10/30/2011 ~ Orange Tutu

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Claire would dress in a gown every day if I let her.  Today, I let her.  Well, an orange Tutu anyway.  She was happy.

10/29/2011 ~ Mask Making Art #34

Blue Mask that Lily made in her art session today

Griffin helped me pick Lily up from the Studio

10/28/2011 ~ Pioneer Village & Goalie Rotation

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Today was Lily's trip to Pioneer Village.  She was very excited to explore life as a pioneer and came home with stories of baking, churning butter, and using the loom.  We went to pick her up after school and I snapped her picture at the park. 

I always buy winter coats at the end of LAST season.  I think their growth rate has subsided, these things are HUGE.

It's also Griffin's turn to be the Goalie for his Opti Hockey team The Thrashers, this weekend.  Paul took some time tonight to fit him in the goalie equipment and I took this picture partway through.

10/27/2011 ~ Kindergarten Halloween Party Day

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Griffin's Kindergarten classroom will be having their Halloween celebration today.  We dressed him as a vampire and added glow in the dark fangs and gooey blood dripping from his thirsty mouth.  No sparkles though, we weren't going for the Edward effect this year.  He was very excited to bring in a loot bag for each child  with a halloween eraser, a chocolate bar and a sticky eyeball toy in each.  He spent a while at the kitchen table this morning printing his name out on a little piece of paper to enclose so his friends would know who the gift was from.  Such a cutie.  On the 31st I think we'll put a little more effort into getting his collar to stand up around the back of his head but my hands were a little full this morning. 

10/26/2011 ~ Welcome to the Tea Party

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There will be a new moon tonight. I made it until almost 6pm before putting 2+2 together and finally venturing over to my google calendar to check my phases of the moon. Yes indeed, new moon tonight. I'm not 100% sure what the difference between a full moon and a new moon is but based on today's mayhem, not much.  That explains much of the heightened madness today. The kids were either bouncing off of the walls or melting down today. Just ask Amber, she spoke with me a couple of times and I'm pretty sure she could hear the fragility in my voice (or the wailing in the background). But speckled in between all that madness were some beautiful moments. I pulled out the camera and caught a couple to share with you. Claire enjoying Lily's old miniature tea set and Claire with her buddy running circles around eachother. Sometimes the simplest play is the purest fun. I won't get into how they decided to try popping the tea cups into their mouths or how they ended up whacking foreheads during their running game. We're trying to focus on the bright side here!

10/25/2011 ~ Spelling Test

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Spelling and reading haven't come easily for Lily.  Let's face it, English is a complicated language.  Lily is in Grade three and begins the week with a list of spelling words she is expected to master before her test on the Tuesday of the following week.  The day she brings it home, we do a random spelling test at the kitchen table and see which words she knows and which ones are posing a difficuilty.  There have always been a few that do not come naturally.  So Lily writes the words out four times each as one of her study methods.  During the course of the week we will do one or two more spelling quizzes at home and then she only has to write out the ones she gets wrong and we try to come up with a mental method for memorizing words that are hard.  I have to say that although the spelling of the words isn't second nature to Lily, studying is something she is darn good at.  That's all that matters.  Here is today's spelling test and as you can see we didn't study the word "bonus" (bounes) but she nailed all of her other spelling words, and even the bonus word Halloween!  Way to go Lily.

10/24/2011 ~ Second Successful Playdate Monday

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Have I mentioned that I LOVE my new Monday's?  There's something to be said for mixing things up a little bit.  With Monday's dedicated to playdates, Griffin has been having lots of fun.  Today he went to his friend's house for four hours and came home tuckered out, a little muddy and in pure bliss.  It was a P.A. Day at the school so Lily had her friend over in the afternoon and I was really proud about how they included Griffin in their play.  They built a haunted house and made halloween drawings.  And every day is a playdate for Claire Bear.  Today we fashioned our ottoman into a toddler slide and the crew took turns climbing and sliding.  I had a good laugh trying to teach them "5 Little Pumpkins sitting on the gate".  They specialize in the "oooooooh" ghost noise and a great big clap when the light goes out.   Fun was had by all!

Beaming from ear to ear after his playdate with these handsome twins!

Ring Pop Power!

The Three Musketeers at the top of the slide.  They're laughing at me because they know how hard it was for me to wrangle this picture without someone sliding down!

10/23/2011 ~ 1st Phase of Halloween Decorations

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We will save our pumpkin carving for Halloween weekend but it was gorgeous outside today so I got the garden gloves on and filled a bag of leaves and garden pruning.  Afterwards I dug out the 1st phase of the halloween decorations and the kids got busy helping me decide where to stick the yard signs and where to spread the cobwebs.  It felt great to be outdoors!

My inflatable ghosties are still going strong!  Claire calls this "Punkin Patch!" because she's taken with the Jack O Lantern

Our huge spider

My crows eyes glow red at night.  I bought more crows last year but I have yet to figure out where I stored them.

Enter if you DARE!

This old hag spider witch has been in my family since I was a little girl.  I love her!  Creepy as hell!

That's right!  Come and get it!

Oh, they're more bark than bite.

10/22/2011 ~ Nathalie Bertin Gallery

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Lily participates in a fine arts mixed media class every Saturday morning for two hours at the Aurora Cultural Centre.  Today the class took their inspiration from Nathalie Bertin's Gallery being shown on the third floor of the cultural centre.  I didn't get the chance to snap a picture of Lily's replica of one of the  pieces but I will be sure to when it comes home next week.  We did use Lily's Ipod Touch to get a shot of Lily in front of some of the pieces.  Will update with the photos from today when I have them uploaded.

In the meantime, check out www.nathaliebertin.com
"Nathalie Bertin is a Canadian visual artist from Toronto, Canada, of French and Algonquin heritage.  Nathalie's work is described as luminescent and energetic.  She has a keen sense of observation and a fondness for strong colours and textures.  She draws much of her inspiration from the beauty of the natural world and focuses on their essence, in alignment with her cultural roots."

Lily's favourite piece from Nathalie Bertin's gallery at the Aurora Cultural Centre

Lily uses her memory to recreate elements of one of Nathalie Bertin's pieces.  The green, floral elements and bunny in the middle.

The piece that Lily took inspiration from to create her replica of Nathalie Bertin's Metis art.

10/21/2011 ~ The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald

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I read in SNAP Aurora that tonight was the Grand Re-Opening of the renovated McDonalds in Aurora.  They had .99cent cheeseburgers and an appearance by none other than Ronald himself at 6:00pm.  So we didn't bother pulling anything out for dinner and scooted over there with an oblivious Claire, an indifferent Lily and an obsessed crazed fan, Griffin.  When the time came for contests, Griffin was there.  Want Ronald McDonald's autograph?  Griffin did.  And of course, we got our picture with the living legend.  On the way home Griffin asked if Ronald McDonald Land was a real place?  Of course it is!  Big eyeballs all around.  Griffin would like to visit there someday, as long as there aren't any bad guys.  "No sweetie, bad guys aren't allowed in Ronald McDonald Land."  I said.  "I know it Mom.  'Cause they have the big key to lock them out!" he knowingly explained.

10/20/2011 ~ Sleeping Beauties

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I snuck into the kids rooms and took pictures of them asleep in the dark (you can't tell from the flash).  Love my babies.

10/19/2001 ~ Sweet as Apple Pie

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I seriously considered taking pictures of supplemental vitamins today.  I started a regimen of a variety of vitamins last night, something that I commited to on my DayZero list of 101 goals to accomplish within 1001 days.  Today, I already felt the positive effects of it as my energy levels were improved and my productivitiy was increased as a result.  So instead of a photo of Omega3, Women's daily Multivitamin and B Complex vitamins, I decided to show you what I used some of that productive time to do. 

Nothing better than a warm apple pie on a cold and rainy day.  Recipe from my Betty Crocker cook book and crust from Tenderflake.  MMMMMMMM!

10/18/2011 ~ Nighty Night

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I was feeling like my kids were fighting sleep and yet I had no fight in me.  I turned on the show In the Night Garden and realized it's only 8pm so we can afford a quick show instead of me going out of my mind trying to wrangle them into bed.  Don't let the serenity of this picture fool you, they're arguing like crazy and Griffin is a whiney little brat tonight.

10/17/2011 ~ Playdate with the Boys

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Ever since Griffin was 15 months old, I have taken care of his little friend Brooklyn.  Recently, that ended and our Monday's are left without a playmate for Griffin.  The timing seemed perfect for me though because I believe Griffin really needs to be fostering his friendships with boys before all of his little girlfriends decide that he has cooties.  Two week ago we invited the first friend but the playdate flopped as his pal woke sick that day.  Last week was Thanksgiving long weekend, so we passed on scheduling one in favour of family time.  And then I had a playdate lined up for today but got into a chat with another Mom at school last week and thought she needed help with her twins today so I juggled the schedule around to watch them today and have the other set of twins next week instead.  As it turns out, I somehow messed that up and she really needed help next week but OH WELL we went ahead with the plan anyhow.  The boys played ghost pirates, tag, Star wars light sabres, punched the punching bag for a while, built lego and took turns shooting the marshmallow gun.  We finished it all off with a tattoo each and a chocolate ghost lollipop to take home.  Playdate number 1, a success!

10/16/2011 ~ Autumn Fun

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We have been having some Autumn fun.  I had some certificates for our local Halloween Screamers Scare shop and took Griffin there on Saturday to choose a few things.  It was Lily's turn today.  Griffin picked a vial of vampire blood, a skull with glowing red (battery operated) eyeballs and a pair of skeleton bone gloves.  During Liy's visit, she chose a pair of custom fitted vampire fangs, black lipstick and dangling ruby red earrings to complete her vampire costume.  As you can imagine, my kids are all going to be Vampires this year.  We also took a trip to the mall to return a bunch of crafty kit duplicates that Lily got for her birthday and a few Barbie doll themed presents.  When all was said and done, she had almost $90 in store credit and bought a coveted Werewolf barbie set and DS game that is a zoo theme.  A new charm for her bracelet, silly putty, a slinky, a "cootie catcher" book etc.   Shopping spree.  On our way home we grabbed McDonalds and the Happy Meals came in Jack O Lantern buckets.  As we pulled into the driveway, Paul was raking leaves and Griffin got in on the leaf pile action.

10/15/2011 ~ Go Leafs Go!

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Paul scored a pair of Leafs tickets through work and since Griffin was his guest to last year's Leafs game, naturally Lily go to go tonight.  They left a little early because Daddy had a few other fun ideas so the plan is for them to go out for dinner at the Toronto Eaton Centre at Mr. Green Jeans and then skip onto the subway for her first subway ride before the take the underground Path system over to the game.  Paul insists that taking Lily to a game is like having a best friend around.  The combination of her great sense of humour, infectious laughter and spirited cheering makes her the perfect date.  I'm sure it is going to be an amazing night of memories for them both!

10/14/2011 ~ Fitted for a Retainer

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Lily has an underbite.  It's not that her teeth are crooked, it's that her jaw is misaligned.  The long term plan is to have her fitted with braces but we are waiting for Paul's work to adopt a better dental plan before we embark on that journey. In the meantime, she is being fitted with a retainer that will help to reposition her jaw so that her top teeth will fall over the bottom teeth.  This morning was her first orthodontist appointment.  She gagged all the way through the top fitting but was a trooper through the bottom.  She is very excited about the prospect of a retainer or braces.  It's the cool thing at school.  Bye Bye Two Thousand Dollars!

10/13/2011 ~ 1st Day of Swimming Lessons

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We lucked out.   It is like Christmas for the family with three children to find the same half hour time slot for each of their kids.  On October 13th, each of the kids started a new session of swimming lessons through the town and it all starts at 6:30 and ends at 7.  There is a parent and tot "Sea Turtle" session for Claire.  The "Salamander" session for Griffin and Lily is doing Swim Kids 3 again.  We much prefer the more personalized lessons at The Main Pool, but they are doing some renovations so we'll stick with the town this Autumn.  At least the kids get some time in the water each Wednesday night.

10/12/2011 ~ Paul's 39th Birthday

This is the post I haven't had the chance to post yet.  Better late than never!  Happy birthday to my love. 

10/12/2011 ~ Someone Tell them it's a School Day!

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Someone really needs to tell these girls it is a school morning.  Lounging around and reading Princess stories.  Oh well, at least they love each other.

10/11/2011 ~ Magic Mask

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Lily got a perfect score on her two practice spelling tests this morning so I pulled out a mask that I've been saving for her from the dollar store.  Tonight we were fooling around with it and bursting into fits of giggles.  Here is a moment that captured her character.  I added the ball of light with psp because she's going to love imagining that she was whipping up some magic with that mask on.

10/10/2011 ~ Achoo!

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Poor Bear-Bear is battling a cold.  I decided that it would be a good idea to keep a tissue box within her reach and begin teaching her to access her own tissues to clean her nose.  Good call on the nose wiping, bad call on the accessible tissues.  Now I have tissues strewn all over the place, but at least she is keeping her nose clean!

10/09/2011 ~ BatMobile

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Funny thing happened on the way to Sauble Beach today, we came across the BatMobile. 
It's not every day that you stumble upon the BatMobile parallel parked at the Main intersection in Shelbourne.  Naturally we pulled over immediately to get a shot for the 365 blog. 
I couldn't resist.