Isabella's 3rd Birthday

Yesterday we had Isabella's 3rd birthday party. Grandma and Stephanie came over from England for it and there were lots of other guests. All of Isabella's cousins came: Aletta, Aarne, Ellen, Lilian and Karin. And a couple of Bella's friends, Natu and Olivia, came. A lot of fun was had and there were lots of presents and cake!

Lovely photos by Irena

On a slightly chilly Saturday morning a week ago Bella and I headed over to my friend Irena's house to take Bella's annual photos. She does such a lovely job and I am truly thankful to have her in our lives (not only for the photos of course). She captures Isabella so well and she has the patience to wait until the moment is right (or to take enough so that the good ones are in them). The photos that were taken at her daycare this year were not good at all. It was hard to pick which ones we should buy! It shouldn't be hard to get a parent to like a photo of their child! So I was especially thankful that Irena could take these photos. I hope you like them as much as I do!

Happy Thankso'ween

Two Canadian holidays are quite close together- Thanksgiving and Halloween. So when the Finnish-Canadian Society that I am the Chair of here in Finland decided to celebrate the holidays we knew that we wouldn't be able to gather people for two separate occasions. So on October 24th we smooshed them together and celebrated Thankso'ween! It was great. A large turkey dinner with people dressed up in costumes. Great fun was had by all and we all left with big full bellies.

They also had some face painting at the mall...Bella chose the lovely purple horse. And our fellow Canadian friend Kristina and her son Max brought us a couple of pumpkins that she grew in her own garden here in Finland...this is what we did to them!