Felted Characters from In The Snow

So, I like to craft. I especially like to needlefelt. I find it relaxing, and it is something I can do that is creative that for me does not involve a lot of thinking once I know what I am doing... And, I also love to create things to take with me to book readings. The idea is to get the children to interact with my books in a tactile and fun way. For the young children this really seems to work. So, I give you Mowat and his GINORMOUS snowman...

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The Avid Reader in Coburg

We launched In the Snow yesterday at the Avid Reader in Coburg... great store! Lovely location, very nice people - and we had a nice group of kids come out. I was actually surprised, as it was an absolutely gorgeous day and if I could have been outside I would have been!

Once again I have to say how much I love indie bookstores... the feel is so very different from the big boxed stores, intimate and warm. So I say - go to an indie bookstore for your  Christmas shopping, you will be glad you did. Otherwise these places will disappear, and that would be a real tragedy.

The felted snowman was fun, when the kids worked together it worked well, I always forget about that element - the not sharing part, and my son - MO, was the worst! Seems sharing mom at these things is not too much fun. The book was received well and then we went down to the fantastic coburg beach and got silly again. A much needed dose of fresh air after traveling and  reading before we got in the car again. Now, we just wait for the snow...

I will post pics of felty the snowman tonight as well.

Book reading this weekend in Coburg

This Sunday, November 15th - at the Avid Reader in Downtown Coburg. I
will be reading my books, we'll build some GINORMOUS snowmen (inside),
and get into the winter season with the kids. Bring your friends and
family.

Also, on December 12 at 1:30pm at Baby, Bump and Beyond in downtown
Napanee, I will be doing the same...

More dates and details to come. I really hope to see you there.

Happy Halloween

Well, we did it - here is the white-wall tire costume requested of us
by our son. He is an original for sure, and we pulled it together, at
about 1230am on friday evening. Hope everyone had a safe and happy
halloween. We had lovely visits with our neighbours, a gorgeous moon
and sadly only 3 kids to our house.

Why I love my Son's Kindergarten

For this, and so many other things - I am grateful to have an on-site kindergarten that is so nurturing, inclusive and aware for my son. It is a combination of great teaching, love and attention to each child that makes it such a special place. This also explains my sons need to collect milkweed pods everywhere we go these days. We now have a jar of seeds and a jar of fluff on our shelves. And a field-full of milkweed at the base of our property. Thank you Loyalist CECE for making school so special for us. These past weeks, mo has built a crane to rescue something in a sewer with his teacher, he has learned to spell orange, he has learned songs and dances, he has learned the science of magnets - and so much more.

Proud of my dad...

Yesterday my father was inducted into the Lindsay Sports Hall of Fame,
as an athlete and as a coach. When you grow up with a pro-football player as a dad, you take some things for granted. When you grow up with people like our parents - you've got it made. We were driven to every practice for every sport - we were coached and chaperoned and we were supported in whatever we chose to do.

The thing about this induction was - I realized that other people see our dad as a mentor - and the number of people he has inspired, coached and worked with is pretty unbelievable. Not to mention - he is a great speaker. We have listened to his stories over and over again - have you ever seen the movie BIG FISH? Well that guy reminded me of my dad in a big way. So, realizing that he is a character and much of the stories he tells are rooted in truth somewhere was enlightening.

Usually you have to wait for terrible things to happen to get to hear how wonderful your folks are and meet the people in their lives from BEFORE they were your parents. We got to see that, and so did dad - and it was awesome.