There is so much to smile about

Dark clouds fill part of the sky over my head, and yet, there is indeed so much to smile about.

Oh what a beautiful morning........
You are my sunshine
Skinamarinkydink, skinamarinkydoo, I ...
I love you, You love me, We're a happy...
Repeat

Sex education

If you have been following the news in Ontario, then you will know that our Premier got himself into a bit of a jam last week. Wisely (I believe), he quietly approved changes in the provincial curriculum that brought "sex ed" into the 21st century - you know, the century with access to porn on devices you can hold in your palm while waiting for the bus / girls twittering about their body parts or exposing them on FB / pop songs that tell us to hit the girl one more time (oh, that was last century). We all know that sexualisation of society and children is rampant and that most kids don't have reliable role models to help them understand that there are other ways to attract attention than dressing in lingerie and gyrating one's hips or wearing the tightest of jeans and pushing a girl on to a bed.

Anway, our Premier got caught with his pants down (couldn't help it) and despite 2 years of professional and public consultations, it took him only 2 days to pull the plug. Back to the drawing board.

Why?

Because Grade Ones (6/7 year olds) shouldn't be taught the correct terminology for all of their body parts (ask Sophie, she can teach that class; however, she might need a more anatomically correct doll; this one seems to be the cardiac care version).



Why?

Grade 3s (8/9) shouldn't be allowed to know that there are different family compositions (Sophie can teach that class too with her friend Bruno, as well as her wonderful clang-clang aunties and two of her favourite uncles).

You still need to be persuaded?

Well, Grade 6s (11/12) shouldn't be taught that humans are sensual (I am aware that some of you followers have sensitive ears and/or wild imaginations and that one of you is my partner's grandmother!).

As you can imagine, my other half was tying himself in knots as to what he can and can't say at his job. There is also a bet on as to which of his colleagues can get the Premier to utter certain words.

But getting back to the raison d'etre of this blog - our kids - it was a day off school for Sebastian today and his dad offered to take him to work. Seb had longed for this day (mostly b/c his little sister had got to go before him).

(You can see how excited he is by squishing up his eyes)

His father had ulterior motives. You see, there is some fundraiser coming up for which spoof interviews and such are created. Co-workers wanted to tease the Leader of the Opposition, who had opposed the changes stating (amongst other things) that six year olds shouldn't be learning these things because they have better things to do like learn to tie their shoelaces. Well, Seb got his chance to be 'on tv' when he was coached to say "Mr X, I'm 6 and I already know how to tie my shoes".

It's pretty fun at Dad's workplace - plus there was tv - only one channel but loads of it!

What a lovely day

Take a trip to one of our favourite literary locations in this city, add in a stop at the city's largest indoor market, and then throw in a 2 1/2 hour ramble in one of the city's ravines and you've got a great day.



He got up there all on his own

Riding our pony, Clarabel.

Playing hookey

I took Sebastian to see Le petit Nicolas on Thursday. It was during school hours and so he played hookey. But it was in French and was the only showing available at the kids film festival. We had a great time riding the TTC subway, bus and streetcar there and back, enjoying both the movie and a "small" (kill your bank account) popcorn together.

On arriving at school in time for lunch, the vice-principal signs him in.
Seeing Seb's cheeky face, she says light-heartedly: "You have something to tell me, Sebastian. What is it?"

"I was at a movie!... in French"

Her face sunk and she didn't say anything more to either of us. I had told him not to rub his hookey-time in the face of classmates, but I kinda had meant the whole school. Whoops. But in a way, it was very "Nicolas".

If you thought stealing a stroller was bad....

About a week later, the same thief (we presume) came back to our porch to steal our wooden, children’s easel. I kid you not.

Now we are wondering if he/she/they have nocturnal plans to heave away our extremely heavy wooden and metal porch bench! If so, I hope it gives them a hernia.

Shadow love

It has been a very dry spring. Every predicted rain cloud seems to evaporate. So we are watering our new plants and enjoying the fresh basil while we can - and trying to remember the bring the pots in at night as it is still dipping lowwwwwwww.

New technology

Telegenic or what!

Worms

Seb helps out with a post on the blog:

We have been digging in the garden since yesterday. And we have collected 11 worms. Our neighbour Andrew and his cousin Jake have helped us. The person who has started helping us getting the worms is Jake.

I have kept them overnight in a gardening pot with earth. They were still alive this morning when I took the photos.

We are planning to make a good home for them today, while we plant some herbs and flowers in the sunshine. Mum says our crocii (?) survived the -1 night.

His other favourite photos

Sebastian's favourite photo

Freckle alert!

Here you can clearly see girlfriend's freckles across the bridge of her nose. They come in spurts every other day that she is in the sun.

(Don't worry about the hands. It's food colouring from the easter egg exercise)
(Do worry - if you are that sort of person - that her blonde hair is darkening. It's pretty clear here but then again, the sun brings freckles and hair-lightening and sunburns....)

The sweet pizza contest

Our friend Chris had said - right here on the blog - that his sister-in-law Alison (also our friend) made a 'mean' dessert pizza. So the competition was on.

Suffice to say that we 'won' in the chocolate category and Alison 'won' in the vanilla one. But the real winners were all the friends and family members who got to sample as much as they wanted of each!

April kicks off with a heat wave

Yup, he is sunbathing on the sidewalk. (I proceeded to wash the towel)

Readying for Easter long weekend

Carrie suggested that she decorate eggs with the children for Easter. And so Thursday afternoon, Alison and her two young 'uns came over and there was great dipping and swirling and dying, plus snacking on yummy cupcakes and fruit. The end results - both the egg tree and the dyed hands - were spectacular. We have now taken the egg tree to the front porch to welcome everyone (including the thief who stole our SUV stroller from the front porch on Tuesday night...).






The Carrie we know and love.

Seb was playing with the colour balance but it is still a great shot of his sister.