Canada Day, you ask?

Yes, we celebrated this year -- at Canada Place downtown rather than our usual Granville Island destination. We enjoyed patriotically dressed stilt walkers, were mesmerized by Aboriginal dancers, and did a little crafting. All in all, a busy afternoon!

Tall in the saddle

Today was a special day: a chance for Gwendolyn to reacquaint herself with the "horsey set" down at Carrington Stables in Vancouver's Southlands community. You see, we have a fantastic neighbour whose daughter runs the equestrian program there, and we were able to pay her -- and her ponies -- a visit:

 Meeting Sandy, her pony for the afternoon. It's always good form to have a carrot ready...

 Giving Sandy a pre-ride brush down

A proud young lady, ready for her ride

Wedding in the park

Our experience tells us it's well nigh impossible to completely avoid the princess/fairy/bride phase if you're a parent of a little girl. So, here is Gwendolyn, in a photo from yesterday afternoon, dressed up as one should for an after school play session in the park:

What you can't see is the somewhat sheer floor length skirt (a dress up find courtesy of Grandma Ronaghan) and her friend's rather ridiculous blue plastic strappy sandals -- which, as you might expect, caused a couple of blisters to blossom on the sides of her feet. Daddy believes it was all part of something called "the marrying game" which was created in the school playground a number of months ago. 

Oh well -- we're just rolling with it. Thank goodness she loves her science as well!

(Almost) farewell to Family Montessori

Today was the last morning walk to Family Montessori school for Gwendolyn and Daddy. It was as typical as any of the past six months: Daddy several steps ahead, urging Gwendolyn on so she wouldn't arrive late. Yes, it is already the last day of school for the year, and when pick up happens at 3:45 this afternoon, we'll be closing a very significant chapter in Gwendolyn's life.

Have three years passed already? It's hard to believe that the 2 3/4 year old girl who started at "Family" in September 2010 will be a 5 1/2 year old member of her Kindergarten graduating class tomorrow at the year-end picnic.

Come September, it will be another Montessori adventure for Gwendolyn: details to follow. In the meantime, our family's heartfelt thanks go to Chris, Cindy, Sharon, Beverly, Kim, Brenda and Jennifer for offering Gwendolyn a terrific start at Family Montessori. We'll do our best to keep in touch.

Happy Father's Day!

In June each year , the children at Family Montessori make small gifts for the Dads in their lives. This year, the project was a lovely beaded key ring:

Most of the children chose to bead "DAD" but Gwendolyn felt a more personalized touch was necessary. Needless to say, Daddy LOVES it and has already put it to good use caring for his keys.

There was also a hand drawn card with the gift:

Daddy, with beard and glasses and favourite brown shoes, is standing next to Gwendolyn, who is on stilts and wearing one of Mama's dresses. Simply terrific.

Today was a quiet day on account of Gwendolyn having an upset tummy for most of the morning. She and Daddy did get out for a walk to the park and along the seawall -- after stopping for a toasted bagel and cream cheese, of course:

Best wishes to all the fathers out there.

Joke of the day...

...no doubt inspired by our visit to the Vancouver Aquarium this afternoon:

Q: What do you call a stingray that smells?
A: A stink-ray!

Show Your Parents Day

This past Thursday afternoon, Gwendolyn got a chance to show Mama and Daddy what she's been up to lately at school. Here are a few photos of what Daddy saw:

 Washing cloths in the Practical Life area. Note the concentration on the task at hand.

 Pleased with her work in progress: flags of Canada

  Demonstrating her mastery of a stereognostic sense work: Separating small wooden objects by size or shape, without the aid of sight. Cool, eh?

After her time as teacher, Gwendolyn took Daddy on a long, slow walk home though the park, where she indulged in another of her favourite activities: tree climbing.

Rhyme for the Tooth Fairy set

Here's a wee rhyme Gwendolyn recited this morning at the breakfast table. It must mean we have another tooth on the loose...

With two lost teeth, or three, or four
It's OK because you'll grow more!

It's garden season...

Apologies to any of Daddy's Twitter followers who have already seen this picture, but it's definitely worth a repeat performance:

Daddy tending his newly planted vegetable box. 
The little fellow with the antennae is our pet slug.

And speaking of veggie boxes, here's a photo of the one planted by Gwendolyn and her classmates (with a tiny bit of help from Daddy):

Garlic, spinach, carrots, beets, lettuce and squash, with prolific 

pea vines looming ominously overhead... 

Kids Fest!

We're back after a very long posting hiatus with a report from the Vancouver International Childrens' Festival. Gwendolyn and Daddy spent most of the day there on Sunday, playing around and enjoying the sun. At the end of our 4+ hours on Granville Island, we enjoyed a lively performance by Cirque Zuma Zuma.

Here's a few photos from the day:

 Folding a fish in the origami tent

Plate spinning with the folks from Circus West. We were a bit too shy to try stilt walking...

   Tying fabric strips to a huge "snake tunnel" sculpture in the middle of 

the site -- by far our favourite activity. Perhaps it was because of its similarity to playing 

with fabric in Mama's quilting space?

Tooth fairy alert

Guess who's started losing her teeth?

This first one came out during school lunch on Friday. Gwendolyn tucked it safely away in her lunch container, only for it to disappear during inspection at home by her parents. (Way to go, Mom and Dad...)

The tooth fairy luckily accepted Gwendolyn's promissory note and left a shiny coin in the purple velvet pouch she keeps for just such occasions. And, miracle of miracles, the tooth was found this afternoon -- several rooms and a flight of stairs away from where it was dropped, but fully intact. Gwendolyn's response? Let's put it in the pouch and see if the tooth fairy leaves another coin for it!

Sorry, G: the tooth fairy frowns on "double dipping."