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

This year Owen was joined by his sister, who last time was too small to go in the ballroom:

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.

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.

Just try and run this kind of ad today…they’d be sued out of business in a day!

Who knows what evil lurks in the minds of men? Any good psychologist, if you have the right amount of cash.

Double-swipe Part II. Easy pickens by making a fat joke over top of a racist illustration, and employing dumb-people speak.

But today… Looooooser!

“Throw Your Voice!” – Desperately tried to do this to confuse my sisters when I was younger. Never worked.

Ah, the 40s; when jobs were plentiful and it was a buyers market for employment…

What’s a good post-war comic without a little machine gunning going on…?

I’d love a pair of these totally cool shoes, wouldn’t you?

Rick’s Wikipedia entry

Roger’s Wikipedia entry

Thank goodness we don’t have to deal with the healthcare mess that exists in the States, even back to the 40s apparently.