a peek inside the fishbowl

This post is mostly for my mother, who emailed me to ask me about it because she is deeply engrossed in the lives of the people who comment here. (You didn’t know that, did you? Ha!)

Anyway, I can’t believe I’m just writing about it now. I can’t believe a whole week has flown by since Marla and her daughter came to visit.  I can summarize it in one word, or three. Take your pick.

WONDERFUL

and

I LOVE MARLA

They arrived Friday night. The girls all played while Marla and I drank tea and chatted. Josie is a delight. So sweet and polite. And so creative! I love watching children in their own little worlds. Josie played with some Playmobil and every once in awhile she’d pipe up and tell us something about the Rabbit King and his Kingdom and his little chick friends. So cute.

Marla and Josie slept in the office-slash-guest bedroom. I warned her about the lack of curtain in the powder room. Thankfully she agreed to stay despite this shortcoming.

In the morning Marla, Emma and I went to get bagels and smoked salmon while Sarah and Josie and Mark stayed home. We stopped at a couple of little shops in the area (Red Chair has a ton of amazing stuff for Christmas right now), came home, and had breakfast. THEN we went to CUBE gallery to check out an art show called “Toy Revolution.” (I love art designed with children in mind!) They had a couple workshops too, which was perfect. The girls all made fabulous fabric finger puppets courtesy of Fabricawakuwaku. Fish on Fridays was there too. I was very tempted to buy one of her plush raccoons. I wish I had good pics to share!

Afterwards we went to feed the chickadees. (I feel slightly guilty we didn’t show Marla and Josie The Sights, especially since we’re only 10 minutes from Parliament Hill. But Ottawa sights aren’t that great in November. So perhaps it’s not such a bad thing that we bypassed it this time around.)

The chickadees were kind of sleepy. There are times when we go there and are practically swarmed by ravenous birds. This was not the case, and I was slightly worried they would be a no-show. We had to hike a bit before we found some amiable birds. In the end they did not disappoint.

We had a few minutes to spare before we were to meet Dani and her family for dinner at the Lone Star, so we decided to check out the Wild Bird Care Centre. They often have a resident owl. We saw something even better. A buck, grazing quietly right next to the main building. (!)

Little Josie, who was clutching her Bambi toy (“IT’S BAMBI’S FAW-THER!”) had to be persuaded to stay close as not to frighten him away. We all watched quietly, then returned to our cars at which point we saw even MORE deer (Bambi’s mother and sister, perhaps?) before we had to leave. It was a lovely moment.

From there we went to the Lone Star for dinner. I think Sarah was a quite taken with Simon. And Tristan was complimented for his Frisbee-throwing skills from the time we met at movies-on-the-beach. After dinner we went to Dani’s for a glass of wine (and a bottle for some):

All in all, a wonderful visit. I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

“Enjoy a relaxing bath by candlelight”

This kid just finished eating a juicy clementine and a square of good chocolate. 

There is veritable frenzy of vanilla-scented bubble action happening in this photo. Do you know the trick to making good bath bubbles? Use a whisk! With an ordinary kitchen whisk and a bit of muscle you can make a right n’ proper frothy mess in the tub… a mountain of bubbles, complete with hills and valleys and places to hide.

ETA: afterwards we had parent-teacher meetings, went out for pizza, watched Rudolph, and ate cupcakes!