My stomach hurts...but I can have dessert

Faith decided that her stomach hurt at the end of supper. (Perhaps it was all those snacks before supper...I know, bad parenting.) The conversation went something like:

F: "Ohhh! My stomach hurts! Ohhh!"
M: "Well, you should go lay down."
F: "Ohhh! But I can still eat dessert. Ohhh!"

Apparently Smarties are medicinal.

Hey lady...our little speed demon

Faith has turned into a speed demon on her bike. We've been taking advantage of the great weather and extra light to walk (me) and ride (her) after supper. I actually have to jog to keep up...luckily she stops for snacks a lot. (She keeps a bag of cheerios on her bike at all times.)

But, not only is she fast now, she can do "tricks". Look ma, no hands! I can ride one-handed!

This leads to waving and saying hi! (I know, Faith saying hi to strangers!) Or, my personal favorite, one hand on the handlebars, one hand waving saying "Hey lady!"

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! :)