Avalon's Confirmation

At the end of the school year, Avalon had her confirmation.  In the Catholic faith, this is a sacrament where the person is "confirming" that they wish to continue to be a Catholic - sort of like a baptism but this time with the person's permission.  The Knights of Columbus start the procession down the aisle - Trinity's hair matched their feathers!

We got all "gussied" up for the occasion and here are some pics!

Repurposing an Old School

Located in Hamilton, Ontario - is a beautiful old school which was built in 1894 - Stinson School.  Currently, it is being renovated into condos.  Recently during "Doors Open", I went on a tour of the school.  It was fascinating. Of course, the developer is trying to keep as many architectural elements in tact as possible; the floorboards have not been replaced (incredibly creaky), exposed brick everywhere, staircases have bicycle rails that the children would have used (those are staying put).  The condos are quite expensive for the area, but I think it would be incredible to live in such an historic place! Just to think of all the children that would have passed through those classrooms and now are all dust.

Avalon is a New TEENAGER!

Our sweet & feisty Avalon turned 13 on April Fools Day! I have been so busy with life that I have fallen behind in blogging, but I cannot forget to post something about our second teen in the house! (Oh, such fun!)

She wanted only one thing, a new cell phone.  In particular, an iPhone, like the rest of us.  Soooo, she ended up getting an iPhone 5 (& the rest of us have the 4S), so she did well! She was spoiled by her grandparents and family with prezzies.  We had a wonderful party for her at her grandparents house and then the next day we went to Montana's and had them sing to her! We had a blast at the restaurant - Douglas and I did a dance routine in unison at the table and the kids loved that! 

The moment she opened her iPhone 5!  So exciting! I love the iPhone - can't imagine life without it actually - it has become an appendage!

I love this candelabra I found for cakes! 

I had to photobomb this picture!

Avalon and myself.

Avalon and Trinity when she had turquoise hair - it has since morphed into many other various colours!

Nana and Granddad who spoil Avalon!

My New iMac!

I've wanted an iMac for some time now.  My sister has a 27" one and we all love hers, so with my wonderful tax return I went up to the Indian reserve in Caledonia and purchased a 27" for us! It has a little home in the corner of our eat-in kitchen right by the big windows, so lots of sunlight! I'm really enjoying using the imovie  app and have created a few new movies! My very first little movie "trailer" is embedded!

Our Winter Storm 2012

We don't get much of a winter up here in Ontario anymore. We had one storm in the first week of February that was a real doozy! It was wonderful,  everyone had a "snow day", which equals a day off school for everyone!

I ventured out in the morning to get sustenance for us all and, what would have been a usual 5 minute run, turned into a 35 minute caper! No side streets were plowed and by the time I came back to my street, the plows had plowed it in! I had to take a very long route around to get back to my street!

I love shovelling - it took a while and had to be done several times throughout the day to keep on top of it!

My hubby takes a turn at shovelling the driveway!

Good job!!

Tequila checking out the snow! He is not too fond of the cold stuff since he is El Salvadoran!

Pretty pics at the beach! (I have to live near a body of water - very, very important!)

Frida and Diego Exhibit at the AGO

 

Above:  Avalon is peeking out of the sculpture in front of The Art Gallery of Ontario.  We recently went to see the Frida Kahlo and Diego exhibit.  It was put together nicely - some of her pieces I find a bit off-putting.  I like the vibrant, very Mexican paintings. Of course no pictures could be taken inside the actual exhibit - the following snaps are from just outside the exhibit celebrating the Mexican heritage. 

This is a local article about the exhibit that has examples of their work. 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/frida-kahlo-and-diego-rivera-mexicos-painting-and-painted-icons/article4618360/

Above: Day of the Dead arts and crafts that the children made.

 Above: Day of the Dead Frida and Diego.

 Above: Avalon and Saxon (my niece) walking into the cafe area - the AGO is really nice inside.

Above:  CN Tower in the distance as we walk to "The Creperie" for dessert on Queen St. West!

Strawberry & Banana & Nutella Crepes! The best!! 

New Career - New Beginnings

Many moons ago, while attending Queen's University, I had aspirations to attend Law School. Well, that path was obviously not traveled!

So, law has been something that I have always had an interest in.  In my personal & professional life in the past twenty years since being a "kid" at University, I have had many dealings with Tribunals, Courts etc. in many various aspects of the legal field.  (I should note I am a law abiding citizen {except for a lead foot}and have never had any "run-ins" with the law myself.)

I went back to College (full time intensive) in the Paralegal program in November 2012 with an anticipated graduation date of November 2013!  I am very excited to be in this program & to be in this profession by the end of the year!  It was very expensive (almost 20 grand) because it is an intensive program that crams a 2 year course into one year without breaks. It has been so interesting; lots of reading and assignments, but because it is interesting has been fine.

After graduation I must sit the licensing exam at The Law Society of Upper Canada, swear the oath, pay my dues and then will hopefully be a fully licensed Paralegal!

So, my birthday was low key this year as I was in school - but I managed to get a cake!

Trinity's 15th Birthday

Well this year, my teenager (wahhhh) wanted to have her OWN party with her friends WITHOUT her Mummy, Daddy and sister on the day of her actual birthday - which happened to fall on a Friday! I am having a huge problem with having a teenager - I still want to have her completely under my thumb but my daughter is quite the social butterfly.  We allowed her to have a party with adult supervision - she had about nine girls over for a sleepover party. 

There were a "few" boys that arrived to visit (arrrgghhh).  We also had an incident around 11pm where three older boys from a different high school that absolutely nobody knew, rang  the front doorbell and were very upset when told they couldn't join the party. We thought perhaps through Facebook they had learned - but found it very odd.  They destroyed some things on the front lawn and made a bit of a mess, swearing as they left, but Trinity handled it well being firm and telling them that they were not welcome at her party.  (We learned later that there was a party down the road with kids from their high school, so perhaps it was just a coincidence.) 

We also took Trinity out to Montana's for her birthday dinner - which was so awesome because there was a magician that walked around all the tables and put on a show that really entertained us! 

Canada's Wonderland

We had seasons passes to the amusement park Canada's Wonderland located above Toronto, about 70 minutes from our house.  They have a great big water park that Avalon especially enjoyed.  The above picture is of her in the wave pool.

My sisters' youngest child, Freya, also enjoyed the edges of the wave pool.

When I think of Avalon, this is how I think of her - she is always giggling and silly! Trinity didn't want to get her hair wet, so she spent a bit of time on a lounger.  We then went off to the rides and dried of quickly because it was such a hot day!

My niece and nephew having pure fun on one of the rides (in above picture) on one of our trips toward the end of the season in October, actually this was the last trip this season to the Park.  It was a bit chilly - we needed gloves and scarves but didn't bring any - we soldiered on.  There were no waiting lines - the kids were able to walk right on the rides and go on them over and over.  For Halloween Haunt they had the kids "trick or treat" throughout various stations set up throughout the park (I helped them eat the candy!)

They also have "Dinosaurs Alive" - robotic true to life sized dino park! Freya (who is four) was pretty terrified of them - she spent the whole time in the park cowering behind my legs - I managed to coax her to run over to her brother for a picture - but she didn't make it over to him before a loud "roar" could be heard and she ducked from the dino and ran back to me! ha ha Always a good time at Canada's Wonderland!  The only thing that spoils it is that they don't allow outside food or drinks - they used to allow it - but they then decided to ban all food and drink and put their food/drink prices through the roof.  Example: about $10.00 for a sub.  So, a day at a park costs about a hundred dollars for the day!

Kilman Zoo

The Kilman Zoo is a small family owned zoo located in Caledonia, Ontario.  We have been here several times over the year and actually I think I will suggest another trip there tomorrow to the fam!.  The owners of the zoo really love their animals - they have hand fed many of the lions, jaguars and tigers when they were babies.  One of the black jaguars (named Grumpy) was 20 yrs old and Mark, the owner, was telling us that they only live to about 11 yrs old in the wild.  We were lucky enough to run into this owner petting the jaguar at his cage where he reminisced about playing football in the fields with Grumpy in his youth. He got a bit choked up when he told us that he didn't think "old Grump" would make it through the winter - due to the fact that he was really "getting on" in age.  I know there is quite the controversy over zoos in general, and especially the smaller ones, but we personally have never seen anything disturbing at this zoo.  I love the set up of the zoo being that you get so up close to the animals - enough that there are signs everywhere to warn the visitors that the "cats" can spray 15 feet, which would make the visitor the target!