Josh and Dava meet Jane Goodall

It's been a busy spring around these parts!

Josh and I attended a Jane Goodall book lecture and got to meet her afterward and have her sign her new book! Josh's school has a Jane Goodall "Roots and Shoots" chapter, plus one of the kid's parents in Hannah's class (Aidan) work for the Writers Festival, which sponsored the talk.  At the end of the lecture the kids from Academy St-Laurent all got to go up on stage with their star Science teacher who runs the chapter!  Besides meeting Jane, the highlight of the evening for Josh was getting to ask Jane a QUESTION!

After her talk she asked the audience for questions. We'd been discussing Jane's research and importance at home (she's such an amazing role model!) and he had some questions already he wanted answers too. SO when they said, "Does anyone have a question?" Josh was so excited! ME he said!

We were lucky to be sitting near the front (with the school, as we were special guests). When they brought the mic over he started talking then suddenly got shy, so he made ME ask the question! There was over 1000 people there!! It was in an BIG old church!! SO I said, "Hi, we've been talking about you at suppers and in the car over here and my son would like to know, when you were studying the chimpanzees, how did you come to know that they sounds and gestures they made really DID mean what you thought they did?" Not a bad question for an 8 yr old! (he had more questions, but that was the one that got asked)

She was so genuine and approachable. She spoke right to Josh and made Aidan's dad get up on stage and pretend to be a chimp so she could demonstrate the process of observing and making notes of what the chimps did before and after the behaviour, and that it was a long process you did over and over.  Josh was so inspired after the talk to do something similar, and be sure to OBSERVE nature!  I thought the talk would be very long for him (It started at 8pm on a Monday, in Ottawa, we got home at 11pm by the time it was over and we drove home) But she spoke in such a plain, simple manner, used humour and funny anecdotes that everyone was left wanting more and couldn't believe the time went so quickly!

A night to never forget!

March Break with G&G

Here are some random photos of our week staying with Gramma and Grampa for March Break! Don't miss clicking below to see a video of Josh and Robin eating dried crickets Josh got at the Butterfly Conservatory in Kitchener when Grampa brought J&H there! Hannah got dried larva and ate all hers! She's a trouper! I was at work, so didn't get a video of that! They had other "bug tasting" events there too. CRAZY!

Click here to see  Robin and Josh eating bugs!

Hannah is 6! Happy Chinese New Years!

We had a Chinese New Year's pageant at H's Mandarin school, then rushed home for H's Birthday Party! Hannah's class did 2 songs, and they were great! We also had visit from a TIGER and some Kung Fu fighters, traditional dancers too.  We asked H if she wanted to do the dancing and she said NO, she wants to do the Kung Fu! 

Birthday Party Fun!

We decorated our loot bags, made candy necklaces, decorated and ate cup cakes, made a crazy alien, opened gifts, ate cake and PLAYED! phew!

Skating on Canal, Tea Parties and Olympic spirit

Skating on the canal

Dressing up as Olympic Mascots at school to raise $ for Haiti

Hannah is YingYing from the Beijing Olympics. I made the headpiece from  construction paper and Hannah and I coloured in the jewels and stuff.

Josh is Quatchi the Hockey Loving Saquatch from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The kids are SO excited about the Olympics!! AND the opening ceremonies are on Hannah's 6th Birthday - Feb 12th. They are going to get to stay up LATE to watch them!

The kids were sick last weekend, we had a PJ day and did a tea party. We all made crowns (except Josh, he had a pirate's thing going on but made crowns for his "Webkinz Boyz". Hannah and I made Peanut Butter cookies, and we drank real peppermint tea! Then Josh and Robin showed us some cool card tricks!

and yes, we still have some xmas decorations up... 

Christmas with the England Crew

Preparing for Santa! Sprinkling Reindeer food

Oh yes, we are getting excited

 

VERY EXCITED!!!

Stockings UP!

STORY TIME!!!

Josh and Sophie taking turns reading us all 'Twas the Night Before Christmas! Such good readers!!

SANTA CAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trying to NOT look tooooo excited to get a real SKATEBOARD from Santa!!

Awesome!

 

OMG... COOL! Wait til you see me making my Robotbug!

 

YEAH!!  We've all played this many times since!

 

So much fun!!

 

YES!!! Star Wars Lego! This was assembled in no time FLAT!

 

ME! In a BOOK?!?! How cool!

 

Playing Charades on Christmas Day

In case you are wondering, the kids decided to play "Olympics" and were having swimming competitions in the basement before we started charades!  hahahaha!

 

Hannah is a CAT, we thought it was a squirrel

 

Everyone won prizes, Josh picked out the boys - handcuffs!

 

Ballerina?

 

??????

If I can figure out how to load a video, I will! This was hilarious! Blake was an OTTER!

Good times

 

Soda Can Robug, it's cool! It buzzes all over!

Having Fun with Cousins

 

Giving Barbie Ponies a bath

Playing with Straws, we are ASTRONAUTS!

Skating!!! 

Hannah's first time! Standing!

 

Mommy skating backwards to help keep me up!

 

 

Josh skates too fast to catch with the camera, even backwards!

 

Sophie in a MAGIC SHOW in old Montreal

 

After skating Supper in Old Montreal... you order Please!  Ton commande s'il vous plait!  POUTINE!!!!