Past Bloom

A couple of weekends ago the magnolias were in full bloom so I took some pictures.  Now they are almost all down.

Surprised Winner

Last weekend Akemi entered a Japanese speech contest at her school.  She was so nervous going into the contest, but her teacher reassured her.  After all was said and done, she ended up in third place!

Honest Tiger

Every month Nina's school celebrates a different character trait and then gives awards to students who best exhibit the trait.  This month the trait was honestly and Nina won it!

Christmas Cheer

We had quite an action packed lead up to Christmas.  After the Santa Claus parade we went to the JCCC for their Winter Festival.  Akemi somehow managed to go on stage with the magician to do something.

We had two Christmas concerts to see - one in English and one in Japanese.  It looks like I can only upload the English one.

Silvina and Akemi made a Christmas scene with gingerbread and other sweets.

On the big day, Akemi got a lot of very fancy stuff.  On boxing day we did a big cleaning and she "helped" me shovel the driveway.

 

 

Christmas Train

 We are getting in gear for Christmas.  Got the Christmas tree up with the train around it, and yesterday we went to the Santa Claus parade.  It seemed to be bigger this year than previous ones, but very cold - as usual.

Autumn Catch Up

 Lot's to catch up on and Autumn feels like it is over.

In October we went to the pumpkin patch near Hamilton.  It was pretty wet.  This year they had this zip line that Nina tried out.  We ended up picking out three pumpkins and made them to look like Totoros.  Just like the movie, we had a small one, a bigger one, and a huge one that kept falling asleep.

For Halloween Silvina sewed a wolf costume from scratch.  She was working on it every night for about a month, but thought it was all worth while - especially when Nina's art teacher was raving about it.

The other day I made some lamb with small potatoes and other vegetables.  I told her that she had to try one of the potatoes, and she reluctantly did.  She took a reasonably large bite, chewed on it for a while, and then said "I think it is a bit under-seasoned".  Me and Silvina burst out laughing and asked her where she got that one from.  Apparently it was from a cooking network show that we had been watching before.

Today was graduation from the gymnastics class.  When Nina got report card she came screaming "I got level four!".  She had been working hard and was hoping to pass to level four.

Thanksgiving in Algonquin

For the Thanksgiving long weekend we took the Friday off and made it an extra long weekend.  For a number of years we have been going up to Algonquin Park to see the changing leaves and to hike.

This year the leaves were mostly down, but the hiking was still good.  Nina up-ed her game.

On the Friday we went to the Ragged Falls outside of Algonquin Park.  I was pretty short, but pretty none the less.  This picture is from that trail.  It was a beautiful day.

The next day was also beautiful and we went on this trail on the far side of the park.  I can't remember the name of it now, but it was quite long and arduous.  We took stops along the way to get "power-ups" and Nina fared marvelously.  In the afternoon we went on a canoe trip and circled around an island that we called Halloween Island.

Sunday was sort of rainy, but we went out anyway to the Track and Tower.  This was also a long and tricky trail.  All of us made it but it was a hard hike.

On Monday before we went back home, we did one more smaller trail - Hemlock Bluff.  It was longer than expected, but a pretty trail.  With these three hikes, Nina surely earned her badges.  Next year we may try the Centennial Trail.  I took a number of nice pictures this year and I think I will start a separate blog for the Algonquin trips.  Stay tuned.

Finishing with a Smile

Nina had her first cross-country meet on Tuesday.  They had been practising three times a week at the school for about a month.  She would trot at her own pace and manage to do several laps without stopping.  Slow and steady.

Leading up to the race day she was saying that she was nervous.  It was a beautiful autumn day for the race.  There were separate races for boys and girls and for different grades.  At her school there were nine girls in her grade going for the run.

The principal gathered the girls and told them what to expect.  One of the girls said "You have to go and follow the rabbit".  The principal snapped "No. You don't go out there and follow the rabbit - you go out there and catch the rabbit!".  It was a good pep talk.

At the starting line, the girls from the different schools lined up together.  Her school was allowed four spots, so they lined up four - four - one, with Nina being the one at the back.

When they took off from the starting line, Silvina said that she saw Nina leaving at the end of the pack and was worried about the outcome.

I was at the finish line watching all the girls come in.  The first girl was pretty tiny with red checks and was smiling as she sprinted in far ahead of the others.  Like a Poisson distribution the other girls filed in. A couple of Nina's classmates finished near the front, but no sign of Nina.

I looked towards the end of the pack, but before I got there I saw her running spiritedly across the hill.  As she rounded the bend I saw the  determination in her face to get to the finish line.  She was running hard, and passing some girls who had lost their steam.

Although many of the girls had crossed the finish line before her, she crossed it running, and I was proud of her.  She even beat a couple of her classmates.