Hypotheticals, trick and Pizza

While we were eating dinner last night we started to play 'hypotheticals'. We started out pretty predictably with, "Would you rather be invisible for a day or be able to fly?" Tess said she'd like to fly but Meg and Olly said they'd prefer to be invisible. Then we went on to, "Would you rather find a door which led to a sweet shop just for you or a door which would lead to anywhere you'd want?" Meg's response to this one was she'd choose the door to anywhere because then she could choose a sweet shop if she wanted.... Clever!

Then we hit a new level. Meg said, "Would you rather be poo or wee?"

[Always pops up somewhere...]

I asked her if she had an answer and her response was, "I'd rather be wee - it's faster..."

Who knew?

Right now I'm sitting watching Meg with Heather, Lily and Ashley enjoying the warm weather on the deck. Heather is practicing the old 'disappearing coin' trick (a prize from a birthday party at the weekend). They are all laughing hysterically because Heather keeps messing up and revealing how the trick works.

I love watching them while away their time together.

Tonight I'm out for a Mom's Night Out. This is my original moms' group from when Tess was five weeks old. Twelve of us are still in touch and we organise monthly get-togethers. Tonight we're off to one of my favourite restaurants, Cravings, and I am looking forward to ordering their very delicious sushi pizza.

Imagine sushi rice made into a small, flat circle then fried until crisp on both sides, topped with spicy salmon and other yummy sushi treats... mmmm, my mouth is watering at the thought!!

Ahhh!

Stranger, Innocent Bystander and Overall

Our Tuesday began with a bit of a fright. There were reports filtering through that a child had been approached by a stranger in our neighbourhood. He had tried to drag her away but had been startled by the girl's friend coming out of her house. It really was the talk of the school yard; mums standing in small groups discussing what they knew, kids looking scared by the news their friends were telling them, teachers trying to assure people that everything was being done, e-mail being passed on from every possible source. It was a real wake up call. Tess and Meg regularly play outside without supervision and often will run in to grab something or tell me something... Anything could happen..

Today it seems the girl involved had made the whole story up! While I'm relieved that there is no prowler out there, I am left wondering how troubled a 7-year-old needs to be to need attention this badly...

I think all the talk about news reports got Tess and her friends chattering and trying out phrases they'd heard on the TV and radio. She was telling me, on the way back from swimming, that her and Juliana always call each other names even when they don't know what they mean.

"Like what?" I asked.

"Well, I call her 'innocent bystander' and she calls me 'critic'." I just thought it was hilarious that they were using these phrases as terms of affection...

Another very funny thing was the conversation I had with Jill today. Despite the very bad news she's had about her health lately I love that she's able to still laugh with me. She was describing how she'd been cleaning today (which I don't think she's allowed to do...!) and how she's been reminding herself of Mrs.Overall as she shakily carries her cup of tea across the room. The image has stuck in my head all day today.

I'll let you judge:

Jill?

Mrs.Overall?

What do you think?!!

Strange, Slower and Stooge

It felt very strange today to be walking around without my camera. The 'A Week In The Life' project is over. I took over 750 photos last week... just of our everyday stuff; food we ate, times we got up, places we went, people we saw... I cannot wait to put all of this information together into a scrapbook. I keep thinking how fun it'll be to look back next year, or in 5 years, or even longer and see what we did with our week.

It was actually a very busy week; Olly was away but we also had all sorts of other unusual things going on. Perhaps this week will be slower.

Today has NOT proved to be slower. The usual Monday stuff of going to the gym and a trip to the grocery store was joined by an emergency babysitting situation.. Well, my friend's sitter was sick so I helped juggle her kids' schedules as well as my own. So while this was going on I was having to deal with a banking situation which came up for us. Aynway, the point is it makes me really think twice about going back to work. I know it can be done, but coupled with Tess telling how much she loves me going into her class every week, it just makes me think...

Anyway tomorrow will also not be slower. I'm facilitating at MumVet tomorrow with my friend Susan who is a DIY wiz. Me? I'm to be the stooge. The one they get to say, "If Vickie can do it, anyone can do it...' So we're trying out some power tools, and small DIY projects. Should be fun!

Breakfast-time, Time Out and Time Out and About

After another slow start this morning the request was for chocolate chip pancakes; a favourite breakfast-time treat! I was hoping that this would put the bad moods of yesterday to rest...

It was not to be!

The bad moods continued as we went about our day. Meg went to a rock climbing birthday party, and Tess and I went to Home Depot for some things to repair the holes in the walls. Then my bad mood was exacerbated by the horrible traffic on the way to pick up from the party. Consequently we all needed a time out this afternoon; the girls went to their rooms with snacks and I watched TV for a bit. It was definitely what we needed.

Later when we'd all spent a little time apart the Moore girls came a-knocking and out they all went on the Ripsticks and scooters. They all wanted to practice in a bigger space so I volunteered to take everyone down to the school yard for some much-needed time out and about.

Did the bad moods disappear? Well, let's just say these smiles tell the story...

Scrapping, Wheels and Sister

My crazy girlfriends were here until 12.30 last night. How wonderful that I have a group of friends as obsessed with scrapping as I am. We ate alot of snacks, Nancy and I drank a bottle of wine and we managed a page or two. Here are mine:

This one isn't quite finished. It was taken at Tess' birthday party; the girls were choosing who would be the seeker in hide and seek and used the rhyme, "Ip dip chocolate chip, you are not it..." I just loved how all their feet were 'in'.

And these are some favourite photos of Tess taken at the ski hill after lessons this winter. The skiing fashions definitely suit her!

Anyway, the next project will be the 'Week In The Life' stuff - can't wait!

As Olly is still away we were supposed to have another easy day... That is just a ridiculous thought! The lazy day included lots of visits with and visits from friends, playing out and generally having a bad-tempered, argumentative time... NOT an easy day!

There were all the girls from the street generally playing on an array of vehicles with wheels. Scooters, roller blades, skateboards, and Ripsticks. And all seemed to generate bad feelings and resentment in one way or another...

Tess is now determined to save up for a Ripstick of her own and I said we'd pay half if she managed to save enough.

Anyway, after such a stressful day we went to the Klugsberger's for dinner. (Thanks Dom and Pete, by the way!)
And as the girls were finally getting ready for bed, Tess began to count the money in her piggy bank.

Ripstick are around $100. Tess counted out $48... And then I heard the following conversation:

"Oh Meg - I love you so much. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome. It's because I want you to have what you want that I've given it to you."

Meg had given her big sister the extra $2 out of her savings towards her goal. Isn't that lovely? Ahhh, perhaps today wasn't such a bad day!

Costumes, Connections and Craft

At 7.03am this morning I had a need to be a good mother and produce costumes for my daughters' Earth Day parade. As neither of them is particularly bothered with dressing up I had thought I could get away without actually making any, but I'm a stay-at-home mum... I should be able to do these things...

So here are the results:

Five minutes of stapling + 2 minutes rummaging around the rubbish = 2 happy girls! Hurrah for inspiration.

Since I'm no longer spending every spare hour when the girls are in school looking for houses I looked upon today as a day for getting things done. I did, but it wasn't the things I was expecting. Instead of the piles of washing, tidying bedrooms and sorting mail I made connections. I managed to call a few people I should have called ages ago (Alison and Rachael - my best, best friends), check up on Jill (my best, best mother-in-law), talk with Pete (my best, best father-in-law.. [Are you reading this?]), arrange play dates for the girls, scrapbooking dates with my scrapping buddies and re-arrange an accidently double booked date with my friend, Monica. It feels good to catch up and re-connect - it is good to talk things through and resolve long-standing issues. [Much more cathartic than housework!]

And to tonight. Once the girls are in bed (in about 28 minutes... Not that I'm counting or anything...) I will be hosting a scrapbooking evening for myself and Steph. A chance to craft together and once again connect. And tomorrow night a longer evening with Nancy and Liane... Ahh! How I love to scrap!

So, time to get the girls in from the street. Meg is on her scooter and Tess is having a go at Ripsticking (which is a kind of skateboard split in two). Wish me luck!

And finally, a quote from Emerson:

Finish each day and be done with it. You
have done what you could. Some
blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and
serenely and with too high a spirit to
be encumbered with your old
nonsense.

Favourite, Rubbish and Bike

Yesterday at my Moms' Group we took part in a session called 'My Favourite Things'. It was a light-hearted discussion about things we might recommend (face cream, hair spray) or places we love (restaurants, cookie shops) or simply things that made us happy (scrapbooking, baking). When I was thinking about what I might contribute the first favourite that came to mind was Toronto. I realised that Toronto is making me very happy at the moment. Now that we have the house found, it just feels really good to be back here. The girls are settled in school, I love connecting with my friends and, with the exception of being far away from friends and family, everything feels pretty good.

Even getting stuck in traffic on the way back from swimming yesterday took on a different feeling and I just appreciate being here in this city!

As usual I went into Tess' classroom this morning to help out. However, it wasn't a usual morning as the school is celebrating Earth Week this week by carrying out different activities every day. Today we went out rubbish collecting.

The class was very thorough; wearing an interesting collection of gardening, rubber, plastic gloves they rummaged for the tiniest pieces of rubbish (as, really, there is not to much in our neighbourhood) in the gutters and sidewalks of their designated block. They collected a surprisingly large amount and were excited to add it to the whole school's bins.

As my contribution to Earth Week I've been using my bike alot this week. And much to my surprise I've been loving it.... Better get a helmet....!

Photos, Phone Calls and Phun

This morning heralded the beginning of my 'A Week In The Life' project, which basically means me taking tonnes of photos and driving everyone around me crazy. So far the girls have been very co-operative and have even joined in by posing and volunteering to take photos of me. The only drawback with carrying out the project this week is that Oliver won't be in it as he is away in Brazil... It does, however, mean that I can take as much time as I need to process the photos.

Here are a few of the pictures from today:

Self-portrait (taken after a trip to the gym and a bike ride to Yonge and Eglinton)

The Adventurers - playdate at ours this afternoon.

Outside Old Navy after buying new shorts (as seen on models).

The Girls of Deloraine

There are another 103 photos from today - should take some time to put this project together.

I finally managed to find time to catch up with Charley today. It is great to catch up but timing is everything. Everyones' busy schedules make it very difficult to find decent chunks of time to make phone calls home, but I'm always so glad when we connect. This blog is meant to fill in the gaps, to help with the little day-to-day details, but nothing takes the place of talking to the people we care about.

As for the phun... [I just liked the idea of there being three 'ph' words for today and as I didn't meet any phantoms being chased by pheasants at the pharmacy today I had to make a word up!]

Night! Night!

Pages, Barbecue and Friendship

Yesterday was a lovely, busy day. Some friends were getting together to spend a day scrapbooking and I was invited too, so I spent a very pleasant few hours at Sue's house with a bunch of ladies doing what I love to do best. Here are my favourite two pages I completed yesterday... I really am a very slow scrapper!

This is a page I did about Tess and Olly watching the football match with Pete via Skype. The game wasn't on in England so they aimed the video camera at the TV and they all watched along together - very cute!

This is just one of those funny pictures of the girls together (I think they were eating sour candy) and we all love this little song.

As soon as I was finished there we had been invited to Daphne's for a barbecue. The invitation had been extended when the weather had been gorgeous earlier in the week, but by the time Saturday rolled around, the temperature had dropped (once more), we'd dug out the winter coats again and our 'barbecue' was quickly grilled burgers and a glass of wine indoors. Still, the kids had a wonderful time and I got to hang out with Daphne and Dominique.

This morning was a return to the beautiful spring-like weather we were enjoying earlier in the week. We went for a lovely hike through Sunnybrook Park with the Moores. This friendship really is special. The girls ambled through the trees finding interesting plants, digging up creatures, spotting beaver dams and listening to woodpeckers, chatting, laughing, and singing all the while.

And so ends another fun-packed weekend! Goodnight!

Negligent, Playground and Lost

After a really lovely morning volunteering in Meg's class, Meg and I wandered up to the DVD store to collect my 'watching experience' while Olly is away and to collect the drycleaning before the trip. Half way across the street I stopped in horror....! I had forgotten to collect Noah from school...

Just before school I had volunteered to pick up Noah for Dominique after Kindergarten (as I often do on Fridays), but after a packed morning and a brain half on the new house and half on Olly being away I completey and totally and utterly just forgot to collect him. How negligent of me! What a dreadful friend! Thank goodness for SNOD (the Social Network of Deloraine) as there were other (more reliable) people who scooped him up from the office.

Later, partly to make up for this mistake, I took Meg, Noah and Gus to the school playground when it was time to pick up Tess from school for the weekend. The sun came out, we bumped into lots of friends and played 'chopper' on the slide with a whole bunch of kids. Gill called to ask me to grab her girls too, so eight of us wandered home (very, very slowly).

Now I'm sitting here on my own: The girls are still out playing and Olly is packing for the trip. And between you and me I can't wait to pop the girls in bed and wave him off in the taxi so that I can begin the fourth season of 'Lost'. I will probably watch back to back episodes until midnight tonight (See, Pete - I really do lead an exciting life.) and wade through the entire season (26 episodes) while Olly is away. Yeh!

So I'm off to get 'lost!

PS From today's three words did you think this was going to be a terrible story of a child getting lost in the playground?

Inspection, Slides and Brazil

Well, yesterday passed in a bit of a daze as I had my first ever migraine which was really not very nice.. Woke up feeling much more positive and ready to face the day.

We had the inspection for the house today. All went very well. The inspector was using words like 'excellent', 'tip-top', 'expensive' - it seems the current owners have spent alot of time and energy (and money) in making the house as beautiful as possible - so it may be small but it is in excellent condition with the renovations to the kitchen and the bathrooms being very fine.

The girls are super-excited as there is a large back garden - grass for running through sprinklers in the summer, lots of beautiful trees which makes it hard to believe we're in the middle of the city, and best of all (in the girls' opinions) is the slide which runs off the deck and the other which is attached to the tree at the bottom of the garden.

It was so peaceful in the garden today. We're really looking forward to our summer! So we signed the waiver and the house is ours at the end of June. Yeh!

The rest of the day was spent getting things together for Olly's trip to Brazil. Cameras, dry cleaning, underwear - Ha! Anyway he's off tomorrow for 11 days and the girls and I have some things lined up while he's away. Luckily the Icelandic volcano isn't effecting southbound air travel, so he'll be up and away....

Practice, House and Cold

Another beautiful day here filled with the usual Tuesday stuff; MumVet for me, school for the girls and work for Olly.

I was excited to help out at Tess' track and field practice at lunchtime. There were four teachers, a handful of Grade 6 kids, about 50 Grade 2 children and me. I ended up taking the standing long jump group and, as usual was left with the feeling that I really should be working again - I miss being a teacher. Tess and Juliana were at the back of the pack more concerned about what they were wearing than how they were performing... oh well - glad she's enjoying the experience.

The big news of the day is that we put an offer in on a house down the street and , pending a home inspection, it looks like we got it!
Here's the link to the virtual tour if you're interested. http://tours.advirtours.com/tours/11/54/115443/uindex.html

It's a semi, near us here, finished basement, 3 bedroom, newly renovated, big (for the city) garden... Very cute, not huge, but big enough. Keep your fingers crossed that it'll all work out.

And finally poor Tess has a little cold, enough to keep her off swimming tonight - the girls were delighted to have a night off. She's angling for the day off tomorrow... Could do without that!

Banana Muffins, Spring and Tuckered

Monday morning seems to have come around quickly again. We're back into the daily routine of Olly off to work early, girls off to school (once we'd established that Tess did NOT have a temperature) and me off to the gym. A very ordinary, straight forward sort of morning.

Meg had a play date with Noah and Gus so I had a free afternoon. As I walked into the dining room I noticed my very sad looking fruit bowl - one apple and three very black bananas... This made me think of something my friend said the other day, "If life give you black bananas, make banana bread..." So that's what I did - I made banana muffins. Yum!

I finally feel that it's time to put away the winter things - it definitely feels spring enough out there. So I packed away all the scarves, woolly hats, gloves, snow boots, ski boots etc. What's the chance it'll snow before the weekend?

Now that the girls are finally asleep I'm feeling quite 'tuckered' - a word borrowed from the lovely book I'm reading to the girls at the moment. It's an old book, but the girls are loving it even though it's a little difficult.

Until tomorrow...

Track and field, bump and project

Sunday, 11th April 2010

Now that Tess is in Grade 2 she has to take part in a track meet as part of her gym curriculum. Over the next 4 weeks they will be practising three events (100m sprint, standing long jump and long jump) and at the beginning of May she'll be taking part in a competition. As she is very nervous and insists she is 'rubbish' at all of this we went to the running track (with Enrico and bikes, and football, and scooters) to try out the track and field events.


This was the first time we've met Enrico and it was lovely to meet Oliver's 'Little Brother'. He is polite and friendly and it took no time for Tess and Meg to be competing against him. Unfortunately, while we were having a snack, Tess fell off the bars and banged her head. There is a sizable bump there (which she's rather proud of) - a talking point for school tomorrow.





As for me, Olly took charge of the barbecue for dinner (the sunny weather is back) which meant I had time to go to the craft store to gather supplies for a project I'm starting next week. I'm going to try to follow Ali Edward's 'A Week In The Life' project starting on 19th April. It's a bit of a challenge so we'll see how we get on.

Anyway, that's it for tonight. See you tomorrow!

Worms, Moving and Pasta

Saturday 10th April 2010

Phew! A very busy Saturday this one. We needed a trip to Ikea this morning as we'd promised the girls that they could have desks in their rooms. Why this was so exciting I'm not sure, but it sure did make them happy. So a large part of today was spent assembling furniture and moving their rooms around. It is amazing how different the rooms look.
Although the weather was sunny today it was still chilly but it didn't stop the girls from playing out with the Moores. Meg received a worm farm for her birthday and this was the business of the day. All five girls digging in the dirt, layering soil and coloured sand and transferring wriggling worms to their new habitat. It kept them busy for about an hour then it was off to the next adventure.
Since we'd all been so busy I'd forgotten to think about dinner so Oliver suggested dinner out and we haven't been to Grazie (our favourite Italian restaurant) in quite some time. Bread, wine and beer for us, orange juice for the girls and four bowls of delicious pasta were polished off in under an hour.
And now a Pay Per View movie (the new Sherlock Holmes one) and that's about it.

Goodnight!