Poppy is enjoying Christmas, she's taken to napping under the Christmas tree. Unfortunately, my camera and I disturbed her.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Merry Christmas Everyone
Well, last year we gave into the dog lobby, this year it was pierced ears. Have you ever noticed how many little girls have pierced ears these days? Wasn't that something you did when you were in your teens? Sarah had been begging for months to have hers done, telling me that she was the only girl in her class who didn't have pierced ears (and strangely enough, this was true). I finally gave in but made her swear a solemn oath that she would never get any other body part pierced or tattooed. Ever.
Caroline took longer to come around to the decision, but when she did she asked every two minutes until I finally took her to the salon. Once there, she started to cry, loudly, and said she'd changed her mind. Well, she was already in the chair and I knew she was just indulging in the drama of it all, so I made her go through with it. However her little performance at the salon was enough to have people passing by saying "Look at that woman forcing that child to undergo gratuitous cosmetic mutilation" - as they speed dialed Children's Aid.
Marketers have a name for kid begging, they call it pester power. Kids can get almost anything they want by following you around day and night and asking for it every two seconds. If we could harness this power for good, just think of what we could achieve. Pestering for Peace. If the children of the world's leaders could be put to work on this, we'd have peace in the Middle East in no time. Think about it, Obama made two promises when he took office, to close
Now, as you all know, Christmas is peak pester season. This year, Sarah is still asking for a horse. She's learned how to spell it now, so she thinks her chances of success are pretty good. Caroline has decided go big or go home, so she wrote to Santa and asked for a car. Neither is going to happen. I think I'll start pestering Santa for a couple of Christmas fairies to decorate the house, buy the gifts, wrap everything, bake and make Christmas dinner. Sadly I don't think pestering works for anyone over the age of 12, so I'm stuck doing it all myself. It's a bit of a thankless job. I had an entire batch of Christmas cookies stolen by the little red squirrel that lives in our woodpile. I'd put them out on the screen porch until I had a chance to finish decorating them, and when I came back a few days later every last one of them was gone. We spent a day scratching our heads wondering where they went. Could it have been the cat, the dog, some roving neighbourhood cookie thief? There weren't even any crumbs left behind. Caroline fingered the culprit the next day when he came back to the scene of the crime. Mrs. Squirrel must be pretty pleased, all her Christmas baking done, and she didn't need to lift a finger. She probably pestered Mr. Squirrel until he made 48 separate trips and didn't give up until the last cookie was in and the door was bolted. So I'm cookie-less but there's a squirrel family with four dozen almond crescents tucked away for their Christmas feast.
Here's hoping that you get whatever you have been pestering Santa for, and that your Christmas treats are safe from marauding squirrels.
Until next year,
Friday, December 11, 2009
The Cute Discount
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Global Warming Christmas
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Squirrel!
Yesterday I went out to the screen porch to get the tray of cookies I made for the Brownie bake sale only to find an empty tray. No cookies not even any crumbs. Today Caroline was in the kitchen and suddenly shouted 'squirrel!' And there was our little cookie thief. He'd ripped a hole in the screen and was helping himself.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Happiness is....a Puppy in the sunshine
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
All things Halloween
As you can see, we didn't do any Halloween decorating, even though we were heavily lobbied by the girls. Murray actually went out and got cob webs and hazard tape, but neither of us managed to find the time to put it up. My pumpkins and fall mums in the urns had to do double duty for Thanksgiving and Halloween. The three little pumpkins above the door did their part to make Halloween scary by randomly dropping on people's heads if they slammed the door too hard.
Monday, October 26, 2009
City Lights
My mum came for a visit at the beginning of the month, and the two of us went to New York for a few days. She'd never been, so it was fun doing a bunch of sightseeing with her. Although most of it was from the top of a double decker bus, which was a tad chilly this time of year. Here she is at the top of the Empire State Building.
New York traffic from our chilly perch atop the bus.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Fall Fun
Two weeks ago, the village got together for the first Fall Fun Fair, which was held at the fairgrounds. There were a number of contests to enter: house decoration, pumpkin carving, chili cook off, and coloring, which apparently Caroline won, but we'd left by the time they gave out the prizes.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Sad Day
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Friends+families+mourn+Navan+crash+victims/2032425/story.html
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Terrific Time at TIFF
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Fall Nesting - Dinners for School Nights
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Summer afternoon, summer afternoon...
Friday, August 7, 2009
Village Fair
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Back into the Swing of Things
Lots has been happening in the village as well. This last weekend there was a BBQ at Laura's Corners, another fund raiser for a local child who has been diagnosed with cancer. The week we left the entire village turned out for a Strawberry Social. That event raised an amazing $16,000.00.
I ran out to the general store on the weekend to get some yeast for Sarah and my rainy day bread baking session and stopped to buy a lemonade from some little girls who had set up a lemonade stand on the store's front porch. They were raising money to pay the vet bills of an injured cat they'd found. There must be something about this village, you learn early how to band together and get things done, how to help out in the community and make sure anyone or anything that needs help gets it. It was a cold rainy day, certainly not ideal lemonade weather but their donation jar was full of bills.
It was good to be back.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Summer fun in Boston
We started off our vacation with two days in Boston. The girls quickly made friends with Catie the resident Lab at the Fairmont Coply Plaza. We were allowed to take Catie for a walk in the park across the street. Actually, Catie took us for a walk, she originally trained as a guide dog, and old habits die hard.
Lunch at the Barking Crab followed, and a visit to the New England Aquarium finished the day.
Monday, June 22, 2009
SoS Children's Village Canada, Talent in the Tent
Summer time, summer time
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Cultural Pursuits
Friday, May 29, 2009
Traffic in the Village
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Fun with Wildlife 2
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Spring is busting out all over
I'm feeling very nostalgic about Spring this week not because of the crocuses, but because I'm off work for a week and am indulging in a bout of Spring cleaning. I remember my mother and grandmother cleaning our house from top to bottom, opening all the windows and doors to 'air the house out', washing windows, waxing floors. I can still smell the floor wax, a heavenly smell that you just don't encounter anymore. I won't be doing any of those things, my list consists of cleaning out the girls' playroom, sorting out closets, and hauling away mountains of stuff to the Sally Ann. The amount of junk that we accumulate is criminal. One day into it and I'm already feeling like Wall-e. I'm clinging to the hope that clearing out the physical junk will somehow exercise the spiritual funk that I always fall into over the winter.
So here's hoping, and if that fails, I'm off to buy a tin of floor wax.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Backyard Wildlife
Friday, March 27, 2009
Fun with Wildlife
All in all no damage done but I'm glad it didn't happen last week while we were away. I wouldn't have relished prying a dead grackle out of my chimney.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
A Week in Washington
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Black and White Opera Soiree
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Family Celebrations, and too much cake
It all proved too much for Caroline, who fell asleep on a couch in the corner.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
A Night on the Town
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Mommy Break
You could even go x-country skiing right from the door. Murray (bless him, bless him!) who urged me to get away for the weekend, held down the fort at home and enjoyed some one on one time with the girls.