Dani's sleepover fun

As soon as we got home from our holiday, we had to schedule a sleepover with Danica.  She got out her calendar and marked the first available date down in INK.  She came over to our house the next day, and made sure I had it down on my calendar too.  She came one Saturday night, and JJ came the next.   The key to a successful visit with these munchkins is to keep them busy and moving, moving, moving.

Dani came over around 3pm on Saturday, and we settled in for an Anne of Green Gables Fest that evening.  We had to start early as it is a rather long DVD, but she had to make a trip to Shopper's with Buppa first to get an ice cream treat, and a sleepover treat.

 She thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but when it was over she and Buppa had to go on the computer and search for information about the actor who played Gilbert.  She thought he looked like daddy, and she wanted to find out his real name, age, birth date, country of birth etc.  I was in bed long before she was, and I could hear her in the den with Buppa, looking up facts on Wikipedia and listening to national anthems and such. 

The next morning she studied a map of Montreal to see if she could find the street that Buppa used to live when he was a teenager, and then see how close it was to where Grandmama lived now. 

I helped a bit, but didn't know Montreal, so it was mostly up to Buppa to help the girl.

After our map work, she prepared a Tea Party for us, using our old tin tea set.

She had to call home to let Mommy and Daddy know what she was up to.

A place was set at the table for her new beanie baby toy.

I am not sure which one is cuter.

Quite the pair.

Visit to Town Hall - 2014

We just had a municipal election in our town, and Danica is very interested in politics.  She collected all the flyers that came to the house, spoke to the candidates who visited, and had some very strong opinions on who we should vote for.  She liked our current Mayor, and encouraged all of us to vote for her.

Needless to say, when Danica woke up on the morning after the election and discovered that her favorite candidate for mayor lost, she was very upset.  We tried to explain to her that that is just the way democracy works, and why everyone who can vote, should vote.

Danica was still upset when she arrived at out house to await the school bus.  I suggested she write a note to Wendy,  the candidate who lost the race for mayor, to tell her how sorry she was that she would no longer be mayor, and how much she liked her.

That's all Dani needed.  She sat down with pen and paper, and wrote the most heartwarming note.  After school we took the kids to the town hall to hand deliver the note.  Sadly the mayor wasn't in her office, so we had to leave the note with the receptionist.  I wish Dani could have talked to the outgoing mayor face to face, but we put her return address on the note, so hopefully she will hear from her by mail.

After we delivered the note, the kids had to go exploring in and around the old town hall.  It really is a beautiful place. 

Here they are at the top of the stairs leading to the concert hall located on the second floor of the magnificent old building.

Outside they walked along the boarded of the flower beds...

...and posed for pictures on the railing of the bridge beside the old building.

It was a cold windy day, but we took some time to visit the park behind the town hall too.

It's a beautiful spot to sit and spend time in on a warm summer afternoon, but not on this cold windy day.

It looks like this would be the perfect spot to watch fireworks from.

You can see the Town Hall in the background on this picture.

After our cold outing, it was time to stop at Tim's for some hot chocolate.

Dani opted for a cold drink instead.

Fun at the park - PA day 2014

These pictures speak for themselves.  Enjoy!

She does love her Buppa

PA Day with the kids, October 2014

After an almost two month holiday, we are back on duty with the kids for before and after school care, three days a week  They are a delight, and sure add a bright touch to even the dullest rainy days.

They had a PA day last week, so we had them for the whole day on Friday.  We find it best to keep them busy when we have them for the whole day, so we started out with a morning walk.

JJ is leading the way to the Dragon Wall to look for dragon eggs.

Time to stop and pose for a picture.

Looking for dragon eggs, and enjoying the echo as they shouted into the drain.

What a beautiful day for a walk.  I still love it when one of the other of them wants to hold hands as we walk along.

After lunch, we set out for a visit to the park, but stopped to wash the car first.  Here we are toweling off a few drips before our park adventure. 

More pictures of fun in the park to come tomorrow.  Stay tuned...

Halloween - 2014

The weatherman was calling for rain, but happily he was wrong, and the kids got to go out trick-or-treating in cold by dry conditions.  Friday is our day off, but we picked them up at the bus stop around 4pm and went right over to their house to give them an early dinner before the haunting  hour arrived. 

The four of us ate first, then when mommy and daddy got home from work, they chowed down while Buppa took some pictures.

I don't think the cute little witch was aware of her spooky companions in this pic.

All ready to fight the bad guys.

Ready to climb the pole, and then go in search of the Batmobile.

...madly off in all directions.

All the girls getting in on the act.

Sweet memories with Amma and Buppa

The family 2014

Visit with Nova Scotia friends - October 2014

As I continued to sort through my picture file I found these pictures of our visit with old friends from Sarnia, who now live in Nova Scotia.  Even though we don't see each other often, we can pick up right where we left off, and it is like no time has passed at all between visits. 

We spent a sunny afternoon touring around Almonte, and stopped shopping from time to time to take a picture.

Hilarity abounded when we all posed at the Naismith statue.  Paul is a basket case indeed!

The next day was rainy, so we decided to find an indoor activity to entertain us. We had often seen signs pointing to the Diefenbunker museum in Carp, and wanted to take the tour there, so that's where we headed on this rainy afternoon.  

This is a picture of the blast tunnel leading to the front door of the bunker.  It was built to absorb the blast from a nuclear explosion at one end of the tunnel, and send it out the other end, while leaving the front door in the side wall  in the middle of the tunnel, in tact. 

It was quite the eery place, and I didn't like the thought of being so far underground, but I am glad I pulled up my socks and took the tour. 

Once we got inside the bunker, it was quite bright and airy feeling.  This was the first floor underground, and we had four more below us.  I didn't know if I would make it down all found levels, but I did.

We had lots of interesting displays to view and read about as we went further and further underground.

I guess this was high tech stuff at the time.

Yikes!  Sure look complicated doesn't it?

The vault located on the fourth level underground.  Gold bars where  to be stored here in case of an imminent attack.

Decoding machines.

The war room.   The top level had two phones on the table.  One Red and one Blue.  Here we see Paul going for the red phone.