A Day at the Museum

We were at the ROM today, and although only for a short while, but when we got home we were tuckered out and both had a nap.

I was scouring the net for things to do in Toronto with your kids.
You know some kid-friendly stuff.


The ROM was the top hit. Plus for this week it was - 1 kid per adult is free. So me being the big time spender, took my kid to the ROM.
Plus it was better than sitting at home being a couch potato.
They had some interactive activities there so I thought it'd be fun.

But all he wanted to see were the dinosaurs.
We missed the diamond exhibit, although we did see the crystal exhibit. The ROM has updated itself from what I remember. It's not as impressive as say the one we visited in Philly. That one had a lot of stuff for kids to do and to see - it was very tactile. But I think it was the Science museum that we visited. Plus it had trains.

And he wanted to ride the subway. So I bought a day pass and we we rode all around downtown. We were walking distance from W-S to meet mama to go home, but we took the subway from Museum to Bloor and then to Bay station. We had a day pass. So. We took the better way.

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A letter from Santa

PS: Hey Santa, if you are hungry you can have the mints, but don't eat my ginger bread house.
Liam.And don't step on the cat.

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Season's Greetings from the North Pole

It's a red and white Godjirra!

Happy holidays.

Snowmageddon

I had to travel to Markham/Thornhill this week for a course I was taking for work.
It's odd how the only time you have to go anywhere there's a storm.

I arrived 1 hr late for my first day of class because I had to shovel.
Then there was the Snowmageddon warning for the last day of class.
I prepared for it by putting in one of the cars in the garage and having the shovels ready and waiting the night before.

I also programmed my alarm clock to wake me up early only if there was any snow on the ground.
And if there was no snow, to let me sleep a little longer.
Pretty nifty alarm clock eh?

There's only 1 of these in the world. Basically here's how it works. I asked Tresa to wake me up just before she left for work so I can shovel and get sleeping beauty-beast out the door early.

Well it didn't snow. At least not yet.
It started to snow just before we got out the door and did it come down fast.
I thought for sure I'd be late by an hour or more. I was less than 10mins late.
It took me a little bit longer, but the highways were not bad. Not as many people on the roads as I'd first anticipated. I think there were many folks who called into work for a snow day. Hey I thought snow days were only for school kids?

It was the last day of class and these guys planned for it. They let us out early - 1/2 day early to accommodate for the storm. Good thing. It was messy out there.

And I'm sure glad I have one of the watchdogs to help me dig our house out.
It's amazing how many people just don't know how to drive in snow. They should make it mandatory for folks to get their license in the winter on really snowy days.
Some people with "all season" tires just barrel down the road like it's summer.
The guys with 4x4's and all season tires are the best - I think they have a missing frontal lobe and they voted for George W. a second time.
You know just because you have 4 wheel drive doesn't mean you have better traction in piss poor conditions. It means that instead of 2 tires spinning you have 4 tires spinning.

Winter tires are designed to grab snow. Summer and All Season tires, are designed to pump out water. When the sipes clog up with snow which they always do, they become like slicks - ie. no treads. No one would dream of driving in the snow with slicks. Right?

All season tires were made for the climate of most the lower 48 states (I would exclude Michigan and other northerly states). Not snowmageddon country.

Anyways I was heading home from class and going from the 404 to the 401 Express, I could see a big cargo truck fishtailing behind me and picking up steam. I felt like Indiana Jones with boulder on my tail.

But I made it home. My trusty Subaru with all wheel drive and 4 snow tires, got me home safely.

Euro christmas

We headed to the other center of the universe - the Slovenian Hall - for a children's gathering and to stuff our faces with sausages and sauerkraut and from the look on everyone's faces in this photo with Santa, it looks like it's going to be a really jolly christmas.

You know what the photo says to me - "I know what want. Just fork it over old man."

You know everyone in this photo is either Slovenian or part Slovenian and I'm thinking that the gene for smiling and looking jolly in photographs must come from that side. I'm almost 100% sure that if you took a photo of that gene it would have one of those big happy smiley faces you see there.

Santa made a big entrance this year. Basically he walked in at the beginning when the temperature in the hall was still sub-zero. So he didn't get too hot under the collar wearing that itchy suit and having all these parents taking 10 billion photos of their yappy kids on his lap, and not being allowed to go get a beer or hot dog or go to the restroom until the last kid got what he or she deserved.

Then the clowns came in for comic relief.
I don't get it.
How come no one ever smiles with Santa.
But as soon as he's gone, the pearly whites come shining through.
Like when the rays of sun came out from behind the clouds, after God had made it rain for 40 days and 40 nights to cleanse the earth of everyone that was like George W.

Kids were running and jumping everywhere. It was like the Wizard of Oz, when the wicked witch of the west was squashed by Dorothy's mobile trailer-trash home.

And the King of the Elves took his throne back from the Coca-Cola inspired red and white suited jolly dude.

It was like the lord of the rings with little people, except no rings.


In the end, after everyone got their US corporation china-made with lead paint propaganda shovels and toys that missed a recall that few of the kids said thank you for.

All this kid wanted was a candy cane.


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No more bob skates

Hey the rinks are open!
We went to Rennie park skating rink to have Kieran try out his hockey skates that I got for him 1 or 2 years ago. They were a bargain. 8 bucks for a brand new pair of hockey skates. They were supposed to be $15.00 after the 50% off was calculated in. But the cashier added another 50% off the 50%. So the pair ended up being 7.50 + tax.
Woo hoo. Now my only worry was that it would fit him during the winter.

What luck. He's in size 7's now, and these are 8's. So they are a tiny bit big, but his feet will grow. I'm just glad they fit. Sort of. I tried it late last year and he was still in size 5. So he was swimming in them. He couldn't even stand in them. They were way too large.

We had him walk around a bit in the dressing room to get used to them, before he actually took to the ice. He stumbled a bit a first in walking around. But then quickly got used to them.

Then we got to the ice. With mama in tow watching carefully.
And to our surprise he did quite well. He was kind of doing the Antonio Shuffle, but managed to go around the rink a few times. He did fall, but got back up and kept going. A couple of spills hurt his chicka-bum-bum. But he wanted to keep going.





We had to entice him with a Tim Horton's bagel and cheese to leave the rink. It was windy and cold. But he wanted to skate.

And this table was just right

Gracie and Liam came by for a visit.
Gracie loved this little tikes table that I got for 10 bucks. Including chairs. So Teen's bringing it back with her to NJ. Along with a van-ful of toy's and stuffed animals and other junk.
Better make some room Chris.


We even got our eavestroughs and soffets done in time for their visit.
Nah, we did the eaves in black to match our windows. The soffets were redone in a dover gray.
The guys that did it, did a great job. And it was done fairly quickly. The detail on the downspouts was pretty nice. The old way that tie was like a bandaid. But the way this crew did it made it nice and neat.




This was a lot tougher shot to get than it looks.
Most of the night they were running around in circles and we were trying to make sure they didn't knock over the kid sister in the process.



Our living room looked like it was hit by Katrina. But the two of them helped clean up afterwards. Good thing we have been reducing Kieran's stuff little by little. This is the Montessori way. Having too much stuff confuses kids, they need to have only a few things that keep their interest and can entertain themselves and they can learn from. No electronics, no TV, no marketting stuff. Believe me, it's tough at the beginning to not just pop in a DVD movie or turn on Treehouse and let him watch TV for 8 hours while I do something around the house. But that's just no good for the K-dude. Kids up to the age of 5 learn by touch and doing stuff. They need to experience the world. They need to learn about nature and respect for our planet and one another. Can't do that from the couch, or with a PSP or gameboy in their hands. When Teen came over, we didn't turn the TV on once. You don't need to. They get used to it. Just like in the movie the Waterboy, TV "is the devil". I think Adam Sandler's mother in that movie referred to everything as the devil.
In any case. They don't need it. And there's studies that indicate that 1 hr of TV, can increase the chance of an attention deficit disorder by 10%. You can take that with a grain of salt.


It was then the hitting game and doing my best to tire the two of them out. After about 20 rounds of pillow attacks, they finally were down for an 8 count, but got their second wind. And believe me, I did my best to pound them. These two needed to have their nails trimmed, and they weren't backing away from me no matter how many pillows came their way.


But it was time to go for Liam and Grace. So they got into their jammies and brushed their teeth to head back to the Eastend.


But don't worry we'll see you soon.


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