh?

For the first time, I have my very own vegetable garden! I put up a mini fence around it so that the dogs can't get in, and we (Jakub and I) planted many vegetables, to try out what works: peas, broad beans, corn, sunflowers, strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, carrots, and radishes.

Also there was a whole bunch of Japanese Mint in the garden already (from the previous owners) - I have no idea what to do with it all... we can only drink so much mint tea, and have so much mint sorbet. Another delight are the wild rasberries growing all around (the ripe fruits are black instead of red, but oh so delicious). We also have lovely flowers around our house (no thanks to me, but thanks to previous owners and great soil/weather).

For his birthday, Alex got tickets to see Cirque du Soleil. We got the tickets for Sunday, July 22, 2007 in Quebec City. Since we moved to Montreal, we haven't ventured to Quebec City, so this was the perfect opportunity to see the beautiful historic city and then catch the afternoon show. The drive (around 2.5h) was not all that picturesque, but once we got there, we were in awe. Quebec City is definitely "The Historic City" to visit in Canada. We really really fell in love with the old buildings, the history and the people.

Then, to top it all off, we got to go see Cirque du Soleil - another Canadian Wonder!

After a hot and full day of site seeing, the kids were a bit tired and restless at the show. Jakub got scared of the clowns from the start, but after the first tricks began, he got right into it, and Robert couldn't take his eyes off the stage, and the magnificent acrobatics, colours and music. However, the second half of the show proved to be too long, and Robert just couldn't stay in his seat anymore. Since it was Alex's birthday present, I volunteered to take Robert outside. So, unfortunately for me, I watched the second part of the show on a tiny monitor outside of the circus tent (this just wasn't the same as being part of the action).

The great weather, the awesome surroundings, and the great show at the end of the day made for a fantastic and gorgeous trip.

Kuba loves to play with other kids, but especially with girls (with long hair, with pretty dresses). His friends include Esteban and his brother Adrian, from two houses down. He also loves all his friends from swimming (Brandon, Chris, Aida, Isabella) and from daycare (Tea, Robert, Gabriella, DeNeige). He made a good friend Gabriel at Art Class. And recently he made some friends at daycamp, especially a girl called Rebecca and a boy named Nicholas. But most of all, above all others, he loves this one girl called Anita (a first crush?). Anita lives on the other side of Montreal, so the drive is long, but oh so worth it. When they get together, the two of them play so well together - not side by side with separate toys, but TOGETHER with the same toys, following each other everywhere. They are seriously madly in love with one another. When he doesn't see Anita for a while, he asks me to call her mom to setup a play date. I don't mind, because I love to see them play so well.