Jack's Gets A Haircut

This past weekend Jack had to endure his first haircut. And of course this made it a family event! Poor Jack was not a happy camper, that is for sure. He couldn't possibly have known what was about to happen when his Dad sat him on his lap, and then the nice lady put the big bib around his neck, but started to cry right away. Now maybe it was because she put a bib on him and then didn't feed him - that would do it; but I suspect it was more likely his sixth sense warning him that something not fun was about to happen

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Matthew, who is now pretty cool about this stuff, was very worried for Jack, and at one point went over to him and held his hand and tried to reassure him that this haircut thing didn't really hurt. Didn't help much though. Nothing did.....well....that is until the nasty lady gave him a lollipop. That worked for a while at least.



Afterwards we all went 'real bowling'. Matthew is totally awesome at Wii Bowling, routinely beating his parents and grandparents, but he especially LOVES 'real bowling'. We will never forget his first time walking into a bowling alley: "Poppa, it's real bowling!"

This time Nana was the big winner, and Poppa only just edged out Matthew. Final Score: in the ladies league - Nana got first place; in the men's league - Steve took the honours; and in the kid's league, Matthew was the big winner. But when he was told that, he said " No....I wasn't!". If you don't get a strike, you can't win, and that is all there is to it. That's his view and he is sticking to it. But he doesn't really mind if he doesn't win; it is still 'real bowling'.



And here is the final product - Jack's new haircut.

Historic Buildings Burn in NOTL

October 25th: it finally happened! How many times have we said 'Boy, if one of thes old buildings ever caught fire, it would go up like kindling.'. And sure enough, it happened. The cause has not yet been determined or announced; all that is known is that the fire started in the basement of The Copper Leaf. It spread rapidly up through the building and next door to the building housing Shaw Leather and Sotheby's Real Estate and several residential apartments upstairs. It was only thanks to our local volunteer firefighters and the assistance of St. Catharines and Niagara Falls Fire Departments that the other buildings on the block were not also destroyed. In particular, the Owl and the Pussycat building is adjacent to Sotheby's and is one of the oldest on the street. Here are photos from the morning after, the first being the rear of The Copper Leaf. The other photos are from Queen Street.



The buildings have now been torn down and the owners have said they will rebuild. Although they may be able to duplicate the storefront appearance, they can not replace the lost history. A real loss, but it truly could have been much worse.

Thanksgiving 2009

October 11th-ish: Thanksgiving weekend Kris, Steve and the boys met us at Puddicome Farms in Grimsby. We went there Matthew's first year, and he picked apples and pumpkins and then we hid in the gift shop during a crazy thunderstorm. No thunderstorms this time however; just a crisp, clear Fall day. A perfect day for a trip to Puddicome Farms. I love saying Puddicome.

'The boys' took a ride on the train around the farm while the girls fed the animas, and then we all picked and ate our fill of apples before paying for the lot we took home. There is also a small petting zoo at Puddicome, the neatest feature of which, in my view, is the goat climbing tower.




After having our fill of apples and farm animals, Jack picked out his pumpkin, a fine speciman which, unbeknownst to him, was later substituted for a somewhat smaller one. 'Why pick it out if I can't have it!' is what he would say if he could talk.

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Then we went home so Nana could open up her birthday gifts from KS and the Boys. Matthew is all about helping when it comes to presents. And it was presents for Matthew as well - new skates and helmut, which he modeled for us. He is very excited about skating this year. Jack (the Jock), on the other hand, was not so impressed being made a helmut-head. Maybe when he gets bigger he will like it, but 'not right now, thanks Dad!'.

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The turkeys supplied themselves this year. These four, oblivious to the time of year I guess, merrily trotted about the field behind our house. You can see how much Jack loved them. Ummm, good turkey! And Matthew, always the family guy, was the first to 'cheers' to a Happy Thanksgiving. It was a lovely Thanksgiving, and though we all missed Mike and Robin, we raied our glasses and 'cheers' to them as well.

Kris's Birthday Weekend in NOTL

We have been remiss in keeping our blog even close to up-to-date, so this is the first of a few posts to catch up on some of the late summer highlights for us - almost invariably involving our kids and grandkids.

September 5th-ish: Something we had planned to do for some time, but never got around to, was a 'picnic on the parkway', BBQ and all. Steve was able to get us some 'spaducci' (tiny, seasoned lamb skewers) and we made up some chicken satays. Pair that up with some veggies, pita bread, a bottle of wine (absent on this occasion), a blanket and some games....and a picnic it is.



We followed the picnic up with a trip to Happy Rolf's, a local admission-free children's farm and playground. Farm fresh stinky for sure, but fun. Jack didn't like the really noisy animals, like the donkeys; certainly not up real close. But he enjoyed the playground - the swings, crawling around in the dirt, and.... especially... going down the slide with his big brother.



Then back to Nana's for some ice cream.....



and bathtime!