My Grandpa's Chickens

On Sunday me and my family went to see my grandpa's chickens at the farm.
I fed the chickens.  I was not brave enough to go near them so I was carried by my dad.
My sister went into the chicken coop to pick up the eggs but I was too scared to go.  And my other sister was squeezing my dad's arm and yelling because she was afraid too.  M2 was the only brave one there.

The farm was in Kitchener.  Afterwards we went to see my cousins at their University.  In University you live in a condo.  After visiting my cousins we went to dinner with them.  The restaurant's name is Cameron Chinese Restaurant.  We had Sweet & Sour Pork, Chow Mein, Chicken, Beef, Vegetables & Rice.  I had fun and it was great!

M3

Magical Childhood

I read a blog recently titled I'm Done Making My Kid's Childhood Magical.  This mom argues that some parents are excessive in trying to plan too much activities, the most elaborate birthday parties, and expensive vacations in the name of creating magical memories when in fact children do not necessarily need these things for their childhood to be 'magical'.

This made me think about what I am doing to make my kids' childhood magical, and more importantly, do my kids feel their childhood is magical?

We don't have big birthday parties at fancy venues.  Each of my children have had one birthday party at a children's venue.  All other birthdays have been celebrated at home, or at a favorite restaurant with just the family, occasionally their cousins, and for my 12 year old in last couple of years, a few of her closest friends were invited along.

We don't go on expensive vacations every year.  This year was the first time my 6 year old has been on an airplane.   We tend to go on family road trips within a few hours driving distance.

I don't go out of my way to plan 'activities' or crafts or 'special outings' with my kids.  Sure, we'll catch a movie a few times a year (but it's not a weekly or even monthly event).  We've gone to see live theatre plays/musicals, but only when I feel the production is relevant or interesting to them.  As for planning games, crafts,  & activities at home for them?  Well, I do keep an abundance of art supplies, have an enormous amount of Lego, and keep our bookshelves well stocked with books, games, & puzzles.

My children do not have themed bedrooms, designer clothes, or the latest gadgets.  We have a family iPad to share, M2 & M3 wears hand-me-downs from M1, and even she'll wear clothes her older cousins have passed down to her.  Oh, and the 3 of them still share a bedroom - and it's not because they have to, but because they want to.

So what do we do with our children?

We read with our children.   I'll read to my 6 year old (every night, sometimes the same book for days), and I'll read the same books my 12 & 10 year old read so we can talk about the books together.

We eat dinner together and talk about our day at work or school.  Even on the days when the older ones have dance class and they eat late after everyone else is done, we make sure either the Big Oh or myself (sometimes both of us) sit with them to talk about the day while they finish eating.

We hang out together.  Most evenings after dinner all 5 of us are in the same room getting settled down and ready for bed.  This may take over an hour, and during this time we could be brushing our teeth, reading a book, watching TV, surfing the internet on the iPad, or writing a blog, but we all seem to flock to the same room even if we are doing different things.

We volunteer to go on field trips with our kid's classes.  We go swimming & skating with them, not just take them to swim/skate lessons, but actually get in the water and on the ice with them to teach & play with them.  We go bike riding & play in the park in the summer, and we build snowmen & snow forts in the winter.

We take them to their many dance classes, recitals, & competitions.  We sit hours just to see them on stage for a few minutes.  We are there to give them a big smile and hi-five when they know they've done an amazing job.  And we are the first people they seek out to hug and cry to when they know they could've done better.

We make time for traditions.  We make time for friends and extended family.  We emphasize the importance of traditions and and insist our children participate, not by ultimatum & force, but by explaining why it is important and what the alternative would be without friends & family to share traditions with.

Nothing above seems very magical to me.  So I guess I'm not making a very magical childhood for my kids. However, they show me everyday through their words & actions that they wouldn't want it any differently and that is all that matters.

YC

Happy Birthday To My Baby

Today is M3's birthday.



As with any school day, I get a head start before the kids wake up to start breakfast & lunches.  I then go & check on the older ones to make sure they are out of bed and then help M3 with her morning routine.  Sometimes she lies in bed waiting for me to come in & help her pick out her clothes, set up her toothbrush, brush her hair.  Sometimes she's already up and getting a head start with the help of her older sisters.  Today when I went upstairs she was already in her school clothes and in the washroom brushing her teeth - today is going to be a great day!



M3 is my baby and she always will be.  I cuddle her more, kiss her more, and she enjoys playing "baby" with me more so than the older two did.  She is also my feisty one.  She has a temper.  She pushes our boundaries & tests our patience daily.  No, I am not waiting for her to grow out of this "stage" - I anticipate she will be like this forever.  This is what makes her HER and I love everything about her.



M3 reminds me everyday that being a family, a parent, is not going to always be just hugs and kisses, sunshine and rainbows.  There will be frustrations, tears, and meltdowns.  There will be cloudy days, rainy days and some downright stay-at-home-and-lock-yourselves-in-blizzard days.  And that's OK.  She reminds me that just blinding loving my children is not enough.   I need to be patient, compassionate, empathetic, and kind.  I can't do all the talking and teaching.  Sometimes I need to listen to my children, REALLY listen to them and learn from them too.



Happy Birthday M3.  Everyday you show me how I can be the best mom I can be.  I love you so much.



Y.C.

Honestly Me

I haven't been completely honest.  I haven't lied.  But I've been holding back.

There are many things I worry about daily.  In order to keep my sanity I have learned to push these worrisome thoughts aside and concentrate on the present.  There are many days that writing will help put everything in perspective and help me re-focus on the present.  Reminding me of what is important now.  What is happening now. 

When I say I haven't been completely honest I mean that a lot of what I write doesn't make it to this blog.  It is written and saved but never "published" because I'm not ready to "put it all out there".  Knowing that there are those very dear and close to me reading this, I am selective on what I share. 

But there are people out there who do share their innermost fears and feelings.  They are real.  They are raw and they are very very brave.  I recently started following a blog of a woman who shares her experiences (www.tanismiller.com).  She is a mother who unexpectedly gave birth to a special needs child.  She also unexpectedly loss that child, and is currently an adopted mother of another special needs child.  She writes beautifully and honestly.  I wish I was able to be as uninhibited in my writing as she is.  Reading her blog makes me feel stronger.  It makes me feel that with so many stories out there of faith, love, hope and just SURVIVING - that perhaps my story can be that too. 

Maybe by writing & posting this today I am getting closer to being the true honest person I hope to be.

Y.C.

My First Day Of School

Today is the first day of school.  I am in grade one.  My teacher's name is Mrs. S****.  My teacher had a surprise for us.  The surprise was a caterpillar.  I liked my classroom.    My best friend is V****** and she is in my class.  I also played other children in the yard.  A lot of those children were nice.  I went to another classroom and I listened to a story.  The teachers were reading a story together and showing us how to read like buddies and she didn't show us the pictures.  Afterwards she showed us the pictures.  I had a long day.  I liked the big school yard and I played with lots of different people.  I did school work today.  My school work was writing numbers and reading.   I even found my sisters in the schoolyard.  My grandpa came to pick me up from school.  That's all I want to tell you.  I'll tell you more tomorrow.

M3

Documentaries - Part 2

Here is the continuation of the documentaries I have watched this summer on Netflix:


Fat Sick & Nearly Dead (2010) - Follows and overweight Australian entrepreneur and filmmaker on his journey to lose weight by juicing only fresh fruit and vegetables and drinking only that for 60 days while inspiring others to do the same.  🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

Fat Sick & Nearly Dead 2 (2014) - Revisits Joe Cross the Australian who lost over 100 lbs in 60 days by drinking only fresh juices and to see how he and others who were also featured in the first "Fat Sick & Nearly Dead (2010) were doing 4 years after the first documentary was filmed.  🌟 

The Search For General Tso (2014) - Explores the origin of this Chinese dish you'll find on almost every North American Chinese restaurant (spoiler: this dish did not originate in China).  Also an interesting look into the proliferation of Chinese restaurants in the small towns USA.  🌟 🌟 

Little White Lie (2014) - Autobiographical documentary by filmmaker Lacey Schwartz who grew up believing she was a white Jewish girl and finding out that her biological father was a black man.  Interesting conversation about race, ethnicity, and how one identifies with their own race.  🌟 🌟

The Black Kung Fu Experience (2012) - African American kung fu masters - some highly respected individuals even in the Chinese subculture of kung fu actors & stuntmen in Hong Kong.  🌟 🌟

Hoop Dreams (1994) - A documentary featuring two inner city Chicago boys with hopes of scoring a college basketball scholarship and ultimately a shot a the NBA.  Not just a film about basketball but of how economics, race, social class, and education all plays a part in almost every young athelete's dream of making it into the big leagues. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

The Mask You Live In (2015) - This film hypothesizes that in today's society the images of men thru the media, television, sports, and even at home, encourages them to be stoic, repress their feelings, dominant, and violent.  One of the topics the film highlights is how sensitivity in a boys is seen as being a weakness and how as a child ages they become more aware of what society perceives what a man should be like and how a man should act and the implications of that. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 

Amy (2015) - On Amy Winehouse.  Sad look at her rise to fame and how just a couple of bad people/influences in her life had such a profound effect on her life and death.  🌟 🌟

Dance Boot Camp

This past week M1 and I went to Dance Boot Camp. It was 4 hours from 4:00-8:00 so it was really intense. I will be listing all the classes from my favourite to least favourite.

Jazz Fusion (Bree): I liked this class because our teacher was Ms.Kate form the Next Step and the choreography wasn't that hard. I also liked it because we used a song I was familiar to (Me Too - Meghan Trainor) and most of the classes I didn't know the song.

Contemporary (Hani): I enjoyed this class because the teacher was nice and the choreography was easy and fun to do.

Stretch (Christina): I also liked this class because the instructor was nice and we did partner stretches that were very useful.

Acro (Kim): This class was good because I like Acro and I'm good at it and the teacher was nice.

Contemporary (Tiffany): This class was okay because I liked the combo that we did but the teacher would keep talking about her helper. She said that when we are older we should be like her.

Turning (Joe); This class was also okay because he was nice but some of the things we did across the floor were hard.

Musical Theatre (Jamie): I didn't really enjoy this class as much as other because although he was a nice instructor the move were kind of inappropriate.

Musical Theatre (Jay): I didn't like this class because we were supposed to do Musical Theatre but he made us sing which a lot of people didn't like.

Hip Hop (Apolonia): This class wasn't very fun because the moves were really fast and she didn't give us a lot of time to practice.

Jazz (Shawn): I didn't like this class either because we were supposed to do Jazz but we ended up doing Contemporary which I didn't like because we had Contemporary right after that. Also the teacher said that he only liked teaching one student and the rest of us were being rude which wasn't true.

M2

Tea Time

Today I went to Essence of Unionville for afternoon tea.  It is a fancy restaurant inside a hotel.
I ate three sandwiches: egg salad, tuna, and ham & cheese. 
I also ate some desserts.  One of the desserts was chocolate covered strawberries.  I also had crème brule and lemon poppy seed bread. 
Afterwards me and my sister took a picture with a fancy sports car.
It was a fun time.  I ate a lot and my sister ate a lot too.  I like the food very much.  I liked the restaurant.  It had fancy chairs and tables.  Everything was very fancy. 

M3

Summer Eats

It's been awhile since I posted any restaurant reviews.  This summer we ate out A LOT.  More so than usual.  We tried a few new restaurants and frequented some of our favorites.  Here's a list of the new restos our family tried.

Diana's Oyster Bar & Grill http://dianasoysterbar.com/menu/
I guess our mistake in going to a restaurant like this is that my family doesn't eat oysters.  We didn't even try their lobsters as we prefer them "Chinese" style.  We ordered the lobster bisque, clam chowder, fried calamari, bouilabaise, seafood paella, their surf & turf, shrimp & lobster pasta, and grilled branzino.  Although everything was well presented and palatable, I wasn't overwhelmed with anything except for the bill - but that was to be expected - I did check out the menu online before deciding to go.  I just wished that for the price we paid I was more "wowed". 

Essesce Of Unionville Essence Of Unionville
This restaurant is inside the Hilton Suites.  We went for afternoon tea and for only $20 per person buffet style ($11 for children 4-10 years old), plus the mixed reviews online, I didn't think I had high expectations, but I was still disappointed with the quality of food and selection.  The sandwiches were basic tuna, egg salad, ham & cheese and smoked salmon.  The desserts looked like they had been sourced in, and quite frankly, our local grocery stores have fancier/tastier desserts than some of the one they had laid out. 

Petit Potato http://www.petitpotato.com/MainMenu.php
A Taiwanese tapa-style restaurant whose specialty is Chinese desserts.  We went for lunch and ordered some popcorn chicken,  sizzling beef short rib on rice, pork cutlet omurice with curry, pork & mui choi on rice, & pork ramen.  Although we didn't try their signature dessert, a tower of French toast, whipped cream, fruit, & ice cream concoction, we did order the durian pancake, sweet sesame soup and egg pudding as well as two fancy drinks.  The menu items are pricey but we were happy with the taste, service and restaurant in general.  So no complaints here.  I like how we can preview the menu of most restaurants online and can't be surprised with prices.

Honey B Hive
Basically a dive/diner.  Stick with their $4.99 all day breakfast and you'll be fine.  Veer away from that and don't say that I didn't warn you.  We ordered a "chicken souvlaki pita" and it was frozen chicken breast with some tzatziki sauce and limp lettuce.  The pancake breakfast was obviously a box mix and done poorly at that - my 10 year old had two bites and couldn't finish the rest.  The steak that came with the steak and eggs wasn't seasoned and thin as paper.  Can't remember what else we ordered but I'm sure it wasn't good either.

Milestones http://milestonesrestaurants.com/dinner.php
Came here for M2's birthday dinner with 3 of her friends.  Although we have been to Milestones before, this is a new location.  It is in a busy area with a movie theatre close by but on the Friday night we were there it wasn't busy at all.  The menu was typical of any franchised restaurant - we ordered fried calamari, French onion soup, Ceasar salad, prime rib sandwich, and entrees off the kids' menu.
 
Papa Chang's http://www.papachang.ca/menu/
Another Taiwanese tapa style restaurant just around the corner from our place.   Most of the snack items are around $5 and come with 3 or 4 pieces, or just enough for 3 or 4 people to get a tasteful.    I didn't mind at all as this allowed our family to sample many items.  From the snack menu we ordered panko shrimp, skewered fish, popcorn chicken, green onion fried cake, we added a couple of rice bowls for $6.99 and bento boxes for $6.99 and we were set.  A lot of deep fried items so if you are craving some grease this is the place to go.  This restaurant was a pleasant surprise, however the place is small - seating for about 20-25 people only.

Documentaries - Part 1

We got Netflix recently.  I love being able to watch programs on my own time, at my own pace.  I guess with cable TV and PVR boxes you can argue that you can do that anyways but I hate our two local cable companies and I'm slowly changing our services to only the most basic so I can get local news and some live sporting and live special programs (re: Academy Awards, Grammys, etc...).  I hate how they basically have an oligopoly on the industry, over-charging for their services while providing crappy service.  But that's another rant for another post.

So what have I been watching?  Well, M1 & I binged watched 8 episodes of 'Stranger Things' and now I'm stuck wondering when Season 2 will begin.  And I love documentaries.  I love real people stories - their trials & tribulations.  I love being transported out of my world and time and into somewhere I would never be able to go to.  I also love food and I love learning about our Earth and the amazing things it can do for us if we treat it well.  I love sad stories just as much as I love happy ones, and I love serious thought provoking stories just as much as "fluff" about movie stars & musician - if nothing else,  just to remind me of what a beautiful life I have and how grateful I am to be here.  Documentaries can be all this and more.   Here are the ones I've watched so far with a little blurb and personal rating of each.

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟  Loved it!  Definitely a must watch for anyone - I'd watch it again.
🌟 🌟 🌟  Really liked it & would recommend.
🌟 🌟  It was OK - but may not recommend unless you are interested in the subject matter.
🌟  I liked it enough to finish the documentary but probably wouldn't recommend it

Back In Time (2015) - A look back at THE BEST TIME TRAVEL MOVIE OF ALL TIME!  This is full of present day interviews of the stars and makers of Back To The Future & it's sequels.  A must watch for any Back To The Future fan.   🌟 🌟 🌟 

Kid Poker (2014) - Toronto native Daniel Negreanu's account of his rise in ranks in the world of professional poker playing.  Love how he seems like a just an average Joe kind of guy playing in poker games for millions of dollars.  🌟 🌟

Welcome To Lieth (2015) - How some citizens of a small town U.S.A. fought back against a white supremacist who was intent on moving into their town and possibly setting up a faction of a white supremacist group in the area.  🌟 🌟 🌟

Queen Of Versailles (2012) - This documentary looks and feels like reality TV.  A look inside the over-indulgent lifestyle of a time-share mogul and his wife and family filmed during the course of
2 years - right in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis.   Interesting look at how the rich and famous "cope" when they have to downsize  their extravagant lifestyle.  🌟 🌟

Trophy Kids (2013) - A documentary that follows families that push their children to become "prodigies" in their chosen sport.  The parents come across as overbearing, intense, win-at-all-costs, while the children seem stressed and unhappy.  🌟 🌟 🌟

I didn't really give any of these documentaries a bad rating - even the one star can't be considered a "bad" rating.  I have started watching some documentaries only to stop without finishing - I guess those would be the ones that I would give 0 stars to but I'm not going to list those.  There are a few more that I have watched.  I will continue this list with a Part 2...

Are there any documentaries that you would recommend?  Feel free to comment below.

Goodbye Summer

This is the last weekend before school starts.  The kids have new school supplies & their school bags are packed.  They are excitedly looking forward to next week.  Today my two older girls are with their cousins on one last summer outing and my little one is quietly playing on her own.  This is bliss.

I am thinking how quickly this summer has gone by and taking inventory on what we did.  There was two weeks of summer camp.  A week of dance camp.  Two weeks of volunteer work for the older girls and a family trip to Ottawa at the beginning of the summer. 

There were a few weekends with cousins.  Some birthday parties thrown in.  The Big Oh went to Wonderland a few times (gotta make use of those season's passes) with the girls.  We had some quality time with friends & family.  We watched a couple of movies, went to the theatre, and tried some new restaurants. 

We lazied around at home, completed a 3D puzzle, learned some new games & played some old one.  Went to the library and read some good books, went swimming at grandma's and at friends' places.  We watched a lot of Netflix - the kids loved "Full House" and "Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air" and I was hooked on to "Stranger Things" and documentaries.  We slept late and slept in.

And between these activities with the kids I had weekly appointments to organize and keep - taking care of my health has become my "part-time job".  But I am grateful to still be here and able to do all these things and more.

Just because you don't (or can't) go on a fancy vacation, summers don't need to be "boring".  I hope my kids didn't think their summer was boring.  Simplicity is very much underrated.  Sometimes that's just what your body & mind needs - to slow down & enjoy life's simplest moments.

Y.C.