Sunday Stills: Profile Pic

This week, the Sunday Stills challenge was a little different. First off, I didn't have to take the picture! And it was to be a profile pic. But, it did have to be with my own camera. So, I asked my photo friend, the very talented Colin, to help out. We actually did this at work in one of our meeting rooms with lots of natural light. Thanks Colin! It was very weird to be in front of the camera instead of behind it, but it was fun.

Dad: Happy Birthday!

My "old man" is another year older today, so I thought I'd pull out a picture from the archives. Happy Birthday Dad!

Sunday Stills: High tech/low tech

The challenge this week was a little more complex: high tech/low tech. You had to photograph something that showed a high tech solution with its accompanying low tech solution. I thought this would be a hard one, and then I looked at my ereader, and I had my subject.

I was a skeptic of ereaders for quite awhile, being a die hard reader of books. (My first novel was Anne of Green Gables, at age 5.) But my friend, January, converted me to the dark side. And once you're there, you can't go back. Having all my books in my purse, at the ready for any spare moment, has been a revelation.

A good day for a parade

We packed up the kids and went to watch the Santa Clause parade today, featuring Faith and George (Santa too)! George is co-chair of the Kof C Toy Drive for the region, so he normally takes Faith in the parade with him to help with the collection.

The weather was pretty much perfect this year - a little sun, just cold enough. Allyson and I took the rest of the kids (successfully fitting three kids' seats in the back of our Escape). We met up with Karen, Cordelia and William and headed to our spot across from the hospital. Free parking at the church, and lots of grass for the kids to roll around on waiting for the parade to start. And, a Tim Horton's across the street at the hospital. Perfect location.

I nominated myself for the Tim's run. The lineup was daunting, but I made it back out of the hospital just as the parade was getting to our spot. With the kids cheering me on, I hoofed it with a tray of hot drinks and made it across the street without spilling a drop.

The kids drank hot chocolate and juice, ate timbits and collected a fistful of candy canes as they watched planes, dogs, horses, singers, bands, grinches, and more go by.



George and Faith were at the beginning of the parade, collecting the buckets of coin donations for the toy drive. They ended up with a truck full of toys, although financial donations were down 40% this year. Not sure why yet. So, they'll have some work to do to make up for the shortfall.


And the kids got to wave at Santa as he finished off the parade. (Again, with me hoofing it across the street so we wouldn't miss the big guy after I took Blake to the bathroom.)

A good way to spend a Saturday morning.

Happy 3rd Birthday Logan!

A special occasion this week - my niece's 3rd birthday! We celebrated with chocolate cake, ice cream, and wine (for the adults) on Thursday evening. Logan was her normal adorable, and intelligent, self. (The kid sounds like she's been in school for 5 years already.) She's already registered for JK next fall...where did the time go?

Sunday Stills: Teacups

The Sunday Stills challenge this week, Teacups, was an easy one for me. I've got a little collection of teacups in my front hall that are "for looking at", but my favourite teacups are the ones I actually drink out of of. I've shown one of them in the blog before, but in this case, I decided to showcase half the set - they are red, black, and green, two of each. And, I swear they make tea taste better. Plus, they are dishwasher safe! Perfection!




For more teacups, check out the Teacups series on my flickr stream.

Sunday Stills: Meal time

The challenge this week was "Meal time". The idea was to take a picture that involved at least three different foods. For some reason I wasn't on the ball this week and forgot about the challenge until Friday.

But, again, the cameraphone came to the rescue when the kids and I hit Boston Pizza for lunch with Karen, Cordelia, and William on Saturday. My quesadilla, salsa, and salad qualifies for three different foods (and more if you count all the ingredients. :) And, yummy too.

A request for Happy Halloween photos

At the request of Gramma, I am posting some happy halloween photos instead of the sad one I posted on Sunday. :)

OK...maybe not happy, but having fun pretending to be a "Dragon Pirate". Arrgghh maties!



And, here's our happy witch:



And here's the, mostly, happy crew. Jordyn was not into being Frankenstein at all. Although I find it amusing that it looks like Logan is trying to pull her head off -- an appropriate activity for a dragon. So, we had two dragons and two pirates (including costume mashups) a witch, and frankenstein. An excellent representation.