Markham Fair!

As promised here is Hannah all dressed up for Brownies...the uniform isn't even brown any longer though. Just before she left for Brownies, the kids were looking through an old box of Dana's and we found Dana's old Brownie doll. Hannah was very excited, and she brought it along with her to the first meeting!
She later told me that her leaders were talking about what their uniforms used to look like when they were Brownies - Hannah stood up and said they were like this - holding up the Brownie doll, exactly they said. Funny kid.



I am feeling better today, still not quite right, and now Dana isn't feeling great either. She took Jack to the demolition derby last night at Markham Fair - they had a great time, it's nice that they could spend some one-on-one time together. Jack went for a Monster Truck ride too.

Today I met Dana and the kids at the Fair to see Hannah and Jack's crafts. They both entered a few crafts - Jack got 3 ribbons - a 2nd/3rd/6th and Hannah got two I think - 5th and 6th. They were both very excited to show me when I got there. We didn't stay long though - a little too cold out and I was beat. We are going to go back on Sunday for rides and a longer visit.

Work will settle down soon - NHL starts on Wednesday and I after that I hope to have an easier work schedule. The HD launch went very smooth and looks really amazing. My nephews are really big fans of SportsCentre so I know someone is watching it!

Going to bed now and I am going to sleep in late....maybe even until 8am! - Jason

New this week...

This seems to be the week for all the programs to start up!

Henry started "Totspot" yesterday...a program for 2 & 3 year olds for 2 hours once a week. They play games, sing songs, make crafts etc. He woke up grumpy and whenever I brought up Totspot he said, "I not singing songs." I think he just wanted to make sure he had some control over what was going to take place. I told him he didn't have to sing if he didn't want to and tried to talk about some of the things he might like there. He perked up when I mentioned toys and he wanted to know if they would have cars there. I told him I thought they probably would. Sure enough, the first thing he saw when we got there was a whole car set-up. He was happily playing there when I said good-bye to him and the morning went very smoothly. Interestingly enough, he was the only one of the 3 kids to tell us all the details of what he did that day at dinner last night. Hannah and Jack have never been great sharers in that way. We really have to pry the stories out of them, but Henry shared every activity right down to the fact that some little girl took his frog from him at the sand table...this is great! I never heard all the little stories from the other 2. I look forward to more next week!

Jack started his "Intro to Hockey" this afternoon. It's a program run by the town for kids who know how to skate, but aren't ready for "real hockey" yet. I must have made the mistake of telling someone that it isn't "real hockey" in front of Jack because he said to me, "I know it's not real hockey, Mummy." when we were on our way there. Oops. I assured him that he will really be learning about hockey, just not playing on a team yet. He's suddenly very interested in hockey and has been practicing on the driveway all week! He isn't a great skater yet, but he has a great shot and got it in the net every time today! Too bad I don't have any pictures of that.

Hannah starts Brownies tomorrow night. She finished Sparks in May and had some sort of hatching ceremony which made her into a full-fledged Brownie so she's very excited to wear her new uniform tomorrow. It's nothing like the old Brownie uniforms...in fact, there's nothing brown about it! It's orange and navy blue and consists of a t-shirt, pants or skort, tie and a sash. I must admit, I always wanted a sash when I was a Brownie. No photo for this yet either, but I'll take one tomorrow when she's all dressed up!

Jason's found out he has pneumonia...no wonder he's been feeling so rotten! Poor guy! I kept assuring him he'd feel much better when this project at work ended, but he's actually been quite sick! He's taken 2 days' worth of his antibiotics and thinks he can feel a difference already.

So that's what's new around here. Nothing really up with me, everyone else's stuff is keeping me busy enough. I did re-join the gym after a summer hiatus so I've been fitting that between activities...feels GREAT to get back to it!

~ Dana

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not usually a fan of squirrels...my favourite flowers are tulips and I can't grow them because the bulbs are always being eaten by these pesky critters, but there's been a squirrel nest in our tree for a while now and just today a Mama squirrel brought her 4 little babies down the tree to learn to climb, explore and apparently jump out of the tree! It sure was cute! We must have watched them out our window for an hour!

Jason spent much of the day at work today, but the HD launch is tomorrow so hopefully he'll start feeling a little better and less stressed after that!

I went up to the fairgrounds atoday for my annual judging of the Markham Fair photography exhibit. It's so great to get to be over-opinionated about other people's work and to have someone actually value my opinion! I don't get away with being bossy and opinionated at home...we all need our outlet! It's an amateur competition but some of the work is really remarkable. We're becoming quite a fair-family actually. The kids have their crafts ready for judging and I'm still trying to find a way to get to the demolition derby on opening night (it's also Hannah's first night of Brownies). I think I may have also volunteered to be part of a photography committee...I haven't mentioned this to Jason yet...I'll let him wade through his stuff first!

Anyway, it was another pleasantly full weekend.

~ Dana

Last Sunday of the Summer

What a wonderful day! The weather was great and I got to see lots of people I love. Our family had planned to walk (or ride bikes) in the Terry Fox Run this morning, but Jason's been feeling under the weather (probably due to stress and long hours) so I did a 5km walk with my Mom. She actually did the walk twice for 10km but I could hardly keep up with her for 5!! She won 3rd place in a 5km run just last weekend and I'm feeling like I'd better get back to the gym fast. It was a beautiful morning and a rare treat to have that much time alone with my Mom!

Then I came home just in time to pack up the car for apple picking. Friends of ours, Kristy & Brent, have an annual Apple Picking Party where they meet up with more friends and pick together then go back to their house for chili and an apple crisp made by all the women. Well, we were a little late getting to the apple orchard so we missed them (we had wanted to take the kids picking though anyway) but were just in time for some warm chili and apple crisp when we arrived at their house. Plus these guys just had a baby last month!! It was really nice of them and a great time!

The day ended with a swim with the kids while Jason rested and everyone bathed and off to bed early ready for school tomorrow. I don't think there will be many more swims this year, but I sure hope there will be more wonderful Sundays like this one.

~ Dana

Last Swim?

With Henry's cast now on permanent display with his other cast, and his helmet, he was able to go for his first swim in 6 weeks! Was he happy? You betcha. He jumped in the pool about 20 times, then swam around on his back for awhile - didn't miss a beat that boy. I was waiting for that cast to come off, now I can close the pool. It's supposed to be 27 degrees tomorrow though - a few more days...

Happy Birthday Jen Buter!

Happy Birthday, Dave J!

Anyone have HD?

Tell me yes. I have spent every moment at work on a project that will broadcast TSN SportsCentre in High Definition... Tell me someone out there has HD. It has been busy, so much to learn, tons of new equipment all set to launch on September 25. Yikes. The one good thing is the days fly by, I looked up at the clock today and it was already 1pm... The bad thing is I only checked off about 3 things on my 12+ to do list today. I did get lost in my email inbox today too...I caught up tonight at home, I counted about 45 new emails today at work - only three were personal. Not complaining...okay maybe just venting.

Henry gets his cast off tomorrow! (Hopefully) Don't want to jinx it or anything like I did last time. There was also a nice profile of my Aunt Mabel in the Windsor Star today - a remarkable person that Aunt Mabel. I will try to post it for everyone. - J

Happy Birthday, Mike!

Mr Piano Man

Corny title...but we just bought a used Piano!

We have been looking for quite some time and finally found one for an excellent price in town here, a young couple were looking to unload it before they moved so we lucked out, and good thing we got to it early as 5 other people were calling about it also. Dana's Mom checked it out a little for us, and gave it a thumbs up. Hannah is very excited, she started piano lessons this summer, her teacher is very nice and patient...(dana's mom again). Actually we are all pretty excited, I am looking forward to playing again, we are all going to be fighting for time when it arrives, hopefully the end of this week!

Yippee!

The Boys

Jack and Henry asked me to take a picture of the pile they made of their monster trucks. We're going to a monster truck show in January (me, Hannah, Jack and Henry, Jason will be away in Halifax) but the kids don't know about that yet. Since they started sharing a room, the boys have really been playing together more. It's nice because there's a 2 year gap between Hannah & Jack and a 3 year gap between Jack & Henry and I always felt like the older two played well together but Henry was far enough behind that he was always going to be the baby...no more baby around here!
~ Dana

Baseball & Soccer are done

Today Hannah's t-ball team finished up their season, they lost in the playoffs, but by only 1 run in extra innings - an exciting finish. She really enjoyed it and so did we, it was a lot of fun cheering from the sidelines this time. Jack finished up soccer last week, he played an amazing game getting three assists in the final game - he really put it together for the very last night. It was a lot of fun coaching Jack's soccer team again this year, a lot of work, but worth it. Next summer he wants to play t-ball and soccer....

My First Day of School & Riding My Bike

Jack posting here....

I love school, it's my favourite thing of homework. I love riding with no training wheels, it's so fun! I just love school, my teacher is Miss Long again, I love my class because it used to be the middle.

Guess what? I started riding up a hill. School is really kind of fun because there's lots of centres, like water centre, sand centre, lego centre, computer centre and there is recess.

Guess what? I love riding my bike.

Now done.
Jack

Big Boy

Jack learned to ride his bike without training wheels tonight! A few days ago one of his training wheels just fell off, he continued riding around wondering what was different about his bike, so when I got home from work, we decided to give it a try. It took about 2 minutes and off he went, riding around screaming about how he is a big boy now.






He had a great 1st day of school too, happy to be back in the routine. He asked Dana if school was longer today, which it wasn't, but he said it felt like it...

So Jack had a successful first day back. He only goes to school for half a day every day so he's home for lunch already. I'm hoping I'll hear more stories at dinner time because right now he's not saying much except that it was "good".

Hannah's First Day

Jack doesn't start back to school until tomorrow, they stagger the kindergarten days so that they aren't overwhelmed (or so that the teacher isn't) all at once. But Hannah started back today and I'm looking forward to picking her up at lunch to hear all about her first day back! It was great for her to see all her friends at the school ground and for me to see all my Mom friends!

Happy Birthday Granny Gwen!