The saddest Evelyn + Funganza + Ice fishing

The Saddest Evelyn

Evelyn woke up with a cold on Saturday and is still trying to shake it off. She doesn't seem to have any symptoms other than a leaky nose and coughing. She's still generally happy and sleeping/eating/playing as per usual but she's developed a learned response of trying to hide her face when I approach with a tissue. We've been mostly housebound until Evelyn is healthy again but there have been two exceptions for Caleb and I: Funganza on Sunday and ice fishing on Monday.

Snapped these saddest Evelyn ever pictures the other day.

 

Funganza

This past Sunday Funhaven held a fundraiser event for the Children's Wish Foundation. Becka, Chrissy and I took the boys and bought each of them a "pro" package: unlimited access to jungle gym, rock climbing, laser game and $10 credit for midway games.

Pogo, chips and frozen yogurt

Bumper car fun

Coen, Lucien and Caleb waiting their turn

And off they go

 

Pictures for a donation to the Children's Wish Foundation

The boys weren't interested in posing with the superheroes

...but we were!

Ice fishing

Earlier this winter volunteering for Scouts Canada led to my first time (cabin) camping in the winter season, and yesterday was first time ice fishing. Actually, it was my first time doing any kind of fishing! We almost didn't make it due to the highway being closed at Petrie Island for an investigation of a fatal accident. I called Darcy and he helped me navigate the back roads.

So a few things that surprised me about ice fishing: I expected to be walking on clean ice (kind of like the Rideau canal) but where we were - "Crappy Bay" - you couldn't even tell there was water beneath as the ice was heavily snow-covered. I also expected we'd make one big hole and use fishing rods but instead we made several small holes and set up wooden fishing contraptions.

Caleb and I didn't catch anything but some of the other Beavers did. One kid walked into a hole and had one cold and wet foot and boot. I had packed two towels in a bag as my sit-upon so the towels came in handy to dry the poor kid off. 

Miscellaneous

Evelyn got a second tooth! Her two bottom teeth are now out.

Caleb passed Swimmer 2! The Red Cross has 10 levels in total. He starts Swimmer 3 next weekend.

Caleb and Liana both received their report cards. Caleb's was stellar - 10 As and 4 Bs. Liana's was mostly good, all As and Bs except for math (Cs and her first ever D)...but hopefully the tutoring makes a big difference by the nest report card.

 

Liana looked so pretty with her bangs pinned up but she was hesitant to let me take her picture

Hence the "peeking" pose

Caleb painting his paper mache mask on Family Day

I think it's a mouse? Still not finished

Heart-shaped pizza and a movie for Family Day

 

Evelyn Goes to the Library + Valentines party + Liana Slideshow Homework

Evelyn goes to the library

Last week my friend Laura and I took the babies to "babytime" at the library. It was impressive! The facilitator was great and led the 30 minute bilingual class with ease. We sat in a circle and sang songs, chanted nursery rhymes, watched a puppet show, did some sign language, played with shakers, and more. Evelyn was wide-eyed as she took in all the new things and she seemed interested in the other babies sitting in the circle ("my people!"). We went back yesterday and are planning to return next week.

After babytime we're allowed to stay and play awhile longer

Laura and cute lil baby Marianne who is three months old now

My baby and me

Evelyn standing at the train table at Chapters (after the library)

She wanted to eat the trains...so no trains yet :p

Evelyn goes to a Valentines party

 

Moms and Dads with Monkeys hosted a Valentines Day playdate last Saturday at the Richmond library. Evelyn made some crafts with (a lot of) help from mommy. Erin Petruska Photography was on site with a Valentines setup for picture taking. Evelyn was not at all cooperative for the photo session so the three first pictures below are really a test to Erin's patience and persistence. The playdate was fun other than forgetting my camera and one of Evelyn's toys...but I got those back.

 

Liana's Slide Show

Liana was tasked to do a slideshow of 25 pictures (of anything) to a french song. She forgot about the assignment and arrived home from school the other day in a frenzy because it was due the following day. She decided she'd do a "day in the life of Evelyn" sort of thing (though really it was just an evening). Lucky for her she had a cooperative little model at her disposal. Liana took over 300 photos that evening and we both stayed up late getting setup up the slideshow on youtube. Here's the final product.  

 

Miscellaneous

Evelyn got her first tooth! Grandma Debby found it while visiting last weekend.

Liana got her her most recent blood test results back and is mildly anemic. She's taking some iron supplements and will be retested in four months.

Evelyn and I visited two week old baby Savannah Storm. We didn't have our camera on hand but we'll make sure to bring it when we visit again next week.

I made it out to my first Orleans Board Game night at the local Legion for the first time post-Evelyn only to loose at both Zombiecide and Pandemic. I spent a lot of time this week sorting out Ottawa Geek Social Club issues.

It was my turn to run the Beavers craft this week and we made bows and arrows like the ones found here but with pink hearts at the end of the arrows. The kids liked making them and playing with them. A good not-too-girlie Valentines craft.

Liana's had a busy week between math tutoring, babysitting baby Ronin, going to see SPAF (her school's biggest talent show of the year) and today's winter carnival.

Here are some more pictures.

Uh oh, trouble!

Visiting my dad

Liana and her friend making dinner before SPAF

Swim time with auntie Becka

Cuddling with Grandpa

Coffee at Chapters with Ange and Julie

Evelyn's new book

Coen, Lucien and Caleb drinking slushies and watching hockey after a Sunday afternoon swim

Cereal baby

Grandmaman getting the baby

Caleb this morning with his Valentines day stuffy, Florida Naturals valentines for school and his breakfast

First Public Swim + Date with Caleb + Capital Geek Girls Blogazine Launch + Evelyn Takes a Stand

First Public Swim

I took Evelyn swimming for the first time at a public pool last week. She went in our pool twice last summer but very briefly as it isn't heated and she was still so little. We went to the Splash Wave Pool (non wave hours) with Roya and her little guy Ronin who's now four months. The babies loved the water and to our surprise happily played for an hour and a half. And entry fee is only $1.90 - win!

Cameras aren't allowed in the pool area but they are in the changing rooms? Snapped a few pre-swim photos.

Date with Caleb

I spent Sunday afternoon shopping with my boy. We were also supposed to go skating together but time flew by and that never happened. So Caleb's in this weird in between size for pants. I've bought him a few recently but they're too long for him, and his other pairs that are of proper length are getting too tight at the waist. His tops are also used and abused, several of them with holes. All to say, his wardrobe was getting quite ghetto and we decided to revamp it.

We also got both of our skates sharpened at the mall since Caleb will be going skating with his class this Tuesday.

Having a phone camera means so many more Caleb pictures because he has no idea I'm taking them! Mwuahaha

This is about halfway through trying on a dozen pairs of pants - he decided to make yes/no/maybe piles

I still had brown pennies in my wallet - what else are they good for now?

We took the bus so Darcy could have the car for errands

Capital Geek Girls Official Launch Party

CGG is a local fan club for geeky girls that's been hosting neat events and publishing interesting articles for about a year now. Yesterday they hosted an official launch for their blogazine. It took place at the Future Shop on Merivale, had roughly 80 people in attendance and featured videogames, boardgames, snacks, Comic Book Shoppe products, and good ol' fashioned mingling. 

Somehow I missed the call for writers for the blog which kinda saddens me. They do accept one-offs so I submitted something for consideration over the weekend. I have many other ideas for articles so I'll see if there's interest. I did meet a handful of the writers at the launch and it was neat that a lot of them are 30-something year olds with families and similar interests.

The success of this group brought home to me how much the Ottawa Geek Social Club, which I run with a few people, is in need of revamping. Going to work on some ideas in the near future.

Oh, a very neat thing: Chrissy, an old mommy group friend of mine and also my former Usbourne Books boss, recently started a bakery catered to all things geeky called Cici & co - a bakery. Very neat endeavor and I look forward to supporting it!

I like their branding

A reason to wear my Knights of Good t-shirt and d20 necklace I got for Christmas (not that I needed a reason!)

My date!

Chrissy's cuppycakes - yes, the tops were edible

Nomnomnom

Super Mario Brawl

I remembered the pain of the Nintendo 64 analog stick

Explaining how to play King of Tokyo

Hashtagged for the first time in hopes of winning tickets to Comic Con (I didn't win but didn't mind promoting CGG anyway)

Evelyn Takes a Stand

Look what Evelyn started to do just this morning!

Most of the pictures were blurry because I didn't want to go to leave arms reach for long!

Miscellaneous

Liana has a math tutor from Tutorat-Est. She meets with her at the local library on Mondays and so far it's going well. Liana's also had a group of friends over a few times to work on an movie project for English class - hoping she lets me share the final products when it's completed.

We're trying a new no bark product for Dexter. It's the Dog Silencer Pro. It emits sonic and ultrasonic waves when barking occurs. It's supposed to take 2-3 weeks to work so we'll see how it goes. There's a 45 day money back guarantee so we figure we have nothing to lose.