Tag Archives: granddaughter

Happy Thanksgiving Canada

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….and Happy Birthday Onkel Günter, Winnie and Brendan

It’s been a busy weekend. Not only did we celebrate Thanksgiving here in Canada but we had four birthdays in the family on the same weekend. In fact in October we celebrate birthdays for my husband, my father, my granddaughter, my son-in-law and his brother, my father’s brother and my cousin. I’m sure I’ve missed someone.

This weekend our granddaughter turned four. Andrea, our oldest daughter volunteered to host Thanksgiving and the birthday party at her house. I was most grateful for that, especially after spending five hours in emergency with my husband on Friday. Before you become too concerned let me just say that he’s much better and gets better each day. Thankfully I had made my contribution to the dinner the day before.

The other thing that I did before going to Andrea’s for dinner was volunteer at the Inn to help with the outdoor oven for a workshop that was being put on by George Brown College. At the workshop the students were instructed in baking pizza in the wood fired oven. Everyone got to make two pizzas, one to eat and one to take home. I couldn’t stay for the whole event because I had to be at the dinner. After I left they also baked pita bread and a cranberry loaf. Dale manned the oven and took the pizzas out when they were ready.P1080266
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Dinner at Andrea’s and Josie’s was spectacular but the highlight, especially for Winnie, was celebrating Winnie’s 4th birthday. Seeing all the presents was too much for her so we decided to let her open her gifts before dinner.P1080289
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All in all it was a wonderful weekend, with way too much food and drink. I gained about six pounds but I’m determined to take it off as quickly as possible.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Candid

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…thanks to Ann-Christine for hosting this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge

Candid shots are the ones where your subject is unaware that they’re being photographed. There are photographers who specialize in street photography where they almost exclusively take candid shots.IMG-2798
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Pull Up a Seat Photo Challenge – Week 37

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….thanks to Xingfu Mama for hosting the Pull up a Seat Photo Challenge

As the summer draws to a close the seats up at the cottage are mostly empty now during the week. The last photo is of my granddaughter enjoying a book in a comfy chair at school while she waits for her Mom.

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A Visit to the ‘Turrets’ With My Little Princess

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….turrets is what Winnie calls the playscape in High Park

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my granddaughter so that her mom could spend some time with her father in the hospital. She was very excited when she found out that I was taking her to High Park.

The Jamie Bell Adventure Park was a community built playground and very popular with families. In March of 2012 the place was torched by a suspected arsonists. The community quickly rallied and raised enough money to rebuild the structures and the adventure park was reopened in August of the same year.

When Winnie and I arrived there were ‘hordes’ (the word used by Winnie) of children there enjoying the space. Even though Winnie is not yet four she didn’t let the crowds deter her from having a good time. I got quite the workout running after her so I wouldn’t lose sight of her.IMG-3343
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The only way I could get her away from the turrets was to bribe her with ice-cream.IMG-3368
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Afterwards we headed over to the zoo to see Fred the peacock. She calls all the peacocks Fred but unfortunately none of them were displaying their tail feathers. She did like this goat standing on the rocks overlooking his harem.
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Like the goat Winnie wanted to sit up high above the rest of us and she convinced Oma to lift her up onto this massive stump on the walkway.
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After a very long walk back to the car she collapsed onto the cool grass and had a wee rest.
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These are the special moments that grandparents live for.

By the way, my husband was released from the hospital and is now resting at home.

Why Three Year Olds Love the Crazy Uncle

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….maybe it has something to do with the fact that they can be as goofy as the three year old

Our granddaughter doesn’t get to see her uncle Brendan very often but when she does he makes sure that he gives her his undivided attention. Yesterday was no exception when we drove up to Sparrow Lake to visit Brendan’s twin sister and her family. From the moment we arrived he was placing banana peels on her head, swinging her in the air, playing pretend sword fighting with sticks, playing with balls and doing cannon balls into the lake. Here are a several examples of the two of them at play.

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I Can’t Believe She Ate the Whole Thing

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….it seems that my granddaughter is going through a growth spurt

I was blessed this weekend to have my daughter and granddaughter stay with us for the weekend. On Friday they will be moving to the summer camp that my son-in-law is in charge of and unless I go up there during the summer there’s little chance of seeing them  for the next two months.  Hopefully I will find the time to drive up and spend a day or two, here and there over the summer months.

So this weekend was very special to me. We started the day with lunch on the deck and Winnie enjoyed a sandwich, juice and strawberries. She discovered that dipping strawberries into almond butter made for a tasty treat.IMG-2613
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After lunch Mommy left to visit a friend for a couple of hours so Winnie and I walked up to the Lakeshore where a grilled cheese festival was taking place. Before we got there she was already declaring that she was hungry again so the first thing we did was purchase a grilled cheese sandwich. She didn’t eat it all but she did want to take it home (which she finished later). Then we went to the yarn store and the owner kindly offered both of us a drink of juice with ‘strawberries’ in it. Of course Winnie loved it.

When we left the yarn store Winnie once again said she was hungry so we headed towards the ice-cream store. She ordered a ‘strawberry’ cone and I had a cup of ‘sweet cream’. Her cone had a very generous scoop of ice-cream for a kiddie cone but she had no problem finishing the whole thing.IMG-2624
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In between all the treats Winnie bounced around in the Bouncy Castle and played several games where she earned some coupons for a few small prizes. All in all it was a wonderful afternoon that I will always cherish.