Monday 28 July 2014

Another Museum, Poor Kids

After Jacob's camp on Thursday afternoon we attempted a free afternoon in downtown Oakville and I have to say it went very well.  Here are my instructions should you find yourself at a loose end there...

Park in the FREE museum car park before it opens and have a picnic in the grounds, despite the moose they are very nice with a view out over the marina and some lovely planting.

Also the tiniest pine cones I've ever seen.
Go to the museum, there is no charge and then you are justified in using the free parking all afternoon.  They had a display on children's clothes which was quite neat  and a butler's pantry, try saying the word 'butler' to Rose without her giggling, impossible, anything with 'butt' in it is fatal these days it's quite embarrassing in public and a good job we can't afford one.  There was also one about the war of 1812, again Rose was impressed because the father of Burlington's founder fought at the Battle of Queenston Heights with Sir Isaac Brock, the Hero of the War and of Rose.  Was he naked or not? and who took his coat? we'll never know.

Also go and visit the 2 little moved and reconstructed buildings in the park next door, there's lots of stuff you can touch and I thought they were better than the museum.  We spent quite a while in the pioneer home discussing the size of beds, spinning techniques and playing with children's toys (and breaking them) then we went to Oakville's original post office, wrote with quill pens and sealed the letters with wax.
Finally we spent a hefty 50c on 2 revolting looking old fashioned candy sticks that made people's faces change colour and will probably make their teeth drop out at a later date.

So that's it, about 4 hours frittered away in a vaguely educational manner for virtually nothing, I did put a bunch of change in the donations box at the end but I doubt it would cover the parking if we'd gone in one of the municipal lots.

Tuesday 22 July 2014

Half of July in One Post

What a busy couple of weeks I've had forgetting my camera left right and centre.

The kids and I went to The Royal Botanical Gardens (sans photographic equipment) where I acquired a Mojito recipe that I wasn't keen on but looked cool and inviting on a hot day, the drink that is, it's a long time since I looked cool and inviting.
 Rose had colourful nails on all extremities.

No photos of Jacob as I have been driving him to Visual Basic camp every morning for nearly 2 weeks then spending hours wandering the coffee shops and parks of downtown Oakville looking for free things to do.  Not an easy feat in Oakville believe me.  Rose was eaten by a hungry plastic lion.
 And learnt to scale the monkey bars with no assistance.
Leopard print spiders, whatever next.
Oh yes, very scary trees with strategically placed buckets of water waiting to pounce on unsuspecting 5 year olds.
At the end of this week Jacob will have completed a fully functioning game called Polar Peril based on Donkey Kong, I am hoping that we will be able to post it somehow or other.  In the meantime go to his You Tube channel (link in previous post) I think there are numerous new tutorials and also a video of Rose being tickled.  Nice.

Tuesday 15 July 2014

Wednesday 9 July 2014

Bronte Creek

Sorry, did I forget to say that we arrived back in Big Bad Burlington safe and sound? Well we did, then  we had a couple of very boing days of getting the car fixed and listening to thunderstorms so today we headed out for a little spendthrift adventure in Bronte Creek.

Bronte Creek is quite a sizable provincial park (remember endless photos of the Pinery? Like that) in the City of Burlington, I think it's where the coyotes live that keep me awake in the small hours.  Anyway, you can walk from our house to the day use area in less than 15 minutes and if you enter the park on foot it's free!

We spent most of the afternoon in various play areas including this barn.
In the Discovery Centre we learned about the animal inhabitants of the park, including this
Great grey Owl.

And we went on a bit of a walk and found this hill, look, country this way...
city that way.
No photos but we also observed some goats as research for when Jacob acquires 'Goat Simulator'.  Apparently he will be simulating a more exciting and less typical goat than the eating, sleeping, standing around ones who live in the children's farm.  Don't ask.

Well that tired everybody out for the grand total of $0.00, there's a good chance you may be seeing a lot more of it over the next 8 weeks.

Saturday 5 July 2014

The Beach

Today was the first really warm day since we arrived so we went to the beach.  It was fabulous, I'm not sure I realised until we were there just how much I've missed the lake, the vastness of the place calms the mind and the gentle sound of waves breaking on the shore mostly blocks out the constant children noises that are otherwise fairly ceaseless in the holidays.

Forgive the rubbishness of my pictures but the sun was very bright so they are a result of pointing the camera in the general direction of the subject and hoping they were in shot.

This is Rose's new swimsuit, she's very proud of it.
After a bit of swimming the kids decided to roll in the sand then dig a big hole and fill it with sticks, I wonder sometimes if I have children or small dogs.
Rose's picnic gene kicked in, she gets that from me I think.
And to adjust the Rose bias a bit here's Jacob doing nothing in particular.


Friday 4 July 2014

Oh, Loads

Yesterday afternoon we visited with my friend from our old neighbourhood, great for me, not so interesting for you.  While we were there Rose got to see one of her favorite people from Grand Bend and here they are.  I think she was more impressed than he was but he's a lovely tolerant boy.
This afternoon while the men watched football the kids and I went on a magical tour of some of our old haunts in the Bend.  First we went to the splash pad but I left my camera in the car so no shots of that.  We called in at this playground, I think these creatures have been featured before.
On to Best's where they really do have the best ice creams in the area, bizarrely the kids chose flavours that matched their outfits, don't know if you can see that in the photo.  I wasn't going to be missed out and had homemade chocolate and raspberry, delicious.
Then we went off to feed the rabbits at Westland Greenhouses.  There weren't any teeny babies this time and we caused some sort of fracas over an empty ice cream cone but no bunnies were injured or children bitten so it all worked out ok.
 And finally we went back to the playing fields with 2 kites as Jacob decided it looked like fun after all, here he is just before he blew away.
Rose took a more laid back approach.
We still haven't made it to the beach properly but this afternoon was a lot of fun, I always feel a sense of achievement when I succeed in dragging Jacob away from his screens and digital devices and make him have some good old fashioned fun in the real world.

Thursday 3 July 2014

Kites and Goalposts

Jacob is back so yesterday's pictures are now available.
Which is the goalpost?




Wednesday 2 July 2014

Foiled

This morning we went out to the playing fields down Klondyke Road with a soccer ball and Rose's kite.  It rained for a couple of minutes but we all had fun, I even remembered my camera and the batteries worked.  I think I took some fairly decent photos but (as Rose could tell you there's always a but except that hers have 2 'T's) Jacob went and had too much fun this afternoon and put paid to my blogging ambitions.

The kids both had play dates this afternoon, I took Rose to Lillian's house for a couple of hours and dropped Jacob off at Jackson's place on the way.  Jacob had such good fun with Jackson that he has stayed the night which is great except that his laptop is password protected so I can't download my photos.  Arghhhh, I had such good intentions.

Tuesday 1 July 2014

Maybe Not

I think perhaps blogging every night was a bit ambitious.  Today we got up, sorted out the house, packed the car and drove to Grand Bend.  The End.

Actually we also played football and hop scotch (not much fun after 2 children but Rose wouldn't take no for an answer) and BBQ'd for dinner.  How did it get to be the July and we haven't BBQ'd yet? You can tell we've not lived in Canada for very long.

Tomorrow we will have a fun packed day and I shall take some photos (have camera and 18 spare batteries, taking no chances) and summon up the energy to work out how to download them onto Jacob's laptop.

So for now, Happy Canada Day.