Merry Christmas

The best part about having a fireplace is hanging stockings at Christmas! Thanks to my brother-in-law for taking our annual family Christmas shot. Hope you're having an excellent holiday season!

Missed but not forgotten

George's grandmother passed away at the beginning of the month at the age of 93. We were able to take the kids to see her, and George, and all of Flossie's children were by her side when she died.

Flossie was a very small woman, but that shouldn't have fooled anyone. She was one tough lady who didn't mince words. She is of that generation of women who had wood stoves and did it ALL by hand. When I came into the family scene, what I remember best about her was the way she laughed and the way she played cards. We would sit around George's kitchen table with buckets of pennies (mine borrowed from George) and play for money. This is how I learned to bet on cards (although not very well).

She will be missed by her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchilden.

Too cool for a good title - pummelvision

Pummelvision takes all the public photos on your flickr photostream (for example), and puts them into a very cool video format...your life flashes before your eyes. Sweeet! And odd that it starts with a gravestone?

Sunday Stills: Pets

The Sunday Stills challenge this week was Pets. And, since we only have fish, and boring ones at that as they are just goldfish (although raised from babies born in our tank!), I decided to use one of my Dad's pets in the photo instead.

My Dad has always loved horses, and we have grown up with many over the years. (I was almost named Megan, except he didn't want his horse, Meg, and his daughter with the same name.) Now, he has a carriage business for weddings and special events, so his love of horses keeps him fairly busy...although the business pretty much pays for his horse habit. As he's always said, "No one ever gets rich owning horses."

For the past few years, Dad has driven his horse and carriage in the town Santa Claus parade, with Santa waving to the kids from the back seat. This year, Faith and Blake got to ride along for the first time, which they were pretty excited about, although for some reason Blake was able to fall asleep in the middle of the parade! He can sleep anywhere (except in his bed at night).

So, here's the official picture of Sheba, just one of my Dad's many "pets":

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!

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?

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.

Happy 60th Birthday!

My mom turned 60 last week, so we celebrated with a big party organized by my Dad, with some last minute decorating help from my Aunt and I, and some strategic wine testing by my husband and brothers [guest edit by George].
The party was supposed to be a surprise but, as most people know, my Dad can't keep a secret worth a damn. So, the cat was out of the bag about a month ago. (We KNEW he wouldn't be able to hold it in.)
Despite the lack of surprise, the party was still a big success. About 65 friends and family had a buffet meal to celebrate while sipping [chugging] punch and Erie Shores wine.
For entertainment, the grandkids did a little poem for Gramma as well, written by Faith. Each of the kids got to hold up a decorated letter that stood for one word, and they either said (or had help saying):
G reat
R eally fun
A rtistic
M agnificent
M arvellous\
Y oung (ish)

Happy Birthday Mom! (More party pictures...) (And Happy Anniversary to the parents - 39 years on Saturday.)

Catching up on some birthday wishes

September was a bit of a crazy month, so I'm a little bit behind on the blog postings.

We had a couple of family birthdays in September. First, we attended a kid-tastic birthday party for my nephew, who turned 5 this year. The party was at one of those indoor play gyms where the kids can run around like crazy for 2 hours. Somehow we fit in snacks and cupcakes. The birthday boy actually doesn't like cake, so he ate cucumbers instead. (If you're a parent, this means you get to have a certain smug smile on your face when you say, "He hates cake, but he loves vegetables!")



The next birthday was my brother, Duncan. He's a year younger than I am, so I won't be revealing his age. But, as you can see from the picture, you can tell that Faith comes by the red hair naturally. (And, you'd be surprised how often I can say, "Faith gets her red hair from my brother" without getting some really odd looks.)

Eager subjects

I've been taking a picture a day for 335 (!) days now, so I like to torture the kids into photo sessions on a fairly regular basis. Unfortunately, I don't usually get as much cooperation as I did today. Either that, or I'm getting better at herding them in front of the lens. I didn't even have to bribe them with candy on this one.

I was very happy with the results, especially after applying some secrets that Curtis taught us at a recent photo gang get together. :) The only negative was that Faith found out the hard way she has some sort of allergy to the grass she's sitting under in the first photo. She was playing in the leaves, and ended up with a rash on her arms. Suffering for my art...sorry sweetheart!

A very hot horse show

A couple of weeks ago, the kids spent the week at Grampa and Gramma's house. Faith's been doing this since she was three, but it was Blake's first time. (Our house was eerily quiet while they were gone.) The week culminated in a horse show where we reunited.

It was a 40 degree day in the hot sun, but the we all survived -- with ribbons! Faith competed in the lead line class, walk, trot class, costume class and the grandparent driving class. She did miss her driving class due to scheduling changes, which she was not happy about. The kid  has a competitive streak. Anyway, here are a series of pictures from the day.

Lead line class with Indigo (Sydney's mare -- and Sydney's hat)...



This was my Dad's first show with Stormy, and she's already peaked. She won a grand prize for best something or other (my brain was melting, so I can't quite remember).



Blake even got to compete in the "stick pony" class. We didn't know you had to bring our own pony though, so we had to do a little improvising. When you've got a great-grandma, a gramma, and a mom together, you can do anything. Great-grandma donated her cane, my mom found Blake's stuffed dinosaur in the car, and I whipped off my pony tail elastic to strap it to the top of the cane. Presto! Stick pony.



It was ingenuity, and Blake's innate ability, that won him the class. First prize and $5. He bought us all timbits afterwards. :)



Faith rode Indigo again in the walk, trot, class, which she won. I'm not sure who was happier, Faith or Sydney, who was excited  to see Indigo so well-behaved for Faith. (Notice, no bit either!)



And, here's Sydney in one of her classes. Indigo and Sydney both got a big workout that day.



It was a great day seeing the family (great-grands, great-aunt, parents, etc., etc.) and watching everyone compete. More photos.

Ice cream in sweaters

It was an odd week with the hubby gone on a business trip. We were crazy busy, as per normal, but with one less person around to share in the craziness. The kids were actually really good and didn't torture me too much in the mornings. This is normally George's domain, so I really have no idea what goes on after I leave the house at 6:30. But, both of them got up and dressed and breakfasted with relative ease. Kids know when not to push their luck I guess.

As a treat on Thursday, we had supper and then walked down to the ice cream place. Believe it or not, we had to wear sweaters as it was a relatively chilly evening for August. It did help when eating ice cream--everyone could eat it before it melted all over our hands. Even Blake came through relatively clean!  And, I've also figured out that he's outgrown most of his warm clothes. The sweatshirt he's wearing is about 2 inches short in the arms. A cold snap in August has to be good for two things: non-melty ice cream and a pre-school size check.

Rose of Sharon

Everything in our yard has gone crazy with growth this year. The grass is lush, the bushes have fingers of light green, new-growth branches sprouting from every angle, and even the annuals we planted (which I notoriously kill), have many, many blossoms. The weather has been perfect for growing - warm and rainy just when we need it.

But the plant that always makes me happiest to see every year is my Rose of Sharon. It's a gorgeous pink color that blooms at the beginning of August, just when, in a normal year, everything else is browning off.

I especially love the Rose of Sharon because it reminds me of my maternal Grandmother. She had a huge bush growing outside her house. I tried in vain to get a transplant from this bush to grow at our old house, with no luck. We're just on the edge of the climate zone that a Rose of Sharon can really thrive in, and my gardening philosophy of benign neglect didn't really help.

But, this one, which I got at a local greenhouse two years ago, is thriving in the spot next to the house. It's protected, with just enough sun and water, and blooms beautifully. And, each time I look at it I think of my grandmother.

Staycation: The Zoo

We've been talking about going to the TO Zoo for the last three years. Finally--finally!--we scheduled a date and did it. The weather was sunny, and hot, but we missed all the rain and thunderstorms that have been plaguing us this week.

After surviving the TO traffic mess that is the 401, we arrived at the zoo around 10:30. The parking lot was just filling up. It was a pit stop of backpacks, strollers and sunscreen. ("You're not going to the zoo unless I put on your sunscreen!" Lather, rinse, repeat.) We made sure everyone had hats before we set out--bright, shiny purple and blue for the girls and orange for Blake. Best decision of the day. We could always pick out the kids from the crowd.

We saw all the usual suspects at the zoo, although the butterflies were a little unexpected. This one landed on George's hat and hung out for awhile:

The weather was a little hot for the animals (human and otherwise), but we did get to see elephants, orangutangs, white-handed gibbons (my personal favourite), snakes, lizards, turtles, lions, zebras, giraffes, tigers, and hippos, which is what George is showing Blake:

Zoos are definitely good places to learn about Mother Nature in all her glory. Blake explained before we went that we would see lots of women's "bo-bos" while were there. (I'll have to defer to George's observations on this one.) Then, as we were looking at the giraffe, he loudly pointed out, "He has a penis Mommy!" A true learning experience.

The highlight for Faith and Cordelia was the Sharks and Stingrays exhibit. You actually got to pet the stringrays as they were gliding around a giant pool. George and I were both sure that Blake would love this exhibit too, but not so much. Cordelia and Faith were completely into petting the stingrays (the barbs were filed down, so no danger), but Blake thought the whole thing was way too scary. And, when the sting ray splashed him with water, the whole thing went to hell. (Stingrays feel like wet rubber, in case you ever wanted to know.)

After sting rays, we spent what amounted to the GDP of a small country on ice cream for all of us (a bribe to calm the nerves of the little dude). Then we were off to see the polar bears, thinking that this would be a good way to "cool" down in the afternoon. Not so much. Apparently the polar bears don't rate air conditioning. They just hang out in the shade.

After that it was back to the car to head home at 3:00 before the traffic got out of control. To be honest, it was long enough at the zoo. The kids were ready to go, and when we got back to the car, it seemed like everyone else had the same idea--lots of empty spots around us.

We enjoyed the zoo, although I did have that uncomfortable feeling when we went through many of the exhibits. Perhaps the tiny environmentalist in me wondering if zoos were really the best place for all these animals. Seeing Polar Bears in 35 degree weather just didn't seem right. But, as George pointed out, many of the animals were safer here than being hunted in the wild. Still...

If you're interested, more Zoo Pictures are posted on my flickr photostream.

Staycation: The Science Centre

I took this past week off to hang out with the kids, and do some activities we've been talking about but haven't had the chance to do based on time or age (Blake's, not mine).

On Monday, we hit the Ontario Science Centre. I haven't been to the Science Centre since I was in high school. And, on that visit, we spent most of the time hanging out in the cafeteria telling funny jokes and laughing our asses off. Not so much with the enlightenment, but definitely fun.

This time, we met George's brother's family, and his cousin's family to do a tour that started with the Harry Potter exhibit. All of us are fairly big fans, so it was a good chance to see the costumes and props used in the movies up close and personal. And, I must say, it was very cool seeing Hagrid's huge costume, Dolores Umbridge's sickeningly pink, confectionary suits, and the surprisingly small sizes of the costumes for the kids -- hard to believe they were that young when this whole franchise started.

After being suckered into $4 chocolate frogs for the kids in the gift shop, we had lunch and then headed out to see the rest of the Science Centre. A particular favourite was the cave, where the kids decided to hide in the nooks and crannies:

Faith and her cousin, Ava

Wyatt, Blake, and Nathan

Other highlights included the examples of snot, complete with a simulated sneeze, and the Kids area where they ran around like maniacs. I decided to keep the kids at the centre after the others left so we could see the Under the Sea IMAX picture. Stunning - even though Blake fell asleep half-way through. (No, we didn't see any sharks in the movie, in case he asks.) The nap was good though, so the kids could keep going through the rest of the exhibits, including the Science Arcade, where they got to pretend to drive, learn about leverage, and have fun with mirrors:

Faith & Cordelia

We ended the day with a trip to Swiss Chalet to refuel before the trip home. Faith learned she liked Caesar Salad (thanks to Cordelia), and Blake charmed the waitress by handing him her plate at the end of the meal.

The trip home was uneventful (the best you can ask for with TO traffic). We got home exhausted but very happy with the whole experience.

The long weekend

I took an extra long weekend -- Thursday to Sunday -- so we had time to do some fun family stuff. And, we even got to sleep in a couple of times (as in slept past 6:30 am).

Canada Day itself was very low key, which is my ideal. The next day, however, I decided that it was time to make a little bit of history and take Blake to the movies for the first time. I'd avoided this until now because, although he does enjoy movies, he's also one active kid. I was a little worried I'd have to chase him around the theatre.

We decided to make it a first for all of us and went to see a 3D movie, Toy Story 3. I splurged for kiddie snacks for the kids, and adult snacks for me, so the whole thing cost us the GDP of a small country, but it turned out to be totally worth it. Blake sat up on a booster seat with his popcorn and drink tray on his lap, and his 3D glasses on his nose, looking completely like a grown-up little guy. The movie started late, which worked out well for strategic washroom breaks, AND we got free passes to another movie. Worth the extra 15 minutes.

When the previews came on, all in 3D, Faith leaned over and said, "This is COOL." I leaned over a few minutes later and said, "This is VERY cool." Blake said nothing the whole time, except for laughing. Toy Story 3 was probably the best of the bunch, and had a three-hankie ending (adults only, kids thought it was fun). As soon as the credits rolled, however, Blake was done. Cute extras in the credits? Who cares!

That was our Friday afternoon. Saturday afternoon was another adventure, this time with my brother and his family. They have a new camper and were on their inaugural voyage. The kids played at the beach, and generally ran around like shiny, happy people.

For supper, we had the traditional cookout of burgers and hotdogs, with marshmallows for dessert. Faith was in charge of marshmallow production - burned or brown. I think we went through about 40 of them. Crunchy, soft, warm, gooey, goodness.

Jordyn didn't get to eat marshmallows, but I think she was drooling just at the smell.

We ended the evening with fireworks over the lake. Quite the show actually, for a small campground. It was these two guys out on a raft in the middle of the lake lighting up the fireworks. A little too close to explosives for me....and we did see them jump out of the way a few times when some of they exploded a little too soon.

We rolled the kids into the car at 11:00 and headed out, two kids passed out in the back, and the soothing tones of the GPS guiding us back home.

A good day for a parade

On the May long weekend, Faith again participated in the Parade of Horses at an historic site near my parents' farm. I'm not sure if Faith or my dad was more excited about it. The main idea of the parade is to show off various breeds of horses to the crowds that attend the event. People can get up close to the horses, talk to the owners, and see the horses in action in a show ring.

This year, 13 breeds were on display, including my dad's Morgan horse, Suzie. Faith's job was to ride Suzie in the show ring. They prepped Suzie and did some practice runs around the site, figuring out along the way that one stirrup was about 30 cms longer than the other! After they got this all fixed up, they were ready to go.

Faith rode western this time (different saddle for the non-horse lovers), and was completely at home in the ring. Dad had to lead her around the ring according to the rules...if you're under 12, you have to be on a lead line. The whole fan-damn-ily showed up to watch on the gorgeous day. And I took about a million pictures. I was so darn proud of her.

We couldn't stick around for the whole parade, because, as usual on our trips to my parents', it was a jam-packed schedule. But, we did get to see my brother's friend, Kyle, bring in a gorgeous pair of horses he's been training:

The owner of the horses rode with him in the ring (and yes, Kyle took this BIG setup through a very crowded site and made it look easy):

And they did some fancy tricks...

The mist in the background was a little strange though. We were next to Lake Erie, and it was a clear, blue day when we showed up. But, over the course of half an hour, a thick mist formed on the lake and rolled into the site. It was like the setup to a bad horror movie. But the eery mist was no match for the sun, and the show carried on.

Mother's Day starts at midnight

As is normally the case when you have a three-year-old and a nine-year-old in the house, you're always going through a transition of some sort. In our case, Blake is transitioning from a daily afternoon nap to no nap at all. Mention this to any parent of a kid who's no longer napping, and you automatically get a look of sympathy. It's also a short-form excuse of sorts when we're out in the afternoons now and he has some sort of meltdown in a store. I just have to look slightly apologetic as I throw him under my arm and say, "He's not napping anymore."

So, this transition means that my normal afternoon nap on the weekends has been severely curtailed. Yesterday, I told George that all I wanted for Mother's Day was a nap. I should have kept my big mouth shut. Add to this the message I left on our friends' answering machine telling them we'd have Faith's birthday party on Monday night so we could have a peaceful day of doing nothing on Sunday. How could I have cursed myself so?

Yes, this year Mother's Day began at midnight when Blake woke up crying and struggling with his breathing. Croup. A fairly bad attack of it for him actually. George took him right out to the porch wrapped in a blanket and the cold night air helped straighten out his breathing almost immediately. (Thank you cold snap!) I'm not sure why it works, but I'm glad it does. Then, it was a call to TeleHealth (thank you Mike Harris...did I just type that?) to get a second opinion. Yes, we were doing the right things, and were to visit a doctor within 24 hours.

Blake spent the night in our room, in case of another attack, so I spent the night listening to his wheezing and George's snoring - a symphony to be sure. And, when 7:00 rolled around, who jumped out of bed completely refreshed and declared, "I'm all better now!" I can tell you it wasn't George and I.

But, as it was Mother's Day, the kids and George headed downstairs, and Faith brought me a bagel and juice in bed. I even got to read a little bit. Quite heavenly actually. The kids had made me cards and Faith created a paper-mache bowl, while Blake gave me a sparkly-painted tulip. George got me a card and my favourite chocolates, which promptly went into the new bowl to be shared.

Then we got back to real life. I took Blake to the on-call doctor, who told me he was fine now, and gave him a puffer for his next croup attack. Then, on to the grocery store/pharmacy to pick up said puffer, where all the other mom's were also out doing their shopping today.

Finally, back at the ranch, I headed up to bed for my now completely non-optional, I'm-going-to-fall-flat-on-my-face-I'm-so-tired nap. Blake crawled into bed with me and we both blacked out for an hour until Faith nudged me awake to make her birthday cake for tomorrow.

Yes, just another day of motherhood.

Now, here's to my two best mother's day presents....

A family of fractions

Faith is working on fractions at the moment, and had to write about our family using, what else? Fractions. Here it is:

Half of my human family are boys. A third of my family are girls. A forth of my family are mamals. One fifth person in my family is an animal that lives under water. 3 out of 5 people in my family have curly hair. One fifth in my family has a tail. 4 fourths like to swim. 1 fifth likes to build dinosaur traps.

Yes, she included our fish in the family. Who else would have a tail? I leave you to figure out who builds the dinosaur traps.