M at the driving range

N at the driving range

Maybe one or both of them will become a golf prodigy?! Daddy can only hope!

While we anxiously patiently wait for the our trip away to begin (we’re going to Maine for two weeks in August!), we have been having mini-vacations here and there and enjoyed being tourists in our own city.  Yesterday was one of those days.  My sister and I took our kids downtown on the bus (at their request), primarily to take in the Ottawa Buskers Festival, which runs from July 29 – August 2, but discovered some other fun things along the way.

Since we got to Sparks Street a little before the first act was to go on, we headed to Confederation Square for snack time and were fortunate enough to witness the changing of the two guards on duty at the National War Memorial.  We had missed the actual Changing of the Guard on Parliament Hill (we saw the parade heading down Wellington as we got off the bus!) but this was just as exciting to the kids.  The two guards were replaced with some fanfare as the relief guards were piped in and a little ceremony was had at the top of the stairs.

Guards being piped onto War Memorial

"Changing the Guard' Ceremony

We headed back over to Sparks Street and come across a guy and his three parrots.  For a fee you can hold them and have your picture taken with the birds (or in my case get pooped on for free!), either by him (he will print the pictures right there) or with your own camera.  I was so enthralled watching the kids with these birds that I forgot to get the man’s name but am sure if you head down to Sparks St and Elgin you will find him.

Parrots on Sparks Street

After the parrots, we headed to the first act of the Festival – the Checkerboard Guy.

The Checkboard Guy

His act was a mix of acrobatics, juggling and general silliness.  Very kids friendly performer that elicited a lot of oohs and aahs from the crowd.

Next we headed to the World Exchange Plaza in search of food before the kids revolted.  The food court there was a great place to find something for even the pickiest eater (my son!), take a washroom break and regroup before we headed back to see what else the Festival had to offer.

We found Liqueur Flambe up next.  This was a male/female duo that combined circus style stunts, with violin playing, fire eating and theatrics.  They were good but more geared to a more mature audience – most of their schtick went right over the kids heads or was a little too racy for their daytime audience!!

Liqueur Flambe

This act didn’t hold the kids attention quite as well as the first one, so we moved on to the next one.  This time we made it to a show before it started and got much better seats (something you want to try and do if you have kids with you who actually want to see something).  This is a gal from Sydney, Australia who bills herself as BendyEm.  She is a contortionist who is able to twist her body into all kinds of unbelievable positions.  Her show stopper is fitting her body into a 16″ box that sits atop a 7 ft aluminum structure.  Have to see this one to believe it!

BendyEm

BendyEm spinning on a disc

BendyEm in a 16" box!!

It was a great way to spend a summer day – just love our city of Ottawa!!  We had fun checking out the Festival and if you are looking for something to do this long weekiend, I do recommend it.  Just remember to bring your toonies and loonies to help support these street performers.

Miss M Kayaking

Jedi N Kayaking

Sunset on Round Lake

Mmmm Ice Cream!

National Gallery of Canada

Rainy Day Art with a view of Parliament Hill

Climbing the stairs behind Parliament Hill

Yummy Burgers!

N tubing with his cousin

Fun at the Neighbourhood Park

Hope you are all having as much fun this summer as we are!

In fact the cupcake order and the goodbye were related.  Just before Christmas last year, my friend S told me there was a possibility that their family would be moving to Holland, if an opportunity for her husband panned out.  Well as luck would have it for them, it did and takes them away from Ottawa for a year!!

Fast forward to a few months ago, and my friend asked me if I could come up with a Holland themed cupcake. She wanted to have a little goodbye party in each of her son’s classes at school and thought it would be great if the cupcake somehow reflected the country they would be temporary residents of.  Well the parties were last Friday, so I spent my week making chocolate tulips, to go on top of 4 dozen cupcakes.

4 Dozen cupcakes waiting to be decorated

Chocolated, molded tulips

Finished product

Needless to say the cupcakes were a big hit (who doesn’t like cake!!). DD and I attended the goodbye party in my son’s class (she’s going to miss Z as much as my son) and were treated to not only cupcakes, but a short video as well. My son’s teacher is brilliant and found an age appropriate video on Holland, so the kids could familiarize themselves with the country their classmate would be calling home for a year.

So now the parties are over, the goodbyes have been said and Z and his family have arrived safely in Holland to begin their new adventure.  Meanwhile my son and I are learning to adjust without our friends and are thankful that technology will keep them close, even though they are so far away. Oh and we are counting down the months until their return

As a family, we have taken Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution to heart and are trying hard to eat less processed food and eat more homemade things. We were already avoiding most processed foods but have taken it a step further and are making more things from scratch. I like knowing what is in my food and my kids are much happier with Mommy and Daddy’s cooking rather than boxed things from the store.

Making things from scratch may take a bit more time, but the effort is worth it to see my kids happily tucking in to their food. Even my son’s lunch box is coming home empty which is a huge feat!

The first big change we made was making all our bread from scratch. My husband is a wonderful baker, a trade he learned at the hands of his father. Watching him whip up a batch of homemade bread is amazing and our kids love to help him mix and knead the dough. In fact he loves making bread so much that he has built himself a bread oven for the backyard and sells homemade loaves at our annual garage sale, but I digress.

The next change we have made is to get rid of our boxed granola bars in favour of homemade ones. I thought I was giving my kids “healthy” granola bars, until I read the ingredients list. If I couldn’t actually pronounce some of the ingredients, why on earth was I giving them to my kids! So I searched the internet and found this recipe that is a winner with everyone (including my husband’s co-workers!). I did however tweek it a bit substituting whole wheat flour in place of all purpose, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon (instead of 1/4) and the first time I made it, I used 1 cup of chocolate chips instead of the dried fruit. I love the versatility of the recipe and plan to keep tweeking it to get my kids to try new things.

Homemade cookies, muffins and granola bars

So now we have baking Sundays at our house where we whip up batches of bread, muffins, cookies and granola bars for the week. Now instead of my pantry bulging with boxed, processed food, the freezer is bursting with yummy baked goods. When we need a snack on the go, we just grab a couple granola bars out of the freezer and they are good to go in 15 minutes.

These small changes are just the start of what I hope will be my own family’s Food Revolution. Are you watching the show and making changes too? Would love to know what other families are doing to eat healthier.

I say had been bullying my son because as I said in my first update on the subject, the boy and my son had started to repair their friendship and the boy was no longer hurting my son. I find it ironic that just as my son was beginning to trust this boy again, he moves.  Now my son says he is going to miss him because “Mom he was finally starting to behave nicely toward me”.

My son and this boy may have been on a new path, but I am relieved just the same.  Now it is my hope that all the progress this boy has made is not lost as he tries to fit into a new school!

A lot has happened in the two months since my last post on this issue. Back in February, I was in contact with our school’s principal many times, as the incidents kept happening.  At that time she assured me that the child in question was being dealt with both at home and at school.  She also let me know that there was a team in place at school that was dealing with this problem and others (I can’t believe there were others in the same situation, but there were). The appropriate people at the school board had also been notified.

We are definitely now seeing some results.  The bully seems to have calmed down quite a bit both in the classroom and in the schoolyard. In fact on some days he seems like a different kid.  Seems he was after attention (perhaps not getting what he needed at home?) but didn’t have the tools to go about it the right way.  In fact in one of the sit downs my son and this boy had with the principal, when she asked him if he knew what he was doing was hurting my son, he said no but that he wanted to be friends with him. Steps were made then to keep the two of them at a distance until the boy could demonstrate better behaviour (i.e being kept in at recess, entering the school after my son).

Seems to have worked for the most part where my son and this boy are concerned. Unfortunately for this boy, he is now the target of a schoolyard/classmate bully (a very angry individual who needs more help than the school can provide, but who will get that help in the near future).  In fact, my son has been known to stick up for this boy, telling me that this new bully that has emerged is a 1000 times worse than this boy ever was. Maybe he has stopped bullying my son because he knows what it feels like now, or maybe he is now getting the attention he craved all along, I don’t think we will ever know.  I only know that I am relieved that progress is being made and the appropriate people took our concerns seriously, as they should have.

As for my son, he is happy that his parents have been sticking up for him and we are definitely starting to see more of the “old” N.  We are not completely out of the woods yet, but I do see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Honest Scrap Award Rules say that I must:

1. Brag about the award.
2. Include the name of the blogger who gave you the award and link back to that blogger.
3. Choose a selection of blogs that you find brilliant in honest content (see below)
4. Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with this award.
5. List at least ten honest things about yourself.

………then pass it on with the instructions!

So here goes. The 10 most honest things about myself:

1. I am petrified of my kids getting any sort of stomach flu. I do not deal well with vomit and if I could, I would pay someone to look after them when they are sick. The guilt I feel for feeling this way is unbelievable but I am anxious about this twenty-four hours a day!
2. I secretly wish that I could be a SAHM forever and never return to the workforce. Pipe dream I know.
3. I haven’t been to the dentist in….well I can’t remember because the last time was the worst experience of my life and I’m not anxious to do it again!
4. I used to smoke and haven’t touched one in over seven years.  Nor do I want to.
5. I am addicted to chocolate and could eat it morning, noon and night! In fact I have been known to hoard it too (just ask my husband!).
6. Magazines are also a weakness of mine (although have cut down considerably since I became a SAHM). Problem is I still buy them but never seem to have time to read them.
7. I haven’t slept next to my husband in 7 years. The joys of co-sleeping!
8. I watch Soap Operas. There I said it. My favs are Young & the Restless, Days of Our Lives and Bold & the Beautiful. Heaven help the person who messes with the PVR and deletes my soaps.
9. I love planning birthday parties, actually parties of any kind.
10. I never wanted to sign up to Twitter, Facebook or start blogging and thought my husband was crazy at the suggestion.  Turns out he was right.

And so I would like to pass on this award to the following bloggers I love to read and who inspire me with their writing or yummy recipes (or both) and their willingness to share their lives with their readers.

Christine at Coffees and Commutes

Chantal at Two Hands Full

Rebecca at A Little Bit of Momsense

Amanda at The Best Mom on the Block

Amber at Sweet Pea Treats