Pretty Amazing photos

Originally I was going to post something about the Terry Fox Walk I did with Keir and his school today... but I just had to pass this link along. Absolutely amazing to look at these pics.  Take a look, well worth it

Ewan

An Artist in the making???

In the Sunday post I mentioned that I would have more on Isla's artwork that was shown in one of the photos. We that day is now...
Jen got Isla a set of the water based paints and a paint brush. It reminded me of one of those "Paint by Number" sets, the small little paint pots and the little brush. Isla took to the painting like a duck to water. everyday since the paint set was brought home the question out of Isla's mouth was/is "Can I paint?" and paint she did. So much so she went through the paint set in a couple of days. She is quite happy to sit at the table and paint page after page. Here is what I came home to today...
A new paint set and more painting

Another masterpiece hanging a couple of feet away

And the results of Isla's hard work, yes those are _all_ painted sheets!


That is all for now
Take care
Ewan

Photographer

During sunday afternoon we were getting supper ready and I had the camera out to document the whole deal. Keir decided that he was going to be a "photographer" for a little bit and here is some of his work


and lastly a self-portrait

Not bad for a 6 year old.

Ewan

Sunday Supper (again)

Here we go again, another Sunday Supper Post. This is a good one! Jen's mom and dad came up for the day to visit. Murray (Jen's dad) came up to help me take apart an old laundry tub/ storage unit, he has a bunch of tools that made it very easy and we also had to do some minor plumbing (which is not my speciality). While that was going on Jen's mom was working with the kids on an Apple Pie (with the Apple's we picked)

They made it from scratch, i.e. home made crust!!! The kids ate a ton of the dough and I _think_ they managed to help some what. Here is the almost final product, didn't want to take a pic with the top on (by the way the pie is sitting on some of Isla's art work, more on that later this week)

And then after a little time in the oven:

After the pie came out of the oven it was my turn, on tap was roast chicken, with potatoes, sweet potatoes and sausages.
Starting ingredients:

All cut up:

The peelings from the potatoes made a kinda interesting photo:

Next up some sausages (chorizo and hot italien if you are curious)

And then we add everything together in a roasting pan:

Then on to the chicken, really simple but tasty salt and peper, melted butter and sage

After about 1.5hrs in the oven the chicken was ready:

The potatoes and sausages were ready as well:

On the plate ready to eat, see even some veggies!

The meal was absolutely delicious, it was almost a "Thanksgiving" type meal.
And if you think I have forgotten about dessert, you would be wrong. Home made apple pie and vanilla ice cream!!


That is all for now
Take Care
Ewan (about 5 pounds heavier than he was at the start of the day)

Spelling Bee

As part of Keir's school work he has homework called "Dicté" (as least I think that is how it is spelled, apologies to the french experts out there) which loosely translates to Spelling Bee. Keir is given a set of words to practice spelling all week and then at the end of the week, in class they have their Dicté in class. He did this last year in Grade One and we would practice the words with a paper and pencil at the kitchen table. This summer Keir and Isla switched rooms and we repainted Keir's new room. We painted one of his walls as a Giant chalkboard. There is special paint out there that will turn any wall(or surface for that matter) into a magnetic chalkboard. So having said all that we are now practicing his Dicté's on the wall in his room:


Here is what the whole wall looks like:

Almost done the list

Getting a little help:

And the final list:

And for those of you scoring at home the list would be (along with their English translation)
1) à (to)
2) bien (good)
3) chien (dog)
4) classe (class)
5) douze (twelve)
6) frère (brother)
7) après (after)
8) blanc (white)
9) chose (thing)
10) du (of)
11) des (some)
12) froid (cold)
13) aimer (like/love)
14) eau (water)


This was the first one of the school year, so it took a little longer than it should, but Keir really enjoyed writting on his wall :-)


That is all for now
Take care
Ewan

THID Thursday September 23rd 2010

Another installment of THID!
This one comes from a post on Thursday September 23rd 2004 (a whopping 6 years ago!!)
Here is the original post and this is the photo I wanted to highlight:

I can't believe how young Keir is in the photo. 

Take care

Ewan

Photos from our walk on Sunday

Ballerina

It is official we have a ballerina in our house!

Isla has started Ballet classes. And she could not be any happier about it.
For a while now, we have been catching Isla dancing while she thinks no one is watching her. She would spin and jump around and generally just enjoy herself.
So Jen had the great idea to take that energy and put it towards a ballet class. Saturday was her first class and Jen took Isla for her class of 45mins of FUN. By all accounts Isla was very attentive, always watching the teacher so she would know what to do next. She had a blast, so much so that she didn't want to take her leotard off for the rest of the day (see picture above). We even went and visited my parents in the afternoon and Isla was still wearing her outfit!

More pics of ballerina Isla next week.
That is all for now
Take Care
Ewan

Race Report: Tour de Island

We live in Manotick, and a large part of it is an Island. This past Saturday Keir and I participated in the 2nd running of the Tour de Island.  This is an "amateur" and is not sanction under the UCI but still pulls a strong field.
Keir and I are riding for a new start up cycling team called L'Equipe de Faux and are serious contenders for the Malliot D'Etoile, which is given to the winner of the Tour de Island.
The Start was a relatively calm event

The route starts of nice and flat so that the cyclists can get a good warm up in.

 After the legs are warmed up the riders are faced with a very tricky "Narrows Pass" which in previous tours has claimed several riders.

A successful navigation of the "Narrows Pass" and Keir's confidence was growing and thoughts of now winning the tour instead just competing in the tour.

It was at this point the the Tour's route turned downhill, I am a stronger descender than Keir and pushed the pace a bit more, here we are topping out the speedometer.

And of course if the is a downhill there usually is an uphill associated with it. As the terrain turned up hill, the advantage pendulum swung Keir's way. His small stature and sub 60lbs body weight make him a natural climber . 

Here he is pulling away from me, using his patented zig-zag climbing method once the hill turned very steep

Cresting the hill Keir's lead had grown considerably

Through the middle of the race the we settled into a comfortable rhythm and even got some "trash talking" in

and some showboating 

At the turn around section Keir was in the lead but for the several minutes Keir and I exchanged the lead several times, it was a real see-saw affair

Next the race route turned technical with a series of 90 degree turns

Here is Keir navigating the turns 

After the technical section, the Tour route doubled back on itself to come back home for the finish. Knowing the "Narrows Pass" was coming up again, Keir (showing experience beyond his years) sprinted ahead to get in the better position for the critical "Narrows Pass" entrance

After the "Narrows Pass" we had a small straight away followed by another 90 degree turn and the final straight away sprint to the finish.

Keir just had to much power in  his legs for me to even try and keep up

Here he is pulling away on the final straight away for the the win.

There was no hard feelings, as it it was a good clean hard race, so the riders exchanged congratulations

And finally here Keir showing off his Malliot D'Etoile 

Here is what the Tour Route looked like

OK, so hopefully you know that this was a tongue and cheek Race Report. I pretty sure I can still beat Keir if we _actually_ race ;-)

That is all for now

Take Care

Ewan