Tooth Fairy Strikes Again

I've suggested that perhaps the tooth fairy might want to hang out at our house a bit more as she has had to come twice this week. My memory is weak but I don't believe Leo's teeth fell out as early as Mazie's have. SHe lost another one yesterday. Of course, Leo leaves his in hanging by a thread adn Mazie does her darndest to pull them out. Her tooth fell out at dinner last night and she put it under her pillow. I completely forgot until i went into the change bucket this morning to get some money for coffee. It was 7:40 and I was hoping she was still asleep. I think I managed to pull it off. In case you are wondering, when Leo asked me earlier in the week if I was the tooth fairy I asked him if I looked like a fairy and started flying around the room. I then asked him if he remembered the last time he went into my wallet and saw that it was empty. I doubt he believes me. Seems as if Mazie knew all along where we were going on vacation.
They found their next clue yesterday "PLace." THey were eager to tell them and so Drew googled with them to figure out we are going to Walt Disney World. We've got it all on video thanks to the webcam. THey both sat on Drew's lap to do their research. It's very cute. Of course, as we suspected, Leo didn't initially want to go. He said it is too far. LOL Mazie was running around the house all night saying "We're going to walt disney world." She's extremely excited and can't wait, especially for the pools at the hotel. I knew she would like that. She did admit that she knew all along however. She told me she knew since she saw the pamplet I had on WDW a few weeks ago. She said she didn't want to tell daddy she knew becuase she thought he would be mad. LOL Nothing gets by this girl.

Argh! Ahoy Matey's

Yesterday a letter was found for Leo and Mazie in our mailbox from "3 Lazy Pirates." They said that they overheard Drew and I talking about our vacation in the park and because we were so careless, wanted to give Leo and Mazie some clues. The kids unscrambled the first word...."The" According to Leo, possibilities included "The California or The New York."

Today another note was left in Mazie's bike basket and they have now unscrambled the word "happiest."

The children are busy trying to figure out who these pirates are and what these clues are all about. Mom is busy trying to keep a straight face all the while dodging the question "are you the tooth fairy?" It's tough work being a parent.

Shoes, Shoes and more shoes

So by now everyone (everyone except for my kids) knows that we are going to Walt Disney World next week. We plan to hit a park a day for 6 days! That's A LOT of walking so I figure we better get some good shoes. Knowing Mazie she would want to wear her pink flip flops but that just won't cut it. Oh, and for those of you who are wondering when we are telling our kids - we plan to spill the beans this week in a scavenger hunt activity sans beer bottles with messages in them - during Adventure Club. As I was saying.... I don't want to go to Payless (or paylahs as Leo calls it)or Walmart for this purchase. I want GOOD shoes. I went to The Shoe Company which has an entire floor of girls shoes. Unfortunatley there are 2 rows of toddler shoes from infant size to size 10 and girls shoes from size 13 and up. What about the size 11's and 12's?! Plus, I don't want velcro. Velcro is the worst invention ever. Since that is all that is keeping those shoes in place, what happens after the velcro runs out? You can't wear the shoes. My kids put their shoes on several times per day and that means the velcro is bound to run out before my kids outgrow the shoe. Thus, I only want tie shoes. They hardly make tie shoes at all for boys. I suppose its not in their nature to tie shoes but come on! Plus, Mazie has her criteria as well. They must have sparklys. After all, she's "never had sparkly shoes before." Ugh! We shopped around a bit. I did find one store but the average price for kids shoes was $75. Forget it. So, while Drew is at the ROM looking at Dead Sea Squirrels, we are going shoe shopping. Wish us luck!

Inventions

It always seems that the best conversations happen at dinner. Too bad I don't eat dinner with my laptop. Therefore I need to invent something that would allow direct access from my dinner table to the computer for your reading pleasure. My kids are happily gobbling up their hamburgers (they were too dry for my husband's tastes). (Side note - he has just informed me that he did not say they were too dry. He really didn't but I know he prefers them medium rare. I just don't have that talent) Leo just had his first cheeseburger and we all toasted to it. Of course it was veggie cheese but still, he likes it. Mazie has asked for dessert - skittles with whip cream on it. That would be a no.

This weekend was the Greek Fest and we spent Friday night, Sunday night, and Drew and the kids spent today there as well. They picked me up from work which was a realy treat to be able to drive home in traffic with them instead of all alone. During our drive Mazie kept asking if we could listen the Bat Girl song. She's been asking for this for days now and finally I wanted to get to the bottom of it. What exactly is the Bat Girl song? She insisted Drew had it on his IPOD. Leo insisted there is no song for Bat Girl - it's Batman and she's just a helper and younger than Batman. We finally figured out (actually it was me because I speak 5 year old) that she was asking for Hollerback girl by Gwen Stefani. Drew says no- it has too many bad words in it. Leo says he knows all the bad words including the "O" one which is Oh My God! Mazie wonders outloud if you learn more and more bad words as you get older. She doesn't know any. My sweet sweet girl.

Lost Tooth

Once a Year

First of all I want to start by stating that I finally took some pics of Leo at soccer and posted them. It only took me a few months. I forgot to mention that Mazie lost her tooth on the way to church on Sunday. It's been 4 days now and I still haven't taken a pic. I think the minute Leo lost his I took a pic. It really does suck to be a second born doesn't it? I'm going to commit to doing that tomorrow. I would do it now that I'm thinking of it but she's in bed and i don't want to wake her.

Leo had his yearly allergy test today. Usually they just prick it but this doctor uses an actual needle and really pulls at the skin. No wonder Leo didn't want to go. Plus, he cried. I can't even watch so I don't blame him. He showed a bigger allergy to milk than he ever has before. I didn't cry though for the first time. I was expecting it given the accident we had a few months ago. So, he's still wearing his medic alert bracelet and we are still carrying epi pens. Leo doesn't seem to care and i'm looking on the bright side that at least he is ineligible for the armed forces. We took him to McDonald's and we also took advantage of the warm summer day and went to 7-11 for Slurpees. What a party!

On Strike

A few weeks ago the City of Toronto workers went on strike. This has happened in the past as well. It is a horrible time to go on strike given the heat factor and the smelly trash factor as well as the fact that its summer when most likely people would want to come visit Toronto. As a result of this strike there is nobody picking up garbage. That means that there have been makeshift dumps in the middle of city parks and lots and lots of trash. You may recall our first summer here and we blogged aobut how clean the city was? We even posted a pic of the guy who drives in his little vehicle sucking up trash? Well, that doesn't happen anymore so there is lots and lots of litter. Luckily we live in Vaughan and aren't affected.

Other things affected are the amount of graffitti in the city. Nobody is cleaning up graffiti. The parks aren't getting mowed either. Only essential ambulance services are being provided. The biggest issue I think is that all the city run daycares are closed. Most people who attend these are doing so through city subsidies. Well, they have no childcare now and can't afford to get other child care. People are losing their jobs over this. There are no community centres open. No pools. What are kids doing for summer camps? Not to mention the amount of money they are now losing because of a lack of these services.

It's all run by greed I tell ya. That was the downfall of the Gosselins too but don't get me started on that!

That's all. Just a little informative post about the affects of the strike. You're welcome.

Amazing

Several years ago my mom bought the kids a calculator. It was one of those types for kids but actually did work. Mostly they have used it to play spies with. They have gathered many household items for their spy missions which is one of their favourite things to do.

Leo is very good at math and is often doing calculations in his head. So imagine yesterday when he pressed 12 + 12 on the toy and it responded with 24! He freaked out and came running to Drew amazed at how it knows the answer. He said, "Dad, Dad watch this. It KNOWS it." Then he kept doing other calculations over and over to see if it knew that and it did. AMAZING!

Dead Sea Squirrels

Drew has been talking lately about how he wants to go with Father Peter to see the Dead Sea Scrolls which are now being displayed at the Royal ONtario Museum downtown. So yesterday Mazie was asking Drew when he goes, what she will do. SHe kept asking him when he was going to see the dead squirrels. We had no idea what she was talking about. Finally we figured it out and told her it was scrolls- dead sea scrolls. Scrolls are paper.
Mazie- Paper? Dead paper?
Drew - No, dead sea.
Mazie - THe sea is dead? Does that mean all the fish and everything are dead? Why would you want to see that?!

It was hilarious. I just wish they would never grow up.

Now that Actor Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films has come forward to admit he had H1N1, AKA Swine Flu, I thought I might write to inform you that most likely Mazie did indeed have this flu as well. It was finally confirmed by the lab that my friend who watched Mazie before her illness did indeed have H1N1. We are not at all surprised and hope that if this flu returns in the fall, Mazie will have immunity.

In other news, we've been enjoying our summer by doing things you do in the summer such as catching the ice cream truck to enjoy a popsicle while it melts down your arm, playing at the park, going to the water park, walking to get TCBY, and grilling out on the BBQ. Oh, and Friday night we gathered our blankets and chairs and watching a movie under the stars at the park. Hopefully it will be a bit warmer this weekend. We are also doing things that you don't like to do over the summer such as putting on bug spray, sunscreen, sweeping mulberries that fall all over the steps, mowing the lawn and washing the kids feet after a day in flip flops. Oh, and I can't forget the fact that the kids are staying up much later than school days but the good thing is that they are sleeping in much later. They slept until 10 am on Sunday!

I think we'll be enjoying another late afternoon thunderstorm today which is always nice, unless I have to drive home in it. I'm already looking forward to next weekend. I think I should refrain from renting any movies though. I got 2 of them and didn't have time to watch either one. Well, I tried watching "The year my parents went on vacation" but I was falling asleep. Drew commented that the movie was aptly named as it seemed a year long. I ended up going to bed instead. I'll be returning that and "Australia" without watching either one. It was an impulsive movie rent anyway. Mazie was at drama class Saturday morning and so I was walking around killing time and went into Blockbuster and thought I'd get some movies. Dumb idea. I also got some soy "paremesan cheese" stuff for Leo to put on his spaghetti, tofutti "sour cream" for him to put on his baked potatoe this week, and some soy yogurt which didn't get eaten. I made him try it though and so it got on the spoon. The same spoon he was using for his cereal. I later caught him eating his cereal with his hands because he didn't want the gross yogurt spoon contaminating his Cinnamon Life.

To answer your questions from previous comments, we are going to Walt Disney WOrld. We haven't told the kids because they'll absolutely bug us every second of the day about it if we do. We are considering telling them perhaps a few days before we go. We don't want them to die of excitement. They won't go on Thundermountian because it will be way too scary for them based on our experience from previous rides. Space Mountain, which happens to be my favorite ride, is closed for repairs.

GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!

No Leo did not score a goal last night but they did win their first game finally. I am afraid it will be a while before Leo scores his first goal. He mostly enjoys watching the game and really gets into it. We have to remind him that he is actually "playing" in the game. We went to McDonalds afterwards to celebrate.

Today is Canada day. It's our 4th. I can only remember what we did last year which was when Nancy and Leo and great grandma were here visiting. We have many options this year but it's supposed to rain so I'm not sure if we'll be doing any of them. I wish fireworks didn't start after 10. I have work in the morning.

I'm getting very excited about our trip which is now a month away. We haven't told the kids yet but it's getting harder and harder to keep it a secret. I just measured them though and found out they are tall enough for both Splash mountain and Thundermountain. Not that they'll do either one.

Happy Canada Day!