School's Out For Summer!

Almost. Today is their last day! Yesterday was report card day, they both did very well. They also found out who their teachers are in the fall and which friends will be in their same class. Jack stays with the same teacher, most of his friends were in SK, so he will make have to make an adjustment which I don't see to be a problem. Hannah on the other hand was placed into another split class, 2/3 split. Just like this past year all of her friends are going to be in the grade 2 class - she was very disappointed. The new friends she made this year, that were in the split, are next year going to be in the grade 2 class with her old friends, she will have to meet a whole mix of new friends.

Dana and I explained that this is what the teacher's have decided and that it's really a good thing. We both think that she got a lot out of being part of a split class, she is pretty easy going and meets friends quickly so I don't think it will be a problem. We asked her if she wanted us to ask about switching her and after some thought she agreed that she will stay in the split.
The teacher she has been to assigned to wasn't her first choice either, but what are you going to do...I don't want to start fixing every bump that comes along to make it easier do I? We are going to speak to the teacher to make sure she is academically capable of handling it and it's not that we are just parents who are unlikely to request changes - and that's why she keeps being put into a split.

I think Dana is more excited about school ending than the kids are, she is really looking forward to doing a bunch of fun stuff with the kids.

Happy 35th Birthday Dana aka Mommy

Funny.

Jack's Kindergarten Graduation

Well, Jack has officially graduated from junior kindergarten. When Jason asked him how he felt at his graduation, he said, "a bit shy". Awww. He'll have the same teacher next year for senior kindergarten in the same classroom at the same time, so it's not too big an adjustment really, but he'll be one of the big kids in the class next year. Yay!
Congratulations, Jack...we are so proud.

The rest of the zoo pictures as promised...

Hannah consoling Tabitha while she gets a needle and Henry pointing out exactly where Bear's cheek hurts.











Tabitha having an eye exam and Jack Bear having both legs x-rayed.
Jack questioning the x-ray results and Hannah bravely taking the news that in fact, Tabitha's paw was broken (but she has a very strong and healthy heart).
Tabitha sporting a new pink cast, a giant stealing Jack's hat and Henry hatching out of a turtle's egg.

Our weekend

As Jason said, we were busy, but mostly with fun stuff. I had a wedding Friday night that went quite late, so Saturday morning was pretty slow for me. The kids went swimming in the pool, but by late morning, we were all looking for something to do. Jason suggested a picnic in the park so that's exactly what we did. I only have one photo to share from the picnic.

Then I had another wedding Saturday night...I forget what Jason and the kids did but I'm pretty sure he took them on a bike ride and some other adventures.

It was another late one, but we had planned a trip to the zoo for Sunday morning and we've learned from experience that arriving early beats the crowds and the heat. In hind-sight, I'm glad we got there early...I don't think that's what I was saying as I was being dragged out of bed though. It was a special day at the zoo that they only have once a year and we mark our calendars for it well in advance...it's an animal clinic. The zoo vets examine your injured stuffed animals and do they ever go all out! There are many stations that you bring your hurt animal to...I'll let the MANY photos tell the story: The woman registering the stuffed animals was our neighbour across the back fence...I think we forgot to mention that fact to Henry...he seemed a little surprised to see her. This is the kids registering their animals and giving descriptions of their ailments...Jack Bear was squished in the van door on our way into the zoo so Jack was quite excited to have a "real" injury to report.
Turns out I can't post any more photos on this posting for some reason so I'll put the rest of the animal clinic photos on a new post.

Then Sunday evening we went to a pool party to mark the end of the season for Jason's swim club. It was a family event and since I knew there would be lots of kids and lots of splashing, I didn't even bring my camera.

The kids were tired, but a really good, summer tired.

Bloggity Blog Blog

So we have all these fun pictures from this weekend, a picnic at TooGood Pond, swimming at home, the Toronto Zoo clinic for stuffed animals, and my Masters Swimming party tonight....but we are both too exhausted to put them up, maybe tomorrow. Good times, all a little sun-kissed and sleepy. Good Night - pictures to come. J

15 Year Old Girl's Idea

I can't imagine at 15 being so interested in world events..this
15 year old girl from Alabama created this animation.

http://www.peacetakescourage.com/number.html

Web Cam

So I was at a friend's house today who has a camera built into the computer monitor. She also has this great software that can manipulate the images as they're being taken. We had a lot of fun with it. I had other plans for the morning that got cancelled at the last minute, so this was a really nice surprise for me. My days are usually so scheduled with driving or walking kids here to there, making meals, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, paying bills, doing laundry and sometimes even the outings are so pre-planned they lose their sense of adventure. I had a great time just doing something somewhat spontaneous! Elaine's a really great Mom and is always doing fun, creative things with her kids. She was showing us some other software that she recently acquired that allows her to create videos mixing photos, video clips, text and music. It has all kinds of special affects and she's made some really special family videos. But what I found most interesting was that she had let each of her kids (age 7 and 5) create their own videos about anything they wanted. One was very obviously made by a little boy - loud music and lots of lightning affects layered with photos of his action figures - and one was very obviously made by a little girl - pink frilly font and soft music over pictures of her dressed as a princess - but both were very impressive. I think I spend way too much time planning stuff to do with my kids and not enough time just doing stuff with them. I'm really looking forward to having them home this summer. We do have a lot of activities we'd like to do, but we also have a whole lot of time to spend together!

~ Dana

First Day of Summer

Welcome summer - what took ya?

Another soccer game tonight - beat badly again - might be the coaching ... but I doubt it. The kids are getting a little better. Jack was into it more tonight, and the rest of the kids are coming along. It sure is funny when they get the ball and they start going the wrong way - which happens many times in a game. It is actually very frustrating, but they are only 5 years old...just little people still.

Tomorrow Hannah has a t-ball game so that should be fun!

Swim, Bite, Swim

My swim team has begun workouts at an outdoor pool for the summer, and the pool is just a few blocks away which works out great. It was a little strange swimming outside, the sun shines into the pool and there are no markers on the bottom of the pool so it's a guessing game as to when you will touch the wall. I started counting strokes so I could remember when to touch. The pool sure was dirty though, not dirt, but leaves and sticks - I guess that is what we get for swimming at the end of the day. It's a nice little pool though, 25 yards, and these nights we swim for only an hour so it's a nice easy workout.

Dana took all three kids to Hannah's t-ball practice and successfully made it back with only a small bite mark on Jack's back. Not bad for a busy night. The teeth marks appear to be a young boy's teeth, possibly aged two, and possibly very naughty.

We have now purchased a sign to hang on our door that reads "Beware Small Toddler with Large Teeth - Enter at your own risk!!"

Happy Birthday, Sharon!

And Happy Father's Day!
Spent the afternoon at my parents' house for lunch and had a great visit. Then spent a lot of time in the pool and took all the kids for a bike ride to Dairy Queen after dinner then back in the pool. Kind of too tired to write much.
~ Dana

Freaky Friday

Dana was off to Newmarket for dinner with her friends, so I took the three kids to the Markham Village Festival. We didn't go the fair part - we'll do that on the weekend, instead we walked along Main Street, which was closed to traffic. It was nice just to stroll along and see a bunch of families we know from school. We stayed a little later than I thought because we started to watch this very amusing magician. Hannah was picked out of the audience to help out and she did great, it was a really fun show, the kids loved it. The best part was the ending when he was riding around on a 6 ft unicycle juggling these sticks on fire...very cool. No pics...I didn't bring the camera along...no wife = no camera.

Last Night's Soccer...

I'll let the pictures do the talkin'....we did get beat bad, I swear the other team had a miniature Maradonna or a Pele - he scored every time he touched the ball & thanks for coming MacDonald Family.

Henry's Comment

Jack got a new joke book at a book exchange at school (a great idea) so we've been telling jokes all afternoon. Here's Henry's attempt:

Henry: Mommy, what new?
Me: I don't know, what's new with you?
Henry: Because.

Treasure Bag

In Jack's class they have something called the "Treasure Bag" that rotates through the kids throughout the year. It's like show & tell. They bring something from home to school in the treasure bag then have to give clues and the class has to guess what they brought. Well, a new addition to the ritual is theme music. Jack and his friend Iain get up and sing the instrumental theme to Star Wars before every treasure bag presentation!
~ Dana

Quick Visit

Those Mousseau kids sure have grown up! Everyone looks so much older and bigger, it has been 6 months since our last visit so that explains things I guess. Thanks for dropping in guys, I know it was out of your way, everyone enjoyed the visit. The kids are already asking when we will see them next!

Happy Birthday Nancy!

Presenting Hannah's Castle.... She made this castle as a class project. They were learning all about structures, and part of the lesson was to make one on her own (with a little help). She actually came up with the idea, how it looked, and kept a journal throughout the two weeks she had to work on it. We took a picture of it...because it is now in the garbage...is that awful? You can't keep everything...she didn't seem to mind...

Happy Birthday, Ali!

I have this crazy feeling I'm 2 days late since that's when Andrew posted "Happy Birthday, Ali" on your blog, but I have it on my calendar as today so until I'm told otherwise, I'm assuming it's today. Hope it was good or is good whenever it was (is).
- Dana

I hate being the bad guy

Tonight was Hannah's first t-ball game and she did great! She scored a few runs and made a few plays it was great to watch. Way to go Hannah! The team was a little disorganized, Dana helped out getting the kids ready at the beginning and I helped out at third base during the game. I was helping by telling the kids when to run to third and on to home when they were supposed to as most of them have never played before. A father of one of the kids kept shouting out to me "You know they can keep running until the umpire calls time out" "Okay" I said... Why isn't he helping I thought... a few plays later I didn't tell the kids to keep running, mostly because it was their first time and I just thought I would let them stop and figure out which base they were on! So this guy says again "You have to tell them to run until the ump calls time out"...I turned and said "You know...you can coach second base"... shouldn't have but I did..he stammered a little and turned to a bunch of parents explaining the rules of the game, how the game is played...blah blah blah. What a jerk. I don't even want to coach this one, I was just helping out - I am already doing soccer. It put me in a bad mood.

Then at the end to top it all off Jack had a snack-meltdown, he wasn't offered a snack at the end of the game. It sounds pretty greedy...which it was, no excuses here. At Jack's soccer we rotate snack duty, and bring snacks for all of the kids and for the siblings...but this isn't done at Hannah's t-ball...well - It was a full blown fit. The kind where you feel sorry for the parents...or don't because you think "Can't they control their kid"...sometimes you just can't. I hated being the bad guy, I don't like to say no...it's just easier saying yes. Jack and I had a good talk after he calmed down at home and this shouldn't happen again. He is fast asleep now. He cried himself to sleep a little...so tired that he didn't even know why he was crying anymore.

It was a fun game to watch, just makes you feel kind of crappy to end the day that way.

Happy 1st Birthday Bennett!!!!

Bennett's Birthday

We had a great time at Bennett's first birthday party. Thanks Eri & Mike. The kids have been counting down the days for over a week (especially Henry). I'll let Eri blog about the party, but I will post some pictures. Hannah was thrilled to be reunited with another Hannah who she's met maybe 4 other times in her whole life. The rules of friendship seem pretty simple when you're 7!

When we got home, it was a sunny afternoon and I haven't had one of those on a weekend that I haven't spent shooting so I was able to get my flowers in the gardens & pots and let the kids play outside a little. Hannah & Jack are getting so old. They're really able to entertain themselves and come up with great ideas to play.

~ Dana

Great Wedding...

I just got home from possibly the best wedding I've ever photographed. It was beautiful, but not because it was in a classy, well-decorated venue or the oldest church with stained glass everywhere, it was beautiful because of the people. I have never met a more down-to-earth, kind, comfortable group of people. Everyone was there to have a good time and to celebrate the couple. No one was pretentious or rude. No one was judging. No one seemed bitter or jealous. And believe it or not, there is almost always someone who is. This was a lesbian wedding and the minister gave a fantastic sermon. It was so personal. He told the congregation that 5 years ago on the very spot that the couple stood, he married the first gay couple (legally) in the whole entire world. He also explained that at that wedding there had been 30 police officers waiting in the church basement, protestors picketing outside the church and he (the minister) was assigned a body guard and had to wear a bullet proof vest. "Look how far we've come in 5 years", he said. Both families and their extended families were so happy for the couple. Both families welcomed the other to their family. One of the girls gave a heart-wrenching speech about wishing she could go back and show herself, when she was 11 years old, how it would all turn out since she had been so miserable as a young girl. She thanked people who may feel outside their comfort zone for coming and supporting them anyway. They were just a fantastic and beautiful bunch of people. I kind of didn't want to leave when my time was up!
~ Dana

Happy Birthday Lini!

So yesterday we celebrated Tabitha's birthday. Tabitha is Hannah's stuffed cat. A couple of weeks ago Hannah was being awfully quiet up in her room. When I went to see what she was up to, she was at her desk making invitations and loot bags out of paper for a birthday party for Tabitha. She had already checked the family calendar and found a date that was free! She asked me if it was ok and since she had only invited 3 friends, I thought, sure. Her friends all made birthday cards and I made cupcakes and we ordered pizza. The girls just played and listened to music and wrote giggly notes. It was a good excuse to have a few friends over.

In fact, Jack had just had 2 friends (and their Moms) over in the afternoon for lunch and a play since he finishes school before lunch. So they were pretty excited and tired by bedtime. Jason had to head back in to work last night so I let Hannah & Jack stay up with me and watch America's Funniest Videos. A pretty kid-friendly show and the humour was right up their alley! They were laughing uncontrollably at grooms fainting at the altar and cats chasing their own tails...a very nice day!

~ Dana

Old News...but funny.

You may have already read about this but if you haven't it sure is funny!

The BBC has apologised after putting a mystery man, possibly a taxi driver, on the air in a live interview, mistaking him for a computer expert who was waiting at the reception desk.

The man's mouth opened in horror as the camera cut to him in the British Broadcasting Corporation's News-24 television studio, where he had been seated on a stool by a floor manager, a microphone clipped to his lapel.

A business presenter, sitting opposite, introduced the clearly startled man as the editor of a technology website, and asked if he was surprised by computer company Apple's victory in a trademark dispute over The Beatles' Apple Corps.

"I'm very surprised to see this verdict to come on me because I was not expecting that," he replied, with a strong French accent, in broken English.

He gamely answered two more questions about music downloading, before the presenter thanked him and moved on.

He was actually at the BBC for a job interview, which he didn't end up getting. But now there is a push by the public for the BBC to hire him. I watched the video of this a few days ago and it's quite funny, the poor man looked very scared, but he sure played along, meanwhile the real expert was waiting in the green room for someone to come and get him.