Max and Darwyn colouring
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
When life gives you ice...
Southern Ontario saw some pretty awful weather this past weekend. Right when the snow had all melted and everyone was ready for spring, winter hit in full force. Everything was closed all weekend and we were all trapped in our houses as we were pelted with record amounts of precipitation, mostly in the form of ice pellets and freezing rain. This morning we emerged from the shelter of our house, sick of hibernating to find a picture perfect January day... As an added present, the plow had left an impenetrable wall of chunks of ice at the end of our driveway. While Gus and I grumbled away and attempted to excavate the driveway with ice pics the kids saw possibility. The morning's lesson, when life gives you ice...make an ice fort.
Last week Gus and Ted deserted me, leaving me with our disgustingly late spring while they went to Florida for a conference. The day they left, Jose and I took the kids down to the infamous tunnel to Tarabithia. I had noticed really cool icicles under the bridge. The kids had an awesome time with them, while Jose and I felt sorry for ourselves.
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| Ice chunks left by the plow |
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| Max and Darwyn hard at work hauling ice |
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| Take THAT winter! |
Last week Gus and Ted deserted me, leaving me with our disgustingly late spring while they went to Florida for a conference. The day they left, Jose and I took the kids down to the infamous tunnel to Tarabithia. I had noticed really cool icicles under the bridge. The kids had an awesome time with them, while Jose and I felt sorry for ourselves.
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| Love Darwyn's expression. This is pretty much what I am feeling about ice at this point. |
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| You can run to Florida, but you can't hide. We are coming to get you! |
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| Yum! |
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| View of the tunnel |
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Loves like magic
Gus has a guilty pleasure. It is playing Magic the Gathering. Unfortunately, he doesn't have many people to play it with. Luckily for Gus, he recently found someone to play with: his co-worker Ted, who also happens to be Jose's boyfriend. Jose likes to tease Gus that he will share Ted (for Gus to play magic with) only if Gus does what Jose wants. This led to no end of jokes regarding the sharing of Ted with Gus....jokes which were, apparently, not completely lost on my then 5-year-olds ears.
Given the (at the time) recent Pride week, I was explaining to my kids about homosexuality and bisexuality. I explained that some people like to date people of the opposite sex and some people like people of the same sex and that some people like both.
Darwyn: Like Daddy! Daddy likes both!
Greta: (quite confused) He does?
Darwyn: Because he is married to you and Ted is his magic boyfriend!
I can't begin to explain the delight and mirth that the phrase "Daddy's magic boyfriend" has caused.
Given the (at the time) recent Pride week, I was explaining to my kids about homosexuality and bisexuality. I explained that some people like to date people of the opposite sex and some people like people of the same sex and that some people like both.
Darwyn: Like Daddy! Daddy likes both!
Greta: (quite confused) He does?
Darwyn: Because he is married to you and Ted is his magic boyfriend!
I can't begin to explain the delight and mirth that the phrase "Daddy's magic boyfriend" has caused.
Purple Ada
Ada was supposed to be napping. She wasn't. When I came in she was sitting in the middle of a pile of markers. She looked up at me proudly showing of her purple hands. "Look what I did mommy!" And then she pulled up her shirt.... Good thing they were washable markers!
Thursday, August 10, 2017
The value of saving
I have started "bank accounts" for Max and Darwyn. Gus and I administer them. They pay very high interest. I hoped this would help to instill the value of saving in my children at an early age. But I'm coming to feel as though nature has more to do with saving than education. Max spends very little, makes very little, and most of the time, forgets money even exists. Darwyn wants to buy everything she sees.
Last week Darwyn was in the store with our new Au pair, Trudy. She saw a very life like doll and instantly wanted to purchase it. It cost $40. She does not have $40 dollars because she tends to spend her money. So, I told her if she wanted to buy this doll she would have to work to earn money. She immediately started pestering everyone in sight for jobs that they would pay her to do. She pulled weeds, stacked logs. emptied the dishwasher and picked grapes up off the deck. But after lots of hard work she was still nowhere near $40. Trudy had the bright idea that she could look for a similar doll on kijiji. She found one for just $15. Darwyn had $15.78 in her bank account.
Darwyn danced happily around the house singing "I'm going to buy it, buy it!" Then she and Trudy left promptly to go buy the doll. When Darwyn returned home she showed me the doll and beamed. "Mom," she declared, "I'm finally getting good at saving my money."
Well....I suppose money isn't worth much if you never spend it on what you love. Hopefully she loves this doll.
Last week Darwyn was in the store with our new Au pair, Trudy. She saw a very life like doll and instantly wanted to purchase it. It cost $40. She does not have $40 dollars because she tends to spend her money. So, I told her if she wanted to buy this doll she would have to work to earn money. She immediately started pestering everyone in sight for jobs that they would pay her to do. She pulled weeds, stacked logs. emptied the dishwasher and picked grapes up off the deck. But after lots of hard work she was still nowhere near $40. Trudy had the bright idea that she could look for a similar doll on kijiji. She found one for just $15. Darwyn had $15.78 in her bank account.
Darwyn danced happily around the house singing "I'm going to buy it, buy it!" Then she and Trudy left promptly to go buy the doll. When Darwyn returned home she showed me the doll and beamed. "Mom," she declared, "I'm finally getting good at saving my money."
Well....I suppose money isn't worth much if you never spend it on what you love. Hopefully she loves this doll.
Monday, May 8, 2017
Differences in perspective
Also, I've been meaning to post this cute video of Ada and Jose singing in Spanish for a long time:
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Pigs and Pinecones
Darwyn and Max both recently participated in their school science fair. Both kids indicated enthusiastically that they wanted to sign up for the science fair, but when it came time to do the work for the project they were less than enthusiastic. In the end, I was exhausted and they both had projects.
Darwyn decided she wanted to do her project on pine cones and came up with a list of questions that we set out to answer. One fun thing she learned was that jack pine cones open in forest fires. We had a fun backyard fire and tossed some jack pine cones in to see if they would open. They did. They also burnt. The end result did not make a very good science fair display.
Dar and I collected a variety of pine cones and needles for her project. I scurried from tree to tree enthusiastically showing Darwyn the needles and explaining how to tell them apart. She did not seem interested in actually identifying them and simply collect copious numbers of pinecones. Come science fair day we had enough pine cones to plant a forest of unidentified trees. Many a passer-bye at the fair asked Darwyn which pine cones went with which trees and she would just shrug and cheerfully say "I dunno!" But she is only in Junior Kindergarten and, in fairness, she answered all of her original questions...which did not include identifying pine cones. She was very proud on science fair day when she got to stand next to her completed project. She especially enjoyed showing it to her friends and to her teacher.
Max did not choose a project until the last week before they were due. Gus and I brainstormed many different project ideas, but none ever met his standard. In fairness, they were mostly things Gus and I liked. He wanted something original. Something none of the other kids would do.
Finally, the crunch came and we still had not decided on a project. I told Max he had to decide NOW. It so happens that a mom on the home school network had bought fetal pigs in bulk for dissection and was looking to get rid of some. I declared to Max that we should dissect a fetal pig and he reluctantly agreed. He decided his project would be on bodies and we could look at the pigs organs. He also came up with bringing some animal bones that we have collected over the years and putting a few tissue samples under our microscope for people to look at. The result was a pretty impressive project...unfortunately, most of it was by me. Max did type up the text himself and (mostly) make his own poster.
The day we went to dissect the pig, I could barely tear the kids form the computer. They wandered over, looked at the pig and declared that it was cute and that it stank (which was true...it smelled strongly of formaldehyde). Then they wandered off again. Project finished. But they did get interested when we saw the inside of the pig and made a valiant effort at identifying things. Max was especially excited to cut into the brain (which wound up looking like indistinguishable mush), and the eye.
On the day of the fair Max's project received lots of attention. People were very interested in staring at pig intestines and asked us repeatedly if we had really dissected a pig. The school arranged for a "judge" (there weren't scores or winners) to come ask Max questions about his particular project. The judge was very impressed and asked Max what had inspired him to do such a cool project.
Max: Welllll....I couldn't decide what to do and finally it was the last minute and mom said I needed to do something NOW. So we just had this pig in the freezer and mom said, 'why don't we cut it up' and that I didn't really have a choice because there was no more time.
....hunh....so much for presentation. I think the judge thought I was a little strange for randomly storing fetal pigs in my freezer. Upon hearing Max's explanation he asked me, "Oh! You must be a biologist" thinking, I'm sure, that I would have supplies from work.
Me: No. I just got it from this other mom that ordered them in bulk.
The judge left quickly.
Darwyn decided she wanted to do her project on pine cones and came up with a list of questions that we set out to answer. One fun thing she learned was that jack pine cones open in forest fires. We had a fun backyard fire and tossed some jack pine cones in to see if they would open. They did. They also burnt. The end result did not make a very good science fair display.
Dar and I collected a variety of pine cones and needles for her project. I scurried from tree to tree enthusiastically showing Darwyn the needles and explaining how to tell them apart. She did not seem interested in actually identifying them and simply collect copious numbers of pinecones. Come science fair day we had enough pine cones to plant a forest of unidentified trees. Many a passer-bye at the fair asked Darwyn which pine cones went with which trees and she would just shrug and cheerfully say "I dunno!" But she is only in Junior Kindergarten and, in fairness, she answered all of her original questions...which did not include identifying pine cones. She was very proud on science fair day when she got to stand next to her completed project. She especially enjoyed showing it to her friends and to her teacher.
Max did not choose a project until the last week before they were due. Gus and I brainstormed many different project ideas, but none ever met his standard. In fairness, they were mostly things Gus and I liked. He wanted something original. Something none of the other kids would do.
Finally, the crunch came and we still had not decided on a project. I told Max he had to decide NOW. It so happens that a mom on the home school network had bought fetal pigs in bulk for dissection and was looking to get rid of some. I declared to Max that we should dissect a fetal pig and he reluctantly agreed. He decided his project would be on bodies and we could look at the pigs organs. He also came up with bringing some animal bones that we have collected over the years and putting a few tissue samples under our microscope for people to look at. The result was a pretty impressive project...unfortunately, most of it was by me. Max did type up the text himself and (mostly) make his own poster.
The day we went to dissect the pig, I could barely tear the kids form the computer. They wandered over, looked at the pig and declared that it was cute and that it stank (which was true...it smelled strongly of formaldehyde). Then they wandered off again. Project finished. But they did get interested when we saw the inside of the pig and made a valiant effort at identifying things. Max was especially excited to cut into the brain (which wound up looking like indistinguishable mush), and the eye.
On the day of the fair Max's project received lots of attention. People were very interested in staring at pig intestines and asked us repeatedly if we had really dissected a pig. The school arranged for a "judge" (there weren't scores or winners) to come ask Max questions about his particular project. The judge was very impressed and asked Max what had inspired him to do such a cool project.
Max: Welllll....I couldn't decide what to do and finally it was the last minute and mom said I needed to do something NOW. So we just had this pig in the freezer and mom said, 'why don't we cut it up' and that I didn't really have a choice because there was no more time.
....hunh....so much for presentation. I think the judge thought I was a little strange for randomly storing fetal pigs in my freezer. Upon hearing Max's explanation he asked me, "Oh! You must be a biologist" thinking, I'm sure, that I would have supplies from work.
Me: No. I just got it from this other mom that ordered them in bulk.
The judge left quickly.
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| Max with the judge and certificate |
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| Darwyn shows her project to her teacher |
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