Photo of the Day September 14th

Trying to get kids to eat healthy is not always the easiest of tasks, but Sophie seems to gravitate towards both healthy and non-healthy snacks equally and lately has been asking which foods are healthy and which are not. I'm thrilled that she's identifying the difference instead of going with a more typical 4-year-old "I want what I want" attitude... she may not always make the best choices (heaven help you if you get between her and her smarties), but at least she has a rudimentary understanding of what those choices represent. Today's lunch definitely fell on the healthy end of the scale, and as Chris pointed out it was colourful and pretty too... definitely a selling point for someone of Sophie's age!

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Photo of the Day September 13th

Giving a horse some hay in the animal exhibition

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Getting the chance to ride a horse too... one a bit more her size though.

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One of the many, many shots I have of Sophie looking thrilled to bits on a ride. Best. Day. Ever.

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She's so excited for the train ride to start that she can barely contain herself!

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Today was a big day for Sophie as we took her to experience a fall tradition: the Western Fair. We spent all afternoon and well into the evening leapfrogging from one ride to the other - she was having so much fun that she wanted to go on many of them twice. We did manage to pull her away from the rides to check out the farm pavilion, see Little Ray's snake show, and watch Splash 'n Boots perform on stage, so it was a pretty well-rounded experience. We pushed it a bit late though, finally heading back to the car around 9pm - very late for a little girl whose usually asleep by 7:30pm! I'm sure if we asked, she would say it was worth it though...

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Photo of the Day September 12th

We enjoyed a wonderful surprise this afternoon when my girlfriend Tiffany and her family popped over for an unexpected visit. I've known Tiffany since we were in Grade 1 together at River Heights Public School in Dorchester, and we've cheered each other on through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood; through marriage and children; through good times and bad. Although we live little over an hour apart our busy lives made it difficult to see each other often, and spontaneous get-togethers are rare... so today was an extra special treat. We were able to spend about an hour and a half chatting with Tiffany and her husband Scott and watching the girls play together before they had to head out. We even had time to plan another get-together - bonus! On a day when Sophie and I had been out so much, I was relieved that we were actually on our way home when they arrived... it would have been such a disappointment if we had missed the opportunity to see such wonderful friends.

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Photo of the Day September 11th

We've been trying to spend some quality time with family this week, which often means sharing a meal... the result is that I've been doing a lot of "from scratch" cooking over the past couple of days. On Wednesday Chris's mom Shirley and her friend Ross were over for dinner, so I made Curried Squash soup for us to share. To enhance the meal Chris and Sophie worked together to make Beer-Batter Cheese bread, and I finished it off with my Peaches and Cream tart. While Sophie was at school yesterday I started working on dinner for tonight, the many-stepped Boeuf Bourguignon. In a nod to the movie "Julie and Julia" which I saw with a friend last week, I used Julia Child's recipe... proof that the movie left me feeling extremely inspired, since being a vegetarian I can't actually enjoy the end result. Today I made a Salmon Pot Pie to accompany the beef dish, ensuring that I had a yummy dinner as well... I think I'm going to have to take a day off cooking to recover from all this!

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Photo of the Day September 10th

Sophie's first day of Junior Kindergarten!!!

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What an exciting (and slightly nerve-wracking) day - I'm so proud of my little girl. She was nervous to start Junior Kindergarten but was a real trouper, giving big smiles to her teacher Ms. Orr when we met her in the playground, and heading up the stairs into the school after getting kisses from mom and dad. We were all a bit on edge, unsure of what Sophie's reaction to "big kid school" would be... She's such an outgoing girl that I had been certain she would sail into JK as if it was no big deal, but as the day got closer I think the reality of what a big step starting grade school is really hit me. But I needn't have worried - after a couple nervous moments she took on Junior Kindergarten with her standard level of enthusiasm. I think I handled it well too... tears were definitely stinging my eyes but I managed to contain myself. I must say it felt so strange to walk away from the school without taking her with me... I hovered around for a bit after she went inside as if I didn't know what to do with myself! It's the start of an era, that's for sure.

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Photo of the Day September 9th

Sophie and Georgie have what I would call a "tenuous" relationship. For the most part Sophie loves George, and has said a few times that if we gave George away she would be sad (in response to Chris and I joking about sending George back to the farm when one of us get scratched or bitten). But if George invades Sophie's personal space, our little red-head shows her annoyance in a big way... this most often happens either at night when George climbs into bed with Sophie to listen at story time, or when Sophie's at the computer playing a game and George wants to climb up on her chair to get a better look at the screen. I'm pretty sure at least once a day I hear a very loud whine: "George... NO! Mom, George is bugging me!" I swear they act like siblings some times!

P.S. We're on pins and needles this evening... Sophie's first day of Junior Kindergarten is tomorrow!!!

Photo of the Day September 8th

A couple of days ago I seeded three kinds of peppers and laid out the seeds to dry - checking them today proved they were dry enough to snap in half (which is apparently how you know they're ready). They're now safely packed in little labeled bags, ready to plant on a windowsill in the very early spring... and soon to join them will be the tomato seeds I wrote about here. The fermentation process was pretty easy and not as smelly as I anticipated, which mean I either have a higher tolerance for it than I thought, or I've done something wrong. The seeds are laid out to dry now, and I guess only spring will show whether this little project was successful. My final old-fashioned food project of the day was harvesting some horseradish root to make my own spicy horseradish. I'm not a huge fan of the stuff myself, but as many of you know my husband Chris is a fan of anything hot and spicy (hey, he married me, didn't he?) so I have a built-in market for it. I think I'll have a fair amount and it will be fresh and preservative-free, so if you would enjoy some and live close enough for me to drop it off in the next day or two I'm happy to share - please let me know!

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