Archive for category Joy
Lyricism in the Third Grade…
Owen, along with his classmates, was tasked with writing some poetry for school. They were given the parametres of a variety of poetic formats and asked to write they felt. I was immensely proud of Owen’s poetry, and with his permission am posting some of it here:
Rhyming Couplet:
The moon is big, the moon is white
O my gosh what a sight!
Quatrain:
Chocolate milk how delicious
I would drink it if it came from a pit
Slurping, glurping yum in my tum
Be sure robbers don’t steal it
Acrostic:
Green and soft
Read lovely books on it
Awesome to play in
Sensational to have pic-nics in
Super easy to pick
Haikus:
-Storks-
Slender and skinny
Flying through the air, zooming
Gliding down so fast
-Beetles-
Black and glittery
Creeping slowly up your shirt
Flipping over grass
-Untitled-
Icky, sticky, muck
Eats everything in its sight
It’s a… yumtracky!
-Rabbits-
Fur so soft and smooth
Hops as high as pogo sticks
Sniffing…everything!
Freeverse:
Lights-up with a snap!
Flick, it’s on
like a little man glowing
a lightbulb is so bright
Once there was a ponytail
who ate a pumpkin
… and then …
the wind started to blow
it punched him around …
sobldick – suckbird
he was a duck!
Cinquain:
Trains
pickup, get off
rumbling, stopping, refilling
turning on the light
locomotive
Picture Poetry:
X-boxes
boom-boxes
all you can think of,
giving you the news,
giving you the weather, music thumps
loud from in-side the speakers like
a rampaging elephant.
Poetic Crytogram:
Grass
as high
as an
elephant’s
eye
Ballroom dancing…
About, oh, a million years ago I photographed Owen in a playplace ball room having, well, a ball. He’s older now and we found ourselves at a birthday party at the same playplace for a different friend’s birthday. Really, it must have been…five years ago? More? Here are some photos I took last weekend:
This year Owen was joined by his sister, who last time was too small to go in the ballroom:
Globe and Mail Christmas Parté – 2009
Once again we attended the Globe and Mail Christmas party at the Liberty Grand down near Ontario Place. The kids start looking forward to it a month a head of time. They get to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus. Not some old guy in a red suit, but the Real Deal, as you’ll see below. This year, they brought their Christmas lists with them and presented them quite seriously to His Lordship. I carefully scanned their originals earlier in the day, and they presented excellent copies.
Owen was mightily pleased with his racer car (remote or manually zoomable) and had an excellent area with which to put it through its paces:
Owen also became be-snaked, as happens each year as well:
Finn giggled with her Mama and loved her present too (a bear):
Finn charmed all and received a unicorn on her cheek to show for it:
…and was thereafter hugged (in a rare opportunity) by Owen for a nice Christmas photo:
And what is a Christmas party without a little clambering around on things?
It went by very quickly overall, quicker than previous years. Not sure why that happened, except that we saw and chatted with fewer people than we have previously. I think its great the Globe puts on this kind of thing for the kids, right through a global recession. There must have been 300 or so people there all told. We managed a quick thank you to the Publisher on his way out the door.
CNE – 2009 version
Just got back from the 2009 CNE this evening. Everything went pretty well, until Finney suddenly got the runs before Carrie could get her to a washroom…and then her hat fell in the toilet. She was generally much more chipper afterwards, though. Owen became surgically-attached to a candy apple and liberally coated his face with the sticky red stuff to show everyone how pleased he was to have received one. Finn objected loudly whenever Carrie or I helped ourselves to her cotton candy. It was nice trip to that sort of thing, and we saw it again through their eyes this year.
I’ve added a few pictures at the end from our last visit to the CNE (in 2005) to contrast the age of the kids.
Finn and Owen attempt to get a Canadian Forces LAV in motion. “Why won’t it move, Dada?”
Finn finds out that centrifugal force is not to be trifled with.
Finn and Carrie coming down the Giant Slide, one of them less enthusiastic than the other.
Owen, at the controls of an F16. “Where’s the gun button?”
Ooooh, priddy!
See above.
From 2005:
Finn, at 1 and a half (in 2005), pleased as punch to be on a real Ferris Wheel!
Owen and Carrie (2005). Owen pensive at the thought of something or other. Hey, it was a long time ago now; an eon, really in child years.
CNE guy trying and failing to guess Owen’s weight (2005). Picture that got away that day? Owen receiving a teeny toy and simultaneously pointing at one of the humungo toys hanging from the shop roof.