Museum of Play

And do we need a pass to the museum of play again?  The answer would be YES!  It was so fun to enjoy it with the girls.  Kate remembers it really well, Alice sort of, and of course to Fiona it was brand new - so fun.  The other fun thing about getting a pass, it's an extra excuse to see my Heidi!

I made Ken take a picture of me holding my all time favourite Berenstain bear book. Now to get a copy!

Girls Night Out

It was supposed to be Emily, Ruth and I.  Emily proposed the venture.  I was kind of not really excited in the beginning because it was during the day on Saturday and that is family time.  Emily wanted to go to Kleinburg, go to the McMichael Gallery and then go out for dinner.  Ruth ended up having a family function so it was just Emily and I.  (Oh and I also had some bizarre feelings about eating out in Kleinburg and not being the right sort of rich enough person to do so? I don't know if that makes sense - Kleinburg inadequacy maybe?)

Driving to Kleinburg today, I was nervous.  I can't explain it.  I felt weird leaving the kids and Ken during the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, but I was excited to hang out with just Emily and no kids, but I go almost everywhere with at least one child, so it felt strange.

We met up at the public school next to the gallery and walked over.  We had about an hour in the gallery.  I love the group of seven.  I love the McMichael Gallery.  It is a lovely little gallery in a beautiful setting.

The exhibit that was on was 7: Professional Native Indian Artists Inc.  I really enjoyed reading the notes about different pieces of art, about the individual artists in the group, and about the group.  The adversity and challenges that some people have to overcome, it is staggering.  I was particularly moved by the work of Alex Janvier.  I don't typically love abstract, but there was something about his work that really spoke to me.  I found an example of his work online, this is called Abstraction.

After leaving the gallery we took some fun pics.  

I'm not really sure what I think of this instillation, but I didn't read anything about it.  It didn't really speak to me, but who knows, I could be persuaded by the artist's words.

Next we went to Vaughan Mills.  We went to dinner at the Pickle Barrel and then did a little bit of shopping.  I haven't been feeling quite myself.  I'm anxious about going back to work.  I'm anxious about the whole of it.  It was nice to talk about some of that.  And it was just fun to hang out without my cute girls.  I had lots of fun.  So much so that Ken messaged several times to confirm if/when I was coming home!   Thanks Emily, I'm really glad you wanted to do this.  It was great!  Until the end of next summer, when I'll want to actually leave my kids again!

Alice's Half Birthday

An impromptu play date + cupcakes with sprinkles = the perfect half birthday celebration!

My sweet Alice.  I tried to take a picture and well, I should have persisted perhaps!  My cute, spunky kid.  Alice does so well when she has the time to do the things that she needs to do.  Her ideas about how to do things are so important to her at this stage in her life.  I hope that in the next few weeks as the pace of life increases to crazy, that we'll be able to help Alice find the time that she needs to be Alice.  She is so generous and loving.  I'm excited for her to go to junior kindergarten.  I think she'll have a great year.

 Alice was actually digging in the garden looking for worms.  She found one.  For about two whole minutes the girls had a pet worm, that is until I made them release Dirty to the wild.  It's been a busy fun day!