Poppy under the Tree

Poppy is enjoying Christmas, she's taken to napping under the Christmas tree. Unfortunately, my camera and I disturbed her.

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 Guantanamo and get his kids a dog. Which one did he deliver on? Think about it…

 

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,

 

The Cute Discount

I love Laura's Corners in Navan. Not only does it have all sorts of wonderful stuff, the owners are just lovely. The girls and I were in there last Friday, buying a hostess gift. Sarah and Caroline decided to buy a couple of Christmas deorations with their own money - and voila, what was a $7.95 bobble magically came up on the register as $3.00. The girls were thrilled and charmed, as was I.

Global Warming Christmas

What do you do when it's December and there's no snow? Draw a Christmas tree on the driveway-that's what.

Squirrel!

Mystery solved.
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.

Happiness is....a Puppy in the sunshine

Well after a week of being quarantined with swine flu, we were all well again and out enjoying a singularly wonderful Sunday afternoon in November. 17C and not a cloud in the sky. The girls did their riding lesson in t-shirts. We gardened, and Poppy just sat on the steps and enjoyed the sunshine. Ahhhhhh.

All things Halloween

Halloween has come and gone, thank goodness. I don't know about you, but when did this holiday become such a big deal? There are so many houses on our street decorated to the gills with grave stones, fake body parts protruding from the ground, fog making machines (I kid you not), cob webs galore and hazard tape. What ever happened to a Jack-o-Lantern in the window and that was the end of it?

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.

Here's Caroline, our little Swine Flu victim dressed as a dark fairy (with scarf that Mummy made her wear). Sarah wasn't sick so she got to go to her friend's sleep-over. Caroline had to stay home, but we let her go to a few houses so she wouldn't be too disappointed.

Earlier in the week, we made a batch of Halloween cookies. The girls decorated them with gusto and not a small amount of icing and sprinkles. Don't ask me why Caroline chose to wear her winter hat while doing this.

Caroline also did the honors with the blackboard wall in the kitchen and got it ready for Halloween this year. I particularly like her witch.

City Lights

I've been a very poor blogger lately, partly because I'm just too busy with life to write about it, and partly because I sometimes wonder if a blog falls in the forest.... Anyway, the town side of this blog has had very few mentions as of late, so here goes.
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.

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.

The festival brought a little cheer to an otherwise sad month, so it was good to see everyone out enjoying all the activities. The sun even broke through for a bit. We decorated our house, but the result was very low key compared to to some of the other homes in the village. It looks great though, and gets us in the mood for apple picking and bonfires in the back yard....mmm I love fall.

Sad Day

Thinking of the three families who burried their children today. No words.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Friends+families+mourn+Navan+crash+victims/2032425/story.html

Terrific Time at TIFF

Last Friday I joined Murray in Toronto for a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. Bell is one of the corporate sponsors, and as a thank you to some of their community partners, Murray's group hosted a screening of Max Manus, Norway's entry at the festival this year. It's the story of Norway's most famous WWII resistance fighter, and the most successful Norwegian film in 30 years. It was an absolutely terrific film. See it if you can. Here's a picture of some of our group enjoying the screening.

Fall Nesting - Dinners for School Nights

Last weekend I took Caroline along with me to Supper Works. I'm in love with this place. It has made our weeknight meals so much more manageable. The concept is, you pick anywhere from 6-12 menu items, book a session, and then come and put it all together. Everything is prepped and ready to go. The instructions feature lots of ziplock bags. When you are all done you have a bunch of made from scratch, healthy entrees to stick in your freezer. Here we are filling up a baggie with the makings of vegetarian chili.

Caroline just loves the camera (not). We had fun though. It takes about an hour to assemble 6 meals. There's no chopping or clean up. And once you go to prepare your little feast at home, there is only a couple of pans to deal with, and dinner is ready in 20 mins. Oh bliss.

Packing up our goodies to take home. Between Supper Works, Murray's famous spaghetti bolognese sauce, and my trusty crock pot, we manage to get dinner on the table throughout the school year.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

All those stalls in the market who list their farm address as Navan should tell you something. Things grow really well out here. Even with the horrible weather we've had this summer, my tomato plants are, once again, taller than I am. OK, I know that's not saying much, but still 5' plus tomato plants are nothing to sneeze at.

This year we have a wide variety growing in our little tomato plot at the end of the screen porch. Grape tomatoes, yellow tear drop tomatoes, large beefsteak, another large yellow variety. They'll be lots of fresh tomato pasta to be had, not to mention soup.

Summer afternoon, summer afternoon...

The two best words in the English language.

All of a sudden we’re having real summer weather. Monday it was hot humid and 33C (with the humidex), yesterday it was still warm but with scattered thunder showers, the kind where it pours but the sun is shining. Today, it’s just 25C but the sun makes if feel much hotter. I’m working at home because the girls are at riding camp again and it’s just too time consuming to ferry them there and then go into the office. Also because if I’m home I get to have lunch in the back garden. We acquired two Adirondack chairs for around the fire pit, and I must say, they are truly one of those things that were perfectly designed for their function. Deceptively simple, but low slung, comfortable and with wide level arms on which to perch cool refreshing drinks. Ours even have a round groove to put your glass in. Anyway, I took my sandwich, iced tea, and book out there at noon and sat under the dappled sunlight, and thought…ahhhh this is that the last 6 weeks were suppose to be like.

Village Fair

Friday, August 7

Ah...it's that time again. The Navan Fair opened last night. The girls look forward to this the whole year, to them it's sort of like Christmas in August, and like Christmas, they are always disappointed that it doesn't last longer.

The Navan Fair is -to my mind - the perfect little rural fair. There's livestock exhibits, horse shows, baking competitions, and entries for just about every type of garden or craft project you can think of. But when you are 8 (or 7 or 6 or 5), the real attraction is the mid-way. The girls are so excited this year that they've finally gotten tall enough to get on most of the rides. I watch them with my heart in the throat. A few of the ride operators have been there for years. We were chatting with the fellow who operates the merry-go-round last night and he remembered when the girls first came to the fair at age three.

Today is bracelet day (ride all you want for one price), and Murray has booked the day off to take the girls to the midway when it opens at 11:00. He'll be there with all other Mums and Dads from the village whose kids will be making themselves dizzy on the whirling strawberries, or scaring themselves silly on the Big Drop.

Tonight we'll build a bonfire in the back yard, roast marshmallows and listen to the Nazareth concert - one of the benefits - or not -of living just a block away from the fairgrounds.

Back into the Swing of Things

After a month of family vacation and summer camps, we're all home and easing back into our regular routines. The girls are back at day care, which isn't as much fun as Cape Cod or riding camp, but they're coping. Murray and I are back into the rhythm of the daily commute.

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.

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.

The next day it was off to the Boston Children's Museum, possible the best children's museum ever.

Lunch at the Barking Crab followed, and a visit to the New England Aquarium finished the day.

SoS Children's Village Canada, Talent in the Tent

Last week the girls and I attended a fund raiser for SOS Children's Village at Earnscliffe. Murray was out of town and couldn't attend. The event was an exhibition and sale of artists' works, paintings, photographs, pottery, jewelry. There were lots of very nice nibblies, and punch in champagne glasses, which made Sarah and Caroline feel very grown up. In fact, the mini hamburger sliders and other yummy things on sticks served as our dinner, so all we have to do to round off the evening was go for ice cream at the Rockcliff Dairy Bar.

The proceeds from the event went to the very first all Canadian funded Children's Village in Ondangwa Namibia.

Summer time, summer time

Summer looks like it's finally here and the village has come to life once again. Last weekend was the community association picnic. Caroline was still in her art class, so we didn't get there very early, but it was still nice to chat with everyone. The weekend before that was the Sunday School closing program, potluck and picnic.

This weekend the main attraction was the Family Fun Day at the school. There were bouncy castles galore, games, the ever-popular firehose challenge, and really great hamburgers supplied by The Works.

Cultural Pursuits

Sarah has joined the Navan Young Players and a couple of weeks ago they put on their end of season play, "Stage Fright in the Stacks." Sarah played the part of Tiny the bookworm beautifully. We were very proud, as she suffers from stage fright so even signing up for a theatre class was a big step for her.

Here she is with her opening night bouquet (closing night too, as a matter of fact).

Traffic in the Village

This picture is a little misty looking because I took it from inside the car on a rainy morning. Still, I like the idea of our sleepy little village's traffic being composed of the odd horse-drawn cart.

Fun with Wildlife 2

Last night, the girls were playing on their play structure in the backyard while I was making dinner, when all of a sudden Caroline came dashing through the door breathless with excitement. "Mummy, Mummy, there's a skunk in the back yard."

Sure enough, there he was sauntering through the yard in broad daylight. The girls shadowed the little guy from a safe distance and I snapped this pic as he rounded the corner of our neighbour's house. I was very thankful the dog come back into the house a few minutes earlier, or we would have had a very smelly disaster on our hands.

Spring is busting out all over

It's about time I updated the picture on my blog header, isn't it? Up until even last week it was so cold the icy branches in the picture were not out of place. My other excuse is I was waiting for something 'springy' to photograph. Well the wait is over, these little crocuses popped up in the front garden, so here they are to adorn the blog header for the next month or so.

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.

Backyard Wildlife

After two episodes of grackles in the fireplace (grackle number two had to be freed from the living room fireplace Friday), and battling the crows who eat everything in the bird feeder as soon as I put it out, it was nice to see this brightly coloured fellow in the back garden today. Spring must be here if there are lots of nice juicy bugs to eat.

Fun with Wildlife

We had a bit of excitement here the other day. I'd come home mid-afternoon so I would be able to pick the girls up from day care when my last meeting ended at 5:30, and was just settling in when I heard a scrabbling sound. It was coming from the fireplace. We came home the previous night and noticed soot on the floor in front of the hearth, but on checking, couldn't find anything. This time though, the presence of a critter in the chimney has hard to dispute. The mad scratching and banging was a dead giveaway.

The scene of the crime

So, I did a very girlie thing and called Murray at work. Getting a bird (or whatever) out of the chimney is a two-person job. When he got home, we closed all the interior doors, donned leather work gloves, and grabbed a box. The plan was to hold the box over the opening in the fireplace in the hope that whatever would drop down into it, but no luck. Whatever it was hadn't signed off on that plan and was not cooperating. Finally after a few tries, a very scared and sooty grackle shot out of the fireplace and flew right upstairs. It ended up in the playroom perched on the top hat that is hanging on the easel - all very Edgar Allen Poe (re-enactment curtesy of Photoshop). We managed to get the screen off the window and it flew out after a few mad laps around the room.

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.

A Week in Washington

March break has just ended (someone pointed out that they don't call it Spring Break for a reason), and toute la famille is back from our trip to Washington. We went to D.C. for the first time two years ago over March break specifically to go to the zoo and see the pandas. With two panda mad little girls, it seemed like a good way to spend a week. Also, it's a ten hour drive from Ottawa, so is pretty do-able.

This year we were back again, for a whole week of sightseeing, visiting the zoo, and traipsing through museums. Murray and I are joking that the girls will grow up to say, "Yeah, all the other kids got to go to Disney World for March Break but our parents made us go to Washington and spend a week at the Smithsonian.

Here they are copping an attitude in front of the White House.

The highlight of the trip this time around (besides the hotel swimming pool of course) was seeing the Lincoln Memorial. Sarah was so enthralled she bought a children's biography of Lincoln and read it through in two days.

Black and White Opera Soiree

Last Saturday night Murray and I attended the Bell Black and White Soiree, an annual winter fund raiser for the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Opera Lyra Ottawa. This year's theme was Gilbert and Sullivan on Parliament Hill. The VIP reception started at 5:00, and the girls' birthday party lasted until 4:00, so we were dressed and out the door in record time. Murray hosted a table again this year, and I got to meet the very charming new director of the National Gallery Marc Mayer who was one of the guests.

The evening was hosted by Peter Mansbridge, Lloyd Robertson and Bernard Derome. A selection of G&S tunes were full of amusing jibes at the politics of the day, and the politicians and journalists who participated did so with a generous amount of good humor. All in all not your average night at the opera.

Family Celebrations, and too much cake

Last weekend was a 4-day long weekend for us. Good thing too, because we had to fly to Winnipeg for my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. It was so great seeing everyone again. My Mum is from a large family, so I grew up with a gaggle of 50 or so aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins. My two little ones are family-poor in comparison. We took advantage of the visit to sneak in a little party for the girls and their Grandpapa who's birthdays are in February as well.

Sarah and Gracie had a great time dancing to Abba.

It all proved too much for Caroline, who fell asleep on a couch in the corner.

When we got home (after a very long day of plane travel) I picked up Poppy at the kennel and noticed, that like me, she must have spent the long weekend eating. We're both noticeably chubbier. Oh well, spring is on its way and we can enjoy walking it off together.

A Night on the Town

On Monday, Murray and I attended the Bell Sens Soiree, an event that raised over $300,000. for the various children's chairties that the Senator's Foundation supports, including CHEO and Roger's House. Since it was on a weeknight, we had some logistical issues with getting a sitter. All of ours are in high school so can't stay up late on a school night. In the end we packed everyone up and checked into the Lac Lemy Hilton for the night. The event was downstairs at the convention centre. The girls stayed in the room with a hotel-provided sitter and we partied downstairs. We had a lively table which included Murray's brother Rob and his wife Claire, his colleague Jacqueline and her husband, the head of the United Way and one of the Senators, Ryan Shannon. The photo is courtesy of Rob.

The Mommy Break

Lucky Me! I got to go away for a little Mommy break this weekend to the Wakefield Mill. The Wakefield Mill is an Inn and Spa in a renovated mill about 30 mins from Ottawa on the Quebec side. It was truly lovely, the food was outstanding, the massage, wonderful and the ambiance just what you'd want if you needed and little R & R. Here's my comfy room.

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.

It Takes a Village...

Every Thursday afternoon the girls' school takes the K-2 classes skating at the Navan Arena. The arena is a couple of blocks from the school and all the classes trudge over loaded down with gear for a 30 min. skate. The parents come along to help, because with a gaggle of Kindergarten to Grade 2s, almost no one can manage to get their skates on by themselves.

I was one of the parents this last Thursday and once again was struck by how very blessed we are to live in a village where all the children have known each over from nursery school. And they know us too. You are just as likely to have one of the girls'' little friends skate up and grab your hand as you are to have one of your own holding on to you for support. It's one of those perfect little moments that brings home how lucky we are to be living here.

-40 Fashion

This is my new dog-walking hat. I was getting so tired of not being able to keep my ears and forehead warm at the same time, that I thought it was high time to find a hat that could do both at once. This little Woolrich number does the trick nicely. Murray, who thinks my personal style should be more Park Avenue than Green Acres, is less than impressed, and thinks I look like my dad. He's got a point, just add the Makinac jacket and a pair of gum boots....

Teeny, Tiny Treats

Sarah and I have started a new venture. We are making birthday cakes in the Easy Bake Oven she and Caroline got for Christmas. Caroline isn't all that taken with it, but Sarah is the cook, and has been having lots of fun making cakes all by herself.

We found a recipe on the Internet that yields a mix for 12 cakes, so have a little store of cakes mixes saved in snack sized zip-lock baggies and ready to go. I bought tiny candy boxes and paper doilies at the Bulk Food Store and Sarah made her first birthday cake for her friend Hannah. It looked adorable. We had such a lot of fun doing it, that the girls' other BFF, Rebecca will also get a tiny cake as part of her birthday present next week.