The Emotional World of Rose

Its been a roller coaster the past couple of days.

Yesterday before school she came rushing downstairs with Barbie who was wearing a grubby pink spotty sock (Rose's) over her legs and proudly announced that she'd made Barbie a mermaid outfit.  I had a light bulb moment and instead of starting the large and formidable quilting project I had planned I decided to make my own version with a slightly cleaner sock (this is very much like tidying your room when homework was due/overdue).  Here is the finished article.

Rose was very impressed and immediately emptied the doll house in order to transform it into a mermaids palace furnished only with seaweed (tiny pieces of cut up paper coloured green).

Today she had her first proper haircut in a salon.  Very exciting and grown up.  At first she didn't want to go but Jeanna struck up a riveting conversation with her about who she liked best from Frozen so things started well.  Here she is in the chair.

After the cutting and blow drying there was much debate on whether or not to have her hair curled and how much of it to do.  Eventually she went for all of it curled and although she claimed to look like a princess I thought we'd ended up with more of a country singer/Charlie's Angel thing going on but whatever, she was very pleased.

About 10 minutes after these photos were taken it started to rain and I told her that if she stayed out and played swingball her curls would drop out, but did she listen?  Of course not and the tears when she looked in the mirror at her straight hair were absolutely pitiful.  If these are the highs and lows of a 5 year old I don't know how I'm going to cope with the teens.

If only I was organized/motivated

This is three posts in one really, one for each day of the long weekend, if I was organized/motivated I would have downloaded the pics and posted each night but I didn't so you'll just have to put up with a single rather lengthy one.

Somehow I managed to book Jacob in for a trial video game programming class at 9.30am on Saturday.  This shows my general level of ineptitude these days, 9.30 on Saturday morning is not good at the best of times but it had totally passed me by that it was the long weekend and we could have organized something exciting.  Oh well, I don't think Jacob could think of anything much more fascinating that 45 minutes spent building Pacman in visual basic so at least someone was happy.  The rest of the day was taken up with vigorous yard work, Gary did a cracking job on the lawn, here are the kids finishing off the raking.

It won't win any prizes but our neighbour told me that its the first time in 14 years that anyone has mowed it so I'm pretty pleased with the result.

On Sunday we went for a walk along part of the Bruce Trail that traverses the Niagara Escarpment, the sun was shining brightly when we set off but as you can see it didn't last.  The views out over the city to the lake were pretty incredible but my camera/photographic skills don't really do them any favours, I've put this one in for the outfit more than anything else.

Just so you know, the shorts have 'LOVE' emblazoned across the bum 

We stopped off for breakfast on the way home to warm up, I was immediately transported back to the Top Ten Cafe in Blackpool c.1980.

The sun was shining again on Monday so we decided to discover what free delights Burlington has to offer the discerning modern family of cheapskates.  First we went to Paletta Park on the water front, it was very pretty, the gardens were beginning to come out and the falling in and getting your feet wet opportunities were abundant.

 And sending them off like babes in the wood or little red riding hoods was so tempting but we didn't do it, besides, no self respecting coyote would go within a mile of that filthy, noisy pair.

We also visited the labyrinth in Central Park, it was remarkably relaxing to walk through and took a surprisingly long time, I wondered if we could have one of our own.  It would be satisfying to be able to answer the eternal question 'Can I go on the computer for a bit?' with 'Yes if you go and do the labyrinth 10 times first'

As the sun was still out when we returned home Jacob and Tom stayed in the house and Rose and I began planting up the pots I bought at at Canadian Hayes Garden Centre on Saturday.  They look a bit feeble right now but hopefully in a week or two they'll have filled out a bit.

And finally, (yes, wake up I haven't finished yet) here is a question for you... Why do we spend so much money on expensive toys?  Rose was moaning about being bored after dinner (we're still on Monday here) so I gave her a box of scraps from my quilting escapades and she a J spent the best part of an hour mucking about with them.

They built a train, it was very elaborate and quite neat, Jacob photographed it for posterity so when I have time I might applique some of the engines for them.  Here's a couple of my favorites.

Right, I'm done now.  Better hope next weekend is shorter or more interesting.

Mother's Day - Part Two

Yes! the weather was glorious so we headed off to Mountsberg Conservation Area and saw the bison herd.  If you peer into the picture you can just make them out in the distance, I couldn't decide whether to be disappointed that they were so far away or relieved that they were not leaning against the fence which would definitely have got my adrenalin going.

Mountsberg was lovely, we were there for nearly 3 hours and would have stayed longer if I'd brought a picnic, if we'd been in England there would have been a plethora of cafes and a few ice cream/coffee kiosks but the Canadians have not caught onto that yet.

We went for a walk, observed a pair of ospreys fishing which was really neat, looked at ginormous 'percheron' horses and normal sized sheep and goats, played in the play barn and sat in the sun.  We also looked around the raptor centre and calculated our wing spans.

As you can see Rose is a red tailed hawk, Jacob is a snowy owl (perhaps we should start calling him Hedwig) and I am a turkey vulture with an impressive tree growing out of my head.

Mothers Day - Part One

I really hope there is a part two to this post as I am angling for a trip to see the bison herd at Mountsberg park this weekend so fingers crossed.

Mother's Day started early this year when the kids brought gifts and cards home from school on Thursday.

Not sure why Rose looks so terrified

Here is a close up of Jacob's.

I hope you can read it as it is the biggest load of insincerity I have ever read.  I think he meant the bit about me giving birth to him and that he's awesome but any truth ends (rather appropriately for Jacob) with the words 'Visual Basic'.  I asked him about the rest and he told me he was forced to write it, nice, I think with a little practice he could get a job with Halmark writing the sappy messages in greetings cards.

This is the front of Rose's card

Interestingly I am the smallest person in the family, a diminished little old lady already and she wrote inside that I'm 43, hmmm, I suppose it's the thought that counts.

Yesterday was a track B Friday (Rose was in school) so I took myself off into town for some Mother's Day me time.  I had a lovely wander around and bought myself a necklace, forgive the really bad photo, I clicked the photo enhance button but it failed to provide me with immaculate skin and a face lift on the photo or in real life.

This is the back so I felt like it was meant to be mine.

I also bought cake, a must for Mother's Day.  They were healthy cakes but so pretty I bought them anyway and as you can see the kids didn't seem to care

Dogs, Chips and Unusual Vegetables

It's just not working is it, resolving to write less does not make me do it more often.  I'm coming to the conclusion that Burlington just isn't inspiring so I think it may just stay at once a week until we are somewhere else.

Last Saturday was busy.  Rose had a party in Dundas, here is her outfit.

While she was busy I took Jacob and Tom on an adventure through Hamilton to a quilt shop (Yeah!) where Jacob made a new friend.

And I bought a pattern to make something for Rose and a piece of fabric that I like but have no use for right now.  This must be how stashes are built.

On the way home we got fish and chips for dinner and guess what? proper fat chips, proper battered fish and joy of all joys, look at those proper mushy peas!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The prize for the best fish and chips in Canada goes to The Thistle on Fairview, Hurray.

And finally, here is a quick pick of a purple cauliflower I bought on Monday.  The colours reminded me of the quilt I'm working on right now and because it was pretty Rose said it was delicious and ate loads.