Saturday, April 24, 2010

Photo of the Day April 24th


So we're on our way to the Covent Garden Market this morning to pick up a couple of veggies and grab some lunch when I spot something a little surreal out of the corner of my eye. It looks like a Star Wars Storm Trouper... actually, it looks like a few of them along with a couple Darth Vaders and a handful of other Star Wars Characters... hanging around on the corner near the market? Looking down the street I see at least three more costumed characters heading into or out of the John Labatt Centre... not the normal pedestrian traffic on a Saturday morning. Naturally we had to wander over to investigate, and we found out that tickets go on sale today for the Star Wars In Concert event happening in July - it's a showing of the movie complete with a live orchestra playing the score along with the film. Having the costumed folks out promoting ticket sales must have been getting a good reaction, because there were plenty of people like us who simply couldn't resist the urge to walk over and see what the heck was going on... didn't get us to buy tickets mind you, but it was a good gimmick (and interesting photo opportunity for Sophie) none the less. You just never know what you're going to stumble across in downtown London!
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Friday, April 23, 2010

Photo of the Day April 23rd


Great day today... after a very early wake-up call from Sophie (6am sucks by the way) we enjoyed breakfast, a crazy house-cleaning game where both Sophie and I each pretended to be Cinderella, a nice lunch, and a Barbie fashion show. Sophie's been asking me about my Barbie fashion skills since Easter weekend when I entertained Courtney and her by creating a new set of clothes for Courtney's old Barbie collection out of napkins from the dinner table - today was the day I put those skills to the test on Sophie's dolls. I created two looks, one out of a plain white dinner napkin accessorized with the decorative trim from a cocktail napkin (left), and the other created from frilly little petal napkins in a dark purple (right). I have a ball making these little dresses, although I'm sure I would be frowned upon for my liberal use of masking tape to hold the whole thing together! After displaying our fashions for the world (or at least our dining room) to see, my friend Meagan who's a nurse from California came over for a visit... it was great to see her since we rarely get the opportunity, and our time together flew. Now at dinner time a chicken is spinning on the rotisserie, brussel sprouts are roasting in the oven, potatoes are baked and broccoli is steaming - we're going to enjoy a great dinner before I head off to a night of poker with some neighbourhood friends. Great day - I'm ready to repeat it again, even with the obscenely early wake-up call!
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Thursday, April 22, 2010

Photo of the Day April 22nd

Happy Earth Day!
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Sophie and her friend Logan nestle up to a tree being planted on the Tecumseh school grounds today
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And what a packed day it was... I spent the majority of it at Tecumseh Public School, where the entire student body was involved in the digging and planting of a new outdoor reading garden. Our school has a fantastic, shady and very well planned front garden, but the back school yard is much more "traditional" - open grassy spaces, playground equipment, and a couple of small trees. When the school applied for (and received) a Metro Green Apple grant, planning for a new shady green space in the rear yard were hatched - today was the day all the planning came to fruition. With the amazing help and support of ReForest London, 5 seating logs were installed, three mature trees were planted along with several new shrubs and bushes, and about a tonne of mulch was laid out. To make things more interesting, Premier Dalton McGuinty chose to visit the school today, so the halls and the yard were awash with media types and political handlers... if elementary school isn't already zoo-like enough, the camera crews and suits certainly pushed it over the edge. If you've been keeping up with the news you'll know that two recent government announcements have various groups up-in-arms... the proposed elimination of rebates for pharmacists from generic drug manufacturers, and the revised sex education curriculum. The Premier had planned to take part in some of the tree planting with the students this afternoon, but those opposed to the recent announcements made their presence known all along our school's fence line - I spent part of my time trying to keep the kids focussed on the job at hand while "coincidentally" standing in the sight-line between protesters and the students... it's not easy to stop kids from gawking at the signs and placards. As mentioned in this news article, Mr. McGuinty decided that a visit with Tecumseh's students would be best done inside the school instead of outside with a backdrop of protesters, so he and a class of students chatted around a recycling display in one of the classrooms instead. It may not have give the amazing outdoor project that was completed today it's moment in the spotlight, but the kids were pretty impressed with all the media attention and seemed to enjoy their chat with the Premier. As for me, I enjoyed about a million picture-taking opportunities, which I plan to use liberally (ooh, did I just make a political joke there?) in the next issue of the school newsletter.
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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Photo of the Day April 21st


Over the past week or so Sophie's wanted to ride her trike to school, and we figured out why once we saw her in the back schoolyard today with her friends. Her tricycle, which is an old-fashioned Radio Flyer, has an awesome two-level back pedestal that's perfect for giving rides - so Sophie was able to drive lots of her little friends around the playground. As you can tell, she was just as excited to offer rides as her friends were to take them... it makes for a real "win-win" on wheels!
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Photo of the Day April 20th


Work has begun on the big Earth Day project happening at Tecumseh this Thursday... a whole new "outdoor classroom" is being put in, and to prepare the area for all the tree planting and log burying that's to be done landscapers were on site today. They're taking up the grass and digging down to create a semi-circular area, then building up the back of the semi-circle with soil that will be used for planing three mature Eastern Hemlock trees and a great selection of shrubs. Logs will be installed for seating and throughout the day on Thursday all the students will be invited out to the yard to help put the finishing touches on the area. Bringing more green to the school yard is a great way to celebrate Earth Day and will have a lasting impact on how we use the rear yard going forward... it's pretty exciting to be a part of.
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On another note, I have a real affection for the landscaping company doing the work shown above... I often see their trucks around the neighbourhood, their workers clad in pink shirts and bandannas, and they never fail to make me smile. If you can't read the banner on the side of the truck, it's the Dirty Girls Lawn Care company... I wish they had a website for me to link to, because I would support them just for the tongue-in-cheek humour of their name alone!
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Photo of the Day April 19th


The little (really little - like, minuscule) gardening bug that was planted in me last year seems to have hung on through the long, cold winter. Over the past week I've started pulling out the seeds we dried last year and have been thinking about attempting to grow something from them. So far we've got apple seeds germinating in the fridge, morning glories and azaleas sprouting on the windowsill, and today we added heirloom tomato seeds in pots on the porch and pumpkin seeds planted in the yard. As you can see from the photo above, Sophie is thrilled to take part in our little gardening experiments... she's ready to take the lead on all the watering from this point on, which means we may actually have some hope for success. Wish us luck!
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Sunday, April 18, 2010

Photo(s) of the Day April 18th

Sophie's thrilled with our first Artists Studio stop: Shirley Clement's beautiful home full of hand-woven textiles
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At printmaker Jessica Desparois' studio, Sophie gets the chance to help ink a print-in-progress
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Some of the wonderful, whimsical art at Acme Animals' studio
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Our first look inside the London Clay Arts Centre, where potter Chris Snedden hosted a tour
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The London Artists Studio Tour was this weekend, and while poor Chris was working the entire time Sophie and I took advantage of the opportunity to check out the studios of several local artisans. She and I sat down with the tour brochure and I asked her to pick out a couple of places that she'd like to go - I must say I was very pleased with her choices. She wanted to see a textile artist named Shirley Clement who makes spectacular woven pillows and other art pieces, and I was excited to see that her home and studio was in a house that I'd been admiring along the Thames River for years - it was exciting to have the opportunity to go inside! We also visited the home of an amazing mixed media artist named Cliff Kearns, whose deeply textured and often witty work just jumped off the walls, and the one of the studios of the artists collective known as Acme Animal, who make whimsical and wonderful metal sculptures, clocks, candleholders and more. Add to that trips to see printmakers and potters, watercolour painters and metal sculptors - we got to peek into the workshops of an amazingly diverse group of talented folks today.
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Photo of the Day April 17th


My weekly trip to the Western Fair Farmer's Market went a bit differently today, as we got a note with our veggies last week stating that the market will be closed for about a week and a half after today. We'd just gotten into the habit of their new hours, which include being open on Thursdays... now we're going to have to do without the market for Thursday - Saturday - Thursday. What ever will we do? I'll tell you what we'll do - we'll stock up on anything that will freeze well, that's what. I bought forty flour tortillas, two full pounds of bacon, and enough veggies to get us through at least the rest of this week... that will have to do for now. I'm sure the one thing I'll run out of before the market opens again is garlic - I have a real problem buying supermarket garlic because it's almost exclusively shipped in from China, and when we grow garlic right here in Ontario (and there are some amazing garlic growers in Quebec as well) I just don't think I should have to buy it from the other side of the world. But can you find Canadian garlic in the grocery store? Nope - I can't anyway... at the market I have my choice of Ontario or Quebec grown, organic or non, elephant style or petite. In retrospect I should have bought three heads instead of two, especially since we're having hummus and pita, Greek salad and stuffed pork chops for dinner... I already know I'm going to go through some of it this evening. You can bet that when I show up at the Market when they reopen on Saturday May 1st I'm going to have extra bags with me!
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Photo of the Day April 16th


I had a very interesting experience today... last year I accepted a Directors position on the South Collegiate Alumni Association, a role that allows me to help support my old high school with an assortment of fund-raising and communication efforts. Over the past couple of years there's been a push all over London for the "greening" of school yards, and South Collegiate has been considering ways that they can update the school grounds to not only add some additional green spaces and trees for shade, but also to update the look of the school and make it's yard space more functional. To that end, they've partnered with Fanshawe College's Landscape and Design department to come up with possible plans for the space, and today executives on the Alumni Association were invited to review some of the 50 plans that were created. Fanshawe students gathered in the South cafeteria with their plans laid out and we were invited to walk around and look at the designs, making notes about which ones we liked the best, what features stood out, and what did or did not make sense to us. It was fascinating to see the differences in design from student to student - some were very old-school academic, reminding me of Ivy-league college campuses in the States and others were modern and playful (including features like shade flags and giant chess sets.) It will be interesting to see which designs, or at least design elements, come out on top after Teachers, student representatives, community members, alumni, and the school board have a chance to give their input... I'm excited to see what the future holds for the beautification of South Collegiate!
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Many thanks to Principal Larry Schneider for the patriotic photo of South Collegiate's new sign, used as today's photo-of-the-day.
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Photo of the Day April 15th


Oh, sunshine... how I've missed you. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but this winter has felt brutal to me. I've felt the cold more than ever, and have missed the sun in a way I've never missed it before. For heaven's sake, I even started using a tanning booth - in part because I really didn't want to fry to a crisp when I went on our vacation (as I am partial to burning instead of tanning) but also because it gave me the opportunity to feel warm. The feeling of the heat from the tanning lamps sinking through my skin and into my cold, frosty bones once a week was so wonderful that it could almost make me weep... and now, finally, the real sun is starting to arrive to do the same thing. So, I've cancelled my tanning membership and have taken to sitting on the front porch instead. I get the pleasure of the warmth without the harmful UV rays (or at least, not such concentrated ones) and can say hello to neighbours, wave to people walking their dogs, and hang out with Sophie at the same time. I have the feeling I'll be complaining when the humidity is at 100% and it's 45 degrees Celsius in the shade this summer, but for now I am enjoying every warm minute of the arrival of spring.
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Photo of the Day April 14th


With Teacher Appreciation week going on at Tecumseh, I thought it might be nice for our family to do a little something for the Teachers and Staff... the Home & School group had organized an awesome Mexican themed lunch on Tuesday, so today we prepared a slightly different kind of treat. Sophie and Chris collected and washed up a whole bunch of rocks from around our yard, and then the three of us sat down with acrylic paints and made them look bright and colourful. I painted on some smiles, then took them outside and varnished them... once they were dry Sophie glued googly eyes on them all, and we attached them to little cards that said "You ROCK! Thank you for all you do for Tecumseh!" I thought they were cute, and they reminded me a bit of the Pet Rocks back in the 60's and 70's. We labelled each one with a Teacher or Staff member's name, and Sophie is very excited to help me put them all in the Teacher's mailboxes in the morning. It's a little thing, but I always think a hand crafted gift speaks volumes since it's far easier to buy something than make something. I hope that the school's staff recognize that the effort we put into creating their little pet rock represents just a little of the love and appreciation we feel for their hard work.
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Saturday, April 17, 2010

Photo of the Day April 13th


There was a Teacher Appreciation lunch at the school today that I wanted to lend support to, but due to previous commitments I wasn't able to actually be on hand to serve food... so I volunteered to help during the planning stages with things like food prep and decorations. Over the past few days I brought little things over to the school that might help support the lunch's theme (Mexican Fiesta!), helped make posters and invitations for the Teachers, washed and chopped a whole lot of lettuce and made corn tortillas (or pupusas, since they were thicker) from scratch using the Tortilla press my dad brought me from Mexico. It was so much fun donning my apron from The Little Mexican Cooking School and getting ready to play with my brand new toy... Sophie got in on the action and was actually responsible for making most of the pupusas herself - we even recorded a video of the whole thing for my Dad so he could see how quickly she was able to master the tortilla press. If I'm able to compress the video enough to upload to the blog I will, but thus far the file size is too big - if only compressing a video could be done in that handy tortilla press we'd be up and running!
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Photo of the Day April 12th


Between "school work" (ie: work voluntarily done for Sophie's school, as opposed to work I need to do for any kind of schooling of my own) and a coffee date with some of the members of my Book Club this evening, Sophie and I had a rousing game of Diggity Dog. It's fun - participants move their little dog around a track picking up magnetic bones... any bones that match the colour of their dog they get to keep, and the first person to collect all three bones and make it back to their dog house wins the game. Somehow this game always goes off the rails for Sophie, because she's got such a big imagination that the simple act of moving the dogs around the board isn't enough for her... there needs to be more drama. The dogs must talk to one another, sometimes there's a conflict between the red dog and the blue one that needs to be resolved, and often one of them gets "lost" or in some sort of other trouble so another one can help it. Today, all four of the Diggity Dogs found themselves on rafts made from their bones, floating down a river towards a waterfall. What will happen next?!?! If you guessed I was roped into a rescue mission to save the dogs from their perilous situation you're right on. I'm keeping my eyes on game and toy websites to find some sort of role playing game that's fit for a four-year-old, since all her other games somehow end up in acting scenarios anyway. I can only imagine what she'll come up with if given the proper tools!
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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Photo(s) of the Day April 11th

A super-cool swing in Ivy Park
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Walking by the river on a beautiful day
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Our walk took us past the Jet D'eau, sparkling in the sun
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Sunday... perfect, lovely Sunday. Can I please have a day just like this one every single weekend? We started the day with a little sleep-in, and when I got up feeling well rested for the first time in a few days I made pancakes, diced apples and smoked bacon for our breakfast and enjoyed it with freshly brewed coffee with a dash of Cinnamon Dolce syrup. Heaven. After breakfast we drove down to Ivy Park, where we enjoyed some time in the playground before heading out on a big family walk. We searched for geochaches in Harris Park (unsuccessfully), picked flowers and did some bird watching while we walked past the forks of the Thames, up to Blackfriar's bridge, and back down to Ivy park on the west side of the river. I remember from participating in the 24 hour relay that the route we took is approximately 2.5km which may not seem like a lot unless you consider that we were walking with a 4-year-old... in which case it's one heck of a long journey. After stops at the Jet D'eau and back in Ivy Park for one more swing we headed for home, where we fired up the barbecue and sat on the porch with a glass of wine enjoying the days end. Cheers to more days like this one!
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Photo of the Day April 10th


I've been thinking a lot about Sophie's 5th birthday party over the last couple of days, which may strike you as silly since it's still a couple of months away - but I've always been the type to plan ahead, and when it comes to my little girl I want to make sure everything is just right. Last year we had her party at the London Children's Museum, and while it was good I was left a bit disappointed by the state of the party room (poor, and used both for the party and for storage) and the program (which didn't include any time in the museum exhibits, which struck me as very odd). So I've been researching locations, and with Sophie's help have narrowed it down to Storybook Gardens, The Little Gym, KidScape, or a new place in London called Once Upon a Teacup. I won't bore you with the exact details, but after comparing prices and amenities I found the front-runner to be Once Upon a Teacup, so we went there this afternoon to check it out (the fancy logo is shown above). It's so cute - it has a restaurant in front and a great big closet full of dress-up clothes for any child guests to wear, two gorgeous party rooms and tea services that are just the right size for kids. The snacks come out in tiered trays and feature such goodies as PB&J fondue and gourmet grilled cheese - if the dressing up, face painting and tea party isn't a big enough hit I'm sure the food will push any party there over the edge. Super cute, and Sophie's definitely sold... now I just have to start looking at dates.
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Photo of the Day April 9th


Our friend Rowan was with us today, and with spring upon us it seemed like the perfect opportunity to start some planting. Chris picked up some cool little pots that you can use to sprout seeds and then plant right into the ground, and about a week ago he took Sophie to the garden centre to pick out seeds. She selected two colours of morning glory (blue like last year, and bright pink), azaleas, and cat grass for Georgie and Gabby - we figured the cat grass could wait until we picked up a bigger pot and the proper "growing medium", but those little pots just called out for soil and seeds today. Planting is such a fun (if kinda messy) activity to do with the kids - they absolutely love it and it's great to know that it's a project that will last... I know that Rowan will be watering his little plants at home in the weeks to come, and our little green thumb will certainly keep on top of caring for her plants here. Next step: little green sprouts - can't wait!
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Photo of the Day April 8th


After Sophie's very busy day at school (she was the "VIP" today) we decided to have some quite time in the afternoon drawing pictures and making up stories about them. Sophie drew a dragon who was frightened of a mouse, and an alien named Zazoot (a creature that she and Chris made up quite a while ago and tell stories about at bedtime), Chris drew a rocket ship for Sophie to fly to other planets in (which looks remarkably like her wardrobe), and I drew two: a picture of our family all together, and a rather exaggerated-looking cat. I sent Chris to work with the picture of our family, and Sophie decided to name my cat for me - I think she looks like a "Lucy", don't you?
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Photo of the Day April 7th

Turns out there actually ARE some Rogers employees that will fix things - who knew?
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I'm going to tell you a story... it's a frustrating one, but one with a happy ending. Two years ago, construction on our street caused a whole lot of wires to be dug up from the road and reburied, including many Rogers Cable wires. For some unknown reason, they didn't finish the job and as a result they left a wire running from a beat-up cable box in the corner of our yard, across our front path, up into our tree, and across the road to another cable box. It looked ridiculous (want to see it? Look up our address on Google Street View!), and worse was a tripping hazard for anyone coming up our front walk. I called and called to have someone look at it, and at first was told that they couldn't fix it because construction was still going on - it would have to wait. Then when our section of the street was done I was told they'd "get right on it", but nothing was done. Last summer I started flagging down Rogers trucks when I saw them in the neighbourhood, and when they stopped I would bring the driver over to my front lawn, show them the wire and ask if they could do anything about it. I got reactions ranging from "I don't understand why that's even there?" to much writing down of information and promises of service that went absolutely nowhere. My patience is shot, and I've been saying out loud that if they don't do something about the wire soon I think I aught to just cut the darned thing down - I bet they would do something about it then. Someone who will remain nameless (and therefore can't possibly be liable for what happened next) overheard my comments and decided to take action... a pair of wire snips, a few sparks and some shocked laughter later the wire was in two in my yard. About 25 minutes after that, even more shocking, the Rogers van shows up to fix it. We figured we might as well mention how long that wire had been down while the technician was here, and at first he didn't believe us - but after looking up a bunch of information he realized we were telling the truth. The result? The final, very long overdue result? The wire is gone (hallelujah!), the delapitated box has been replaced, and I am thrilled. I was asked by both the technician who arrived after the "accidental wire-cutting" and the two shown above who finally fixed the mess whether I was a Rogers customer or not... I did my best to be polite, but really... if it takes 2 years to fix a wire do you really think this is a company I want to give my money to? I think not.
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P.S. The wire-snipping culprit is now on the run - they've left town, and I hear they may have even left the province! Boy, next thing you know they'll flee the country and end up in Mexico or something...
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Photo of the Day April 6th


This is my Dad's last day visiting - he has to leave tomorrow morning - so we're making the most of it. We spent much of the day together hanging out visiting and playing cards... I think it's so cool that Sophie's gotten to the age that we can start introducing different card games to her and she picks them up quite quickly. She took turns being both my partner and Grandpa's partner for several hands of "Silly Eights" and managed to help both of us win - she was our lucky charm! In the late afternoon we all went together to Sophie's gymnastics class at The Little Gym. Dad was kind enough to give Sophie her current semester of classes as a Christmas present, so it was really nice that he got to see her in the class to get a better understanding of what she was doing. After Sophie headed off to bed we shared a great Thai meal and a bottle (or two?) of wine... it's been a real "hit & run" visit that I wish didn't have to end so soon!
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Photo of the Day April 5th

Happy Easter from Courtney and Sophie!
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While Easter Sunday was technically yesterday, today was the day for our holiday get-together with Chris's side of the family. It can be challenging when two members of the family work for the 24/7/365 environment of Police Services, and it turned out that today was the only day that both Chris and Mary weren't working over the Easter weekend. We spent the afternoon enjoying each other's company and sharing a meal in the back yard before Sophie asked to pull out Courtney's old Barbie collection for some play time. We discovered that the Barbies hadn't aged well, and that many of their clothes had somehow gotten lost along the way, so I whipped up a new wardrobe of fashionable little dresses and chic gowns out of printed napkins and hockey tape. It completely entertained both Courtney and Sophie, but to be honest it thrilled me most... I had a real "Project Runway" moment while I was creating those little dresses - the challenges where they make the designers create outfits out of stuff found in a hardware store, or grocery store, or some other wacky non-traditional location have always been my favourite. I think I would have won the hockey-tape-and-napkin-challenge for sure!
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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Photo of the Day April 4th

The hunt is on! Sophie hands me the clue found inside one of her Easter Eggs, while our cat Georgie checks out her egg-collecting basket.
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Me, my Grandmother and Sophie go for a walk around the nursing home on a lovely Easter Sunday
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A very happy Easter Sunday indeed! I started the morning with a very excited little girl bursting into my room to show me the Easter egg she had found hidden in our printer - one that I didn't actually think she'd find so quickly, considering it's tricky location. But she knows where the paper is kept and wanted to draw a picture when she woke up, so that hidden egg was revealed first! The Easter Bunny does some pretty thorough work around our house... we do a scavenger hunt to find all the eggs, each of which contains a little clue to tell Sophie where her next egg might be found. Creative, that Easter Bunny. We started the egg hunt right away and quickly realized that the egg she found in the printer wasn't supposed to be "first", so she impressed me by putting it back in the printer so she could find her eggs in order - what a great kid. We raced all over the house finding eggs in dishes of tomatoes, inside the microwave, in the toilet paper holder, and more... she was absolutely thrilled with the whole event. After enjoying some of her newly found chocolate and pouring over her Easter basket we had quick showers and breakfast so we could meet my Dad and head off to Wallaceburg for a visit with my Grandmother. I always enjoy seeing her and Sophie has such great memories of each of her visits... she's asking if she can go for rides with Grandma to "see the birds" even before we arrive there, and always has things she wants to bring Grandma to see, usually pictures she's drawn or a favourite toy or two. This time it was Grandma with the toys, as she surprised Sophie with two little stuffed bunnies when we arrived - Sophie was thrilled. We did indeed take some walks around the nursing home to see the birds, and Dad and I also got to share some photographs of our recent trips with Grandma, which was nice. After a great visit we headed for home, has a nice dinner with Chris (who had been working all day) and headed for bed... happy Easter everyone!
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Photo of the Day April 3rd


Dinner with my parents - both of them, at the same time. It's a bit of an unusual situation, with my mother in town for a quick pre-Easter visit and my father coming to Ontario as well... they don't see much of one another unless there's a family event (my wedding, Sophie's birth, that sort of thing) so I was a bit nervous about how it would go. I was relieved that everything went smoothly and we were able to enjoy not only a nice visit but a wonderful meal together as well. And the look on Sophie's face just about says it all... there's nothing more special than being surrounded by the family you love.
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Photo(s) of the Day April 2nd

Still in her PJ's, Sophie enjoys Easter treats from Grandma

Taking her new marionette from Grandpa for a walk after dinner

It's Good Friday so Sophie had the day off school and all the shops were closed - a great excuse to stay at home (aside from a walk to the park) and enjoy our company. I've convinced my mother that driving for four hours to get down here to only stay a night isn't a good idea after all, and she's going to stay and head back tomorrow instead, which made our day that much more relaxed. We also got to enjoy some early Easter presents, as we got into the wonderful box of goodies that my Mom brought to London with her - and in the evening we welcomed my Dad into town and received some "just back from Mexico" souvenirs from him. We were all spoiled rotten and Sophie in particular was certainly treated to some wonderful gifts, from an amazing basket full of treats from Grandma to an authentic Mexican marionette from Grandpa - but I know her greatest gift was the opportunity to spend time with the Grandparents she loves so much and doesn't get the chance to see that often!
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Photo of the Day April 1st

When I picked Sophie up from school today she grabbed my hand and then looked down at my foot and said "Mama - your shoe's untied!" When I looked down I pretty quickly remembered I was wearing Crocks, and Sophie yelled "Happy Fool's Day!"... very funny honey...
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Sophie and Grandma make silly "April Fool's" faces at each other
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What wasn't an April Fool's joke today was that my mom drove into town for a quick visit and to drop off some Easter goodies for us. It's a long way to come (4+ hours) for just an overnight visit, but when my mom decides she's going to do something you can bet it's going to happen - and we were the lucky recipients of that decision. Once she arrived in the afternoon we settled down on the front porch to enjoy the lovely weather, a great visit and a glass of wine in the sunshine. Now if only I could convince her to stay longer than one night...
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Photo of the Day March 31st


We enjoyed a lovely fresh dinner this evening, very Greek-inspired. I made chicken breasts stuffed with feta and black olives, Greek-style roasted potatoes with thyme, and a fresh tomato salad with basil and mozzarella (shown here). The whole meal was so fresh and fragrant and colourful that it was just plain fun to eat... and very yummy too! Be sure to click the titles of each dish if you'd like to check out the recipes I used...
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Photo of the Day March 30th


I spent a large part of today at the school, responding to some parental concerns about school safety by doing a walk-about with the Principal to discuss issues involving parking lot safety, sight-lines into the school, how much the school's windows open (or don't), and more. Immediately following that event I ran a meeting for the School Council subcommittee working on putting together a Welcome Package for families when they join the school - a meeting that was unfortunately scheduled at the same time as Sophie's gymnastics class. Thank goodness Chris was off work today, so he was able to bring her to class and was kind enough to snap a picture for me so I could take a peek at what I'd missed. There's my girl, up on the high balance beam without holding the instructor's hand - I was very impressed that the paparazzi caught the shot!
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Photo of the Day March 29th


After hosting a Coffee Drop-in session for parents this morning at the school, I decided it was high time to do some Easter decorating and crafts around the house. I recently saw an online article about things to do with eggs outside the normal yearly egg-dying ritual, and that inspired the making of our little friends above. They're traditional hard boiled eggs covered in a kid-friendly paper mache of watered-down white school glue and coloured tissue paper. On our little red egg Sophie added black dots and a face-plate with a sharpie marker to help turn it into a lady bug, and we added googly eyes and made him a pair of antenna from a piece of pipe cleaner to complete the look. The purple bird got more in the accessory department, as we made layered tissue paper wings, construction paper beak and feet, a feathered tail, and the all-important googly eyes as well. Now that they've been made, we're storing them in the fridge so they don't get too "fragrant" between now and Easter... it's made opening the fridge door to get something out much more fun, as we have these two little friends helping us find what we need!
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