Connor's puzzle piece!

Connor's puzzle piece!
Connor is a "Racing for Autism" hero!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Dreamcrest Winter Show 30/3/08

Miss Maeghan had an exciting day today, her first horse show at the stable where she takes her weekly lessons! This was her first show since arriving back in Canada and she had to do a Dressage test and a Jumping round judged by the owners of the stables. Ian Roberts, one of the owners, is a former Canadian Olympic eventing rider and judged the Jumping test so what a great experience for Mae! Kelly Plitz, Ian's wife and also a former Olympic eventer, was judging the Dressage and Mae got some great tips from her and she did really well for her first ever Dressage test. For both sections the kids got to do a practice round, they were given some critique and tips from the judges, and then they got to do a second round which they were judged on. It was fun to watch and lovely to see the kids and ponies all dolled up and looking spiffy. :o)

Mae ended up placing second in the Dressage test and first in the Jumping! Woo hoo, well done girlie! We are all so proud of you!

I didn't take too many pics of her competing as I was afraid to distract her or the pony...haha! I did get a few though, big shock I know, so please enjoy a few shots of Mae's exciting day!

Waiting in the warm-up area of the Dressage arena
Doing her Dressage test
Waiting to go into the Jumping arena
Going for it in her first Jumping round!
Getting pointer from Ian Roberts
(I love that her pony Mr. Kilts seems to be sticking his tongue out at Ian!!)
Tips on her "two-point" position
Going for it on her second round!
Mae & Mr. Kilts...picture perfect!
Mae & her teacher Tracey who was not so pleased to
have her picture taken...hehe!
Receiving her 1st place ribbon from Ian...woo hoo!
Chuffed...as they say in England. ;o)
Celebrating with Mr. Kilts...good boy!


Earth Hour 2008 chez nous!!

Sooooo, did you all turn off your lights and non-essential stuff last night? I hope so! We lit lots of candles and spent a very quiet and peaceful hour with no computers, no t.v.'s, no noise. Bliss. I think the dog and cats were a bit confused but that's okay..haha! I wish all of my neighbours could have gotten with the program and I must admit it did irk me to look out the windows and wonder why people couldn't cooperate for one hour. Oh well, to each his own I suppose and I applaud those of you around the world who took part in a show of solidarity. Well done!

Connor reading by candlelight
Del & Mae playing a game together
Cam couldn't quite resist a gadget...one DS to keep him busy...hehe
Daddy enjoys a book by candlelight

I had to post these pics from this morning (Sunday) because they just crack me up! For those of you who are cat owners, do you give them catnip?? Around here we call it "cat crack" because of the reaction we get...LOLOL Bug goes especially mad and rolls around on her scratch box covering herself in the crack and then drools and licks it off the box and herself. Weird cat!

My little Crack-cat Bug!
Give me the stuuuufffffff....
CATFIGHT!!
Schat showed up and tried to muscle in on the crack...hehe



Maple time!

Mae, Delsin and I spent last weekend at Buck Lake with our neighbours and friends Paul & Carolyn to experience making maple syrup first hand! P&C have built their own sugar shack complete with evaporator and tap trees on land they own around their cottage/home and have, very cleverly, named their product "Tree Pee"! Despite very chilly temps, the kids and I had a ball collecting syrup from tapped trees and then watching the boiling process the next day. Mae even learned how to drill and tap trees with Paul showing her the ropes. The sap we had collected was frozen solid but Paul managed to make us up a batch using some syrup he had left over from the filtering process the day before and some sap that was thawed out and we boiled it up on a pot on a propane burner. I was thrilled that we managed to take home some yummy nectar despite Mother Nature not cooperating with us...haha! A huge thanks to P&C for taking the time out to show us the process and for giving the kids such a cool experience.

And yes, it is delicious!!

Here are a few pics of our weekend and if you click on the title of this post "Maple time!" it will take you to my .Mac photo album and you can view the rest of the pics.

Enjoy!
Laura :o)

Collecting sap with Paul & Carolyn
Boiling to make it into syrup!
Filtering the boiling syrup
A bottle for Mae!
And one for Del!
2008...a very good year for Tree Pee!
The kids with their booty!
Before and after!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

First day of Spring my butt...

So much for Spring arriving today, it's been cold and blowing with snow flakes flying around for good measure! I drove home from my night class in a blustery snow squall, the snowplows were out in force salting the roads and the wind is howling outside the windows as I type this! It seems to be the winter that isn't going anywhere fast! We started March Break off with a bang (or in roared the lion, as they say!) as a wicked winter storm blew in almost two weeks ago now burying many parts of Ontario and the Maritimes. As much as people in this part of the province thought we got "hammered", it was nothing compared to some of the pictures I saw from Ottawa and parts of the East coast. Mother Nature is, it would seem, rather cranky this year! You can blame it on me if you like, I really wanted to enjoy a proper winter for the first time in seven years and boy did I get one!!

The kids were back to school this week after their break but with Easter arriving so early this year, they were only back for four days and now they are off for another four! The good news is that it will be another 220 years before Easter is this early again. This weekend is all about the chocolate for us as we don't celebrate in the Christian manner, this "celebration" is definitely the hardest one for this aethiest to swallow...the arrival of the "zombie Jesus". 'Nuff said. ;o)

Love this!

So lots of chocolate it is and a good excuse to eat too much roasted meat and drink some wine! We will head to the cottage to watch our neighbours make maple syrup if all goes according to plan. I had a call from Carolyn and she told me they have tapped trees and collected some syrup already and plan to start boiling on Saturday! This will be great fun for the kids to watch...weather permitting! Tim, unfortunately, has to work on Monday so he'll stay here and at least that saves me having to take two cats along with four kids and one large dog in the car...we don't travel lightly around here! ;o) Thankfully a local fellow brought in his tractor and plowed out Dad's driveway which was, according to Carolyn, "waist deep" in snow after the last storm! I hope the road isn't too treacherous with all this thawing and freezing going on this week and now some rather blustery, snowy & chilly weather. Our big dump of snow has been slowly "shrinking" as we had some milder weather and a bit of rain this week. Gotta love Canada in March...haha!

Plowing - country style!

Mom & Dad send me regular informative and taunting emails from Thailand, apparently they are finding decision making very tough this time around...do they have the Thai or oil massage, spicy shrimp salad or glass noodle seafood salad for dinner, walk the beach in the morning or wait until the last afternoon...my heart bleeds for them. Grrrrrrrr. Sounds like they are having a blissful trip so far. Good on them. I guess. Meh.

March seems to be flying by and I would think that Spring really can't be that far away but one never knows...as much as the kids have enjoyed this winter I think they are ready for the snow to melt, the flowers to bloom and they have begun to talk about going back to the cottage for swimming, boating, etc. this summer. Sounds like a good plan to me!

Hope you had a nicer first day of Spring than we did in our little part of the world! Here's a few pictures from the last few weeks in the life of the clan.
Cheers for now, watching to see if that lamb appears at the end of the month,
Laura :o)

Our backyard after the big dump of snow! The fence between our property and the next door neighbour is buried and our BBQ has quite a hat! You can compare the pictures from the "January melt" pictures in an earlier post!
Poor Oscar was up to his chest in snow!
It's so rare that I get pictures of Connor, especially in action (haha) that I had to post a few of these! He went out to enjoy the snow and did so with a big smile on his face. :o)

Take THAT camera-Mom!
Gaaaahhh, walking in this stuff is tiring...
Must...crawl...to...safety...
This is kinda fun actually...
The snow was up to Mae's hips!
Helping Con with his fort
Cam gets in on the action..
Mae had a daytime riding lesson during the break so I, finally, managed to get a few pics of her riding at Dreamcrest on "Mr. Kilts"

Mae loves this boy...
Getting warmed up...
And jumping! Wheeeeeee!
Delsin was invited to his first birthday party, a friend from his class. He was the only boy invited to Ryanna's party so he felt pretty special. :o) The parents hired an exotic animal trainer/specialist and he brought a collection of creepy-crawlies for a "hands-on" experience for the kids. It was all very cool...except for the tarantula...blech! Delsin was very brave and touched or held the following: a very large millipede, a tarantula (EEK!), a boa constrictor, a huge toad, and an American alligator! He did, however, draw the line at the Madagascar hissing (huge) cockroaches...wonder why that could be? ;o)

This picture cracks me up...it was his reaction when the guy brought the cockroaches around and his party host was wearing 4 of them on her back, shoulders and chest! She later wore the tarantula on her head...fearless child!!
Getting up close and personal with a slithery friend, brave boy! This one is especially for you, Jan..hehehe.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Karma is a bitch...

I think I am not the lone Canadian hoping that Conrad Black will soon be someone's bitch! After his disgracefully lenient sentence being issued we can all sit back and smile knowing that he didn't fully get away with it. He is now prisoner number: 18330-424. How sweet it is. That's what you get for renouncing your Canadian citizenship you putz!! Funny that the media was having trouble finding anyone who felt sorry for him on the streets of Toronto yesterday...heehee.  Now we have to sit with bated breath as his legal machine starts the appeal process, fingers crossed that he will be staying put!

On a sad note, I was so sorry to hear that Jeff Healey died on Sunday at the very young age of 41, he was a Canadian treasure and will be missed. My thoughts go out to his family and friends. 

On the homefront things are ticking along. The kids are gearing up for March Break and by the look of some of the teachers at school they are just as excited..hehe.  Report cards are being issued this week **dum, Dum, DUM** and so far we have Delsin's which says that he is right where he should be or "EL" (expected level) in all areas! Well done little man!

We had Connor's "annual review" today to discuss his needs/strengths/weaknesses for the coming year. He is off to high school in September (ACK) so this was an important meeting to make sure his needs will be met for next year. Fortunately the high school has agreed with our desire to place him in the academic (university) stream for next year with "withdrawal support" (extra EA support) where he needs it. He is taking two modified courses for kids with special needs one being a "learning strategies" course that will help him with study skills, organization and developing his social skills and the other is a modified arts program which this school designed for students like Connor who struggle taking regular arts program (art, drama or music)...you must have one arts credit to graduate in Ontario. I am really pleased that we didn't meet with any resistance which was a worry in the back of my head. I know high school will be hard for him but I would rather go in challenging him to see if we can pull out all that potential and then scale it back a bit if he is finding it a bit too much rather than give him the easy route and not have him live up to his potential. He has the option to do his high school in 5 years rather than 4 and we will leave that available if we feel he would benefit from scaling back one course per year. All in all it was a good review and Mommy is feeling positive! Connor's main concern is people "being mean to me" and we are all working hard to send him in with a positive attitude and make sure he understands that entering high school is hard for all kids, not just him! He did perk up though when he heard that his current SERT has applied for "technology support"...translation: a laptop! That elicited a smile from my big man! :o)

Cam is continuing with his karate...mean old Mom is making him go several times per week...and he is enjoying it! I asked him this morning as he was heading out the door if his body was sore from class last night and initially he said "no". Then he tried to lift his arms over his head and suddenly looked at me and said, "um, actually I AM sore"...haha! That is a good thing though, he needs the physical exertion to disperse some of his boundless energy!

Little Miss has sore feet today after her second pointe class last night followed by a full ballet and a jazz class, poor thing. :o) She is tired after working very hard on the weekend to get a book report completed that she knew she wouldn't have much time to finish this week with her after school activities. Good girl! 

Tim had another long night working from midnight until 6:00AM on a launch project for his customer, he looks a bit beat up today but couldn't stay in bed as he has his regular work to complete. No rest for the wicked, as they say.

Mom & Dad are enjoying Thailand and I hate them ever so slightly for that. :o) They are eating lots of yummy food, enjoying lots of massages and other treatments, and spending some time with a few friends from their town here in cold, miserable Canada! After previously talking about how much they love Thailand at their local legion a couple of the older single/widowed guys decided to take the plunge and visit last year...they loved it and are back staying for a much longer visit this time! They have even managed to bag Thai girlfriends, the old dogs! :o)  They all deserve to be enjoying themselves so I'll swallow back my envy. :o)

So that's all the news that's new around here. Onwards and upwards as they say. I'm watching the skies carefully as freezing rain changing to snow is supposed to be headed our way, just in time for Mae & I to be heading for the stables. Oh joy. I still refused to become jaded, I have thoroughly enjoyed my first Canadian winter in 7 years!! 

Ta-ta from us,
Laura :o)