Sweets vs. Desserts

Helena usually eats school lunch. There are foods that she's quite used to, like pasta with tomato sauce or fish & chips, but then there are also things like beef rolls or cheese & onion plaits that she's tried and liked.  At times, however, she prefers to take a packed lunch (or what she calls a "pot" lunch, as that's how packed sounds to her when spoken with a British accent).

Last week she asked if she could have dessert in her lunchbox, because there is always dessert with a school lunch.  That sounded very reasonable to me, so I added a pack of gummies.  When I picked her up that afternoon, she was quite concerned "Momma, I can't bring gummies to school.  They are not allowed!"

So this morning I asked about the gummies.  Her teacher replied that they really prefer children not bring sweets to school.  I explained that I was happy with that idea, and that the only reason I'd packed them was because there was always a dessert included with school lunches.  She then went on to explain that dessert to them is a piece of cake, a biscuit, or a chocolate bar.  Those things are fine but not sweets.

As you might guess, this is one of those things that doesn't completely make sense to my North American mind but I'm happy to follow the rules now that I know them!

Uncle E & Helena

Helena & Benjamin loved having people around that they knew!  It was particularly fun to have Uncle E here without his kids, as it meant that our kids wanted to interact with him rather than their cousins, and he was more available to interact with them!  Helena particularly took advantage by walking & talking with him wherever we went.  They even shared fish & chips at a restaurant!

Guy Fawkes Day

November 5th is Guy Fawkes Day, also known as Bonfire Night.  There are firework displays and basically just a fun time, all because of a man called Guy Fawkes and a number of other Catholics back in 1605.  When James I, a Protestant, became king in 1605, a small number of Catholics protested by planning on blowing up the Houses of Parliament.  Luckily an anonymous letter was sent, giving a bit of warning, and the plan was foiled.  Guy Fawkes is the famous protester, as he was found with the barrels of explosives, waiting to light the fuse, when the cellar was checked.

Nowadays it's referred to as Bonfire Night, when there are firework displays and basically just a fun time for all. Unfortunately the fireworks have been canceled in our village tonight due to bad weather, so we'll go to a different display this weekend.

Helena has been learning about fireworks and "Guy Forks" all week.  Here's her rendition of the story:

Harvest

Canadian Thanksgiving was last week, American Thanksgiving is next month, but we've been celebrating Harvest for the last three weeks.  Harvest was originally a time to celebrate all the food that had been harvested but since the agricultural side of the country is much smaller than it used to be, it's mostly a time to be thankful for the food we have and to contribute food to those who may be in need.

Helena's school celebrated it by having an assembly to see all the food the students had contributed and to discuss where it was going to go.  The above photo was taken when Helena took her mandarin oranges and spaghetti sauce up - it's actually posted with a bunch of other Harvest photos in the entrance of the school. We've now celebrated it at two different churches, where we had a typical service about being thankful but many many flowers. Harvest is seen as one of the 3 big holidays for church flower arrangements (my friend the flower coordinator told me that!).



So we did our own Harvest activity, seen above.  We all took turns writing down things we are thankful for and then sticking them to our dining area wall.  I was amazed at how much our kids enjoyed it.  Can you guess which color was Benjamin's?

Helena and school

Helena loves school.  I'm having a hard time knowing what else to write!  She just loves it.  Every day she gets dressed in her school uniform and wears sturdy leather black shoes to school.  As soon as she enters her classroom she changes into her plimsolls, a pair of very simple black shoes.  Every time she goes outside, she changes her shoes.

She's been coming home and telling us about the different words that are used in her classroom than what we use at home: plaits instead of braids, pudding instead of ice cream, biscuits instead of cookies, swap over instead of switch, pants instead of underwear, trousers instead of pants, and bananas (said with a long a) rather than bananas (said with a short a).  She hasn't quite caught on to the idea of no school days yet, as every weekend day she has said something like, "You need to take me to school!  I'm really late!"

10K - for fun and friendship

This weekend my friend Christa & I ran a 10K together.  Our goals were to not stop running and to make another good friendship memory.

We reached all our goals easily.  It's amazing how quickly time running can go by when you're with a friend with whom you just never run out of conversation.

Our cheering crew was definitely the loudest and cutest!

There were all kinds of fun kid activities afterwards. Helena & her friend Holly have just started holding hands all the time.  It is so sweet.

What do you call these?

Your answer is nearly always a giveaway for where you're from. 

So what do YOU call them?

I called them donut holes once when teaching Sunday School, and my students swiftly corrected me. 

"These are NOT donut holes.  These are Timbits."

Timbits.  Sold at Tim Horton's.  The salted caramel variety is seriously the best pastry-sold-in-a-ball-form I've ever had.  Other than that, they're just okay.

The funny thing is Helena corrected her father recently, telling him they're Timbits, not donut holes.

Recap of February

We started the month in Niagara Falls with my parents.  It was so much fun.  None of us had ever seen the falls in the winter, and they were breathtaking.  We also spent a bunch of inside time at a water park, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.

As you can imagine, the kids were more than exhausted after all that fun.  They both fell asleep within five minutes of starting to drive back home.

 

John & I went to Canoe, called "the best restaurant in Toronto," while they were here.  The food was delish, the view was amazing, and the company was excellent.

After grocery shopping one day, Benjamin helped empty the clementines!

John attended our church's men's retreat one weekend, so all us moms & kids had our annual sleepover.  We totaled 4 moms and 7 kids this year, and all of us went to play in the snow the next morning.  We made quite the sight as we walked to the park!

Another walk in the snow :)

The kids moved from pattern block cooking to pompom cooking.  They now have a Pompom Cafe Menu and play this every single day.

Benjamin had no fear feeding camels, llamas, bighorn sheep and donkeys.

Last but not least, the annual Yorkville Ice Festival.  It has been such a treat to be just 3 blocks away from this fun winter event.  This year's theme - Egypt.

Recap of January

Once again, lagging behind in my blog posts.  Something about the extra step with transferring photos makes me procrastinate and then simply ignore blogging.  Thanks to the lovely Kay for providing some motivation!

Helena and Benjamin really began playing together in January, not just playing in the same room or H being nice to B or B following H everywhere.  One morning H wanted to be twins and B was happy to go with it.

Kitchen play moved to the next step when they started cooking with pattern blocks.

 

B became quite interested in playing and feeding babies and animals, which reopened that type of play for H.

 

 

Helena had her first drop-off birthday party.  So much fun!  I can't believe she's four.

The month ended with a visit from Nani and Papa.  As you can tell, H was more than happy to have them here!  More about their visit to come...

Events of December - before Christmas Eve

It was a fun month for us, one full of special activities.  Scroll through for a quick synopsis!

 

Allan Garden Conservatory Christmas Open House - They had wagon rides, which were lots of fun, and apple cider.  This was the first time Benjamin had tasted apple cider, and once the liquid touched his lips, he would not take his mouth off the cup except to ask for more.  We obliged, and I believe he had four cups. 

Christmas books kept Helena busy!

During a visit to the mall, Helena asked to have her picture taken in front of every single gigantic pink reindeer!

 For the most part, B-boy was a terror around the manger scene but I did observe him doing something other than destroy it a couple times.

We had snow, and lots of it, for a few weeks before Christmas.  It was all gone by the 20th, which meant this was the first non-white Christmas of my life.

Why would anyone walk on a cleared sidewalk when there's snow to tromp in?

Of course the traditional sugar cookie decorating happened, with Benjamin asking if he could eat a cookie each time he decorated one.  When I finally said yes, he happily scarfed it down, and then proceeded to no longer ask but attempted to take a bite of every cookie when I wasn't looking.  He's a clever one!

A trip to the Toronto Christmas Market in the Distillery District.

Helena was an angel in the Christmas pageant again.  Here she is with her good friend Holly.  Notice her socks - they're Elsa socks.  She asks me if she can wear them every day.  When the answer is no (which is more often than not since I don't have a washing machine), she asks if we can do laundry.

Benjamin and I were invited to visit Helena's preschool to make gingerbread houses.  It was fun to see her in that environment with her schoolmates and her teacher.

One busy girl!

Earlier this week Helena spent a good bit of the day 

with her Duplos and ABC building directions.

Look how far she got!

Helena's First Women's Event

I coordinate baby and wedding showers with a few other ladies at church, which means Helena hears about the events.  She has been asking - the correct word would be pleading - to attend one with me but they have always been too late in the evening.  So when a friend asked me to come over for tea one evening, Helena immediately asked if she could come too. 

That night Helena asked if she could dress up for her first Women's Event. As John took a picture of us before we left, she said "Daddy, take lots of pictures, as this is a night you're going to always want to remember."

Melissa turned the evening into a special "Women's Event" for the three of us, with treats and a special teapot and teacup for Helena's orange juice.  Helena was great, asking questions as to be involved with the adult conversation (such as "Miss Melissa, is your baby wearing your clothes?" (meaning hand-me-downs or clothes Melissa had purchased).  She was also very careful to not interrupt and not talk with food in her mouth.  When we left, she asked Melissa if she could come to another Women's Event sometime.

I can't wait to take her to more events, real ones or otherwise.

Leaf Fun

Snowflakes were falling this morning. It's time to accept the fact that warm fall days are over.

 

But speaking of warm fall days, Remembrance Day was fantastic. We went out for a ceremony which my kids did spectacularly at, I must add, and then we simply enjoyed the sunshine & its warmth while playing in the leaves.

The kids had a fantastic time.  Benjamin likes to walk through the pile, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

Helena likes to run and jump!

I know every parent feels this way about their children, but it must be said anyways.  I'm so lucky to have these two kids as mine.

Dinosaur Zoo

Helena has been quite interested in dinosaurs for some time now, so when the theatre just down the street started to show "Dinosaur Zoo", going to see it was an easy decision!

The show is set up so the "zookeeper" teaches you about dinosaurs while the dinosaurs come out.

When a puppeteer/zookeeper ran out and announced that the T. Rex had gotten loose, Helena yelled "I want to go home Mommy!"  After a tight squeeze, a promise that I would protect her, and a reminder that the dinosaurs are just puppets, she calmed down.  But it was amazing how life-like they were.

After the show the baby dinosaurs were out so we could see them.  Helena was very brave when touching the baby triceratops and baby duck-billed dinosaur (the hadrosaur), but she stayed safe by only touching the blanket of the baby T. Rex.

The Latest and Greatest

AND

My Mom's Visit

May was a month full of fun for us. 

 

First, my mom came to visit and it took all of 5 seconds for Helena to latch on to her.

Nani & Helena spent at least an hour every morning snuggling on the air mattress reading books.

The kids were introduced to a huge worm, with which Helena did not want to interact but Benjamin loved it.  He flung it around and somehow it ended up in two pieces.

Nani happily participated in H's last gymnastics class!

Celebrating my mom's birthday with her on her birthday was lots of fun for all.

Thanks for coming Mom.  We'd love to have you again anytime!