Skate Park

I've tried ever since Layla was very little to keep her open to new experiences by exposing her to as many different things as I can (within reason, she is only 5 after all!). Because of this, we've been able to go on many adventures and at 5, she's already traveled more than some of my friends who are almost 30. She's getting pretty good at using chopsticks. She can hold up her end of a conversation on the meaning of size association in sculpture. And slips in vocabulary words like nocturnal and apprentice, to name a few cool things she does. However, for this experience, we didn't have to travel for days in Pola (or car) or get her passport stamped at the airport. Last week, after I picked her up from school, we did our hot day ritual of walking and getting slurpees, then heading to the playground by the High School. We didn't get to the playground though, as we made a pit stop at the High School Skate Park!

Honestly, I've never been.

Honestly, I've always been too chicken to go.

With my oozing of conservative prep, I don't exactly fit the genre and I'm afraid those little skaters would eat me alive if I felt like 'chillin' with them. However, motherhood makes you strong in many unexpected ways. I've always been curious about the skate lifestyle and secretly would looove to have a skateboard (not so secret now, oh well) and know how to use it. So, with daughter in hand, I just marched up to the park, sat down, and chilled.

It only took me about 7 minutes to realize: "Hey! I'm an adult now! (although I don't look it) I don't have to be scared of these punks!" And then I relaxed and actually quite enjoyed watching these crazy kids trash their expensive bikes and a couple of Chong-esque guys pull tricks on their boards. Quite fun!

Layla enjoying her orange-root beer-banana slurpee.

P.S. root beer and banana really don't go very well together, despite this being the second time in a row we mixed them. They're just so good separate that we keep forgetting they don't play well together once confined in a plastic cup.

Me, pretending to be cool, as if I came there all the time.

Layla's photog skills are coming along pretty well!

And then something I never thought of before: Skate Parks are super fun for kids to run around on and they love to slide down all the crazy ramp things! After the guys practicing tricks left, of course!

And an accidental picture of me. The accidental ones usually turn out best, apparently I don't pose very well.

Wow! And I received 2 comments from amazing women also, I didn't even notice! I'm still figuring all this 'blogging' out, but thanks to Carla and Iva! You made my day!

Woo Hoo!

With her 'positive ticket', which she got from a police officer yesterday as we were walking to my work. She made sure to pause at all intersections and thoroughly look both ways before proceeding. The officers notice this and gave her this 'ticket'. She gets to choose either a free pizza from Pizza Hut or a free swim from the Abousafy Center. She decided immediately that she wanted the free swim, so we'll have to make a plan to do that! She brought her ticket to school today to show her teacher (which she did) and her class (which they ran out of time for). She was especially excited about it, as just on Monday, they had their first field trip to the RCMP station. (I also have pictures of that to post!)

Thanks to 'Girl With the Golden Touch' for being my first ever follower! That was so sweet of you! I've been following her for a little bit now and her blog is darling! It's the cutest thing ever and she goes through all sorts of fantastic beauty products and lets you know what she thinks of them. Check her out too, she's a doll!

As it is very late, I just wanted to post a few new pictures from dropping off Layla at Kindergarten this morning. I have many other pictures I'd love to post, but they're all from not today, so I'd like to see what it feels like to be timely, for once! Although I also got some cute shots from Layla and I hanging out at the Skate Park after school today, but I haven't uploaded them yet, so alas, they'll have to wait!

BOOKS!!!!!!!!

My inner bibliophile came out today and took over my decision making process. I was going home for lunch from work: I was hungry and had to go to the washroom. However, fate had something different in store for me at the particular moment in time. I had only gone a few hundred feet from my work and I saw the Public Library was having a book sale! Yippee! So I U-turn and park to see what I can find.

Eleven books for ten dollars later, I'm happily on my way. Really hungry and really needing a washroom now. Then I spy form colorful balloons waving in the wind, beckoning me to investigate. And I find: another sale! This one at the United Church. A box full (literally, the old ladies asked if I needed help carrying it) of books for $16.50! It ended up being 26 more books! I believe I am a literally nymph. But I am fine with this, I'm been smiling like a fool all afternoon from the excitement of it all! I even lined them all up nicely on my floor to take a picture, but unfortunately my camera is not working. But here's my list!

John Banville - The Sea

A New Day: 365 Meditations for Personal and Spiritual Growth

The Nanny Diaries - Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

A Theory of Relativity - Jacquelyn Mitchard

Fables of Aesop

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Who Has Seen the Wind - W.O. Mitchell

Out-of-Body Experiences - Susy Smith

The Hundred and One Dalmations - Dodie Smith

Quick Cookbook

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff - Richard Carlson

Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

The Angels Trilogy - Lurlene McDaniel

Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres

Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

Angels + Demons - Dan Brown

The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

When in Rome... - Gemma Townley

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

Roses for Mama - Janette Oke

The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin

Captains Courageous - Rudyard Kipling

The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

Me, Myself, & Bob - Phil Vischer

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

French Women for All Seasons - Mireille Guiliano

Brick Lane - Monica Ali

The Starter Wife - Gigi Levangie Grazer

Life with Father

The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

The Complete Book of Pastry

The Second Life of Samuel Tyne - Esi Edugyan

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

The Constant Gardener - John LeCarre

Wow! So my reading list is full for a while now! This should last me the winter! Although some titles I have read before, I either wanted it for my personal collection, liked the edition I found, or plan to read it with Layla. No matter how you look at it though, I'm very excited!

Out in the Park

I still have catching up to do, as these pictures were taken last week, but we had a super fun day at the playground just a block south of our house. We enjoyed the cloudy, but not too cold weather and took the opportunity to have a bit of a mini photo session, just because we girls like to have fun! These berries above turn deep red a bit further into fall, but I was surprised to see them so yellow, so I grabbed a shot of them.

Layla, the girl of a million poses! Chillin' up again the swingset pole.

*sigh* Her smile always makes me smile! :)

And of course, Me, lounging in the grass!

Another of moi!

I really liked this one, until you look closely and notice that Layla is doing her 'crazy eyes'! Ha! What a funny girl! Huge smile though!

This one turned out a bit better though. We've been trying to practice with Layla doing a 'gentle smile' because her school photos turned out okay, but she's got this huge, super fake smile in them all! So this is a nice example of her 'gentle smile'!

I really liked how this one turned out, it shows our crazier side, which we usually try to reserve just for each other at home and don't document very often!

When did my hair get so long?

My darling found an old baby's board book my the trash, so she was looking at it.

Layla likes to exhibit her crazy side more often!

She's getting pretty good at the monkey bars! She always has been quite a monkey!

A concentration shot!

Labor Day Corn Maze

On the Monday of the Labor Day long weekend, we went with my brother Adam out to the Leduc Corn Maze, it ended up being a great day! Lot's of fun and nice weather too! Layla started the afternoon off petting their baby goats!

Layla's portrait in the corn!

Adam. Don't ask!

A Mama-Baby Portrait!

Sad to be in a dead end!

My new date! ;)

Layla hanging with the grown goats now!

This handsome fellas' name is Alladin!

I'm so glad we went, it ended up being such a great day!

But don't ask us for this year's maze answer, we got a stern warning from the owner's about how top secret the answer is! You'll just have to go and figure it out yourself!

Pictures from our windy run!

Layla ready to go! She's getting a bit big for our jogging stroller, but it still does the trick!

Yes, she is still in her pajamas, she was in them ALL day! What a kid!

This is me ready to go! So excited!

Layla was getting blown away in the crazy wind! It actually knocked her over a couple times!

The wind actually knocked our stroller over as well!

Taking a break and looking out over the Lake. Nice and sunny out!

And resting on our break too!

Layla wanted a turn posing for the camera too!

First Practice Run for Terry Fox!

Since registering last night, I'm off to a good start! I took Layla in the jogging stroller (although she's getting a bit big for it!) out into gale force winds to go for a bit of a run in anticipation of the Terry Fox Run on Sunday, September 13th. I'm certainly still out of shape and have a long way to go to do a really great job, but I'm just so excited to be starting somewhere! Other than the wind toppling the stroller over at one point (sans Layla!), ears hurting a bit, the wind toppling Layla over while standing up and it often feeling like you're running uphill on a 45 degree angle, it went well! I got some running in, as well as some walking, and exploring breaks (what? I was with a curious 5 year old!) and also took a nice big log from a tree the was sawed up after falling over! Odd, yes. But also awesome! I was so excited! All in all, a great time!

Hopefully I can do it again soon before time flies away too quickly!

Terry Fox Run 2009: Registered!

I have recently been incredibly inspired by Ben Does Life. It's a blog by Ben Davis.

bendoeslife.tumblr.com

It's amazing! He makes me feel soooo lazy! His smile is so magical, you can see the joy he now has for life, so inspiring! So I was chatting on the telephone with my best friend, Amanda, who loves to run and has starting practicing for triathlons (wow!), about us doing a run together, like the Turkey Trot, because it doesn't have a high registration cost. Some runs have a high fees to cover their costs, however, I'm not too interested in times at this point yet, so if I'm not clocked, I won't be too sad!

So, as I was on a break from work today, instead of driving home, I meandered around my town a bit and noticed a poster in a local business for the annual Terry Fox Run that is coming up. If you're Canadian, I know you know all about this. If you're not Canadian, read all about the INCREDIBLE life and story of Terry Fox on terryfox.org. I just checked out their website, and it has an easy registration form, with no fees, so I signed up! Just like that! I haven't ran in a 'race', whether competitive or not, since High School! I'm very excited, as I ran competitively for eight years in school, but since graduating, then doing post-secondary school, then having Layla, etc... life hasn't had much time for even a jog for the heck of it, nevermind training and signing up for runs! But I'm jazzed, this will be fun and a great way to get my feet wet again and also for a fantastic organization!

Also, if anyone would like to sponsor me, even if only a dollar, on the website you can look me up by name (hint: I'm the only Malora registered! Is that a surprise? No!) or my participant code, which is C2W8GZ.

Wish me luck!

I walked from work to pick Layla up from school today. It was amazing weather. Hot, hot, hot! Love it! Around 30C. However, as much as everyone is trying to savour what could very well be our last bit of a heat wave until the big 'W', signs of fall are beginning to be harder to ignore! Despite the heat, there is still a recognizable 'crispness' in the air. And as you can see from a couple pictures from my walk to her school, there was even a tell-tale scattering of leaves along the sidewalk. I adore heat, but secretly, autumn is my favorite season, so I just smiled and enjoyed the magic of the neighborhood around me! Also, I threw in a picture of a stop sign I caught along the way, thought it was kinda cute and clever!

Relish the Taste

Bev at work brought some homemade zucchini relish for us all to try. This is her favorite thing to do with zucchinis. I believe this was the first official time I have ever actually ate zucchini in any form, especially relished. Verdict? Fantastic! I actually really liked it! I enjoy trying new foods, and I'm always pleasantly surprised when I try something new and I really enjoy it! As I'm getting older though, I'm realizing I should not be so surprised, as foods and taste are such a large part (and fun part!) of experiencing life and the world and cultures around us.

Thanks Bev for opening my world to ZUCCHINI RELISH!