A Week in the Life... June 28 - July 4

A very proud Sophie sits with her class during JK/SK Graduation

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Just a few of the neighborhood kids who turned out for the Canada Day bicycle parade around Old South - Sophie stands out in her orange Canada Day shirt!

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Sophie makes a new friend at the Canada Day celebration at Harris Park

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Learning how to drive the Coast Guard boat - Sophie was a rapt student

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We were amazed at how many old friends we ran into at the Canada Day celebration - among them an old coworker named Shirley (shown here), our friend Jennifer and her daughter Hannah, and Chris's Dad. It was a great day to be at the park!

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The end of Sophie's first year of school... I can't believe it! Kindergarten Graduation was a hoot, with the class singing three songs and reciting a poem before being called up to accept their "diplomas" and a goodie bag from their Teacher Mrs. Orr. It was all very sweet, and I was thrilled to see how many parents and grandparents showed up to cheer on their little students - we felt very lucky this year to not only have Mrs. Orr as Sophie's Teacher, but to have such a great group of students in class with Sophie. She's made friends that will last for sure.

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Another really cool sign of the sense of community present in Old South was the neighborhood bicycle parade on Canada Day - families gathered at Tecumseh with decorated bikes and all together paraded around the nearby streets while some of the "neighbours in the know" came out on their porches and waved their Canadian flags. We got honked at by passing cars, waved at by other cyclists, and smiled upon by anyone who saw the production go by. Such a sweet, small-town kind of thing to do in this large 350K+ city... it really goes to show the power of neighborhood. We spent the rest of our very long Canada Day at either the Dundas Street party (where we got lunch) or at Harris Park, where we not only ran into several old friends but enjoyed some music, played in the sun, and crawled in and out of what felt like a hundred military vehicles - Sophie was absolutely thrilled to get up close and personal with not only the military personnel, but all the buttons, knobs and levers on some of their huge vehicles. It was a fascination that took me a bit by surprise to be honest, as she's never expressed much interest in that sort of thing before - today it was hard to pull her away from them! Canada day rounded out with fireworks (of course) and it was so much fun to watch them with Sophie - she was beyond excited, at one point grabbing my arm in a fierce hug and saying "Fireworks are my favourite!!!" with such emotion in her voice - it was a wonderful way to end a very exciting day.

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We rounded out the week with a fun-filled visit with Rhys and Rowan, and a large family dinner we jokingly called the "Kabob extravaganza" - serving up pork souvlaki, chicken skewers, veggie kabobs, and shrimp skewers along with Greek village salad, hummus and pita. A perfect summertime meal and very convenient for the barbeque - which is important when you're making so much food. It was a nice way to kick off what I hope will be a relaxing, family and fun filled summer!

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