G's last day of daycare

Today was Gabrielle's last day of daycare. I actually cried, I have no idea why. I guess it's one of those "end of an era" things, but it really was so nice knowing G was happy and making friends, learning stuff, etc. Her wonderful teacher Suzie made this amazing movie to document Gabrielle's year at the Andrew Fleck Daycare. I'm so grateful to have this...



I'm afraid due to copyright issues, the video may only be viewable to those watching it in Canada.

There's a right way and a wrong way to use a jolly jumper

The right way - notice Isaac's proper and elegant jumping form:



The wrong way - I'm pretty sure this voids the warranty but it sure is fun (and contains an important lesson in physics at the end):

Mark is officially old

Mark's 40th birthday started with the traditional off-key singing of the Happy Birthday song...



We then hopped in the car to go to Montreal to ride the Tour de l'ile (cold, wet, unfinished). My parents took care of the kids while we were gone, which was the best present of all. Thanks folks!



Isaac manages to get a word in with my dad.



They had a great time together once Isaac figured out my father has tons of chest hair to pull...

Followed by even more off-key singing of the Happy Birthday song:



And then the final indignity - a party with our friends at the Casino a week later:



Happy Birthday Husband! Smooch!

First face paint!

Gabrielle and I went to the Ottawa International Children's Festival this year. We got there a bit late on its last day, so the only thing left to do was watch buskers and get her face painted. This was unlike any face painting I had ever seen or heard of before. It's a group of women from Quebec City called Kromatik who do face painting as performance. A group of around 20 kids stand in a big circle and then the women walk around and paint the children's faces, seemingly at random, and as inspiration hits. Each child looks radically different from one another at the end. One will do the hair, another sponge on the colour, another will walk around with sparkles, etc. And they don't take requests. The little girl next to Gabrielle asked to be a fairy. The woman told her, point blank, that they do what *they* like, not what *you* like. Poor kid was choking back tears after that. Anyways, luckily G had no real expectations of the experience and even though she was a bit nervous each time one of the artistes came around, she stuck in there.

Above, the first woman sprayed her hair into 3 sharp spikes. It was later sprayed orange and red with black polka-dots.





The finished look. Tres cirque du soleil, n'est-ce pas?

Who's cute?

Isaac is, that's who.

Hilarious/Disgusting

Chocolate ice cream + toddler + 35 degree heat = Tide commercial.