Summer Lovin' (Week 1)

Before we jump into fall, let’s wind up the summer and get a bit caught up okay? Where to begin? The summer was lovely, as always. We fit in a Vancouver trip for Shona’s birthday and some PNE action. Would you believe Hannah was ONE INCH too short to go on any of the big rides? She dealt with it really well, and before we left we discovered she was tall enough for the swing ride, a ride I loved as a kid and am terrified of as an adult. She's the one farthest to the right, over the roller coaster.



Ivy and I hung out on the Merry-Go-Round, of course, while Kit and Leif just did coaster after coaster after coaster.




Ivy got to reconnect with her pal Bryn (the Brynster) and the talents of the St. Brights were showcased once again at Shona's party. No pics, sorry. This year we did The Family Circus, with Leif and Kit juggling, Hannah hula-hooping and the girls and I doing some bendy stuff.

We also managed a trip to my favorite place, the Cabin. Quiet, peaceful, filled with other adults to play with the kids. I LOVE it there!

Hannah built a bird house with Al



Leif was goalie and I took shots on him every day



And Ivy, well, she lay around in the grass alot. It's lovely grass.



We took in the 4H fair in Coombs. The Geese were fantastic.




We hit upon a book called Planet Ocean at the library. I’m debating buying it, it was just that cool.

Hannah acquired a drum set and quickly figured out how to play one of her favorite songs. (Doorbell by white Stripes, see archived entries for links). We had our first family and friends band show, it was fun and loud, and looked like this, with Leif on drums and Hannah in the bone-suit:



Hannah is voyaging into the land of reading, with such classics as Big Pig Dig and Ted’s Red Bed. Like any reader on the threshold of this new skill, she often guesses at the words based on the first letter. I’ve pointed out how some words look almost exactly like another, except one letter is different. So if she knows how that first word sounds, the next one can be a breeze.

We were lucky to have Ryan and Shona and their kids over for a wee visit. While Ivy and Bryn continued hatching plots in odd languages, they also took some time out for a bit of singing. Or at least, Ivy sang to Bryn and Bryn listened patiently. Again and again.




The kids were intrigued by the different kinds of cameras Shona brought along. One in particular was an old school point-and-click, very similar to my mom’s first camera, which I had around here at one point. Shona explained distance, when you would switch it to different settings and why, and then let them loose with it on the beach. She’s told me some of the pictures are fabulous. I’ll keep you posted.

Besides Ivy’s singing to Bryn, the house has also benefitted from Hannah’s unique musical ramblings. In the car she started in with her latest, the Molecule Song. We haven’t chatted molecules/atoms/cells since the spring, but somehow she came up with “Molecules are in everything, yes everything. The car, my skin, that dog over there.” I think it’s a pretty cool tune actually. Very Veda Hille.

She’s also discovered Louie Armstrong and plays his cd often. She’s picked out one of his tunes on the piano and plunks away at it sometimes.

Even though we’ve lived here for 10 years now, we’ve never seen jellyfish at the beach. Yet this summer they are everywhere. Loads of clear ones, the kind I remember from childhood summers on the boat with my brother, how they glowed in the night waters. And burgundy ones that come in only one size: BIG. I’ve tried to find jellyfish books at the library, but like many scienc-y books, they are all older and vague, often hand-drawn (which is SO cool, but not what we need here) and covering the world-over, not just our little West Coast jellies. I’m sure the internet has stuff, but it’s so much nicer to gather around a book, than my laptop. And you can take it to bed, or read while you eat breakfast. Books rock.

Leif’s love of hockey continued this summer. I found a cheap and flimsy, yet functional and repairable, goalie net at a yard sale, and his love of goalies soared. Hannah got right into it with him and they were out in the driveway everyday. After coming in with a fat lip from a slapshot from his sister, Leif asked about getting some gear. His buddy Taro told him the second-hand sporting goods store (Sports Traders on Store Street) carried hockey gear, we were off. He tried on lots of stuff, and after much discussion and price comparison, he brought home a helmet with face cage and a goalie stick. He paid with his hard-earned paper route cash. Once home he improvised with my old baseball glove and his goalie gloves. And now he only gets nailed in the crotch.



Speaking of his paper route, the kids have come up with a new game. There’s a great tire swing at the end of the route, so it’s our reward. I stand in the middle and push the kids around me, and they’ve decided I am the Sun and they are in orbit. So they discuss which planets they are, telling Ivy she is always mercury, she’s so small. It’s nice being the Sun.

In July I did manage to wedge in a little rant about the Canada Day holiday and its history as Dominion Day. They didn’t really feel any inkling to join in my feelings of wishing it was still Dominion Day. But I tried right? We did take in some Canada Day festivities, mainly ice cream in the hot sun in the harbour. We tried to get on Naval ships and stuff, but the line-ups were huge and tiring. Next year we need to plan our own shindig, though I say that every year. We did partake in The Living Flag, a downtown business initiative that was fun, and hot. You can’t tell it’s us, but we’re in there. We’re the ones wearing white, even Ivy.


The kids did a schwack of swimming lessons this summer, the time of year when great classes are offered during the day time, yay. Hannah did her level 2 and 3, Leif his level 6 and 7.




Their fabulous teacher Nelly retired this summer, at the end of their classes. This warranted some baking of course.




Hannah drew herself swimming with Nelly, and signed it from all of us.




This summer the kids were introduced to a St. John pastime, the model plane air show. I stayed home and painted the kitchen. Everyone was happy.



We had many a tea party this summer, sometimes inviting lego storm troopers, others not. The menu was always the same.



Leif also stayed up one night creating a very sweet surprise pre-birthday breakfast tea party for Hannah. He wrote out menus, made place cards and folded napkins into fans. In the morning I was chef and server, and all three of them cavorted around together. It was a great idea.



Hmmm, what else happened this summer? Oh right. Hannah turned SIX.



And then . . .



Woohoooooo! Six is perfect!



She’s been counting down the days since about May, forever changing her cake request, finally deciding on a truly Hannah-esque cake (pink and white icing with green polka-dots and storm troopers on top, strawberries on the sides). A lovely party in the park was the plan, and then we took them all to the pool to cool off. She had a great day. Once home we had a little family party. She’d been asking for a certain lego set since last fall. She’d wanted it for Christmas but we said no-go sister. It’s a really expensive set! So we got together with all the grandparents and pooled our dimes. She said it was the only thing she wanted, so she got it.






We finished up with an early September camping trip to Ruckle Park with Ryan and Shona et kids. Leif and Hannah honed their disc-tossing skills, and Leif discovered that he loves disc golf, just like his Papa. Ivy and Bryn sat in little camping chairs observing the bigger kids, like the little old ladies they will be some day. Hannah read her Hiyao Miyazaki comics and I jumped in the Pacific every day. It was a much-needed little holiday that should've been longer, but we loved it while it lasted.


On a very sad note, this summer we said good-bye to our lovely Bodhi-cat. She was struggling with some hyperthyroid issues, and that distracted us from discovering that her cancer had returned. She stopped eating and we couldn’t figure out why. She hung out with us in the back yard one sunny evening, and I snapped this picture. She died later on that night. She is missed.




Kisses

C

Big Red.

Here she is, my fab new road bike.



There is nothing more lovely than cycling up and down the coastline here on this gorgeous bike. My feet clip into the pedals, I have my tunes on, and it's the best 45 minutes I can get in a day if I'm lucky. Yeah, I like it. I ride between 12-20 KM each time, depending on how much time I can get away from the family unit.



I cannot believe it's been a month since I last wrote. I have so many notes of what's been going on, but it'll take me awhile to get it all out. So this'll be a bit of a photo essay thing, of how we're rocking our summer days.

There's been some wicked magic shows.












Leif has found his own perfect set up, to cool his feet and beat the heat.



The girls cool their butts.




Ivy tends to our pots of nasturtiums.



Ivy has discovered Fudgesicles, a summer must-have.



Hannah has felt some domestic urges.


She has created her own secret garden in our back yard. Kit helped her plant groundcover, weed the edge beds and she collected various things to decorate it.



Leif finished his soccer year with a bang. They had a big group shoot-out, complete with a radar thingy that measured the speed of the ball as they took shots on goal. Leif had the fastest kick out of his whole class, a group of about 40 kids aged 9-14. His shot was going 64KM.


Kit and I took in the Tragically Hip show this month, and it was FANTASTIC! Loud, long and bright, we had a great time, and play their songs often to re-live the moments.

Okay, off to load more pics for a July post. :)

C

Rats!

Yes, we've got them again. The issue is the crazy junk pile in our alley. Our junk pile. Wood, a broken dresser, empty plant pots . . . nothing gross, just a nice spot to make a den, right beside our compost bins. Bodhi took care of this the other time this happened, 2 years ago. I hope she's still up to the task . . I'm thoroughly grossed out. We have a lot of house care stuff literally piling up on us this year.

Hannah has cared for her tent caterpillars and now they have hatched, so to speak. They are a pretty cute brown moth actually. They are literally covered in hair!



We went on a field trip to Swan Lake this week and spotted tons of white moths. Hannah was very keen on the various ways moths can be camouflaged. On this trip we explored the ways life adapts around water. We looked at what we could net in the shallow waters on this marshy lake. Dragonfly larvae, stick bugs, side swimmers, water worms . . cattails, various plants, herons, ducks . . we saw it all.

My little container garden scene has been coming along nicely. While it is too early for the veggies, our strawberries had started to ripen, yet we never actually got any fruit. Then I spied why.




This is the view out our bedroom window. Sibling hockey good times.

The only injuries have been to Hannah, ahem, all inflicted by Leif. Yes, we've had many chats. As the younger sibling I have memories of being 'tackled' in the playroom, and landing hard on the thinnest carpet ever known to man. I definitely give the big brother the gears due to my little sister perspective.

Kit and his Dad took the older two on an outing to Muir Creek to look for fossils. They definitely found some.





They even found evidence of past earthquakes, as you can see by this fault line shift in the rock face.


Kit and I started to watch a fantastic DVD from the library. Earth: A Biography was visually stunning, and really interesting. We had to return it before we could watch it all, but we plan to get it again and watch the rest.


The kids bought new Lego sets this week. It was great to see Hannah reach a stage we remembered from young Leif, of following directions all on her own, from start to finish. She got frustrated in a few spots and had to let me help just for a sec I promise! She's very proud of her hard work, and the fact that she finally has her own Jedi figurine.



Leif opted for an Indiana Jones set. He's never seen any of the films (he's 8!!) but knows the overall concept (and that I think the most recent one is one of the stupidest movies ever).




Even though our berries are scavenged by squirrels, we went out to the farms and bought a flat. I made a crumble and tried my hand at jam. The crumble was a hit, as you can see. The jam I've yet to taste.



Because he's grown up listening to my odd rants about marketing over the years. I knew Leif would like to hear about Q-Tips. That they are a product that is successful, can never be improved upon, and has become the standard for it's market. So those folks can just sit back and keep churning them out, never worrying about being overtaken by a competitor (we've all bought the cheaper ones only to find they really have less cotton at the tips) and rake in the bucks. This lead us to a chat about proprietary eponyms, an eponym being a word that stands for something else, a proprietary one being a brand name that does this. Frisbee, Q-Tip, Bobcat, Xerox, Kleenex are some examples. Can you think of more?


nighty night.

First things first . . . Fleury is THE MAN in our house.

As our one friend who is a long-time hockey fan(atic) asked "When did you guys start watching hockey?". Just now my friend, just now. Here's a typical long-winded Caelen way of getting to the point.

Leif's life-long best bud Taro received a miniature air hockey table for Christmas. Although his mother, like me, worked hard to find knit slippers, Waldorf dolls and other natural toys, this farking plastic sporty-toy overshadowed his other gifts. She stated for months afterwards "But I didn't order a sports-loving son!".

So Leif and Taro played some air hockey throughout the winter. Then they both got their own sticks, and started playing in the yard. Then the Playoffs started, and Taro got a copy of some Hockey News magazine. Now they're reading stats and documenting their favorite players on little lists they make at night. We discover that you can watch the Playoffs online, and we're in. I'm on-board for whatever they're into, be it raising pests as pets or playing Lego all day. So this was an easy shift. We made Leif's special Macaroni and cheese on game night, invited Taro over, set up chairs all around the computers, and let loose. The whole neighbourhood could hear us when the Penguins scored that first goal. To prep for the game, Leif and Taro and Hannah made their own hockey gear, following Taro's lead, out of wood, wool and cardboard (see? using nature still fits in!). During the breaks, they went and played hockey outside until I called them in for the next period. We were riveted right up until the final seconds, when Fleury, sweet little Frenchman, deflected a shot on goal in the final 6 seconds, pushing the Pens to Stanley Cup victory for the first time in 14 years. We'd already googled the Cup itself, how it originated, how it got taller as they added more names, how many times the Montreal Canadians were on it, that the teams get to keep it for the year (really? said the kids), how violence is not a 'natural' part of the game (when another player held Crosby up by only his knee on the boards, sending him off the ice for an injury, and no penalty was given), that it was not aways there, and how no other sport condones anything close to what hockey allows lately. We are all looking forward to the Olympics to show them how hockey can be played with only skill, not skill and gratuitous bullying.

Pics of them getting ready to play:





Can I rave about Radio Flyer for a minute? Well, I was going to. We have a red metal RF wagon that we found free by the side of the road. It's rusty, but like anything well-made, it still works just fine. We use it for Leif's paper route. Recently, when 3 too-big children tried to ride in it all at once, the one plastic component, the wheel spokes, broke. I was bummed. I figured it was irreparable. But I called RF, and in 5 minutes, had a new set of wheels ordered for exactly our wagon model. Woohoo. I told the kids, about how quality manufacturers, good customer service, etc was a gem these days, and linked it to the crap customer service we've had from companies that outsource their manufacturing to countries with crap labour laws and cheaper wages. Our bike trailer comes from Alberta, the kids pj's are made in Washington. Even though by now there's little you can actually get that's still made in N. America, we do try. And so I was miffed to discover that Radio Flyer shut it's US plants in 2005 and now manufactures all their metal items in China.

A decade ago when all this outsourcing was really in the papers, I was firmly against it. I heard often from my elders how I was being Utopian, that really, the jobs were such a benefit to these workers in China, Indonesia, etc . . . did I want to deny them this chance at the American dream we all share? And it was hard not to lay into these well-spoken adults in my community, to point out the total lack of altruism in these corporate moves. They were not moving their factories to 'help' the poor workers, to spread 'the Dream'. They were doing it for money, pure and simple. Across the border in Mexico, slack pollution and labour laws made it an easy choice for hundreds of companies that had previously been working in the US. Ditto for China and the other Asian countries now providing us with all of our toys, clothing, computer and telecommunications needs. Oh but wait! There's a problem now it seems? These money-saving steps and slack pollution and labour laws are resulting in lower-quality goods you say? Lead in toys? Plastic chemicals in Pocky? Weird flu's travelling from animals to people, possibly on the food we ship from far away to nearby? Good heavens, what have we done? Did you know Costa Rica now beats Hawaii for pineapple sales? Tough luck for the Hawaiians I guess, but woohoo for Costa Ricans right? Come on folks. Do the math.

Yes, this still pisses me off, over a decade later. Back then, in the 90's, there might have been a chance of reversing this trend that is entirely based on greed. People tried to effect a change, to get the word out. Trying to buy Canadian/American, protesting against Nike and Kathy Lee Gifford. I remember being in NY on 2003 and seeing a huge banner ad on the side of a building slamming the Gap for it's labour workers in Indonesia. But still, the notion of it being 'better' for us consumers to be able to buy cheaper goods, therefore putting our dollars back into the local economy . . . oh man , I can't even type that without wanting to laugh or throw up. The 'local' economy was the toy store that used to be up the street from us, that shut down when Wal-Mart arrived. The sushi bar that thank god still is up our street. Friends who used to work for Telus and Safeway, who earned good livings and took their money and spent it on local festivals and fundraising and food grown here in BC. But they've since been fired, my Telus service calls now come from Calcutta and the service at Safeway is the worst crap ever. Oh but for the highest prices in town, no less.

I've recently learned about a group finding a different way to 'give the dream' in poorer countries. www.girleffect.org is a group that gives the basic means for a business to poor women and girls in Africa. What's that, they just give it to them? They aren't trying to make money off them at the same time? How can this be? The 'American Dream' is all about greed isn't it? Well, they got my money for sure. And the next time they get my money, it'll be for the soccer-team training for girls that they offer. And this is a perfect time to share another article I read recently, that ties in all the outsourcing with the value of learning to work with your hands. If you have a job online or on a computer, that another country might be able to do for you . . . you just might be fucked in a few years. But no one can outsource a gardener, a hairdresser or a plumber. Food for thought.

Want to talk about Hannah? Let's, because she's just so rockin'. We had a garage sale recently, as part of our clean-house-so-we-have-less-to-clean program. Hannah felt this was a perfect opportunity to have a cookie sale (our neighbours recently had a lemonade stand, which essentially was only frequented by us, but hey, we all got juice). She made her own signs, complete with pictures of her rice krispie squares (seriously, they are the hardest things to make! So sticky and messy, and the waste of the marshmellows and cereal that goes into it, vs. the tiny pan of squares that comes out? Bah!) and told each customer "They are rice krispie squares with marshmellows inside". The marshmellows were key in her view. In this pic you can also take note of her new haircut. She deduced that long, thick hair is too hot, and brushing it is too hard. So we went short and she loves it.




In a bizarre turn, our efforts to clean house netted us just enough money to offer a deal on the drum set being sold at the yard sale across the street from us. Hannah was smitten, though when I offered her a horse instead (trying to illustrate how far-fetched such purchases were) she got upset because it was too hard to choose. Good lord. Now the kid's room is dominated by a shiny red drum kit, and I relax daily to the random beats of the 3 kids who each have their own set of drum sticks.

Her tent caterpillars are now all in their own cocoons. In a week or so they will hatch as moths. She has liked having them as pets, though the amount she can ignore them has proven to be a key thing. If she'd had a pet rabbit or something it'd be dead by now.


Ivy is hilarious. It is hard to convey how she's changing, but I'll try. She is so, articulate? Chatty? Neither of those are right, but I'm at a loss for the word I mean. Some examples:

Leif and Hannah are discussing which movie to watch. Ivy is nearby building with blocks. They agree on a film. Ivy gets up and says "Can I watch it with you guys? Can I watch too?".

She calls me from somewhere in the house, needing help. I say I'll be right there and start to move in her direction. She then yells "Oh, I got it! Never mind Mommy! Nevermind! Thank you Mommy! Thanks!".

She gets ignored a lot, which is lame. She'll be talking to the kids or Kit, asking a question or telling them about her day, and on her third repeat I'll say "Hey guys, she's talking to you!". She'll stand on a chair and hold their shoulder and peer into their faces, telling them her gem about the fish she saw, or the shoes hanging on the power lines. And she'll tell each of them her news individually. She insists, of course, on doing many things herself. Her car seat buckles, her stroller buckles, if you're drawing she wants to draw too. Pretty normal behaviours. But still so sweet and determined, dammit. She is on cloud nine right now because she got her own Ivy-sized hockey stick, and asks "Can I play hockey with you guys?". Last night she lay in bed with Leif, and shared with him this golden nugget:

"Leifer, when I'm taller I'll get a boy-head and I'll put it on."
Then after some discussion with him about being older and taller she says : "Actually, I'll keep my girl-head when I'm taller."

When she goes somewhere she says "Here I go" or "Here I come". Will I be like this when I'm senile? Don't blog about it, my darling children, if I am. It'll be cute and sad for you but awful for me. Though I won't know it or care . . . okay, as long as you buy me Turtles IN THE BOX, I'll agree to most anything by then.


This week I we played restaurant one day for lunch. In truth, I operate a restaurant every day for these guys, but on this day I decided to 'make it fun'. I had them each write out their order and promised to try to mimic it as closely as I could, given what I had on hand.

Leif ordered 'Leif's mak an cheese' (sound it out guys, it's macaroni & cheese)

Then he wrote me a list of his favorite foods:


Hannah ordered: ' oitmeil kukes, etomame (and) stroberes'
(oatmeal cookies, edamame and strawberries)

And here is her list of favorite foods. Can you read them?



And Hannah ordered for Ivy : ' pect yogrt' (peach yogurt)

Okay, watching kids learn to spell is fantastic! I remember the first word Leif ever wrote. He was way young, maybe 4.5? and he wrote in the sand with a stick GRL and said Mama, I wrote girl! And he had. He had all the key hard consonant sounds for that word. I never corrected his spelling over the next 4 years, and now I do not correct Hannah's. Why? They make the effort to solve a problem on their own, and you can either notice the effort and the wicked results, or you can say "sorry, you're wrong". Which one do you think will make them NOT want to write anymore? Yep, criticism when you're just learning sucks. And frankly, our current system of spelling is due to a gov't mandated spelling reform from back in the 30's. Think about it. How come when I read novels written by British authors it's perfectly alright for them to spell tire as 'tyre'. And that my spell-checker prompts me to fix words like 'neighbour' and 'colour'. Up until 100 or so years ago, we had few standards for spelling at all. you got your point across and that was it. Your class was likely indicated in your spelling, as it would be in your diction. But you still got your point across and there was little issue with it. Over the past years of explaining to the kids why something is spelled how it is (when they ask me, not because I'm correcting them) we've collectively deduced that our language is just farked up. Take 2 minutes and read a small bit of why our language is so crazy and follows no guaranteed rules %100 of the time. And if you'd like to read how they've tried to fix the way we spell things in the past 100 years, look here.


Adding extra letters because it looks better? Basing your language and spelling on French, then changing allegiances decades later, but keeping the French spellings? using 'y' because it looks more Greek even though an 'i' would follow current rules better? I always knew it was confusing for new Canadians, but for those born here it's basically a list of rules that make no sense. Yes ours is a culture that uses your grasp of spelling as a sign of your intelligence. No I'm not advocating sending my kids out into life clueless about how to correctly communicate in a society that judges your overall smarts by your book smarts alone. Yet when you look back at the history of spelling, and read old texts that had the now-deemed-wrong spellings in them, it hopefully makes you pause to consider our current stringent rules on spelling, on state-mandated rules for spelling and the exhaustive amount of time spent correcting it in school. And yet, the number of adults I have dealt with, who have any profession from news anchor to nurse to lab tech, who mix up their there-their-they're's, and threw/through's . . . the list goes on. They are the pinnacle of gov't schooling? It's odd to make such a big deal about something that seems to continue regardless of the effort put into fixing it. I hope that because Leif and Hannah (and Ivy) will learn how to spell in this way, not by rules but by sight and overall immersion, they will end up with a far better grasp of the intricate and sometimes ludicrous ways we spell things.


I'm going to stop here. There's just so much to talk about it'll never get up if I don't just cut things off right now. I'll add the rest to next week.

C

Tea time anyone?

Oak Bay Tea Party time that is!!! Wahooooooooo! Hannah's been counting down the days to this annual Tetley-sponsored old-skool-but-now-there's-a-midway festival for over a month. Oak Bay, the municipality next to us, 'behind the tweed curtain', loves to celebrate it's vague English ties. So the teacup races and baron of beef feasts have symbolised this tenuous link for 42 years now. The midway joined in much later, but it's really all we go for. :) We took our two buddies that we've known since they were born. Hannah and Sadie rocked the bumper cars, and Leif and Taro chilled on the ferris wheel. Ivy was so happy to be there at all, the train ride was over the top!











Leif made dinner the other night, homemade macaroni and cheese.




Oh the waiting . . . will my dish turn out?



It was a delish hit, and now has a spot on our weekly menu.


That inspired Hannah to make breakfast, the giant puffed-up pancake in a pan.




But I can't read this, what do I do next?!!!!!!!!!



Oh yeah, giant pancake rocks!


Two thumbs up!



And then Hannah built a very involved Lego station, complete with a bad guy at the front gate with a gun. Awesome!



How can I possibly top all this next week?

kisses


C

The Butterflies!

I never posted pics of our lovely week of daily butterfly releasing. It was fun, delicate, and almost casualty-free. :)