Happy 5th Bday

Brians 5th Birthday today!! Family get together. I think in the coming years we will have to have a friends party as well.
Seems to have been the week of Brian. With his first day of soccer, riding his bike without training wheels and now his birthday. Ofcourse they also celebrated his birthday at school. He had his own little hat/crown and some other stuff from the class and teacher.
For some reason I don't remember celebrating my birthday at school. Although I think my grade 5 teacher did have our birthdays on the calendar for everyone to see. That was good as you got to see who had their birthday the same month as you. I think that is the start for those people that read horiscopes. They found similarities to those that had a birthday around theirs and from then on believe that there is some linkage to the celestial bodies. Scorpio you say, you must be passionate and ill tempered a little shy but outgoing. Wow, you've just hit about 95% of the population with just one sentence.
More photos here

Gooooooal

Brians first day of soccer. We did not sign him up last year as we thought he was not ready. Not that he was not able to play but rather that he didn't need the organized sort of environment. He did excellent for his first day and was quite excited to play. He actually knew a bit about the positions as he has played soccer in another sproty thing we signed him up for. He would go to the net but the other kids did not know to pass yet. Let's not jinx it as its only his first game and we hope he'll stay into in for a while.
BTW, we also took off his training wheels and after a few runs behind him he took to it like a pro.
He doesn't need me to push start him anymore and can even get himself going up hill. I think seeing his sister do it a few weeks back encouraged him to do it as well, not to mention a few kids his age on the street that were already riding san training wheels.
The photo was taken by Angela and she told him how to pose.

Mothers Day hike in the woods

On Sunday with thanks to my cousin Angelo we went for a hike in a local forest. We've been looking on the web and in local maps to try to find some nice places to hike but all the documented places are paved and I consider those a walk not a hike "to walk or march a great distance, esp. through rural areas, for pleasure, exercise, military training, or the like." I believe this one is considered a bike trail. Mountain biking I would say as you can see from the structures we encountered.


















I've always enjoyed doing this and I think it's because we grew up near a forest and spent lots of time in it, exploring, biking, hiking and building forts.

We had to drive around 5 minutes to get to this place but we also went on a similar hike just around the corner from our house. What surprised us the most was we encountered thousands of Trillium flowers. I know they are the provincial flower but I've been in and around the woods all my life and I don't remember seeing this many. The photo with Silvana and the kids has a countless amount behind them.

Look Mom No Training wheels

It's a right of passage that we all go through. The day the training wheels come off and you actually ride your bike without them. There is a sense of freedom that comes with it as you can go up and down the curbs without getting stuck and places that were off limits now become a new challenge.
Angela reached this milestone on the weekend. I think it may be a bit later than most but that probably has to do a bit with her parents being overprotective. Her sudden desire came from seeing other kids younger than her as well as her classmates talking about their Training wheel less nirvana. I'm glad they are off but I'm still concerned about her safety. She has some elbow and knee pads along with the mandatory helmet which I thinked helped her get the courage to finally do it. I've also suggested wiping out on grass if you can as it's softer. Avoid bushes as her aunt learned quickly when she first learned how to ride a bike. The wobbliness is still there but it will be gone in no time. I think this may encourage Brian to get his off as well. I'll let you know if that happens in a future post.

I think I was later than others as well. From what I remember I learned late in the year and then when the next bike riding season arrived I was afraid I had forgotten how to ride. Ofcourse this was the point where I got the old "Once you learn to ride a bike you never forget" speech. Most of my friends in those days were much older than me and trying to keep up was difficult. I don't think I ever got to the point where I could do what they did. Partially because I was younger and smaller but probably more because of the " I didn't like pain" syndrome, more commonly know as being a whimp. I think I'm still that way. I'll watch others do stuff before I take a go at it. It's done me well so far so I think I'll stick with it.

Grandparents Day

I'm still having trouble with Valentines, Mother and Fathers day but I guess there should be a Grandparents day. This coming from a guy who creat Accounting Slack Day (ASD then to be changed to Knowledge Behind the Numbers Day when I won a competion to update the lowly image of the Bean Counter) for those in the accounting profession to have off. It was June 15th in case you were wondering. Mid year, no month end, no year end, no forecast... In this case grandparents day was brought to our attention by the kids as they were gearing up for some festivities at school where the grandparents are invited to come hear how they are a valuable part of their grandkids lives. In many cases more valuable than their parents.. but I digress again.
They sing about the baby Jebus and other stuff and then have tea and cookies.
Surprisingly the kids were really into it and it gave them a sense of community in that they got to see the other grandparents and how they interacted with their grandkids.
My dad was able to come over on Wed as Brian insisted that he be there and Silvana's mom was there on Thur for Angela.
I could not help but think about those poor kids who didn't have a grandparent and had to bring a photo or a story about them. I guess the younger kids would probably be safe but as you get into grades 7 and 8 I could see them having lots of photos. I guess the concept still works as there is a connection with them no matter where they are. Maybe this would trigger some conversation about those that are no longer with us and inspire the kids to learn more.
So heres to Grandparents, for all the love, help and caring they provide for us. I pray that we all make it to an age where we can be grandparents and share in a day like this with our grandkids.

Cherry Blossom Festival in the GTA

My friend Steve has a post here about the Cherry Blossom Festival at High Park.
We have some previous plans for Sunday but I'm going to mark this down on the calendar as something to do in the years to come. Maybe a good place to meet up with friends and family.

Funny thing is we used to have a restaurant right around High Park and in all those years I never once got a chance to go to it. Maybe it's a new thing or maybe it's that we were actually working and could not get away from the weekend breakfast crowd long enough to walk over to the park and enjoy it. By the end of a day at the restaurant we wanted to get as far away from there as possible.