It's like Jelly Fish Fields in our house. All the balloons have been set free. Well that one on the ground is the first balloon from Kieran's bday party to lose it's flight properties.
We've been purging files left, right and organizing in the center of it all. It was recycle week this week and we got rid of a lot. We filled ours, and three of our neighbours bins to capacity. It's amazing what junk mail we get from banks, utility companies, insurance, etc. Now I know what to keep and what not to keep.
So does Tresa. She just purged out her 6th toe. So now she's like Frodo of the 9 fingers. Except now she's more normal. Except for the throbbing pain.
She got her bunion removed on Tues. The drugs don't take away the pain. They knock her out cold. Her operation took longer than expected, guess that 6th toe didn't get the memo. It was being evicted.
In any case. Her foot is wrapped up like a 90 year old with 5 layers of socks and sandals. There's a pin, actually 2 sticking out of her toes. You can only see 1 of them. I didn't put up a photo of it, since Tresa would club me with the crutches in my sleep, if I did. But I did take a picture, if anyone who comes and visits would like to see.
So she's 2 days since the operation. And she's got 3 months off. If we didn't have a 5 spd transmission in the civic. She'd be off to Michigan and Buffalo. And I'd be home talking to VISA.
Well we didn't ride the balloon, but the balloons from the Child's Play place stayed up on the ceiling for 18 straight days. Kieran has been tracking it on a calendar. He asked me for a print out, and I wasn't sure why, but he's got his party marked on there, and his real birthday.
And you can see the balloon has been up for 18 days, and he drew the last balloon slightly different to show that it's starting to drop. Neat. That's a 6 on top of Sponge Bob on the cake.
And the Dollarama balloon we bought on Tresa's birthday (same day) is also still up. Not everything at the Dollar store is lousy quality. However it was $2. We asked for the good stuff.
Check this cake out. It's Fishey! Tresa's friend Rosanne (BakerBotsBaking.com) made a fabulous fish cake for Kieran's birthday. Not sure if Tresa mentioned he had a pet fish, but the colour was spot on too. Not sure if Fishey has teeth. He is a fighting fish. Which is why, he's alone. Cuz he goes bananas when he sees another fish.
You know her cakes not only look creatively brilliant, but they taste absolutely amazing! Just ask the 5, 6 & 7 year old piranha's that devoured the Fish. These kids can smell sugar a mile a way. They even got into the dish of chocolate eggs.
It was a great day to play inside. It was wet and chilly. Like how it is in the UK most of the time. Wow 2 hrs goes by fast, especially when there's lots to do. Like Jumpy castles and air hockey, foosball, pinball, video games and basketball. They even have slots! Just in case you needed a RAMA fix.
The kids were well taken care of. They had drinks if they were thirsty, and food if they were hungry, and bathrooms in case they had to go.
And then there are the challenges. Not the trouble of putting on a birthday party, but from the other parents wanting to kick your butt in basketball. I lost the first three challenges and I was at a loss for words. They were close matches, a few points difference. Leo though crushed me. Now I know how Jinn felt. But he must have felt worse, because his wife was schooling him.
I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong. Then I learned how the game was scoring baskets. A clean basket, ie. swish, was worth 3 points, anything else was 2 points. That was the ticket.
I'd taken the rubber match against Leo. I felt that this time I was ready for Song. She had already crushed her hubby. So he was no longer challenging enough.
It was 1 min of pure sweat and focus. Wow she was intense! I was getting elbowed, my basketballs were getting taken away from me, I was pushed to the edge of the playing area. But Sukaboy prevailed! Woo Hoo! I won't say the score. That would be rude. Instead I have a photo of it! Check the link for the photos.
I want my birthday here too! Tresa wouldn't have to fuss so much on me. We'd just need a few cases of beer, some coffee. And a pizza and chips and maybe some coupons for KFC. Maybe some of those samosas (SamosaSweetFactory.com). They were addictive.
Tresa always puts a lot of time and effort into this. Getting the loot bags, balloons, cake, food, drinks. She always takes care of the details to make sure everyone enjoys themselves - Big and Little people, Vegetarian and Omnivores alike. I just take the photos and post them on the blog.
Sylvia, the owner of this place, really takes care of her customers. She made the occasion that much easier for us. We all enjoyed ourselves. Thanks for all the parents and the generous donations to Princess Margaret Hospital. Cancer survivors are heroes.
Two hours is too short. I coulda played a few more matches. Who doesn't like winning? Besides Jinn needs practice.
Well not exactly. My alarm had gone off at the usual time, but lately I've been feeling pretty tired. I usually have to get Kieran out of bed, but not this morning.
I woke up to a kid calling me to come down and help him cook breakfast. And that he had almost everything ready. So I headed down. Saw that he was mixing stuff in a bowl. Not much of a mess either, actually virtually no mess, which impressed me considering we tie up the flour in a bag. He got it out of the cupboard, got a bowl and mixing spatula and went to work.
So here's what he told me he put in it. Flour, not sure how much. Water. Not sure how much. Milk...I watched him dump this in, but it wasn't measured. Olive oil. 1-1/2 Tbsp. I put this in. And Oreo cookies. 4 of them. He mashed up and put it in, not sure what he used to do that with. Usually pancakes have eggs. But Kieran's allergic to eggs. So I substitute oil in it's place.
Consistency was pretty good. Nice and thick. A little lumpy. But good. Not too runny. Until he dumped the milk in. Then I had to pour some out. No harm done.
I warmed up the skillet and cooked them. They didn't cook like the regular pancakes I normally make. They didn't bubble and rise. They just sort of, coagulated and solidified on the skillet. Kind of like a cookie. So I made sure I didn't over cook them.
So I cooked four of them, since I didn't know how they would taste. I put them on a plate and served them up to Kieran. I was thinking at first. Go to it man, this is your creation, you eat it. But I thought. He's got school, don't want the school calling me to come get him cause he threw up black, white and yellow bits everywhere. So I put some maple syrup on the mini stack and took a bite. To my surprise, they didn't taste bad or gross at all.
It tasted pretty good. The recipe needs some adjustment, so I may try it cooking Oreo pancakes again later. That is, unless I eat the remaining cookies.
Kieran took a bite of his pancakes and said "Hey, it tastes okay?" I guess he was surprised as I was. I made sure to give him all of his vitamins. And so did I. Just for an added boost to whatever these pancakes take out. Then he asked for toast.
It was Tresa's birthday today. We didn't really have anything planned. So Kieran and I winged it. He said he wanted to decorate the house (dang it, I forgot to take the towels out of the picture shot). So we headed off to the Dollar store for stuff.
A happy birthday balloon for mama, shiny hb sign, hb ribbon and these punching balloons (they were in the decoration section) and lei's. We were almost gonna get a disco ball. But decided against more stuff to go in land fill.
We were kinda partially done, because the Dollar store doesn't open til 10am on Sundays, and Tresa had just gotten back from spinning. We tried to clean up too. I also cleaned the fridge on Friday to surprise her. It was spotless. So clean you could eat the food out of there. ;-)
I was hoping to do more, cuz I know how Tresa likes things clean. As in 'not there'. So I was hoping to put away our boots
But we managed to have 2 kinds of 'cake'. So she could make 2 wishes. One for the Leafs to make the playoffs, and the second for the Leafs to win the CUP! Just kidding. She's a Habs fan. Boo.
We had a 2 day old leftover cupcake with most of it's icing still there. And a stack of pancakes. But we had a small problem, the hot pancakes were melting the candles. So I cut the top of the cupcake and stuck the candles in that.
And then we had another kid birthday party to go to. And then we had a surprise dinner with whoever could join us at the spur of the moment at the upscale Q restaurant. Well upscale over KFC. We like the Q. They have kids stuff there and it's full of seniors having dinner. So it's not pretentious and there's no line to the bathroom, because seniors are prepared, if you get my drift.
Kieran's little buddy William and Uncle Raoul came by to see if we wanted to ride our bikes this morning. And I thought it'd be just on the street. But they had other ideas for riding around. I was wondering why he had a rake.
So we caught up to them to see what they were up to.
And this was our Criscoe St Joyride/downhill track. I went to get our rake so I could help out with cleaning up some of the glass and sharp objects so it could be safer for the boys. Then I discovered, we don't have a rake, and borrowed the old ladies next door.
It was pretty fun, and we started to add our own bumps to the bumps that were already there.
Beats the streets and the 2000lbs of rusted metal being driven around by folks yakking on cellphones, about the last episode of Real Housewives of New Jersey.
This is real, it's fun, and can be a real positive. We're thinking of cleaning up this forgotten area and giving it back to the kids in our area.
Tresa was heading out to one of kind. Kieran and I headed out to Joyride 150.
I'd never been here before, but it seemed really cool. I was concerned about whether it would be too advanced for Kieran. And some parts he was tentative and crashed slightly. But Kieran is a tough customer. And we went through the XC trail and had our challenges on the trial run. But with some practice in other sections of Joyride, he got the confidence to tackle the XC run again, and again. We did it 6 or 7 times.
By the end he was tired, although he wouldn't admit it, or he didn't know he was suffering from muscle fatigue.
He wiped his brow a few times so I knew he was getting a pretty good workout. A lot like mama & papa's spinning classes but more fun, and definitely more risk.
I was pretty impressed with his willingness to try again, eventhough I was definitely not pushing him to try again. I was trying to keep him in the easy area, but he wanted to try again and again. I was the more nervous one ready to catch him if he fell. And he did fall a few times, but he learned to navigate the downhills and hop off the bike on the uphills when he couldn't get his little legs to get him to the top, and he'd push his 14" bike up. Sometimes I'd hear "Papa...I need help" and I hopped off my bike to help. After a few times around the course I knew where I needed to give him a hand. Actually there was only one section. All the others that he previously crashed on, he figured out how to ride them.
There were a lot of kids there. And you know what. You'd think trick bike kids are just rebels. These were some of the nicest kids I've ever met. They would stop to help Kieran if I was too far back, they'd let him push his bike over the hump instead of riding past him and possibly clipping him and then ditching their own bike. And if they did pass him they made sure that he wouldn't get hurt. I wiped out once going over the little bridge where the boards get skinnier and skinnier and it's a good thing the beams are well padded. And one of the little kids asked me if I was ok. I was ok...just embarrassed. And thankful for the heavy padding.
It was definitely a place I would go again to take Kieran. After 6pm it slows down. Most of the kids are in the half-pipe area, and so the XC area is relatively empty. So I wouldn't be in a rush to go there during the peak hours. My iPhone camera sucks when it's inside a building. Click on the Joyride 150 link at the top for nicer photos. I couldn't take too many photos. I was busy keeping a close eye on Kieran.
After about the 6th time around I could tell he was getting pretty fatigued. I think the 2nd or 3rd time around he was ringing his bell on his bike on the XC trail. And all the guys on the half pipe area were looking at him. It was brilliant. I had a good time although I was a bit of nervous wreck. But Kieran held his own and conquered it. Good for him, man.
like Jelly Fish Fields in our house. All the balloons have been set free.
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