march, 2007

march 25, 2007

we finally made it to the purdy's chocolate factory tour for the first time. we've been meaning to go for the past 3 years but have never quite made it. they only open their doors to the public once a year. it was great.

we had to line up for about 30 minutes for the tour, but it was the most entertaining queue ever - first there were the free chocolate eggs from hockey pete, next came the big cuddly hedgehog, followed by the hairnet distribution lady [amusing photos all around], next were stickers, then tattoos and finally a children's show by a cow. the tour itself was great and free sample-filled. i couldn't quite manage the last freebie but the rest of the family seemed to squeeze theirs down.

it was a beautiful day finally. i think the previous 21 out of 24 had been non-stop rain. in fact the official weather forecast on screen last week said 'yes, you guessed it, more rain'. the forecast included 'rain', 'showers', 'drizzle' oh - and some 'overcast skies'. needless to say, the sun was welcomed by everyone.

spring break was enjoyed by all. the children got a little soggy/muddy on their field trips but still seemed to have fun. aly managed to drag back an entire backpack full of rocks from lynn canyon - her teacher couldn't figure out why she was having so much trouble climbing the steps from the canyon until she tried to help her with her backpack. anyway, the rocks are now mostly in the front garden which is handy because we needed some more!

toby wrote a great book this week. it's entitled:

and it goes:
"once a pon a time there was a boy who loved to play video games
one day the boy was asking his mom. but his mom said no becuse he playd it to mutsh.
the boy was so unhappy the mom atshly [actually] said for the hole week then he was even unhappyr. the end"

i have a feeling there a subtle hint in there somewhere for me.

aly's books tend to much more formulaic but full of lovely pictures [toby okayed it with me first that there really doesn't need to be any pictures in books because not all books have pictures and he's read lots of books that don't have any!]

"I like fun
Playing is fun
fun is the best
Swimming is fun
I like fun a lot
the end"

if you're interested, i've just uploaded a few new sets of photos to flickr. they're all linked from here.

march 18, 2007

aly's best friend is coming to stay with us for a few days since this week is spring break so the children are not at school. we're going on a cruise [along the west coast - san fran to vancouver] with my parents at the end of april so i can only really afford to take monday off this week and the children will be in daycamps for the rest of the week [they are always really good camps, this week they're going on 3 out-trips and putting on a play the other day].

it was school report day on friday. both were really good. toby is doing especially well in reading, writing and math and aly at science. toby could do with focusing a little more [no great surprise there!] it still seems really strange to me that there are some aspects of your own child's life that someone else [the teacher] knows more about than you. it reminds me of putting aly in daycare when she was 4 months old and thinking how weird it was not to know about every morsel of food which went in her mouth and when she had smiled that day. you just get so used to knowing every single thing about this little person. it's hard to let go.

march 11, 2007

last weekend we broke a world record: largest dance class [there was 310 of us]. it was an anniversary celebration for the big brothers organization. [toby had wanted to be in the guinness book of records but couldn't figure out how the people from the book of records would know when he broke the record. i remember thinking the same thing when i was little]. when we were on our way home i said to him - "can you believe that you actually broke a world record today?" to which he replied: "yes but I really didn't think it would be for dancing."

it's toby's last hockey session today. after that, against my better judgement, he's going to be starting golf [just 2 lessons], swimming, basketball, and floor hockey [with the occasional stick and puck ice hockey session thrown in for good measure]. they don't all overlap, but a fair few of them do. it all sounds a bit much to me but sascha assures me it's just what he needs, so there we go. aly is going to be doing swimming, rhythmic gymnastics and carrying on with sparks [little girl guides].

poor sasch strained his ankle and tore some ligaments at a hockey game on monday so has been limping around a little hopelessly since. i even had to take out the garbage myself. maybe he's getting too old for dangerous sports [he also broke his glasses go-karting last week]

quote of the week from toby one day after we had just left the highway: "hey, you know you were going faster that the speed limit for the whole of canada back there". i'll have to move him to back row of seats i think.

march 1, 2007

something i don't think i've mentioned is that i have new hair. curly hair. it has taken a lot of time to get used to it, but i think i like it. strangely, i don't think i've had so much advise thrown at me as when i was pregnant for the first time. people have been telling what shampoo to use, advice on frequency of washing, product to use in it, how to comb it [or not as the case may be]. the list is endless. i'm glad everyone is so excited. my only worry is that i actually have to do SOMETHING with my hair in the mornings, but i think i've got it down to 3 minutes now. in addition to my new year's resolution of making a bit of an effort with makeup i now have to get up a whole 5 minutes earlier each day.

toby's cute quotes of the week:
"i think i forgot how to cicicle" [a mixture of cycle and bicycle]
[re a toy he wanted]: "maybe i can get it from my favourite store. it says on the back of all my books that I can get more from my favourite store, right?"

toby has just caught onto the fact that i write down these things he says that make me smile. it's starting to annoy him. it doesn't help that he can read exactly what i'm writing. doh!

i've been very busy in the past week since my dad forwarded me this ball balancer game from logitech. i had to put everything on hold for a couple of days until i made it to level 50.

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