Monochrome stripes

We know some of you are very fond of stripes
(happy to say that she is usually more colourful)

Face (of) the future?

Seb and I did a little virtual reality at the Lightbox a few weekends ago. Pretty amazing stuff by indigenous artists to mark Canada 150

Our young jedi - he will be going to the fan preview night (one day earlier than the wide release) with good old Marc-Andre

An annual treat

Last visit?

It was perhaps the last time that we visit The Children's Book Bank. It has been our happy place during the children's Toronto childhood. We love to donate; we enjoy the atmosphere; and we are grateful for the book each child is allowed to choose every single visit.

Long may it thrive!

There's a lot of this going on...

The dog is much worse and the boy only looks for greasy treats...

My day in the sun

Cake!

Modelling my lovely new scarf under the birthday banner

My gorgeous bouquet

and some of my lovely presents, including THIS!!!

Birthday busyness

First there was a family dinner - Gramps & Nana were in town and even uncle Mark got to join us at Banjara's for dinner before mocha cake at home



No less than 2 teen parties this year.

The first one he shared with classmate he has known since Grade 3 who is born on the same day. About 12 kids from his high school came over for pizza and cake.

The following night he went to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - with some pals from middle school (they read it last year). They trooped home at 11 pm for Seb's famous bean dip (and stayed up till past 2 a.m.). In the morning, they were served a great breakfast by a loving dad.

And later that day, we went to see my special movie. Good but not great.

Flamenco!!

My love took me to an amazing performance of flamenco a few weeks ago. It was at the stunning Aga Khan museum and featured Carmen Romero (founder of a local dance studio and a terrific choreographer and performer; an older woman) and Adrian Santana from Malaga. He was stunning. His dance with the shawl (above left) was unbelievably beautiful and moving. A performance that will stay with me for years!  

Stumbling across a little bit of perfection

Two weeks ago I stumbled across these beautiful - NUT FREE! - biscuits and knew that they
had to be presents for Day of the Dead. Can you guess who got what?

Our favourite monster

Our wise yet kooky owl

Ms Day of the Dead herself

Frankenstein ate his the same day (of course) and said it was tasty too!

Cocktails with friends

Here's a rare photo of me and my longstanding friend, Lisa. It;s her birthday today.
She stayed with us on and off this autumn and made many sorely needed cocktails.
We are hoping to have her back next year!

The ups and downs of being parent of a teen

Yesterday was a real highlight. You’ll want to watch this newscast, not for the guy you usually see (who’s on at the 12 minute mark) but for the kid you’ll see in the item starting at 59:26


It was the Canada-wide "Take Your Grade 9 kid to Work" day. Seb started to head out in sweatpants; I put my foot down - no sweatpants at work. Turns out that several friends had to have the same conversation. The parent who was taking her kid to the law courts was the funniest "Sweatpants never help your cause - no matter what your role - at the courts, kid". Our lad was surprised at how fun the day was, and he got to go to Wendy's for lunch with his dad.

It was a busy and really good day - work placement, then dashed back to school to do a special MainStage rehearsal (where the special guests were the incredible founders of Choir! Choir! Choir! - looks like the closing scene of the show is going to be AMAZING - hope everyone can come), then zoomed off to trampoline, grabbing a bite to eat as he went.

And then this morning, he can't find his homework folder. He & we searched and nope, can't find it. He can't even remember when he last used it....

Halloween - preparations and the evening itself!

Seb did the scooping honours on Sunday

But somehow we didn't get around to carving it. So Sophie did some last minute DIY

Our neighbour Henry was a cowboy!

A cowgirl and her steed
Seb wore a costume at school but we never saw it. For the record it was a surfer dude (wetsuit, sailing shoes, wet hair and a boogie board) - and yes he pulled it together on Tuesday morning... I have suggested that we hire a peer in Visual Arts stream to design his costume next year

I felt like the adult ring leader of a child gang...

One of the best houses

This guy got dressed up

and was broody