Mmmmm...maple syrup

On Saturday, F--, C-- and I set out on an adventure to witness maple syrup production, pet baby farm animals, and eat pancakes. We travelled to McCullys Farm, just outside of St. Mary's, where we got to travel on a horse drawn wagon through the sugar bush. We saw all the buckets of sap being collected, as well as the huge, wood stove where they boiled the sap down to make the syrup. This was all quite interested to the girls, although even more interested was the cat that came along for the ride. He looked just like Boots (C--'s cat) but without a tail (a manx, as C-- informed me).

Then, we got to see a barn full of baby animals -- pigs goats, lambs, bunnies. There were also chickens, ducks, miniature ponies, and a rather sad looking donkey. Very Eeyore-like. The girls were most fascinated, however, by the new baby lambs that were born a couple hours before we got there. It was live and in-color, including the afterbirth, which they found mesmerizing. They got to pet the baby goat, lamb, horse, and the "favourite", a baby bunny. F-- was great because she went up and pet each animal.

Afterwards, we had pancakes, maple sausage and maple baked beans, drenched in maple syrup. Yummy.

Once the girls were suitably reved up on sugar, we went into Stratford to pick out W--'s first birthday present at Family and Company, a very cool toy store. They have selling down to an art there. The staff walk around demonstrating the toys, and anytime the kids touch something, the staff person shows them how to play with the toy. A fun place for kids, and I escaped by just buying the girls a 50 cent pink, stretchy lizard. :)

The funniest part of the day was the ride home. C-- states from teh back seat, "Countdown to a toot. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Toot. And a real stinker too. :) Her parents were suitably impressed by their daughter's talents when I recounted the incident.

Taxes...a kid's perspective

G-- was reading F-- her bedtime story on Friday night -- The Queen Who Stole the Sky. The Queen charges the people in the land taxes. F-- asked what taxes were. G-- explained that the we give money to the government for our hospitals, schools, to fix the roads and so on. F-- thought about it or a minute and then said, "So they steal it."

Out of the mouths of babes.

Sunday - in Lent but not of Lent

So, G-- and I have given up our various vices for Lent. He gave up alcohol and I gave up sweets (yes, chocolate too!). but, the silver lining in this for us is that Sundays are "in Lent not of of Lent". In other words, as G-- said, "I'm going to spend Sunday's completely blitzed." :)

Grandparents Day

It was Grandparents Day yesterday at F--'s JK class. Gramma and Grampa M-- came up for the event, which included crafts, a gift, and cupcakes made be the JKs. (F-- ate two...well one and a half and Grampa got the other half.)

Gramma stayed on at the class for the whole morning (F-- wouldn't let her leave). Then they got to go out to Tim Horton's for "the usual"--bagel with strawberry cream cheese, NOT toasted, chocolate milk, and a chocolate and a vanilla timbit. While sitting in Tim's, a guy with a shaved head, earrings, and lots of muscles sat down next to them. F-- thought this very strange and leaned over to whisper in Gramma's ear, "Gramma, that man has earrings!" At least she whispered.

They also hit the Dollar Store in town, where F-- "cuted" her way into a new doll, a bracelet, hair bands, and hair ties. When I asked why the new doll, Grampa said, "Well, she looked at the dolls and said 'How cute!', and what could I do?" Sucker! :)

We also had a nice fish dinner last night in honour of Ash Wednesday. I pretty much smothered the fish in cheese, tomatoes, onions, and garlic so they were well hidden, and G-- and I actually at them.

Mom and I got started on her Australia/New Zealand trip scrapbook. Soooo many pictures (and soooo many stories for Dad to tell). :)

The Apple Dumpling Gang

It's been a little crazy around here for awhile, so I've been woefully bad at keeping up with the blog.

Last weekend, F-- and I headed home to hear stories about Mom and dad's trip to Australia and New Zealand. We didn't hear all 60 hours of Dad's new stories, but we got a good start on it.

G-- survived the two days without us. He's totally swamped with work as TAX SEASON is now here. As F-- says, "Poor daddy."

This weekend, I introduced F-- to the movie "The Apple Dumpling Gang" (an old Disney movie with Don Knotts and Tim Conway). I remembered really liking this movie when I was a kid, so I picked it up from the library. At first she thought it was pretty boring. Then she asked to watch it again. :)

Today, we watched the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. At the point where they were talking about the summer Olympics in China, F-- smirked and said, "Mommy, they said a bad word on TV."

"What?" I asked.

"They said China!" she replied.

It took me a second to clue in. "No, they said China...that's a country. You're thinking of va-gina."

What a kid! :)

Jesus and easter eggs

Faith's latest thought: "If Jesus died at Easter, he didn't get any Easter eggs."

Mmmmmm.

A whirlwind holiday season

OK...we survived the holidays!

The big news for our holiday was the big trip to Florida to see G's parents with P and K, and the kids. Yes, we survived with 4 adults and 3 kids on a 29 hour road trip. Lots of DVDs, coloring, books, and frequent pit stops helped!

Florida itself was great. Mom stuffed us full of food (but we didn't gain 7 lbs this time, unlike our last trip!). Dad showed off his ability to blow up balloons using his air compressor. The girls also extracted a promise from him to bring up the RV in the summer to go camping again. They cornered him while he was trying to take a nap.

It was definitely strange having Christmas in Florida...no snow on the 25th, and walking around in shorts. And of course, swimming on Christmas Day. Strange but definitely nice.

The girls had a fun time playing with each other...there was much squealing and playing with dolls.

The kids even left out hay and carrots for the reindeer on Christmas Eve (thanks Dad!), and cookies for Santa. They got a huge kick out of this. Santa liked the cookies, and was good to everyone and showered the kids, as usual, with presents (as did mom and dad).

We had a great time and enjoyed the break from the normal cold, snowy Christmas.