Reasons why we will still love Family Day

There will still be cotton candy, Grandma's low leftie throw, a chance to play "child soldier" (yay!) and Westmount Park's playground.

Now there are some outifts!

Sophie is quite particular about her clothes these days. She will argue with you in the mornings, change clothes two or three times in the day, look longingly at anything sparkly. So it's a treat when she just gets caught up in the dress-up box.



Here she has a hard hat, water shoes and backpack on.

Heading to Westmount's Family Day

This is our third straight Westmount Family Day (in the neighbourhood of Montreal where my folks live). When the grandparents visited us in Toronto back in February, Grandad mentioned that they were canceling the blow-up bouncy castles as they consumed so much electricity and were non-environmental. Seb was shocked. Why not just reduce them to one? he asked. Nope. So ever since, he has stated that we MUST go for the last hurrah.

So it doesn't matter that his school fete is today too and tomorrow is Sophie's first social event at her new school and that Mum is traveling and that Grandad is still in hospital convalescing. Nope. Dad please drive us up the 401 and down this weekend!

And so they did!

Part of my sunshine

Her cheer can overcome anything; whirling the blues away and dragging you off on a merry dance.

Daddies do 'dos too

Sophie will not - just not - keep hair clips, barrettes, elastics, hair bands in her hair. So I bribed her. If the 2 barrettes stay in her hair - and don't end up in her bin at daycare - until she returns home, she will get a "treat". They were still outside the house, when the first one mysteriously started to slide. Daddy fixed it on the 4th try.

Sophie is...

the big-eyed girl with messy hair. I sometimes think that Sophie's head of hair is actually two sets of hair glued on to one scalp. The front 1/3 is relatively straight and blonde. The back 2/3s however are darkening brown, wildly messy curls and ALWAYS untidy.

Another great Sunday

Our middle day of the (sort of) long weekend was filled with hosing each other down, BBQing, modeling the new (to us) summer fashions which include some snazzy sandals for Seb - that have holes in the soles for breathing (he tells everyone), a quick trip to a) Home Depot & garden centre or b) Value Village (and a bumper haul for Jo), laundry, and gardening. Fun, fun, fun till the next-door neighbours started setting off fireworks...

Early with the party but late with the wishes...

Here are some snaps of wining and dining George for his birthday; he was very accepting of the fact that he got the leftovers of his son's birthday cake.


















Homemade confetti from the stairs (please note, George's crisp new apron)


Sebastian gave his grandfather a card and a jumbo package of his favourite gum (George's favourite, not Seb's; but still, he knows which side his bread is buttered)

And I thought November was busy!

Earlier this month, we had George & Lorraine visiting us for their eldest's birthday and thus we chose to celebrate George's birthday early. And somehow seem to have started to celebrate 2 1/2 birthdays too in May!

Pincurls and purple

Great combo!

Me mum's dear friend

A lovely shot of my mum's dear friend, Carol, who was visiting from the UK. She showers me with vegetarian gifts and the kids with Postman Pat and/or (often and!) the inimitable Charlie and Lola.

Grandad's award

In early April, we zipped up to Montreal for the presentation of Grandad's award from the lt-governor for service as a senior. The kids were bored sitting through the long ceremony but thought it pretty nifty to see the dress uniforms of the soldiers and the lovely medal with an engraving of the Lt-Gov that bears a striking resemblance to their Grandad!

Diminishing cheer

I get the sneaking suspicion that with each school concert we will become less and less enthusiastic. This is our 4th and we only have a couple of snaps of Seb, plus a badly focused (my fault) video clip.

M snuck out of work (blackberried virtually the whole time though) and we dutifully waited and waited and waited for the final group - all the grade 1s to perform a 3 minute song about "la maman des poissons.

From the mundane to the sublime

Someone wisely makes little plastic doo-hickeys that stretch to cover containers that are missing their lids. Periodically, we buy a new set (8 in diminishing sizes) at the dollar store. The kids took one look at them and...

Our Sunday

We had two happy munchkins bound into our room at a decent hour this morning. They then ran off to play together nicely for an hour. At which point, I got up to make the coffee and ensure that Sophie was dressed while M dove back under the covers - there's a role reversal!

We headed out to brunch with our lovely and soon-to-depart tenant Malika and her equally lovely partner, Andrew. They are docs and had been doing a stint in Malawi for 2 months. So they bought our kids a present...

Needing to burn off the calories of our yummy food, we decided to walk to a local 2ndhand bookshop stopping to enjoy playgrounds along the way. Running the jogging track was a particular hit with the kids. Seb did it 3 times - twice full-out and once at a jog, so that he could let his little sister win - with a gleeful grin on her face. What was so amazing to us was that it was his idea completely. And when we chatted about it afterward and he asked if he should tell her that he had been holding back, he understood that it would disappoint her.

5 books later, we strolled home along a very sunny, busy College St. Once home, we hung out the laundry and repacked our bag to head down to the water front. There Seb rode along on his bike (that is one ill-fitting helmet), while Sophie pushed the doll stroller until we reached the playground. Sebastian and his dad continued on for more exploration, while I lolled on a blanket and Soph enjoyed the swings and more.

Coming home was a bit more hairy. Soph was tired and got snippy before collapsing in bed in tears for a late nap. I was tired with my cold and was pretty much like Soph minus the tears. Seb got to do homework while his dad BBQed supper, and then watched our hockey team lose badly in the first game of the latest round of the playoffs. (We figure that this is the year for Seb to learn that sports loyalities are fun but it's only a game).

The house is a total mess. It's 10.15 p.m. and the laundry is still on the line. I have winter clothes strewn over my bed as I do the seasonal change-over. But all in all a lovely day.

Why worry?

when this is who is taking care of your kids.


They all look pretty happy to me.

Beat me to it

Am a tad busy getting ready for a rapid trip to Haiti, followed by a week home madly working and then 3 weeks traveling, followed by another week at home madly working and then 1 week traveling for work and before summer holidays!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I am getting ready for Haiti only to discover that the kids have beat me to it.


They have been playing "rescuer" all afternoon in our back patch. They have small picks and supplies in backpacks; they have their safety equipment on.

Remember to check the weather forecast

It was a highly changeable day weather-wise today. But since it did reach 26 degrees and it was very sunny at some point and it is May 5th, I decided to change over the kids' clothes from winterish to early summer. It's a task that takes a couple of hours as I trudge up and down the stairs, separating items out into various containers to be used again the autumn or laid away for Sophie or passed on to someone else, etc. But it is a task that gets me thinking of humid days and close nights, sunny hours at the playground and splashing about with the hose in our court-garden.

THEN and only then did I bother to check the weather forecast for tomorrow...

Tonight
Showers or thunderstorms
*
* 10°C

Thu
Sunny with cloudy periods
* 18°C
* 3°C



Fri
Chance of showers

* 14°C
* 3°C
* 60%

Sat
Showers

* 11°C
* 8°C


Sun
Sunny

* 11°C
* -1°C
*

Mon
Sunny

* 15°C
* 2°C


Tue
A mix of sun and cloud

* 15°C
* 3°C
*

I hope George and Lorraine have packed their woolies and their galoshes. Mind you, they are from the Maritimes where that forecast DOES count as summer weather!

Creative minds

Here is a delightful link (except you have to cut and paste into your browser) to the birthday party of a little girl in Sophie's playgroup. She is loads of fun and they giggle and bounce well together. http://www.bunchfamily.ca/fairy-party-woods

I discovered that her mum Kessa is a kids clothing designer when a local costume designer (maker of dragon tails extraordinaire) included Kessa on her website. I thought that her Red Riding Hood cape was sweet but it didn't hold a candle to my old one.

Turns out that Kessa agreed because she had been quietly admiring it every day at daycare. When I made the link between daycare mum and clothing designer, she asked if she could borrow the cloak to make a pattern for winter 2010. I can't wait to see the results! http://www.patouche.ca/

Lorraine & I saw her at the One of a Kind show in December. Sophie now has a beautiful cream pointed cotton blouse by Kessa. Watch out for it!

Anyway, back to the birthday party - what fun is this:


though I am not sure what the equivalent is in that in-between month of November...


We have to get invited this summer!