Flowers

Flowers are currently Helena's all-encompassing focus.  She discovered dandelions in a park three weeks ago, and since then there is just nothing better!  Really - today she practically fell out of her stroller because her mother hadn't strapped her in, which meant she could reach out and try to pick flowers while we moved along.

We went and saw the cherry blossoms in High Park this year with friends, and lucky for us, there were a few limbs that were very low.  Helena & Nora had a ball.

John brought home a few beautiful Gerbera daisies for me.  I love them but Helena may actually enjoy them more, since she has asked to smell them at least two dozen times! 

So this past weekend we went to the Allan Gardens Conservatory and surrounded Helena with flowers.  The flowers being right at her height made it simply perfect for her.

Yet her attention still regularly went to the dandelion she was carrying. 

German Whist

Anyone else feel like you spend A LOT of time on the computer? 

Or do you feel like your two-person games are BORING because you've played them so many times?

That's definitely how we'd been feeling, until we learned German Whist last week.  It's a quick yet strategic two-person trick-taking game, and it's fun.  Below are the directions but you'll have to figure out the strategy on your own!

Shuffle a 52-card deck.  Deal 13 cards to each person.  Put the other cards in a draw pile with the top card turned over.  The suit of this card is trump and will remain trump throughout the hand.

The first stage - the first 13 tricks - of the game is spent collecting good cards for the second stage.  The non-dealer plays first and traditional trick-taking game rules are followed (must follow suit; if you can't, you can sluff or play trump). Whoever takes the trick takes the face-up card on the top of the draw pile and the loser takes the next face-down card.  Then the next card in the draw pile is turned over and you do it again, with the trick-taker always playing first.  During the first stage it is unnecessary to keep track of who takes how many tricks so just combine them all in a pile.  The first stage ends when the draw pile is out of cards.

The second stage - the second 13 tricks - is all about taking tricks.  Whoever takes the most tricks in the second stage wins.

If you look closely at the two above photos, you will notice that your hand can really change from the first stage to the second.  That's part of what makes the game so fun!

As the loser of the above hand yet the owner of a new hairstyle, 

this photo seemed appropriate to include!

More than a Mommy's Girl

This morning John made pancakes, and one big pancake and one little pancake stuck together.  He gave it to me, saying "This is like you and Helena - attached at the hip."  Helena is definitely a Mommy's girl much of the time, and I don't mind.  

But she's not only interested in her mom.  A few days ago I came across her looking at this card that her grandma sent to us.

Each square is a picture of one of Helena's many facial expressions - she has a lot of them.  She was looking at the pictures and giggling and giggling!

So I got closer and saw who she was looking at.  Her dad!  Or the half of his face that was in the photo.

Yeah, she likes her mom a lot, but she likes her dad a lot too.

Earth Day

These days all kinds of buildings in the city that were used for one purpose are now being used for another.  Old churches are turned into condo buildings, arenas into grocery stores - today we visited a brick-making factory & quarry that provided bricks for MANY of the old buildings in downtown Toronto, but which has now been turned into Evergreen Brick Works, a community environmental centre, farmer's market, Outward Bound headquarters, and more.

An Earth Day celebration was being held, so inside there was plenty of delicious food to sample & purchase - we got apple beignets & pommes frites! - and fun kid activities like face painting.

 Outside there were plant beds of strawberries, parsley, garlic, beans...

...plus tea brewing on the fire in the chimney, pizza cooking in the wood-burning oven, and some circular structure that had fun windows to sit on.

It's fun to see how they're using the buildings to showcase nature but the outside trails are what's really incredible. Twenty years ago this place was a huge clay quarry.  Around ten years ago it was purchased to be seeded and made into a nature area.  Now there are beautiful trees, a big pond, grassy hills - a gorgeous escape from the city. 

Did you do anything special for Earth Day?

The Hunger Games

Last night John & I got to go out on a date.  We saw the movie The Hunger Games and then got a drink at Starbucks.  One of John's colleagues was working there, and she paid for our order...it took us back to almost ten years ago when we had our very first outing.  We had gone to a used bookstore and then headed to Caribou.  John's roommate was working and he gave us our drinks for free.  So much has happened since then, but free drinks are always wonderful!

Anyways, I personally thought the movie was very well done.  But so much was missed from the book because Katniss's thoughts weren't in the movie.  Thus, as is almost always the case, the book is better than the movie, and you should read it!