Rockin' at Nan's

Same chair, same kiddo, different times.

Practice, practice, practice...

Mom and dad have been saying a lot lately that practicing and working hard on things is important, even when we feel frustrated. Like practicing my writing and reading, practicing on the monkey bars, that sort of thing.

Halloween, we decided, is another good opportunity to practice, for a few reasons. One reason is that I find Halloween very spooooky and I don't like looking at the scary things. So mom says going to the drugstore and looking, even just peeking at the spooky things is good practice for Halloween.

Another thing is that we have a parade at school in our costumes (well some of us do - that's another story), and I don't like people looking at me and I don't like things on my face but I am adamant that I want face paint for my black cat costume.

So we've been practicing face painting and I do mine myself, and as it turns out I like face painting quite a lot.

Winter Duds

Last Thursday on our 'home day', mom and I decided to go for an early morning walk in the forest to try out my new winter duds (coat and boots, c/o Jammie & Pappy). They are good quality items and kept me warm for an hour and a half, even though it was quite cold (we could see our breath),

and we were doing more inspecting than moving.

I took a number of pictures of things I thought were 'mysterious'. The forest did have a particularly mysterious feel about it, with the morning light, our frosty breaths and the fog over the river. Also it was pretty quiet - we usually see a lot of people on bikes, or walking dogs. This time we pretty much had the forest to ourselves.

As I took my mysterious pictures, I narrated, posing the meant-to-be-rhetorical questions about each item as I captured its image. They were meant to be rhetorical, so I don't know why mom felt she had to try and answer them.

(The questions added to the mysteriousness).

(me) "Bark. Bark is mysterious. How does it grow that way on trees?"

(mom) "Is all bark mysterious?"

(me) "Mom, this specific bark is mysterious". Click

"Rocks. Rocks are mysterious. How do they form?

What are they made of? How long has this rock been here?" click

"Moss. Moss is also mysterious because how does it live on rocks and bark?"

click

"Falling leaves are mysterious.

How do they know when and where to fall, and what colour they should turn?"

click

"This is a very mysterious tree.

How come it is growing sideways?

And why does it look so mysterious?"

click

This is a picture mom took of the heron on the misty river. Can you spot it?

We were pretty far away. click

Punkin' Pickin'

Last weekend we made our 2nd annual pilgrimage to Strom's, a local farm that grows corn and pumpkins...lots of corn and pumpkins!

We went with our neighbors/friends and Pappy & Jammie also came along.

The most fun things about Strom's are:

-ducky races

-the wagon rides

-corn maze, cedar maze and straw bale (baby) maze

-the sand pile

-the kids' go-karts

-pickin' pumpkins

Unfortunately Strom's pumpkins are sold by weight and so, the good ones end up being the world's most expensive orange gourds. So we chose 2 small 'cannonball' pumpkins to use as decoration and then we will buy our carving pumpkins at the grocery store.

We learned this the hard way last year when our 3 perfect and plump pumpkins came to about $50!

One funny thing was that we went to Strom's last Sunday and then I got to go again on a field trip with my class on Wednesday.

I am turning into a pumpkin bumpkin!

Thanks...again

Some pics taken at the Pooles' on Thanksgiving...

It was a beautiful day and we spent much of it outside - going for a walk and play in the park, playing bocce ball outside and flopping around in the back garden.

Lovely. Thanks.

Winnie the Dog

The last doggy in my family (Nan and Darcy's dog) died last week which was very sad for me. I love dogs and wish I could have one, but I can't so I love to play with other people's dogs.

Winnie was very old and sweet and calm.

We will miss her.

Here is the picture I drew of Winnie so I could remember her.

I have been sleeping with this picture beside my bed.

Giving Thanks

This was a fairly low-key Thanksgiving weekend, which is just what our little family needed. It was such beautiful weather, and we made the most of it.

On Saturday we went for a 3-hour hike at Kelso conservation area with some new friends, including Ivy who is 3-and-a-half, so I am a whole year older than her.

She lives in the neighborhood.

In 3 hours we only covered about 3 kilometres, but there was a lot to see. We took a 'habitat' (homemade bug jar) and caught ladybugs, spiders, a stinkbug and a potato bug, practicing catch-and-release at the end of our hike.

We also caught a tiny baby snake, but we didn't put it in the habitat.

We got to look over cliffs (the escarpment) and we could see all the way to Toronto which is where Gran, Grandad and Uncle Anton live, and where we were headed for Thanksgiving dinner the next day...

My Main Squeeze

I have started Senior Kindergarten, French Immersion this September and while I tend not to reveal any detail to mes parents about my daily activities at l'ecole, I recently wrote a note in the 'livre de communication' to my teacher Mlle deBruyn (via mom's pen) letting her know that,

a) I am interested in math, and;

b) I have been having good days at school.

I also asked mom to transcribe a special Halloween joke that I made up myself, to share with my lovely, young, enthusiastic, long-blonde-haired Mlle. Here 'goes.

"What did one werewolf say to the other?"

"HOWL are you doing?"

I crack myself up.

One thing I have not yet reported to my teacher or classmates, is that I have an unusual (and long-lived) pet (a snake, or, "un serpent"). After a recent spate of goldfish deaths (RIP Spotty Sam, Mumpy Max, and Gourd aka Pumpkin) my interest has returned to my long, squeezy snake Penny, who could live for up to 20 years (much longer than the one-month record held so far by my doomed goldfish)!

I am waiting for just the right time to reveal this interesting fact about myself. Perhaps the next time Penny sheds, I will take it in to school and surprise everyone. They loved that kind of thing at Montessori.