World Cup Soccer Pool Update

GO BRAZIL

Here is a quick update of how I am doing in the my company's World Cup Soccer pool. Of 34 people that entered, I am in 29th place. And I thought I had the pool wrapped up. Well there is still time to pull off a win.

Here's the original post.

Polo For Heart

Another extremely busy weekend came to a close with Polo for Heart, a charity polo match in support of the Heart and Stroke Foundation. It is always really entertaining, with two polo games (a pretty fast paced sport, if you can follow it), and a great half time show. This year had skydivers, and superdogs. My daughter got an airbrush tatoo, and my son really enjoyed seeing the horses. And the best part is, it was all for charity.

Superdogs

Rainbow Skydivers

Shakespeare in the Park

We live in a community that has an outdoor summer theatre, and have taken in the show every year since the theatre began. The theatre always offers a Shakespeare play, and (although I never liked Shakespeare in Highschool), I always find the live performances to be funny and well done. I could even understand what was going on without a plot description, so I guess I am getting more used to it.

Nim Os Kom Ton

We took the kids to a Pow-wow on the weekend. We try to expose them to as many different ideas and cultures as possible, and I think this was really interesting for them. We watched the First Nations dancers and drummers, and sat in a teepee. They told stories and tried to educate us on the beliefs and values. I really liked the outfits that they wore and enjoyed the dance. My daughter wanted to get up for the dance, but got a little shy when it was time to go up. The ceremonial fire was just starting when we had to leave for lunch.

School's Out

My daughter had her graduation party (from Nursey School) today. No, we did not rent a limo, or get her hair and nails done. It was fun for her though, and she got a diploma, and made a mortar board hat. She sang a special graduation song, and we were very proud.

Next year she will be in Kindergarten. Time sure flies.

Soccer Season

My daughter started soccer lessons today, and that was great to see. She didn't stop smiling the entire hour and she was so excited. She really seemed to be having fun out there and was jumping up to participate. It seems to be really geared around the kids having fun, which was nice to see. My son watched and wanted to join in, but is a bit young still. Next year for sure.

Father's Day

It was another great Father's Day.

The kids were really great and excited. My daughter made a special little basket to put candies in at nursery school, and they both decorated planters for the garden. They also gave me an out door lawn ornament (not a gnome) but a dog.

We went on a day trip to Crawford Lake and thought that was really neat.

Thanks Kids

Crawford Lake Father's Day

We took a day trip to Crawford Lake on Sunday for Father's Day. They had a special exhibit on for Aboriginal Day, which is the 21st of June.

Crawford Lake has a re-enactment of an Iroquois Village, built on the site of an actual Iroquois and re-constructed to look like the area actually looked 600 years ago. They had complete rustic longhouses and each pole for the log house was where the original pole was. The loghouses were full of tools, animals hides and artifacts and it was all hands on. I think the kids got a lot out of it.

They tried hemlock tea, and played Native games, and listened to a chief tell stories about the old ways of life. Parents had a good time too.

My son tries the drum

Inside the longhouse.

Return of the Beer Can Chicken Season

1. 
   I cooked my first beer-can Chicken of the season on Saturday. Here’s my recipe for Beer-can-chicken.
   
   I rub one roasting chicken (about 1.5 kg in size) in barbeque salt or spice and stand upright on a half a can of beer (may also contain garlic). I heat the barbeque up to 450 degrees. I then roast the chicken based on a rate of about 45 minutes per kilogram. The trick is to keep the barbeque up to heat. I usually baste it about every 20 minutes, just to keep the exterior moist. The beer boils inside the chicken, and the chicken comes out really moist and juicy.
   
   Here’s why I like it.

• It is a little unusual, and therefore kind of neat.
• It is fun to do.
• You get a lot of chicken for little cost
• I usually boil the chicken when done and get some stock.
• When I’m done I clean and sort all the bones and I am saving them to build a dinosaurs with my kids. I have done six chickens so far, and hope to have enough bones soon to build an Apatosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus. (It takes between 3 and 4 chickens to do a dinosaur). You can read about it here:
  
  

Aurora Fair

It has been a really busy weekend, but then, summer weekends usually are. We went to the Aurora Fair on Sunday. I am pleased to say the kids had a great time (as did the parents) . They each got to go on a pony ride. They enjoyed the juggling shows, dog shows (agility), petting zoo and craft tables (each made a bead craft). My son really enjoyed going on the Merry-go-round, but I think his eye was really on the rollercoaster. I had trouble explaining that 2 year olds were not allowed on the rollercoaster.

My son thought the one man band was hilarious, but got rather shy when he got too close (see photo). My daughter requested that he play the ABC song. At first, he thought she wanted ACDC. I had to explain that, no, she wanted the ABC song. She was very happy when he played it and she sang along.

It was a really fun day.

Windfall Ecofest

We took the kids to the Windfall Ecofest on June 10 at Ferry Lake in Newmarket. They got to make a lot of crafts and play some games, and they got prizes. They had a lot of fun. My daughter thought the "Trash Fashion" show was neat, in which students from Seneca College design clothes out of trash (Photos show dress made entirely of college dorm trash and outfit made from disposable Christmas decorations, includng a tree). I though it was fun too.

Kindergym Finale

Andrew had his final gymnastics class this week. He really likes to interact with the other kids, and I think he has really improved (for a two year old). He does the trampoline, balance beam, ladders and bars and of course, the parachute.

Spring Gardening

Our spring planting is almost complete. It took longer than it should have, what with the weather over the past month, and the kids helping and all.

Included this year are tomatos, hot peppers, and cauliflower (which I thought the kids would like to watch grow). The kids have also planted sunflowers and pole beans. Hopefully, the bunny that lives in our backyard does not eat everything too soon.

I think a hungry raccoon raided our tadpole tank. That is too bad, as we had some real good big ones this year and I was looking forward to seeing the kids faces when they turned into frogs. We'll have to try again next year; hopefully the racoon activity dies down a bit.

World Cup Soccer

GO BRAZIL

I decided I wanted to enter my company's World Cup Soccer pool. The only problem is, I don't know anything about world cup soccer. I don't even know how many downs there are.

Fortunately, I have the inside scoop from some soccer experts.


After receiving Danilo's picks, I was quite surprized to see that he had picked Brazil to win.

Here is photo of the future world cup stars:

I'll keep my score on the pool posted.

Here is a link to a site which I thought was interesting.

Holland River Clean-up.

We were surprized to see our kids faces appearing in the local paper, during the Holland River Cleanup. My daugher had just finished off a timbit and my son had visited the face painters to become a cat. I guess they were still the cutest kids out there.

May Long Week-end

It was a very cold May 24 weekend at the cottage this year. We managed to get out and do a little fishing, and the kids had a lot of fun riding on Lorne's ATV. On the way home, we stopped at the Sculpture Forest, which is a must see for anyone traveling to Haliburton.

See all the photographs here.

Ballet Show

The highlight of my week was often watching my daughter take her ballet lesson. She wrapped up her spring session a few weeks ago with a show. She is doing really well, and has really improved.


I expect to see her in the Canadian National Ballet in a few years.

Click here to see some more photographs that we took.

Geocaching

We recently completed our 65th geocache. For those of you not familar with the sport, think of it as a high-tech treasure hunt. See http://www.geocaching.com/ for more information. We enjoy getting out and finding new forests and hiking through new places. Sometimes it is not always easy. See this post!


Our travel bugs are doing great. (What is a travel bug?) They have all been released from different areas, with hopes of meeting up As of May 22 2006 Goof Ball 1 has travelled 8952 miles and is now in at the place of his carving, Newmarket Ont. Goof Ball 2 has gone 13912 miles and is located in South Dakota, while Goof Ball 3 has been in Wisconsin for a little while and has moved 2017 miles total.

Point Pelee Vacation

We decided to head up to Point Pelee Park for a few days to do some birding. Although we didn't see as many birds as I had hoped, the kids really enjoyed it. The best part was staying in a Motel, which was especially exciting because we had our own television and bathroom!

We did some hikes and went out to the 'tip' a few times. This was mainly because they liked riding around on the little shuttle bus that they use to take people out there.

I have posted some photos here: Point Pelee Photos

Float Your Fanny Down the Ganny 2006

It was another fine day in April for the annual Float Your Fanny Down the Ganny River Race along the Ganaraska River in Port Hope.

The kids enjoyed seeing all the crazy crafts, many of which looked quite a bit different at the end then they did at the start.

Here is a link to the photographs that I took: Float your fanny photos

Photos from 2005

Photos from 2004

Why blog?

Well, I figured everyone else has a blog, so I needed one.

I thought keeping a blog would be a good way to keep everyone who is interested, informed about what we were doing, and what the kids have been up too.

I intend to post about once a week, to let people know what is going on.

I am still working out some of the bugs, so please be patient.

Please feel free to comment.