We love visiting the ROM!

SOLID GOLD DINOSAUR!!!

Actually brass but solid gold sounded better :)
Currently mounted on his bedroom door.

Quote of the day April 7th 2011

Benji came to my room this morning with his huge plush shark and I grabbed the shark and Ben said:
"Mumma, that's not a cuddle-pie, that's a shark!"

This morning...

I said to Ben, "Where are your mittens?"
And he said "My mittens? I'm not sure, I seem to remember putting them in the cold weather accessory basket.....Ah here they are!"
Cold weather accessory basket?!! I mean yeah, sure, I guess that's what it is, but I know *I* don't call it that. I call it either "That basket by the door" or occasionally "the mitten repository."

Sometime later he was showing me how fast all his sharks could go.
Then he asked me if I wanted too see how fast Tyrone could go. (Tyrone is a dog) Not as fast as a shark. But then to my surprise Tyrone went very fast by riding on the back of one of the sharks!

Talking about mammals

Conversation I was having with the boy today:

Me: "So what makes a mammal a mammal?"
Ben: "They make milk for their babies."
Me: "And?"
Ben: "And they feed that milk to their babies."
Me: "And they give birth to......"
Ben: "And they give birth to alive babies."
Me:" As apposed to?"
Ben: "Dead babies."
Me: "Um no."
Ben:" No? What then?"
Me: "Eggs."
Ben: "Oh."

Quote of the day

"Mummy, how do they know the mammoths were so wooly if all they found were bones?"

From the Vault.

Flash back to Halloween 2007!

Quote of the day- Monday October 19th 2009

So usually when we have pasta with meatballs we make the meat balls from ground turkey.
This time we had meatballs made from ground beef....
"Mummy I don't like the turkey today."
"It's not turkey baby it's beef."
"What is beef made from Mummy?"
"Beef is cow. Beef is meat from a cow"
Ben thinks a moment, takes another bite, thinks some more.
"I don't like cow balls Mummy."
o_O

In preparation for Halloween! -Reinforcing the mistaken idea that Mummy can do anything.

We can't afford to buy the boy a Halloween costume this year. They are just too darn expensive, and we don't have the money.
I resigned myself to the fact that he probably wouldn't get to be want he wanted and I would have to make something he probably would be happy with.
Imagine my delight when he said that he wanted to be Elroy!!
For anyone who doesn't know, Elroy is the toy Ben sleeps with and has slept with since he was a small baby, he's also a bit of an imaginary friend who gets up to all kinds of crazy things! Here is "real" Elroy:
I thought, this is great! I can sooooo make an Elroy costume!! I don't know why I thought this because I've never actually sewn a Halloween costume before, and didn't have a pattern or even know how to make something from a pattern.
But I rushed right out an bought two meters of light blue velor, plus a tiny bit of white for inside the ears. Then I lost all my steam and for a couple of days was thinking "But how the heck do I actually do it?" Then it came to me last night as I was falling asleep. It was just like that scene in snow white when they make the dress (only without the enchanted scissors and pretty birds.) I would just fold the material in half, cut a hole for the head put it on him and pin the shape of his body. It would be a tunic style costume. I would make a hood with ears. And I did just that. Andrew was absolutely amazed that Ben stood still long enough for me to pin the entire thing as it was a very long process. I guess I've just gotten used to the fact that my boy is super amazing. Here the documentation of the final pinning, the sleeves, before I attached the front of the hood to the tunic:
And here (insert drum roll) is the finished product! Ta-Da! One Elroy costume!

As you can probably tell from the photo, Ben is absolutely thrilled with his costume. And it really is much better than anything I could have bought because of this.
So, lesson learned. Next year regardless of finances, I'll be making his Halloween costume!

September camping, so many milestones!

This trip was so amazing in so many ways! We all had a blast. The weather was completely perfect and we had something new and exciting to do every day. From taking a hike along the Bruce Trail, to sitting in a canoe, to just chilling on the shores of Cypress Lake Ben was a joy and a wonderful companion. He has the makings of a true outdoors men. This trip was chalked full of first for him and they were all great!


First sight of a wind turbines on the drive up!


First time in a canoe! We saw a water snake who Andrew picked up of the end of his paddle so that Ben could have a better look. Thereafter whenever we saw an animal Ban demanded Andrew pick it up on his paddle.


First time staying up to see the moon! We tried to wake him after he had already fallen a sleep one night but it just wasn't happening, so the next night we decided to keep him awake until it was dark enough to see the big beautiful full moon, and a night time camp fire. It was really special.


First open air fire! Also the first time eating food cooked over a fire.


First smore! He like the chocolate and the marshmallow. The gram cracker? Not so much.


First time sleeping in tent! (For Ben not Andrew, but I didn't have a picture of Ben in the tent!)


First time in a hammock! He loved it so much. It was great for us too because he was completely contained and required almost no supervision. Occasionally he would demand a new book.


Longest ever car trip! We were planning to stop many more times on the way up for bathroom breaks and to stretch our legs. But we only had to stop once! He was a really pleasure in the car on the way up. On the way back, however, after only about an hour on the road he threw up all over the place. (It was a rental car *sigh*) But nobody's perfect right?


Longest ever hike! He didn't really need a lift but I was willing to indulge since we were walking for such a long time. The funny thing is, after the first long walk, and then playing for hours in the rocks by the Georgian Bay, he didn't even ask for a lift on the walk home! He ran most of the way back.

All in all it was a pretty perfect trip.

Sensory Camp is awesome! Day Three

Even when it rains!
I was remiss in taking photos today, because things were a little different.
First of all we were a little late (well, we weren't but our bus was), and we didn't go to the teaching garden because of the rain.

The sense we focused on today was our sense of hearing.
We started off with the activities tables, and then went into a new room to play some hearing games. First the children had to try to be quite while "stealing" bugs from the "spider". The second game was a young child's version of the Farmer and the Thief. Each child got a card with an animal on it and the had to find their partner by making their animals noise. Unfortunately the other "wolf" was not participating, so Ben did not find his partner.
Then it was time for crafts so we made noise makers.
It is very, um, loud.
After crafts it was snack time. By then the sun had come out so we went into the court yard to play some more games.
Ben was a dog in the animal cracker game.

And they also played Red light Green light.


There are only two days of sensory camp left!
Oh dear, next week will certainly be boring.

Black Creek Pioneer Village visit

I loved going to this place when I was little. I always had a great time weather I was going with my family or on a field trip with school.
Ben's two favorite things were the mill and the water pump. (check out the hip action!)

I enjoyed the sheep, and also the mill. Ben tried his hand at combing out the raw wool (fresh from the sheep) and probably would have sat there doing it for hours if I had let him .

This is Actually under the mill house, you can see all the gears turning and get a really good idea of how the water wheel makes everything work. It was really interesting.

We also had a great time seeking out outhouses.

And looking in all the barrels out side the barrel makes.

Good times, I'm sure we'll go again soon.

The Zoo

This small bird was so quick and cute. You can't really see it in this photo but there is a small stick beside him which he was playing with. He was hopping all around Ben who was watching very intently.
Until,
some adult came rushing through and nearly stepped on the bird!
I actually yelled "LOOK OUT!"
Those darn adults, always rushing around the zoo......