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This weekend David's team played in the Dunbrack Soccer Tournament held at various fields in Halifax. They played twice yesterday and again this morning but only managed a draw and two losses.
This morning Emily went to the birthday party of her friend Kayleigh at one of the local hotels. They had pizza and cake and ice cream and spent most of the rest of the time in the swimming pool. Emily knows who she would vote for tomorrow; next week she is invited to another party for her friend Emma who is the daughter of the local Liberal candidate.
Other than that we have had a fairly quiet week. The hustle and bustle of end-of-school-year activities is over; there are only report cards to be picked up tomorrow morning. Soccer was cancelled due to rain on Wednesday which gave us a little breathing space. However, tomorrow it promises to become hectic once again. We have agreed to billet four members of the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus who will be in town to give a performance of The Hobbit on Tuesday (we get to go free). They will be arriving at about the time that Ann, David, and I have to go off in three separate directions.
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On Tuesday evening was the last night of Brownies for the year. Mums and Dads were invited to stay to see the presentation of badges to the girls, and of volunteer appreciation certificates to parents. The Brownies had also prepared a song for which they were each dressed up for a different occupation: Emily was a farmer. The song was about how women can do anything they choose. After all the presentations we had chips, cheesies and juice before coming home.
Katy and David have both had exams this week but now they are both effectively finished for the year. Emily and James still have three more days of school this week, then they pick up their report cards on Monday morning.
Soccer continues to be a major family activity. David missed his Monday night game as he went out with his school class to a French dinner at Spice Urban Grill, but his team played Halifax City Wanderers on Wednesday holding them to a 3-3 draw. The Rattlesnakes were in action both Monday and Wednesday (we don't keep track of scores so there are none to report).
On Friday evening we went to Ingrid, Mike and Alex's for a take-away Indian dinner. Marg and Bernie and their kids were there too as well as Glen and Kim, Toni and Will. While we were there Ann, Mike and I retrieved our canoe from the Waegwoltic Club where it has been living for the winter. The idea was that, since we already had it on the van, we would go for a paddle sometime this weekend. However, in the end we never found an appropriate time, so it is now in our garage where it will stay for the forseeable future.
Yesterday afternoon James was invited to the birthday party of his friend Darien. They went to Putting Edge to play glow-in-the-dark mini-golf. As it was over in Halifax I took the opportunity to browse in a book shop until it was time to pick him up. Meanwhile Ann and Emily went to the multi-cultural festival on the Dartmouth waterfront.
This morning being Father's Day, I was treated to a delicious breakfast of waffles while watching the European Bridge Championships on the internet. I had to promise not to touch the keyboard with syrup on my fingers. I also got to laze around doing pretty much as I pleased for the rest of the day too.
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The Rattlesnakes, the soccer team that I coach and that Emily and James are on, had its first practice on Wednesday night. This was two days later than scheduled since on Monday it was cancelled due to rain. It looks as if we will have a pretty good team this year.
On Thursday evening I went to see David play his trumpet in a concert by the bands at his school. The Grade 9 Band played the theme from Harry Potter, the theme from Lord of the Rings and another piece that I didn't know. Due to excessive complications in our lives, Ann had to stay home.
On Saturday James and I were supposed to go camping with the Beavers. However, at the last minute there was a mix-up and the colony (the proper term for a group of Beavers) couldn't go because there was no more room at the camp. So instead we went for a hike and a picnic lunch at Graves Island Provincial Park. After lunch we went to the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg where we were given a talk about lobsters and another about whales. Part of the whale exhibit was a 20 metre inflated model of a fin whale that you could go inside. We also had a demonstration of how they launched ships using a model of a schooner on a slipway into a large tank. James got to bang out the final restraints holding the ship back. We also looked at the fish in the aquariums and explored Theresa E. Connor (a schooner like the Bluenose) and Cape Sable (trawler) before driving home for dinner.
By the time James and I got home, Ann and Katy had already left for a retirement party for Terry Hill, Katy's high school music teacher. It was held at the Woodlawn United Church and included several musical performances including the Dartmouth High School Grade 11-12 Concert Band and the Woodwind Ensemble, both of which include Katy. I managed to get there about 40 minutes after it had started but still in time to see Katy play.
This afternoon Katy was performing again, this time at an end-of-year recital at the home of her flute teacher. Katy played Andalouse by Emile Pessard with piano accompaniment, and also played Habañera from Carmen in a flute quartet. I particularly liked the first piece. I don't recall having heard it before but it apparently it is a classic in the flute repertoire.
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Since last week's picture, inquiring minds have been asking "What was in the bag?" Here is the answer: James' World Famous Cranberry Pancake Mix, made by him from a recipe in his Chirp Magazine. James and I cooked up the first batch today for lunch; they were very good.
It has been a glorious weekend after a couple of weeks of nasty cold wet weather. Everyone seemed to be out and about. I spent a good part of it trying to get the garden sorted out. It now looks much better, but still needs quite a lot more work.
On Wednesday night Katy was in another music concert, this one with the Darmouth High School band. Ann went to see the whole thing, but I had to take James to Beavers so I missed the first half, including a woodwind quintet that Katy was part of.
David spent the week in Ottawa and Quebec on a school trip. After two days driving we arrived in Ottawa. First we went on a two hour bus ride where we got to see all the city. The next day we had a tour of the parliament buildings and went to the museum of aviation. After lunch we went to the Museum of Civilisation. The building looked really cool but inside it was really boring. The fourth day we went to Montreal. Montreal was really dirty and smelly but the Biodome was really neat. I especially liked the otters who spent the whole time we were there playing with each other. The next two days were spent in old Quebec where we went on a cruise, visited some waterfalls and went to Ste. Anne de Beaupré, which was a really big and beautiful Catholic church. We also went to a mall where my friends and I played arcade games for an hour and a half. On Friday we spent twelve hours driving home. -- David
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