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On Tuesday James turned seven. As is the custom in our family, he got to choose the menus for the day: Eggs Benedict for breakfast, macaroni for lunch, and waffles, sausages and ice cream for dinner. His godmother Jenny came for dinner to help celebrate. His party was last weekend.
On Thursday afternoon DRDC had its annual picnic at MacDonald's Beach behind Shearwater Airport. It was cloudy for most of the afternoon but still warm enough that the kids spent a good part of the time in the water. Ann, Emily, James and David also competed in several events: the sponge race (get the water from one bucket to a different bucket using a sponge), the sack race, the water balloon toss (see who can throw and catch a water balloon the farthest without it breaking), and the gummy worm race (find a gummy worm in a bowl of chocolate pudding without using your hands; James upheld the family honour in this one).
Yesterday afternoon Ann and I went to a a barbecue at my boss's house in Elmsdale, just north of the airport. They have a 120-year-old house, newly renovated, with a lovely large garden. A number of the other people I work with were also there. They are a congenial bunch, so we had a pleasant time despite the rain.
Today Monica took James and Emily out just before lunch as her birthday present for James. We were expecting them to be gone for an hour or two, but in the end they didn't return until dinner time. They went to the Clay Café a paint-your-own pottery studio. Apparently they had a wonderful time painting their selections. The studio keeps them for a few days to finish them off so we won't get to see them until Thursday. Emily chose a dragon to paint, but James is not telling; we have to wait.
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On Monday evening Ann went to the monthly meeting of her book club at the Birmingham Bar and Grill. This month the book was Unless by Carol Shields. Meanwhile David, Emily, James and I all had soccer games.
This week Emily went to an art camp at Alderney Landing near the Dartmouth Ferry terminal. They did several different projects using different media, went on a field trips to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the Discovery Centre, and had a dance lesson at Halifax Dance.
David also went to an art class this week. His was on Surrealism and Fantasy Art at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
This weekend Dartmouth United held a tournament for all the Tier 2 teams. David's team played three games, all on the Mic Mac fields just around the corner from us. Ann and I volunteered to look after the nets on the goals. This involved getting up early to get them on before the first game at 8 AM and to take them down again in the evening. We also acted as field marshalls for one game, which required getting the coaches to fill out game sheets, making sure the referee and linesmen got paid, phoning in the score, and selling T-shirts and snacks. David's team played much better than they have in recent games, but they still lost all three.
On Sunday afternoon James had his birthday party. The main event was a trip to the wave pool in Spryfield, an indoor swimming pool that has a wave generator which is turned on every fifteen minutes for about five minutes. The kids loved it. After the swim we returned home for a present hunt (we get the guests to hide the present that they bring; then James has to find them all), hot dogs, cake and ice-cream. As it was a beautiful day, we had the food in the backyard. There was a smiley face theme this year; Ann and James bought yellow smiley face balloons, paper plates with smiley faces, and Ann made a smiley face cake (chocolate underneath).
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On Tuesday evening I flew to Ottawa for meetings on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, leaving Ann at home to cope with all the chauffering. Ottawa was pretty boring; or, more accurately, I was pretty boring while in Ottawa. After full day meetings I didn't feel like doing much more than relaxing in my hotel room, so I didn't get out and about much.
In the mornings this week, James went to canoeing lessons which he seems to have enjoyed. They were held on Lake Banook by Dragonfly Outfitters, the family business of one of my colleagues at DRDC.
This weekend the Rattlesnakes took part in a tournament put on by our soccer club, Dartmouth United. We played one game yesterday which we won 2-1, then two more today, both of which we lost by close scores. The team played well and each of the games might have gone either way. Since neither Ann nor I felt like cooking, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner out, so we all went to Boston Pizza, a new place in town.
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On Monday, just before dinner, Dorothea, Gabriella, Jane and Oona came to stay with us for three days. They are part of the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus, in town to put on a performance of The Hobbit and to sing at Canada Day festivities at the Citadel. We let them have Emily and James' room while Emily and James came and bunked on the floor of our room. They spent the next couple of days popping in and out on their way to and from various arranged activities. On Tuesday evening we all went to their performance of The Hobbit which we all enjoyed, although I think that I would have had difficulty following the plot if I hadn't recently read it to Emily and James.
Thursday was Canada Day. Ann tried to drum up some interest in going to the waterfront for the pancake breakfast like last year, but failed. Instead we spent most of the day lazing around the house. In the afternoon Jim and Valerie and our new neighbours Claire, Rachel and Max (Rachel is also on the Rattlesnakes) came to play boules, drink pastis and pina coladas, and to partake in a salmon dinner with strawberry pie. At a little after nine we went down to the harbour to see the fireworks display; I thought it was the best that we have had yet.
I took Friday off work to make it a long weekend. We had another pretty lazy day, though we go on a bike ride to search for playgrounds. We also played a couple of games of Clue, which is high on Emily and James's list at the moment.
Yesterday Emily went to her friend Emma's birthday party. Emma's father just won the riding of Dartmouth-Cole Harbour for the Liberals, so things were very festive at their house.
Today Ann went to church to look after the nursery, but the rest of us stayed at home. Emily, James and I played a game of Clue, then rode our bikes to the playground at Crichton Park School. This afternoon all of us, except Katy, went to see the latest Harry Potter movie. I thought it was quite good, though noticeably different in tone from the previous two. On our trip home in the car, opinions were divided as to whether they had changed too many things from the book.
June 2004 Archive
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