Posts Tagged ‘Annie’

Alt. cartoonist Chester Brown signing a copy of his Louis Riel

Margaret Atwood, taken from just outside a packed tent with me using full zoom on my telephoto

One of the TVO Kids TV Hosts On Stage

Jian Ghomeshi and a Literary Panel on Stage

My own little celebrity, Annie, at the Where the Wild Things Are promo cutout

This afternoon Annie had her piano recital. She goes to Beach Music Studio where she takes piano and song.

I was wondering why she wanted to go dressed in one of her dress-like dressing gowns, but as her teacher explained at the start of the show, Annie was a “double-threat”.

Annie Playing her Piano Tune

Turns out she had arranged to do a song-and-dance routine with her music teacher, singing “Barbie Girl” with her.

Annie and Her Music Teacher Singing “Barbie Girl”

Despite a few duff notes here and it was a good show, and it was interesting to see other students showing improvement over previous performances.

Annie Posing for a Shot by the Piano

I walked the kids home and got them lunch at the local Licks restaurant while Erika went off for another trumpet performance downtown.

The kids started playing with the neighbours, and after a while Vanessa came in and asked me what the world-record was for hopscotch length. She and Devin from a couple of doors over had made a hopscotch path that led all the way up the block, and went up to 550 (which unfortunately is a fraction of the world’s largest). Still, they had fun with it, as did I in taking pics of Vanessa hopscotching up the sidewalk.

Vanessa Making Her Way Up the Mega-Hopscotch on the Sidewalk

We held Annie’s birthday party today — well over a month before her actual birthday since we’ve discovered that it is hard to get ahold of her friends for anything outside of the school year. It was a relatively small affair this year: a sleepover with three young friends invited (only one of whom ended up staying the night).

Cake was courtesy of Dufflet Pastry, from a gift certificate Annie won in a contest earlier in the year. Vanilla cake with chocolate icing – yum!

It was a rainy day all day, and having promised the kids attending that they could expect to go in Annie’s jumping castle, we actually managed to set the thing up in the living room. All possible breakables were moved away, and everything worked as expected, Annie’s friends working off their sugar intake a bit in the process.

Good show this year.

I took the girls down to the beach, walking straight down from our house. (Unfortunately Erika had an important practice to go to, so wasn’t there for it. This time last year, I was away in China, so I missed out on last year’s show).

Everything started at about 9:45pm and lasted for maybe 15-20 minutes. Lots of very noisy fun!

The following pics are a small selection of favorites I took during the show.

Annie illuminated by the light of a sparkler

Another pic from Annie’s soccer class. Best pic of the bunch, where unfortunately she gets faked-out by the boy beside her, while another boy in goal looks on.

Labels: Annie. soccer

Annie at Another Soccer Practice

My youngest daughter at her soccer class.

Love how everyone’s in motion in this pic.

Annie Chasing the Ball

Annie’s started a class at a local recreation center where she is learning to play soccer. She plays with a lot of kids who are bit younger than her, so she is soaking up what the teacher tells her while the rest (mostly boys) tend to fidget a lot.

During the last 15 minutes of the hour-long class they let them play a game. Annie managed to score two goals, for a 2-0 win!

I heard about this place from a colleague of mine at work, who took his son to this museum. Coincidentally, the day or so before it had been officially changed its name to the “Canadian Air and Space Museum”. Vanessa was away all day, so Annie and I made the trek all the way up to Downsview via TTC and got to the museum, which is housed in the old de Havilland Canada aircraft manufacturing building (basically a big old warehouse).

The Entrance to the Museum

A restored Tiger Moth

The vintage maple leaf on the Tiger Moth

Avro Lancaster being restored and the Avro Arrow replica

Full-sized Avro Arrow Replica

This was the Avro Lancaster that had formerly been mounted on a podium near the CNE grounds, and was a familiar site when driving around that part of Lakshore when I was a kid. One of the people there told me that mounting the plane had permanently rendered it unflyable, but the current restoration effort was trying to fix up the plane as much as possible. Made during the final stages of WWII, she never say any action and was in fact pressed into service to help in search and rescue efforts on the coast prior to being “mounted”.

One of the Merlin engines of the Lancaster

I found this an interesting object to photograph: a thoroughly shot-up fuselage of a Lancaster that was used as target practice at a firing range, which apparently still had some useful parts for the reconstruction effort.

The “Ruhr Express” nose marking, which has an interesting history

The iconic British markings from the Lancaster

A classic from the 1930s: A Stinston Reliant

It’s spotless rotary engine

Not just airplanes, but training gear as well: a Link Trainer.

The first human-carrying ornithopter to actually fly

Annie is a-okay in the cockpit

A Bell CH-136 Kiowa Helicopter

A Beechcraft CT-134 Musketeer trainer

Interior of an Air Canada Viscount Simulator

Gears, motor and armatures behind the Viscount Simulator. Flame Out!

Had a great time walking down by the beach with Annie, where we both threw sticks along a shallow and completely frozen pond-sized puddle for Yo-Bob to fetch. The slippery ice meant that stick slid further than it would normally go. That extra distance meant that YoBob really hit his top stick-chasing stride when he had to stop — which meant that he did a lot of sliding around. He was thorough exhausted after only a few throws, but as in this shot, was perfectly happy to retrieve the stick!

YoBob Retrieving a Stick on Ice

Adding further to our menagerie we went to the local pet store by Queen and Coxwell today in order to get a small aquarium and goldfish for Annie. She’s been wanting her own pet for a while now, and since Vanessa has been cleaning up after my Aunt Jane’s cat Nick (who we have been “cat sitting” while she is away on her regular holiday season trip to visit with friends in Seattle) in order to prove she can handle a cat of her own, it only seems fair to get Annie something she can look after.

I picked out a small Hagan-made aquarium kit. Small (less than 8 litres) and wholly made of molded plastic (so no seals between glass and metal that could fail), it also came with colourful orange gravel (which matches the trim and the plastic cover) a filter, plus some goldfish food and some water conditioner.

We picked out three fish. Annie chose the smallest goldfish available from a “feeder” tank and named it “Goldie” (of course). I also let her choose one from a tank of small fancy goldfish above it, whose mottled white and gold colouring she called “Snowgold”. The pet shop owner then let Vanessa pick one out and she picked a somewhat larger goldfish from the feeder tank she named “Clicker”.

Assembly took next to no time, especially since both girls were keen to help out, and so all three fish we in their new home within half an hour of us bringing them home.

Annie was beaming with happiness at the end of it all.

Next, a new kitten for Vanessa.