My Babes

I love this photo! It was taken last Saturday at Moorpark Zoo. Daddy was working away and so the children and I decided to do  bit of exploring. Moorpark is home to Americas Teaching Zoo which is attached to the local college. It is not expensive to get in and is staffed by the latest intake of students. They have a mixed bag of animals – most have been rescued or saved  – like the mountain lion who was found in a hotel room in Vegas with its claws chopped off, but enough to keep the children interested. This photo was taken outside the monkey enclosure. I’ve never seen Patrick do a thumbs up before but it does make for a fun photo xxx

We are back!

I’ve just looked at my posts for this year and its pretty pathetic especially when you consider how much has happenned.

Just to recap – 2009 Happy New Year! March – great holiday in Florida with the Bench family, April – Diesel offered a new job in California, June 26th – Grace turns 5, the Dempsters pack up and move to California. August 5th we move into our new home, September – Grace starts full time school, October – Mum and Dad arrive as DIY angels and blitz all the jobs in the house, Diesel is away almost every weekend. November – my hope? We finally take a breath!

Whew! It has been completely wild but hopefully we have started to settle down into our routines now and we can start doing some exploring in our new area. We love our new house and are delighted with our neighbourhood, new friends and Graces school. The funding crisis in California provides some challenges for the educators but the teachers and the principal are very committed to the children and seem to be muddling through. Gracie loves school and is already learning a tremendous amount, she is quit a tired little girl by the end of the week but on balance has adjusted well to all the changes of the summer.

My aim is to get back to updating the blog with our adventures in this new and strange land. the Land of Fruit and Nuts! Sadly not the Cadburys variety.

Happy Halloween

Of all the holidays that I never really thought I would embrace Halloween in Canada has been a real revelation to me. The ramp up starts in September which means that I have to be really careful about which shops I take Grace too as some of the decorations are really gruesome. In our house we very much go for the Disney take on Halloween and its all cheery pumpkins and animal costumes. This year I managed to wrestle Grace away from the pink unicorn (it is way too small for her now) and so she chose to be a giraffe. I did buy Patrick a Thomas the Tank engine costume but he didn’t really get the idea and kept ripping it off.

The kids were allowed to wear there costumes to school for the first part of the day and it was really funny (and quite interesting) watching them all line up. It was very easy to spot the kids without older siblings as they were dressed as Giraffes, cowboys, princesses, dinosaurs and firefighters. The ones with a more ‘worldly’ view went as vampire princesses, power rangers and some quite scary witches. It will be interesting to see how Graces view of Halloween dressing up will change next year. We all ent out trick or treating but Patrick only lasted 3 houses before I gave up and brought him home to man the front door. It wasn’t that he was scared or ran off, rather that he wanted to go into every house that we knocked on and then screamed the place down when I wouldn’t let him go in. He didn’t seem bothered about coming home and was instead quite happy to sort out his loot on the front steps. Grace didn’t stay out very long as I think she encountered one movement activity scary witch too many and decided to quite while she was ahead.

I continue to be intrigued by the number of children here that chew gum. Obviously, I haven’t lived in the UK for over 2 years now but when I left I’m sure that I didn’t see 4 year olds with gum in there mouths. This Halloween we have had buckets of the stuff. I’ve taught Grace that it isn’t a very nice habit and its bad for you so we just put it back in the bucket and the bigger kids get it. It set me to wondering though as to why gum is so bad so I looked it up. All the old wives tales from when I was a kid about it staying in your stomach for 7 years are false (clearly!) and there is even a study that says that some of it may prevent cavities as long as it is chewed for more than 20 times. I am left wondering if it is something that I may have to back down on in the future as I just don’t have a good enough reason other than the fact that I don’t like it. Maybe its the old ‘don’t talk with your mouth full’ rule but I do find it repulsive, especially with little kids.

Talking of the difference in cultures. One of Diesels colleagues was talking to a member of the US team who in his ignorance was telling him all about Halloween in the US, what the kids do and what a big deal it is. When he’d finished he asked if it was celebrated in the same way in Canada. Not one to tolerate fools Diesels colleague replied – “oh no, its much more for adults here. We just stand at the door and give out maple syrup and beer.” The american believed him too!

Muskoka ka ka

Phew time is flying almost as fast as Patrick can run! In the thick of school, nursery, gymnastics, sportball, mums group and playdates and my weeks are marching by at an amazing pace.

We have had Diesels parents with us for the last 2 weeks which has been lovely but also busy. We did get the time to take good advantage of our live in babysitters and managed to replace a tap, lay some flags, winterise the garden and go and look at some flooring and even squeezed in a night out. You know how much we adore our children but its only when you have help that you realise just how much you can get done when they are otherwise engaged.

We’ve done a bit of exploring in the last couple of weeks and finally went to the mennonite market at St Jacobs www.stjacobs.com. I have to say it wasn’t at all what I expected as rather than the mennonite crafts and produce that I had expected to dominate, they were all concentrated in one place and the rest was the usual market dross. We did go for a drive around to see the farms and saw lots of horse drawn carriages – shockingly, 1 had pneumatic tyres which we all agreed they didn’t have in the 1800’s!
Next off to Niagara on the Lake where Diesels parents spent a couple of days in a really lovely B & B which was the first house in the town and looked out onto Lake Ontario.

When I went to collect them we went over the border in the US and saw the Falls from the other side. I have to say, completely different from the Blackpool treatment that you get on our side. Instead its a rather nice park that you walk through to look at both of the Falls. The American being much more impressive up close than it is from across the river, still doesn’t top the horseshoe though. I never get tired of looking at it and hearing the sound of the water. Probably just as well, noting the number of times I’ve been in the last couple of years!
We really enjoyed Thanksgiving weekend which we kicked off with a stay at a cottage in Muskoka. We were so lucky with our timing as the fall colours where at there most vibrant. I guess its pretty well known how beautiful the fall is in Canada but I would truely recommend that you experience it. Firstly, you cannot imagine that the colours really exist in nature, Secondly, the contrast of colours in the trees for as far as you can see makes for an amazing landscape. It was a gorgeous sunny weekend and that just makes everything even better. I’ll post all the photos later and apologise if you get fed up of yet another tree. We tried (possibly unsuccessfully) to capture the beauty and majesty of it all.

Gosh …

… the last time I updated was 1st July – how very poor. I’m thinking that you will start to see a trend here that the posts go down as my workload increases. Having some paid employment means that updating the blog has gone even further down my list of daily tasks – whoops!

I cannot believe how quickly the summer is flying past. We started off with a visit from Emma, Marcus and Callum and the Kevin and Joan followed soon after. We had a great time with everyone and really felt it when we were just down to the 4 of us again. We made the most of having Auntie Joan and Uncle Kevin on hand to babysit and went to our very first real drive – in. The sound quality and the picture were fairly rubbish but we enjoyed the experience, mostly the lady in the golf cart who came round with refreshments and lent you her torch so you could see what she had! I also took the plunge and had my eyes lasered whilst we had an extra 2 sets of eyes to watch the kids. Whilst I wouldn’t say that it was the most pleasant way to spend 10 mins and a whole load of money it was well worth it. My eyesight is now plus 20/20 (whatever that means) and so I am glasses and contact lense free. Its a very strange feeling I can tell you and I find myself having to catch myself when I’m driving down the road as it feels odd not having glasses on.

Grace and Patrick continue to thrive and both seem to be really enjoying there summer. I made the decision (possibly selfishly??) that I wanted to spend some time with them over the summer and so didn’t enroll them for any camps or summer schools. I think it was the right decision and we have had a great time going on adventures on the bike (we saw snakes!!), making lots of trips to the library, exploring a bit more of where we live and playing with our friends. The weather on occasion has not been kind to us and so we have also made lots of cup cakes and cookies.

Much to Patricks delight we also managed a trip to see Thomas at a classic railway in St Thomas’s. Both children had a ball, Patrick almost didn’t get through the gate as he was so excited just to see a picture of Thomas. He seems to really love all things trains and will say Thomas and choo choo if we see one. His vocabularly seems to be expanding daily and he can now confidently say Grace and is pretty much repeating everything you say which is fun. Tonight he also fed himself his dinner from start to finish – not unusual for Patrick except this time he did it with a spoon!

Grace seems to have grown in confidence a bit this summer which is nice to see. She is a really energetic kid and loves to jump and bounce. To save our new bed I have taken her to the local trampolining club a couple of time. She absolutely adores it and seems to really light up when she bounces. They don’t do classes for 4 year olds so she will have to wait until she is 6, that is unless I can persuade her to do what the coach says in the meantime!

Today we went to Rattlesnake point and got our season pass for Halton Hills. Diesel has been there on his bike a few times before but this was my first time and I’m sorry I didn’t do it sooner. Being close the the Niagara escarpment has its bonuses – one being the most outstanding scenery. I truly couldn’t believe that I was less than half an hour from my house. The camping spots looked really niec too so I think Grace and Diesel will try it out soon. She seems very up for it, Diesel is keen for us to take Patrick too but at the moment he doesn’t stay in one place very long so any images of a relaxing meal around the firepit would be short lived!

The Great Outdoors – by Daddy

As you already know from reading these pages, both Grace and Patrick are fascinated with nature. Our regular walks to the park via the creek trail which runs at the back of our house feel more and more like they were planned by David Attenborough as a new documentary rather than a means to get to the swings. What should be a 5 minute walk can often take half an hour due to the many stops we are obliged to make in order to examine interesting fauna, flora and insect life along the way. Not that I am complaining of course, those of you who know me will be aware that I would much rather be outdoors than indoors and I am delighted that the kids are showing such an interest in their surroundings rather than wanting to sit in front of a wi-box station thing playing video games. Ever since Tara first told me she was pregnant over 4 years ago, I have been excited at the prospect of one day going camping with my kids and so I have been growing increasingly excited for the last few months as Grace has been showing an interest in tents and camping in general. This started when Tara pitched our tent in the living room about four months ago in order to show Grace and Patrick what it looked like. There is something quite strange and quite wonderful to come home from an average day at work to find your wife and kids ‘literally’ camped out by the sofa!

 

As Grace is now a big 4, she and I decided that a celebratory expedition was in order, After all if it’s appropriate for Johnson to traverse Africa in honour of Queen Victoria’s birthday then Grace’s birthday,  we felt, should be marked in a similar fashion. Admittedly traversing Africa seemed a bit ambitious and also a bit far from Canada so we decided to plan something closer to home, much closer to home actually, for our inaugural expedition, Grace and I decided that we would set out to conquer the farthest reaches of the back garden.

 

The trip started with a visit to the equipment store, which is a grand way of saying we went into the basement and cracked open the stacker box containing all of my camping stuff. Some of the stuff in that box like my lantern and stove dates back from teenagerdom when I used to go camping every weekend and it was nothing short of magical to see Grace’s eyes light up with wonder at all the interesting gadgets and paraphernalia that Daddy has accumulated over the years. Of course you don’t take everything on every trip; the required equipment of each individual expedition has to be carefully considered. My equipment list was as follows, Tent, Sleeping bag, Thermal mat, stove, food supplies, water, and my trusty Swiss army knife. Grace took her winnie the pooh sleeping bag, Catherine the doll, A stuffed pink Pig (dressed as a ballerina), her new camping lantern with bird sound effect and the bumper book of Disney tales.

 

We decided that it would take us two days to fully explore all of the back garden and so elected to begin by securing a base camp mid way between the house and the flower bed. It was decided that Patrick would accompany us to base camp as support, before Grace and I would move forward. Almost immediately the adventure was faced with peril. No sooner had we left the civilisation of the kitchen and abseiled down the steps from the deck at the back of the house than it started to rain. To my shame I suggested that we may wish to abandon the trip and return to the house, but thankfully my team was made of sterner stuff than me. “No way Daddy” was Grace’s reply to my wimpish suggestion, while Patrick showed the true metal of his adventurous spirit by letting out what can only be described as a primal scream before running headlong into the now rain soaked grass fists flying as he went.  Thankfully the rain never became truly heavy and the tent went up in no time thus establishing a solid base from which to explore. The first thing Patrick and Grace wanted to explore was the tent itself and so it was largely left to Daddy to set up the beds and prepare lunch. Once we had eaten, it was decided that the team would split, Grace, Catherine (the doll) and I would form an advance party with the object of charting the surrounding area while Patrick would remain at base camp in order to launch any necessary rescue missions. In order to be at peak physical preparedness for any such mission Patrick decided that he would conserve his energy by taking a little nap and so returned to the house. After a brief planning session Grace and I decided that we should extend the expedition beyond the boundaries of the back yard in an attempt to investigate the legend of the dinosaur park. Specialist transport equipment would be needed to cover the distances involved and so Grace thought this would be an excellent opportunity to test out her new bike. I am overjoyed to report that Grace took less than 10 minutes to master both the peddling and braking of her new ‘big girl bike’ and the dinosaur park was ‘discovered’ in record time. After thoroughly exploring the playground, we headed back to base Camp where our expedition hit on its first real obstacle. During the time that Base camp had been left unmanned it was attacked by the local wildlife ‘Canine Boxerorious’ otherwise known as ‘Rosie’. It seems that the empty Kit-Kat wrapper left inside the tent had been too much for the stupid dog to cope with and not content with having once eaten a bunch of grapes that nearly killed it the dog decided to try and finish the job by eating through the tent. Understandably Grace was pretty upset as she figured that this would bring a premature end to our adventure, but I was determined to show her what the real spirit of camping is all about and so a hasty and temporary repair was fashioned and we were back in business.

 

Patrick and Tara joined us at base camp for dinner, the highlight of which was the toasted marshmallows. Then with bed time approaching Grace and I said goodnight to Patrick and Mummy and set about making ourselves comfortable in our tent. Now it’s fair to say that what I expected was for Grace to have her story and then tell me that she wanted to go to bed in the house. In fact, after several story’s from the Disney book and a chat about all that had happened that day, Grace turned off her lantern and settled herself down to sleep. I had to chastise myself for doubting that she would be prepared to stay in the tent all night. In the event, she was asleep in no time and didn’t wake up until 7:00am the next morning. So there was me thinking that Grace might not be ready for ‘proper’ camping and yet I am ashamed to admit that it was me that had to call Tara from the house at 9:00pm in order to ask her to bring out my lap top and a drink. Grace was even a little disappointed that I had not planned suitably by bringing breakfast out with us, ensuring that we had to return to the house early the next morning ‘But that’s the end of our adventure Daddy” she reprimanded. Next time we camp I may have to hunt a deer for breakfast to make up for it, or alternatively we could go to the coffee shop at the bottom of the road I suppose. Either way we will be going camping again very soon.

Happy Easter

A canadian negative is the absence of a 4 day weekend for Easter. The kids are off school om Easter monday but unfortunately Diesel isn’t. That aside it has been a great weekend. Not least because we have just received the news that Nik and Annie welcomed their firstborn Finlay ‘Finn’ Paul at 1.33pm today. Congratulations Nik and Annie – looks like the boys are making a comeback!!

One of the great things about Finn missing his first Easter morning was that he won’t have experienced the sugar rush that catapulted Grace and Patrick into orbit at about 2pm this afternoon. The Easter bunny was kind to the Dempsters and by the time they woke up this morning they already had an egg by their beds. As they came downstairs the Easter bunny had left a trail of footprints for each of them to follow. Patrick is familiar with Graces speed at getting what she wants and so rather than follow the trail he opted for the smash and grab approach. Whilst this was amusing for us to watch it wasn’t really an effective method as when all was finished not only had Grace got more things in her basket but she had also had the opportunity to cherry pick and swap for the best things.

Rather than stay home and face the inevitable meltdown we decided to visit the Maple Syrup Festival at Bronte Creek Provincial Park. We had a good time and I have to say that this year I even looked forward to the (still) strange combination of pancakes, sausage and syrup on one plate. Whilst it was very well done I would have to say that the festival at Mountsberg last year was better. Bronte seemed to be much more commercialised and lacked the olde world charm of Mountsberg. That said we will be getting a parks pass this year and it is great to have a Provincial Park right on your doorstep.

Off now for a Gin and Tonic to wet Finlays head x x x

Poor little Patrick

Is sick again. This time he has an ear infection to add to the chest infection that seems to be his usual thing. More antibiotics and more puffers so we are all really keen for the summer to start. We signed Grace up to the Oakville Soccer club last week for the U4 league. She is already off the planet excited and it doesn’t start until May 17th. She practises most days and has already perfected her goal scoring celebration and we have to chant Catherines name when she plays. As you can imagine Diesel is very proud. I’m not sure whether Patrick will be able to go and watch as at the moment he likes to join in but hasn’t quite got the idea that he should be kicking the ball rather than throwing it. Maybe he will be a baseball player ….

In other news both Grace and Patrick are signed up to start school / nursery in September. Grace will start Junior Kindergarten 3 days a week starting at 8.10 !!!! My plan at the moment is to dress her the night before and then just steam iron her in the morning – either that or start getting her in training now! Patrick will go 2 mornings a week to where Grace goes now. I think it will be really good for him as he is still a total Mummys boy. He is quite keen on Daddy but given a choice will always come to me. I can’t say that I mind too much as I could be on fire as far as Grace is concerned when Diesel is in the room so I guess it evens things out a bit.

Both the children seem to be thriving. Grace is quite the comedian and had me howling with laughter yesterday. She loves an audience so the more you laugh the more she continues. Patrick is finding more words and this week likes to say Bye alot. To Daddy in the morning and then randomly to mummies and children at nursery drop off.

Family Day weekend

So we are at the end of another long weekend – isn’t Canada just great? Despite the fact that both Diesel and Patrick are sick (again!!) we had a lovely time. Saturday we went into Oakville to a lovely coffee shop for ice cream and hot chocolate and then despite the minus temperatures we went down to the lake shore to throw stones. We bought Patrick his first pair of snowboots on Saturday and his new found freedom was alot of fun to witness. If rather slow going at times as he wanted to explore everything. Both of them really love throwing stones in the lake and I am proud to report that Grace doesn’t throw like a girl but instead has a very competant overarm. Patrick is ever the mimic and will also attempt overarm although is not always successful. He did score a perfect hit in the bath last night though – much to Graces annoyance. Old Oakville is just lovely and really pretty with all of the snow on the ground, we sometimes have to pinch ourselves at just how nice it is where we live.

Sunday the weather was fairly nasty with icy rain and regular rain in equal measure. We didn’t make it outside ourselves as the roads and paths were like an ice rink but we did spend a very amusing half an hour watching various different people sliding up and down the road in their cars. Our consensus was that mini vans (and there drivers) coped the worst in the ice as none seemed to be able to maintain a straight line. The drivers were clearly in need of some skid pan training as most believed that putting down more power would get them out of the slide ………… hmmmm – luckily not too many cars met another one coming the other way as it would’ve been like watching dodgems! We took advantage of our day in to do some jobs around the house – mostly finish the project that is Graces bedroom. With Graces help (???!!!***??) I finished painting the wall and then stencilled some butterflies and flowers on the coordinating walls. We then had a good clean and rearranged the furniture and I am very impressed with the result. It has been over 24hrs and it is still tidy but the acid test will come tomorrow as her friend Freya is coming to play and between the 2 of them they can destroy a room in about 30 seconds!

 Today was officially family day so we went to a part of Toronto called The Beach as they had a petting zoo and some activities for the kids. It is an old victorian suburb and has some great old houses and a really nice vibe with coffee shops, funny little boutiques and some great restaurants. Clearly we don’t get to go to any of these things with the kids but we walk past and imagine and then take them to the boardwalk for an ice cream. On meeting a man dressed up in a dog costume the differences between our two children became really obvious. Grace is full of talk and happy to look at all of these characters from a distance but will rarely, if ever, allow them to touch her or come anywhere near her. Patrick is a completely different kettle of fish ……….. the ‘dog’ offered him a high five and he giggled and was happy to do it. We finished our visit with a trip to a sweet shop that sold british treats. Diesel got a Yorkie, I had some sport mix and Patrick got a finger of fudge. Grace clearly has left her british roots behind as she opted for some cotton candy. I was so excited about the choice of british treats that I have become concerned as to whether I will have some sort of meltdown when I am confronted with aisles worth in Tescos!!

Mums Birthday weekend

The whole family headed for Chicago this weekend to celebrate Mums birthday with a (sort of) surprise party. We were all really looking forward to being together as this would have been the first time since Patrick and Callum were born. Unfortunately, someone somewhere had decided that this was not to be and at no time did we all see each other. We arrived on Thursday after a long and tiring drive and then headed off to collect Emma, Marcus and Callum from the airport on Friday. En route my Mum called to say that she had spoken to Marcus, Callum was sick and could we take him straight to the ER. So off we went and sadly that was were he stayed for the whole weekend, only to be discharged on Monday to go back to the airport and get a flight home. He had suspected MSRA and it was quite upsetting for everyone not least poor little Callum as he had to endure the usual round of blood taking and IV drips. To top that we all came down with a stomach flu – Patrick on Saturday, Grace and Diesel Sunday morning and then Kelly and I Sunday night ……… as you can see, healthwise the whole thing was a disaster!

I am happy to say that somewhere in between we did manage to have a great party for Mum. We had caterers and a barman and the food was amazing. It was well worth doing as we didn’t have to worry about getting anyone a drink all night. Mum wasn’t surprised about the party as she had figured that out but was genuinely surprised about the caterers and it would be fair to say shocked when her friends from Holland arrived at the door. It was a great night despite all feeling sad about Emma, Marcus and Callum.