Happy and Bright

We’re having double piano lessons this week while we try out a new teacher. He seems very friendly so far, though it’s only been 15 minutes.
I didn’t blog last Saturday, usually I do during our lesson but I was out of the house volunteering at the school garage sale.

The nice weather is finally here and I have been taking full advantage by walking Holly at the arboretum and fletcher wildlife garden. Last Saturday was the Perth Maple Festival which I was so happy to go to this year. It was much the same as previous years but every year as the kids get older the experience is a bit different. We picked up some goodies and had lunch and walked around and enjoyed the day and sunshine. It was a really busy weekend, but so much fun to get out and spend time together. Shawn has been home a lot more often which has been good for me and making me feel more like I have someone to lean on a bit.

I’ve been really struggling to put my goals down on paper, and really solidify what I want to do. All week it’s been a daily goal and I just haven’t gotten there yet. I know that I have ideas, but I haven’t figured out how to organize them yet or what I want to specifically say, or what my long term goals should be. I want to be healthy physically, and I suppose I’m slowly getting there. I want to nurture my creative side…that’s going slowly, or not at all but it’s on my radar. I want to have meaningful relationships, I want to have worthwhile things to say, I want to feel as though my successes are real and not just flukes. I feel like I never fail or succeed at anything because I never try anything so I want to try things, but not scary things like skydiving or something ridiculous. I want to have close relationships with my children so that as they grow into adults we stay close, and I want to have honest and loving experiences with my husband so that when our kids are old and out of the house we aren’t strangers to each other. So, I have no idea how to make these things happen, but I think it’s a good sign that I’m at least thinking about it.

 

Don’t Rush

This week was a whirlwind! Easter was amazing, the Easter Bunny was very good to the kids and left them a scavenger hunt with lots of clues to find their eggs. I really think that they could have had even harder clue this year so maybe the Easter bunny will need to step up his game next year!

Since we had done our big dinners on Friday and Saturday, we had Sunday all to ourselves and took Holly for a wonderful long walk down to Hogs Back falls to see the water.

Tuesday, Tori and her kids Noah, and Elise arrived here from Winnipeg ready for some Ottawa fun! I took the kids out of school for the rest of the week (with only a little guilt!) so that we could tour around together. On our first full day, we went out to Fulton’s Pancake house, and were practically the only people there! They had a really fun scavenger hunt through the forest, a great park that all four of the kids loved, lots of historical maple bush equipment and of course a great restaurant. I’m so glad we went during the week, rather than the weekend as I’m sure it’s a madhouse there on Saturday and Sundays. Even though the hayride, and face painting wasn’t going on, we still had a great time and stayed for many hours until 4 year old Elise couldn’t keep her head up any further.

At the house Tori loved Holly so much, and had Holly cuddling in her arms by the time Friday came around. The kids had a good time with screens, and played together a lot on the xbox. Nay shared a room with Noah, and it was a bit rough for the first two nights, but by the third and final night they both went to sleep happily. Cake gave up her room to Tori and Elise, and she was sleeping in Shawn’s office.

We had Prince Shawarma for dinner and then went to Menchies for frozen yogurt sundae’s. What a treat all on it’s own!
The following day, we drove out to Brockville to go to the Aquatarium. There wasn’t a whole lot of fish, and the otters were asleep pretty much as soon as we got there, but it was still a lot of fun. There was an obstacle course that the kids had to wear harnesses and get clipped into a zip line to do. Even Nay did the obstacle course, but he was quite afraid. I’m so proud of him for doing it, I really though that he would see it and then not want to go but he did it! At the end of the course there was a 40 foot drop but he got up to the platform and then refused to jump, I tried to encourage him but he wouldn’t go for it. The rest of the time the kids were playing in the play area, running around through hidden tunnels, and climbing ladders, sandboxes with moon sand, and weather stations. It was really well done, and so clean too. Again, because it was the middle of the week, we were practically the only people there! It was fantastic!

So many photos, both piano lessons are done! On our final day, we went to costco to pick up some carrots for their trip out to Parc Omega today, and then we drove out to the Richcraft centre to go swimming. The pool was really nice, it was certainly busy though, there were lots of seniors trying to do laps in the pool and our kids were all over the place swimming and splashing and throwing the ball. Haha, I’m sure they were annoyed with us, but the kids had a great time and we swam for over an hour. After a nice lunch at Boston Pizza we dropped Tori and the kids off at her cousins place for the next leg in their adventure and we went home to a quiet house. The kids played together and I got caught up on a few things, and tried to tidy up a bit. It’s always nice to have house guests, but it’s always nice when they leave too. Nay and Noah butted heads a bit, and poor Cake got stuck with taking care of Elise a lot, which they were both very good sports about. As a reward for being so mature Shawn and I are taking them to Chapters today to choose a new book.

I love my kids!
Jenn

The Anna Adventures – Upper Canada Village

This morning in my house, there is a wild fury of activity, the kitchen and bay windows are already out and in pieces and someone is finishing off the laundry room window now too. The guys are all business today, and that works just fine for me. I want these windows done, I want to leave my house tomorrow, though I have NO idea where I’ll go, I just know I want to leave without having to rush back because just in case someone might show up. I was lucky that I was here for them yesterday because I was totally not expecting it. Phone calls people, phone calls.

Shawn is gone too, so I don’t even feel that comfortable leaving to walk the dog while they’re here, but it means I get to use his office desk and try out the creativity karma in his office.

The wall behind my laptop isn’t pink, it’s just reflecting off my pink laptop case, promise. So, they’re taking the window out directly below where I’m sitting and they’re using a drill or electric saw or something and it’s totally vibrating the desk and my computer and the floor. So far I don’t have much to say about the creative vibes in here, it’s an office, so it doesn’t really compare to sitting on a swing in my yard watching the sun come up. Though, I can see that the neighbours across the street have a maple tree that is about 15% red now, that’s kinda sad.

So, I have had an ongoing struggle with Cake and her staying up late to read, it’s come to a head I think. She ‘woke’ up this morning and was exhausted, she had an upset stomach, and was really feeling ill. I gave her the option to stay home with me but told her that because the window guys were going to be working downstairs all day, she’d be trapped upstairs with Holly and I for the whole day. She would also miss out on gymnastics day at camp, which I knew would make her upset. As she was contemplating it all I asked her how late she stayed up until last night. Ten. That is only shortly before I went to bed, but I knew this because stealth has never been her strong suit. I told her that the reason that she wasn’t well was because she has been staying up way too late, and getting up early in the morning. It was taking a toll on her body and it needs to stop. If she needs more time to settle down for bed she can start getting ready when Nay does, but either way, there would be no more staying up past 9pm. She did eventually decide to go off to camp, though I told her to see if she could cuddle up in a beanbag chair with a book if she could. I always use Cake as a PSA against letting kids ‘cry it out’ she never learned how to fall asleep unless her body just collapses, and now years later she still struggles with it. Sleep training is far, far superior, I’m glad I figured that out in time for Nathan.

Cue swirly stars and magical music as we go back in time to last Friday….

We were originally supposed to be doing an art day, but Anna really, really, really wanted to go back to Upper Canada Village. The girls a bit of a history enthusiast, as am I, so I couldn’t say no to that. The day was beautiful, like warm, sunny but cloudy, a really gorgeous day. We dropped Holly off at the doggy day care so she wouldn’t have to spend 9 hours by herself, and then got in the car to drive. The only downside to upper Canada village is the drive, so long…it took almost two hours to get there because of construction traffic, and we had to make a stop along the way to drop off some stuff at my brothers place. We grabbed some subway for lunch while we were stopped though so it was okay.

Not much had changed from last year, just the locations of the animals really. There was no cow to milk, but we saw some sheep just randomly wandering around so we petted them and hand fed them some grass. Adorable. I also convinced the kids not to buy anything in the gift shop, we really don’t need the useless stuff anyway. Though I did pick up two small bricks of their cheddar cheese which I’ve been enjoying all week long. I thought about getting some more flour too but they only had small bags (and I haven’t used the flour I bought last year yet, ooooops, time to bake some bread!) We were there for a solid 6 hours and then we had a looooong drive home, stuck even longer in construction traffic. I was thirty minutes late picking up Holly but they were cool at the doggy day care and didn’t charge me extra, though I gave them a massive tip.

The only thing I would have to say about UCV that was a disappointment though, was that they got rid of the scavenger hunt! Cake really wanted to do that thing, and even collected the things that she could remember! I told them at the desk that they should reinstate it, there doesn’t even need to be a prize, it’s just fun for the kids!

group shot at the flour mill

These guys put on a skit with song and dance, very entertaining!

Hugs on the boat ride.

At the family centre, hammering nails

Anna and her sidekick Nay.

Only very classy ladies drink tea.

My girl loves the dress up here!

More water pump fun.

Baaaaaa!

Nomnomnom

Pettsies for the sheepsies

cow, mooooo!

This cow wouldn’t eat the hay Nay was trying to shove in his mouth. The barn…guy…said she’d been sleeping on it for weeks. My only thought was that the hay my son just had in his hand was covered in pee. Gross.

One more group shot, same bench as last year.

So much fun! We saw them working on a quilt there and they told us that the quilt, when finished, would be on the physician’s bed by next summer. So we all agreed to go back on look for it when we inevitably come back. I did tell Anna though that if we keep going back to the same places, we’d never discover anything new, and there is a lot of fun stuff to do in Ottawa!

By the time we got home, the kids were all pretty tuckered, and we had a nice quiet evening. That was Anna’s last full day with us, in the morning we went to the Science and Technology museum for a few hours before I drove her out to my parents who were going to deliver her to her own parents for me. When we exited the museum Nay got really sad, he didn’t want her to go. She’s closer in age to them than me, so they really feel like she’s their cousin. They both really look up to her and love her a lot. We all miss her and wish she lived closer. But, as I said to the kids, there’s always next year to look forward to!

Have a happy Thursday, I am going to go down and survey the progress and see if a cup of coffee is a possibility.

Hugs,
Jenn

The Anna Adventures – Mer Bleue and Cumberland Museum

It’s 10am right now, the sun is there, but its cloudy and the window guys are no where to be found…they worked yesterday until it started to rain, and said they would be back when it stopped. I’m getting itchy about having my house so disorderly, but I can’t do anything about it until they finish. It’s making me cranky, so very cranky. I dropped the kids off at camp today, and one of the camp leaders asked me why I never disclosed Nay’s wheat allergy. So, I said the most obvious thing ever, I never told because he doesn’t have one. She looked perplexed, and asked if he had any allergies. Nope, not a one! Apparently to get out of eating a nutri grain bar he told all the adults he had a wheat allergy. Which is even funnier because I sent him with a ham sandwich for lunch yesterday. I pulled him aside and told him not to fib and that next time just politely decline the nutrigrain bar. Lying is wrong but it was kinda funny as well. There’s like, 19 days of summer left. I’m SO sad. It hit me yesterday because after the window guys took off I went and got the kids back to school supplies. It was fun to get those things, but at the same time it was like I could no longer avoid the thoughts that they would be going back soon. I got them very cute pencil boxes though, so at least there’s that. Let’s travel back a week to happier times now! Mer Bleue is a protected bog about 30 minutes from our house, I’ve been there before with the kids when they were just the teeny tiny little ickle ones who didn’t leave me to go to school. What? Shawn’s sister and her son joined us as they live out in that neck of the woods. Shannon led us down a mosquito infested path…we eventually retreated and then I forgave her. Once we picked up some water we headed down the correct path, which is a 1.2km boardwalk that goes through the bog. It has lovely tall grasses and pussy willows, and mossy sections and beautiful scenery all around. We looked for wildlife and saw birds, squirrels, and butterflies and thankfully not a single mosquito!

Nay tripped and hurt his ankle on the mosquito path so he got a piggy back out of there.

Start of the boardwalk.

That’s better, beautiful reflections

Tree that will fall and return to the Earth.

Cake resting on a bench.

The kiddos taking a rest with Anna

Cake didn’t like the parts with no handrails.

mossy.

boardwalk, are you enjoying my witty titles?

Tristan and Nay just contemplating thermal dynamics.

The kids all felt the pussy willows or cat tails as they’re otherwise known.

At the end of the boardwalk, Tristan showed us this cool teepee that someone built. Cake was just about to go right inside when Tristan piped up about all the spiders that were in there, as you can see I persuaded her to at least crouch by the entrance.

By then it was time for lunch so I was trying to find us a nice simple place to grab a bite to eat. And, yo, east end of Ottawa, you need to up your game! The lunch selection out there was very poor and we ended up at a Wendy’s instead of a nice soup and sandwich spot that I had envisioned! Even the kids were disappointed, so you know it’s pretty bad! At this point I was still trying to get our museum passes figured out, so we had to wait before entering the Cumberland museum for them to email me our pass. That was fine though, because there was a train car that the kids enjoyed while I waited. Unfortunately by this time, Anna was starting to feel a sore throat coming on so that put a bit of a damper on it for her. Cumberland museum was like a small version of Upper Canada Village, except they had awesome life sized board games of sorry, Chinese checkers, there was a bowling lane, and mini put, and bean bag toss! The little kids all liked those a lot and Anna and I wandered through a bunch of the houses. The kids all went into the schoolhouse and then played in the school yard as well. They had a cow with dreadlocks and a bunch of chickens too. Unfortunately because of time restraints we had to leave after that, but I think (once I get my museum pass) I’d really like to take the kids back there!!

All kids like to play with water pumps! Xavier, Cake, and Nay, and Anna. Tristan is hidden and is operating the pump.

WEEEEEE!

The swinging rope, was a lot of fun!

None of the kids could climb this rope, I didn’t try so as not to embarrass them with my strength.

Tristan and Cake on the teeter totter. Cake fell after I turned around so I’m pretty sure she won’t try that one again

All the desks, neatly, in a rows.

Bowling!

Big Yellow Schoolhouse!

Tristan making a move!

Sorry!

Cool ceiling

All aboard!

This is a really lovely museum, and we will come back for sure to play and explore some more. After this we drove home (through construction traffic) and Anna went to rest up and try to recover while the kids and I went to soccer!

Having all of this stuff everywhere is making me want to get rid of everything, seriously, I’m surprised the window guys haven’t come. It’s now after 11 and the sun is out, it’s not too hot, and the rainfall warnings have been lifted! Dudes, get with the program!!

I guess I’ll take a nap and enjoy my alone time.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Hugs,
Jenn

The Anna Adventures – Diefenbunker Museum

It’s Day 2 of window instalment here, yesterday they finished both the kids rooms, the office, the master bedroom and most of the ensuite bathroom and the hallway window. They also started the dining room window, which was amazing to me because it’s all happening pretty darn fast! Shawn is happy to be out of the basement, though the cats are still exiled. Holly is out of the family room, and locked upstairs with Shawn, at least she has more room now.

Today, they will be doing the bays in the living room and kitchen, replacing the tempered glass in the fixed kitchen window, finishing the dining room window, the laundry room window and, changing the family room window into a sliding door. That last one is the one I’m most excited about, of course it means having to completely re-think the layout of the room, but I”m sure I’ll figure it out over time.

The kids had a BLAST at camp yesterday, though Cake lost her hat somehow. When I got there, they were both sitting on some bean bags reading books but they told me all about building a big lego creations, playing at the park, having their snacks, and how exciting it was that someone from Cake’s soccer team was at day camp too! I guess I’m not regretting the camp as much as I was yesterday, though we’ll see how they are for soccer tonight after a full days worth of activity!! There’s only two games left and the season is done for another year, this year was far more successful than last!

Last week, our Anna Adventures brought us out to the far west end of Ottawa to the Diefenbunker museum! It really looks like nothing when you first pull up, just a small warehouse. If you go, I highly suggest getting the diefenbunker app, there are numbers on the walls/doors that co-respond with numbers in the app and you can tap on a number and then you can learn about what area you’re in. The app will also show you which door to exit through so that you don’t get lost, the kids didn’t care too much for the information the app told you about the rooms but both Anna and I watched the information as it was often quite interesting. I’ve kept the app on my phone because it really was a lot of good historical information.

The beginning of the tunnel

Decontamination chamber, this room gave me the creeps.

Cake and Anna in the decontamination showers

Out of everything in the whole Diefenbunker, the decontamination showers were the only rooms to freak me out, I zoomed through them and let the kids explore on their own. CREEPYYYYYY!

dials and turney thingys

Old school surgical suite

Someone worked here, the audio would describe the paint as ‘cheerful,’ my description would not be similar

ONLY YOU!

Computer bits and bobs

Top of a scale model of the entire diefenbunker

Kids with the mode

The whole model

They had a SNES down there, the kids were blown away that I also had one of these as a kid.

I schooled Nay on Duck Hunt on SNES.

Making paper cranes in the lunch room.

This is the room they used to keep the gold bars in, for the Bank of Canada

Can’t recall the name of this room but all the chairs were labelled with important people

Cake, Anna, and Nay leading the country.

Waiting for a very important call

These phones are hilarious.

Bring me a cookie, immediately!

Note taking on very small desktops.

The telephone room was a big hit.

This person had a lot of phones to answer.

Time zone clocks.

This room had a smart board in it, not sure that’s historically accurate.

Answering machine, kids were once again amazed at what I had to put up with as a child.

Map of Canada with blast zones.

Making decisions

Servers?

Working hard or hardly working? eh?

We loved the Diefenbunker, I think out of everything we did, that was my favourite! After leaving Carp, we drove to an amazing chip truck on Carp road just out of Stittsville, called Ed’s.

Cake and I had poutine, and I really think it’s the best poutine I have ever had. Ed, the owner came and chatted with us for a few minutes and was super friendly. Nay and Anna both had fries and everyone enjoyed their lunch thoroughly!!

We made a quick stop at Michaels to pick up some supplies on the way home, and then home to have dinner and get ready for soccer.

I will say that we did have some difficulties purchasing a membership to the Ottawa Museum Network, but hopefully they’ll come through for us. I haven’t received my card yet, but I’m hopeful.

The rain has started now, but other than wind it’s not too bad. I’m not sure if that means that the guys are going to work through or not. I was hoping they would get done today so that I could start cleaning tomorrow and get the back to school shopping done on Thursday/Friday. I guess I’ll go see!

Have a happy Tuesday…it just occurred to me that soccer may get cancelled, is it wrong that I’m kind of hopeful?

Hugs,
Jenn

The Anna Adventures – Saunders Farm

Today, I am not writing from the swinging bench by the pool, it is not 7am and the world is still quiet and waking up. Though I have certainly been awake longer, I’m only now just getting the chance to sit down with my thoughts and a cup of tea. Today the old windows are coming out and the new ones are going up, and it is long overdue. When we moved into this house 8 years ago, windows were on the radar, but man, those things are pricey! With vacations and cars, and everyday expenses, we just never got around to saving any money for windows! Then two years ago, I could feel a breeze coming from Nathan’s window. It was shut, and it was winter. Even still, it took me a whole extra year to get around to calling some window companies to come in and schedule the work. But, here they are and they’ve been ripping out the old windows all morning. Cats and Shawn are locked in the basement, they’re not complaining. Holly is locked in the family room, she is complaining. Poor pup, she just wants to PLAY! I was hoping she would eventually accept her fate and just lay down with a bone but so far it’s not happening, she’s sitting at the gate and every 5 minutes or so letting out a bark or a pathetic little whine. She knows I’m just around the corner and she hears all the guys walking around upstairs working away. The torture I tell you!!! It’s inhumane!! But, she got a good walk this morning, and I’ll take her out again after her lunch for a short stint so that she doesn’t spend the whole day contemplating trying to jump over the gate. Between you and me, I’m thinking she could totally make that jump anyway, but shhhh, don’t tell her that!!

I’m sitting in my kitchen right now and they are working on the window that’s on the second floor so there are several ladders going up in front of me at the moment. Also, I’ve got a basket of laundry I need to hang up, I wonder what time these guys go on lunch, I’m not all over getting tripped up in several tall ladders!

But, let’s get out of the present, and go back a week! Back to when we were still blissfully in 100% summer fun with Anna!

We went to Saunders Farm, we went there last year too, but it was SO awesome I knew she would want to go again. I was right.

Hay jump, Nay jumped right after and a piece of hay punctured his knee.

Sitting in the teenyweeny chair

Tractor riding

JUMP

The jumping pillows were, not surprisingly a huge hit again this year. The kids jumped and jumped, forever. Until they could jump no more and needed some water, which I conveniently left in the car. I’m good like that.

We LOVE Anna!

Musical Maze

Can’t remember which maze this is.

I just remembered, it was the MILE MAZE! Cake and Nay were worried about going in here but Anna and I convinced them. We made it to the middle and then we cheated to get out again. We’re kinda like anarchists!

Giants eat here

Nay and Mummy selfie

crows nest

Cake and Anna

Kids under the tree that Shawn and I were married under.

Nay wouldn’t sit on the hand, too creepy

The kids were in the splash pad too for a bit, but I chose to sit in the shade and finish my lunch leisurely while they played. I made Cake change into her dry clothes in the back of the car, she was hesitant, but did it with some coercing. Mom’s embarrass kids, I remember it well.

Things we love about Saunders Farm: mazes are awesome, scavenger hunt, food options have definitely improved, ample parking (it’s mostly me who likes that one.)

Things I didn’t love so much: stamps and pads were missing for more than a few of the scavenger hunt boxes, despite the fact that we were there first thing in the morning. Also, they should have totally have put something down to soak up some of the mud in the mazes, it was very muddy. I used the splash pad to rinse off my sandals more than once. The mazes were also in a bit of neglect, the colour maze had no more colours, the musical maze was missing several drumsticks, a bit disappointing for the kiddos.

Overall though, the kids and I had a lot of fun! We went all through the attractions and then I let them each choose one more thing to do again. Cake liked the pirate ship play structure, and both Nay and Anna wanted to jump some more. It was a quiet ride back to the city, for sure!

One of the best parts, was that because it had been raining that morning, it was empty! There were only a few dozen cars in the lot and only 2 summer camp groups. We didn’t have to wait for anything, it was great!! If only it was like that during haunting season…

Holly has stopped whining, finally. Which is actually king of unfortunate as I have to pass her to go to the bathroom…

Oh well, enjoy the rest of your Monday!

Hugs,
Jenn

 

The Anna Adventures – Colonel By Day

Anna is my cousin from my Dad’s side of the family, she is 19 years younger than me, so I was already a grown up (lol) by the time she made her debut! That being said, she’s always been important to me. She was the flower girl at my wedding, off and on I’ve tried to remember to send her birthday cards, and for the past two years she has been coming to stay a week with us in the summer! We all love it, and it’s building a relationship between her, Cake ,and Nay too.

Cake and Nay LOVE Anna. Like she has to go back and forth between them when we’re at home playing just to placate them, I seriously hope that she’s not an introvert because I get tried of their clinginess to her and I’m just watching!

But, constant physical contact aside, we all love when Anna visits, because it means that we get to staycation when she comes! We’ve had a blast this week and even on our last day in the car, we talked about next year. Because, while many people out there might think Ottawa is boring, it has LOADS to do with your family, so we’ve had a blast. We revisited some favourites from last year, and we’ve explored some new options this year. A theme, however unintentional, was history. We explored life in the 1860’s, the 1920’s and 30’s, the cold war era, early life in Ottawa, all in the span of a week!

The only thing I have to say for this year is we didn’t do nearly enough art, we decided to do an extra outing this week instead of doing an art day. That only left the evenings for art, but after a long day of walking around I wasn’t feeling super creative after 8:30 when Cake and Nay went off to bed. Next year, I’m going to schedule the art day and keep it, because we only really got to do one of the fun art activities I had planned!

So, begin at the beginning, again!

Anna arrived on a Sunday, we chilled out at home, went swimming and had a yummy Chinese food for dinner. We talked and I heard all about her first year of high school, and her friends, and it was really nice to hear that she’s doing so well at a time in her life when many teenagers struggle.

Monday was Colonel By Day, so after breaky we headed downtown to park the car. The plan was Bytown Museum, and then walk to Sparks st. for the busker festival. Plans are nice, but they don’t always work.

We parked at the NAC, and started to walk up Elgin street. Well, we were greeted by a HUGE crowd at the war memorial, armed guards, and up on the platform was Prime Minister Harper! So, yeah, we stayed to watch the ceremony which was to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the first world war. Cake and Nay found this supremely boring, but I figured how often would Anna get to see something like this?

Guards at the War Memorial

We did eventually get closer, just a stone’s throw from where the PM entered and inspected the guards! It was pretty neat! We did leave the ceremony before it finished as Cake and Nay weren’t too into it, and we headed towards the locks and the Bytown museum. On the way though we got a bit distracted by the booths selling tickets for the river cruises! We picked up a family pass for the 2pm boat and then headed out. After grabbing some (mediocre) lunch on Sparks we walked back down to Bytown to check out all they had going on for Colonel By Day.

 

Cake and Anna enjoying the rideau canal.

Nay made a hat at the Bytown Museum

Anna’s hat, I’m not sure it fits

Cake’s hat

Learning to Weave.

There were several booths there with free activities, I would say mostly for the younger set. There were dramatic recreations, and a very cool aboriginal dance going on. By the time 2pm rolled around we’d gone to most of the booths, and Nay had just about had it. He started to complain about upset stomach, and luckily for me I still hadn’t cleaned out my purse from our Winnipeg trip, so I had a bottle of gravol in my purse! So after we boarded, Nay kind of had a little down time. He was out of it for about 45 minutes, and then, just in time for the rain, he was feeling better.

Feeling sick on the boat

View from the river cruise

another view from the cruise.

Sadly, half of our boat trip was through the pouring rain, and then when we got back to the dock, because of the rain, all the booths and buskers on Sparks had closed up shop! So sad! So, through the rain we walked back to the car to head home for dinner.

Playing Oscar Peterson’s piano

Had to snap a photo of this, the kids were all pretending to play on Oscar Peterson’s piano, it was pretty darn adorable.

I like that Anna can still be a kid, but I do see some differences from last year for sure. She definitely kept in touch with her friends back home, certainly a teen thing, it reminded me of what I would have been like. Except I think I was a LOT more grumpy at 14, and she isn’t, even though she picked up a sore throat for the last few days of our week. Anna is a great role model, especially for Cake, and for as long as she’s willing we’ll be having her here for the summer. But this isn’t the end, I’ve got a whole weeks worth of adventuring to share!

My writing spot, and time is working out beautifully for me, I actually am really looking forward to coming out here every morning. Nay has been joining me, sometimes to cuddle, today with the ipad, but I don’t mind. I like that he likes to be my company and we can have our screen time side by side.

Have a happy Sunday!

Hugs,
Jenn

Getting Lost in Manitoba and I Need to Slow Down

You know the saying about lazy days of summer? Clearly that was never my motivation when planning out our summer a few months back. I mean, the kids and I have gone so many places, and done so many things this summer, but we really haven’t had any lazy time. As I was looking at our summer list last night thinking about how I wish I didn’t put the kids in camp for a whole week what a waste! I was trying to mentally schedule our last few weeks of freedom, because really once September hits, it’s apple orchards, and nature walks collecting leaves and pumpkins and baking. The time for sand castles is over, and since both the kids are sob going to be in grade levels this year byebye kindergarten playtime waahhhh! They’ll be a lot more tired out, and there’s going to be…ugh, homework to contend with. So, I’m feeling the need to just chill out for a bit, so I guess that camp won’t be all bad. They’ll be with their friends, and they will still get to do crafts and outings. And, it will give me the opportunity to actually clean the house a little bit. I always give myself a free pass in the summer months when it comes to house cleaning, because I really, really don’t want to spend my summer cleaning toilets. The house is tidy, but clean is a stretch since I’ve only been doing the bare minimum, so yay for toilet bowl cleaner!?

So, I have actually reached the conclusion story about our adventure to Winnipeg because after we visited The Farm, we returned to Winnipeg airport and eventually after many delays flew back to Toronto and our adventure to Winnipeg was over. I have been thinking about what I wanted to say about The Farm and our time there because there was so much I loved but also, as I made mention yesterday, a test for me.

I’m going to start at the beginning, where stories often do, and that is with the journey. I got lost. With no cell data to find me. I was following Tori on some highway that no one else seemed to use, when from the back seat I hear ‘I have to pee, now’ Uh okay, let me just signal to Tori to pull over, huh, it’s not working, she doesn’t see me. ‘Mummy, it’s going to come out’ said with urgency! I’ll just honk my horn. Nope, still doesn’t see me. That’s okay there’s a straight stretch of road, we’ll stop, have a lightning pee except that five year olds are no good at peeing under pressure and then we’ll catch right back up. So I yank the car over, we run out and pee slowly on a now deserted, except for us, highway. Get back in, speed up to 140 to catch up just around the bend, aaaaaaand there’s a turn. Crap, which way should I go.

And that’s how I got lost on a highway in Manitoba.

Eventually, and after I stopped for gas where an intimidating, and very large first nations man filled my gas tank, I happened into a pocket of crappy cellular data and was able to frantically text Tori who was able to find us and hold our hands to The Farm.

Growing up, my best friend had a cow farm, so I knew what to expect. And it was pretty much exactly that, well there were far more mosquitos, but the rest was all par for the course. Cows, barn, people doing work while I played, house, farm tractor type things. It was actually very lovely, and it had a great side yard to set up the slip and slide!

slip sliding on the knees!

The actual slide was a lot shorter than I remember it! I was tempted to try it but since we were flying the next day I didn’t want to get all scraped up. We need to find a longer adult sized slip and slide, then I’ll give that a go.

We also went to a great park along the edge of a lake, whose name i completely forget. The kids really loved this especially after their extended car ride earlier in the day.

Nay pushing Leesie

twirling on the rings

Lookout

Friends: Nay, Noah, Leesie, Cake

Sunset

Cake and Tori

Throwing rocks

Sunset sunlight

rock lover

The next morning, Tori and Jeremy took the kids for a ride on some quad’s, and I followed in the car. We went to an old quarry where the kids could throw more rocks.

Tori and Cake

Rock throwers

Nay found some fossils

th Good friends

After the quad ride, we went back to the house where I collected our suitcases and we set off for the airport to go home to Ontario.

What I haven’t mentioned yet, because I’m really not sure what to say is about our experience at the neighbours of The Farm. This was a place, where, I guess, they wanted to run a petting zoo? I’m not too clear on what their intentions are, but we went there to pet some animals and it didn’t go as planned. The goats were very cute, almost like dogs really. The sheep were elusive, and dirty, as was most of the pen space, dirty and not well maintained. But that’s not what I really want to focus on. The owner of the place offered us some pony rides, Noah went first as he has done it multiple times. He was bucked off, but thankfully aside from a scrape on his forehead, unharmed. The owner blamed the pony’s behaviour on the dog, so she banished the dog, and said it would be fine. I’m getting sick to my stomach just thinking about it, because I really should have known better. I said Cake could try next, and just as she was about to get one leg over the pony (she had her foot on it’s bare back) it bolted. It bolted and knocked Nay over and went overtop of him. As I watched this happen, I remember screaming his name twice, and then as I was rushing over to him, in those seconds, I remember my brain warning me: prepare yourself to see something awful. I first looked for blood, and there was none, so I scooped him up into my arms. Miraculously, there were no serious injuries at all! The pony must have knocked him down into the ditch and gone over top of him. That didn’t stop me from checking him out every hour or so, and sleeping beside him that night checking his breathing every hour or so.

It was a terrifying experience, but it all turned out okay. In fact, Nay is cuddled up next to me at this very moment, chatting away while I type. He was really brave throughout the whole things, he only cried for a few minutes and then I was able to distract him with playing with the dogs. I really should have paid attention to the red flags, and I regret not stopping the pony rides after Noah was bucked. Lesson learned though, and since it all turned out in the end, I’m not going to let that taint what was an amazing experience for the kids and I.

After flying to Toronto, where Shawn was there to meet us. We dragged ourselves to the hotel and passed out for the night. Our flight was super late, so we didn’t get to the hotel until about 1:30 in the morning. The next day, we went to the Ontario Science Centre together and then drove home to Ottawa.

And now we’re home! What an experience, I’m so happy to have a friendship still with Tori and Jeremy, their kids are so wonderful, I wished they lived closer to us.

Sigh.

Have a happy Thursday people.

Hugs,
Jenn

Winnipeg and Really, What Was I Thinking

As a parent, I find myself sometimes hoping for the best. As in, this situation could go horribly wrong, but I really hope it doesn’t, because I’ll be the one paying for it if it all falls apart. Yesterday I had one of those days, Nay has been sleeping well and Cake has been doing her best to try to never sleep again, so when I wanted to bring the kids to Saunders Farm it really was one of those hope for the best type days. We stayed for five hours and the last half hour was kinda crappy because the kids took turns hating me, and if that wasn’t enough, well then they had to play soccer last night. It was at soccer that I was just hoping for the best, especially with Nay who doesn’t do well when tired. Admittedly it actually wasn’t too bad, except for that half his team didn’t show up so he had to play the entire game with only 1 two minute water break. The last half of the game I dropped him in defence so that at least he didn’t have to run, and it seemed to work, thankfully.

One more item to add to the what was I thinking wall, is not charging my camera battery. I have a canon t2i and you know, those things aren’t light weight! They don’t fit in your purse and the strap isn’t made out of comfort material. Yesterday morning, while I was writing I actually thought to myself, ‘hey, I should get up and charge my camera’ but did I do it? No, I chose the lazy route, so of course the first picture I went to take at Saunders gave me the dreaded ‘please change battery pack’ screen. Damnit!!! So, my camera is all charged up for today, and for my birthday in 5 months I’m going to ask for a new camera battery. \

So, where was I in our adventure to Winnipeg? Oddly enough, I think it’s another iphone photo day I’m up to! Tori took us to a wonderful hotel pool to play and the kids LOVED the water slide. Not just loved, but that’s all they did, they slide down the slide, swam to the ladder, went up the stairs and slide down again. Repeat 150 times. I wasn’t even sure if Nay would be brave enough to go down the slide, but he surprised me again and went for it!

 It was strange to see the kids doing things that I’ve always been to afraid to do, I’m proud of them and it’s good to know I’m not passing on my phobias to them!

We then went for lunch to a restaurant called Mr. Pancake, it was also in the hotel, and it was a breakfast and sandwich type place, so we all got breaky.

 Of course, the kids had colouring stuff to keep them occupied while they waited, I always think it’s funny when they loooove to colour in places like this but if I suggest colouring at home, it’s no way! I loved colouring when I was little, I remember my Barbie colouring books and red was my favourite colour. It was AWESOME! Ha!

So after a break for video games we headed downtown for the fringe festival. Several of the streets were closed and booths were erected selling the usual fare, but there was a booth for free fringe bang trims! Cake and Leesie totally got their bangs trimmed for free on the sidewalk, it was adorable. Cake already had a bit of bangs that she, ahem, did herself, but this was much better. Cake actually wants real bangs so when we do back to school hair cuts in a few weeks she’ll be sporting a totally new do! I did ask Nay if he wanted his bangs trimmed, so he could actually see, but not surprisingly he said no. At least his hair is almost long enough that he can tuck it behind his ears. Almost, so close!

But, ah, yes, fringe! We saw a man doing some tricks with his dogs, that was cute, and then we found some great food trucks and settled in for a magic show! Nay had a really great looking curry and Cake and I had wood fired pizza, which was really amazing.

After the show was over we walked down the street to a toy store called Toad Hall Toys, it was super great. I let the kids each choose something plus books and they didn’t disappoint. Cake even found a toy pony that she liked, which was great because she doesn’t really play with toys anymore. The best part of the toy store though was watching Tori play Chinese jump rope, I laughed and cried, it was really just a great situation to be a spectator at.

Hilarious.

And that convinced me that I should buy several of those jump ropes to play at Sparks. Now just to find some way to practice so I can show them how to do it…

This was our last day in the actual city, after this we went to the farm which was a completely different experience and tested my ability to remain calm under pressure.

Back to present day, we have another fun day planned today which will include a fully charged camera battery. I’m planning on waking the kids up shortly, and before we get going I have some logic games for them to play and wake up their brains. Also, I’m going to get them to write in a journal entry about yesterday, and draw some pictures of themselves at Saunders, or downtown, or on the river cruise or all of the above! Nothing to elaborate, shouldn’t take them more than 10 minutes of game time and 15 minutes for the journal.

I spy across my lawn some red in my vegetable garden, I’m thinking that FINALLY I have a tomato ready! Very exciting, Holly and I are going to investigate!

Have a happy Wednesday!

Hugs,
Jenn

Winnipeg and It’s Wet Outside

My writing spot is wet, and it’s stifling. It took me a minute to even write that sentence because well, it’s stifling in my dining room, where I’m now sitting because it’s wet outside. How, I ask? How am I ever to get back into the writing mindset if I’m stuck writing at my dining room table, sitting next to a window that isn’t giving nearly enough of a breeze through it? How will I ever write my most insightful and emotional masterpiece, how? Maybe tomorrow when I’m back outside I’ll be able to figure it out. For now, I will sit at my table, with my coffee, and glance sporadically at Holly while she dismembers and disembowels her ‘indestructible’ stuffed moose.

The kids were better-ish yesterday, when they first woke up I had some workbooks and art for them to do, Nay read me a french book too. They haven’t been too into eating breakfast lately, so for Nay I just got a cup of juice with a few dried apricots and set him to work. Cake had a cup of easter tea from Harrods and she worked on her animals workbook. Then they both did some drawings for me from our Usborne big book of things to draw book. Cake has been really working on her horse drawings, she’s actually starting to get quite good. She’s going to be one of those girls who draws horses over everything, I was never that girl, horses never really did it for me.

I hope Holly gets the squeaker out of her moose soon, it’s really distracting, and I’m sure it’s slowly waking up the people who are all still asleep upstairs.

Let’s return back to Winnipeg though!

After the day spent at the zoo, we returned to Tori’s place for, what else? Video games, and of course a relax for the grown ups, because where we went next was AWESOME! It was a children’s garden/park that is unlike anything I have seen in Ottawa. My favourite features were the ‘mounds’ in the middle of the park that were covered in this rough slip resistant plastic type material that the kids could run and jump from. There was a water feature, and great slides, and a crows nest to climb up to, tunnels made from vines, and musical instruments to play. This puts millennium park in Orleans to SHAME!

Children’s garden entrance

Tiny door

Running on the mound

Making music

Helllllooooo!

slide from the crows nest

Not even half of the park

Vine snake

water pump

Jumping onto the ball

Jump

Nay seeing if he can follow in big sisters wake

From there, we went to a beautiful stage to watch the Royal Winnipeg Ballet perform a free show in the park. First, there is an amazing stage there, it was beautiful! Again, nothing like the stage here in Ottawa – it’s not like were’ the capital of Canada or anything! We had to get there quite early as the show is free and seats would fill up quickly. We had a great place to watch, and Tori and I took turns taking the kids up from the picnic blanket to do some of the free activities. By the point that the show was about to start, Nay was pretty much done with the whole thing so he didn’t enjoy it too much, but Cake watched for quite awhile. She especially enjoyed the hip hop performance that some of the students put on, the students also put on some of the dances from swan lake, and then the professionals danced the Four Seasons.

Stage from afar

Picnic while we wait for the show to start

More ballet, same people probably

People doing ballet

Lifts!

Toe danc

Smiles

Little Leesie toes and bigger Cake toes

By the end of the show the kiddies were tired, well mine were I guess, but we still had to make one more stop at the children’s garden, and we stayed until they locked the doors and the loudspeaker went off telling us that they were closing for the night. I’m certain that park was the highlight of the trip for both kids, destination wise anyway. Even though we’ve been home for over a week, Nay is still telling me that he wished that we lived in Winnipeg so that he could play with Noah more often. I’ve told him that a move to Winnipeg wasn’t on the table for us, but that I’d work on getting our friends to move to Ottawa.

Holly has finally gotten the squeaker out of her moose, and has squeaked it until she got tired. So I guess now’s the perfect time for me to steal it and throw it away without her seeing me. She gets so wounded when she sees me throwing away her broken toys, which I do often, because she destroys so many of them.

Have a happy Tuesday!

Hugs,
Jenn