Questing

It's hard to believe, but 14 years have passed since Abigail Elizabeth made her way into the world and I became an aunt. I have always loved that title and loved spending time with this little bundle of joy. We've done some pretty cool stuff over the years (including seeing the Wiggles - a first time for both of us!) and this weekend we continued that tradition.

To celebrate Abby's 14th birthday we did an Urban Quest around London. Urban Quests are kinda like a scavenger hunt/amazing race-type deal. It's a really fun way to explore a new city or the one you live in. It took us about 2 hours to make our way around downtown, solving puzzles and searching for answers hidden in the architecture. Along the way I got to hear stories about what's happening with this recent grade 8 grad.

What a fun afternoon! We finished off with a late lunch on a patio and frozen yogurt on the way home.

I love these special days, set aside for celebrating my favourite kids. It gives me a great chance to spend one-on-one time with them and make some great memories too.

Abby, you have become such an amazing teenager! Don't change, my dear. Love you!

Monsters University

I love the movie Monsters Inc., so when I heard there was a prequel coming out, I was super pumped. I knew it would be on my list of movies to see this summer. Fortunately it was also on my niece Madison's list :)

So, we planned a day around it to celebrate her birthday. After a trip to the Petrolia Library (wow, nostalgia!) we headed to the brand new theatre in Sarnia to see Sully, Mike and Friends. As a bonus, we saw the movie in 3D. Fun!! It was a great movie, telling the back-story on how Sully & Mike met and became friends. Very cute.

Speaking of very cute, Madison read her library book to me all the way to Sarnia. She is a great reader, rarely stumbling over words and putting expression into the characters. It was great!

We had dinner at Montana's, ice cream under the bridge and headed home for a rousing game of Sorry! I love my special days with the nieces & nephews. It's time set aside for me to spend enjoying the character of who they have become.

Happy birthday Madison. Love you loads.

My Geo-Caching Adventure.

Last weekend I went on a geo-caching adventure with my nephew Josh. We were celebrating his 12th birthday.

My tradition is to do an experience gift with each of the kids and sometimes it is tough to come up with new ideas. However, I knew for months that geo-caching would be perfect for Josh. He is an outdoorsy kinda guy (just like his Dad) and has excellent attention to detail. Great attributes of a cacher (is that what they're called? I just made that up)

The day started out a little gray and chilly but soon warmed up when the sun peeked through the clouds. Our first stop was Purdy's Fish Market. It was the opening weekend for their riverside take out. Perfect! We enjoyed our fish & chips while sitting right beside the water. I must admit it, I had my hood up...but the fish was still yummy!

We parked the car at Canatara Park and set out for our first hunt. After orienting ourselves with the app on my phone and the compass, we located it! Success! In case you're wondering, geo-caching is like a treasure hunt with GPS coordinates. Most of the ones we found were just a log book that you sign and date and check "complete" on the app.

It was a lot of fun, as our adventure took us all over the park: down by the beach, near the animal farm and even climbing over/through trees in the wooded areas! We finished off the day with some ice cream in Point Edward.

I really enjoyed my day with Josh. He is such a neat kid. He doesn't say a lot, but takes in everything. He notices the smallest detail and more than once pointed out a small turtle in the distance or a certain type of duck swimming in the water. I was amazed at how knowledgeable he is about such things. I'm sure it comes from countless hours spent with his dad.

Happy birthday Josh! Love ya loads.

Small Boy, Good Taste

I recently had my nephew Liam over for dinner. He's five and loves music. He's constantly bee-bopping to the music in his head and has a great sense of rhythm.

goofing with iPad's PhotoBooth

While we were eating, I had my favourite playlist on Songza. Everything was fine until Bob Dylan came on. He asked me to please change it because he didn't like that one. I hit next and it was another Dylan song. He scrunched up his nose and shook his head. I agreed and told him that Dylan was an acquired taste. Maybe someday he would enjoy the classic.

The next song that came on was Simon & Garfunkel's Cecelia. His face lit up and he started groovin' right away. "I like this one, Auntie Janice!"

Ahhh, good boy Liam. A kindred spirit indeed!

Auntie Janice's Christmas Extravaganza

Each Christmas, I spend a lot of time considering the age and personality of each of my nieces and nephews. I come up with an appropriate gift idea, track it down, buy it, wrap it and on Christmas I see it added to the pile of other "stuff". After the gift wrap frenzy of last year, I decided to do something different that would mean something to both me and them.

Taking a cue from my birthday celebration with each of them, I decided to do an "experience" gift, and so began Auntie Janice's Christmas Extravaganza!

We made crafts, built-our-own pizzas, attended a church Christmas concert, watched Christmas movies, decorated cupcakes and had a lot of fun! No presents were wrapped and under the tree but each of these kids is a gift to me each day. (I know that sounds cheesy, and it is...but it's true.)

Abigail made me an auntie, so she'll always have a special place in my heart. She reminds me a lot of me when I was her age. She has a sweet personality, cares about others and is maturing into a wonderful teenager!

Joshua is a teddy bear. He's always been sensitive and cuddly. He's just like Daddy & Grandpa which just happen to be 2 of my favourite guys! He thinks about things and sometimes I can almost see the wheels turning inside but is a man of few words. Josh is really creative and is good with details.

Madison is independent and is free to be who she is without worrying about what others think. She is thoughtful and loves reading, going to the library and blogging! She is compassionate towards others and likes things to be fair.

Kaelyn is like a ray of sunshine. She is always smiling and sees the positive in everything. She is adventurous and not afraid to try much of anything. She loves to have fun and always makes me smile.

Jesse is a curious explorer, always asking the most interesting questions. He's very observant and picks up on details to file away in his little brain. He's very loveable and always has a hug and kiss for me. (and usually has to come running outside for one more before I leave)

Liam is quite the character. He loves music and dancing and is often moving to some beat in his head. He's a little sweetie pie that loves snuggles, always shares and is a really funny kid.

Janice 2.0

This weekend I had the privilege of hanging out with my niece Madison. We were finally celebrating her 9th birthday after some scheduling conflicts.

Madison has been patiently waiting to work on a scrapbook with me and for months has been asking me to help her set up a blog. I thought this was such a cute idea.

We spent a few hours at a local scrapbook store and she was so excited to create her layouts. I was impressed with her progress and by the time we left she had done 18 pages!

As luck would have it, London's Santa Claus parade was this weekend. So after a quick dinner we were off to scout out a spot for the parade. We saw lots of Christmasy characters and enjoyed some hot chocolate from the thermos.

Madison is such a neat kid. I'm impressed with how mature she is and the way she handles herself. We had some interesting discussions this weekend and I'm proud of how compassionate she is for others. She has really great ideas and is a smart cookie when it comes to naming provincial capitals, times tables and spelling.

The best part about our time together was creating her blog. She was so excited. It is a private blog so only people on her "readers list" can access it, but I'm going to include her first entry here. On the way home she sat in the back seat of the car and wrote a list of topics she's going to blog about. When I asked her to read the list to me, I was impressed.

• my first blogging experience
• feelings
• my Mom
• all about me
• animals

I thought that was fantastic for a nine year old! When I dropped her off, I told Steve I thought she was becoming Janice 2.0 with her new interests of scrapbooking, blogging ...and did I mention she likes the Beatles?!

Madison's first post:

For my first scrapbooking day me and my dad had to drive to Lambeth. When we got there I saw my aunt Janice. The scrapbooking place was called Memories on Main.  I got a scrapbooking kit for Christmas from aunt Janice. We had lots of fun scrapbooking with lots of smiles and laughs. The scrapbooking owner had a dog named Paige (that's my middle name). I wish we could go scrapbooking again. Their kid James helped me with scrapbooking. 

When we got back we had pizza for supper. Then we went to the Santa Claus parade. When we were there we had hot chocolate. Last in the parade was Santa. Before Santa we saw the Grinch twice.  It was so much fun going to the Santa Claus parade. When we got home we watched some Cloudy With The Chance of Meatballs.

Aunt Janice is helping me with this blog. Stay tuned for my next blog post.

Liam's Big Day

As if a day at Ilderton Fair wasn't enough, the next day I took my nephew Liam on his very first train ride. It was a beautiful day as we set off for Port Stanley and we chatted our way down the road, sunroof open! At five years old, Liam is at such a cute stage. There were many moments that I thought "I need to remember this" but before you know it, it's left my memory. Darn.

At one point, Liam looked at the man in the car stopped next to us at a light who was drinking a Rockstar energy drink. He declared that pop is full of sugar and not good for your body. As I laughed in my head at his maturity, I agreed and said it is not. He told me he doesn't eat sugar. (he does come from a very healthy home) I replied that sometimes it is ok just for a treat but he insisted it is not good for you... until I suggested we get ice cream. Then he thought it was ok!

The train ride was great. It was about an hour long including a stop where kids can get off and check out some parked train cars for photos. We rode in an open air car and it was beautiful to see the fall colours as we traveled through the countryside. Liam was thrilled.

I am so lucky to have such great nieces and nephews. I got lots of high fives, hugs, kisses, thank yous and I love yous from Liam while we spent our day together.

Kaelyn's Big Day

I spent most of this weekend with little people. Tradition states that each of my nieces & nephews spend a special day with Auntie Janice to celebrate their birthday. This weekend I did TWO of these days.

Saturday I picked Kaelyn up and we headed to Ilderton Fair. This is one of my favourite fall fairs and includes a lot of typical country fair events and exhibits. I knew it would be the perfect spot for me & Kaelyn to spend the day. After going to Dollywood this summer, I knew Kaelyn would be all about the rides, so that's where we headed first. We rode the ferris wheel, the tilt-a-whirl, the scrambler and a few that I don't remember the names of. We watched the time and at 4pm we headed over to watch the mutton busting. If you've never seen it, you really need to. Small children don helmets and knee pads and ride sheep until they fall off. It sounds cruel but it's a hoot to watch! (please note: the kids volunteer for the activity)

While we were over at the sheep pen, we walked by Olympic gold medalist Scott Moir. I had a star-struck moment and asked Kaelyn if she wanted her picture with him but she was more concerned about using the rest of our tickets on more rides!

The fair is a really great for observing. On one hand I loved the rural/agricultural feel of being in the country with tractors and animals surrounding us. On the other hand, we were at a fair...filled with the midway, bratty kids with a pocketful of tickets and carnies.

Kaelyn is one of the sweetest kids you'll meet. She nearly always has a positive outlook on things and is always smiling. We had a great day!

The Peanut

Seven years ago, after waiting at the hospital all night, I finally got to meet my nephew Jesse Harding Koiter. He has the distinction of being the only one of my nieces/nephews that I got to see when he was less than an hour old. Even before he was born, he acquired the nick name Peanut from me. This transpired when Jo-Anne told me she was pregnant and the baby was about the size of a peanut.

Jesse has developed into a really neat kid. He loves exploring, asking questions and being tactile. He's great at building things and making paper air planes. And he's really sweet too. More than once he has offered to share something he considers very precious...which is very precious.

This weekend we celebrated his birthday by going to Kitchener's The Museum. I had gone here a few years ago for a Warhol exhibit and remembered that it would be a cool place to take one of the kids. There's lots of things to explore (hands on) and currently there are special features on dinosaurs and a Yoko Ono exhibition.

The Wish Tree

We started off with a picnic lunch and some fun at the park before hitting the highway. Apparently someone had a little too much watermelon at lunch and we had to make an emergency exit from the highway for a pee on the side of the road!! The Museum was really fun - we explored sciencey stuff, laid on a bed of nails (!) and checked out the dinosaurs. I was a little surprised at how much he enjoyed the Yoko exhibit. It was very "hands on" so it makes sense that he was all over that. We wrote wishes and hung them on the wish tree, (Jesse's wish was "I wish I had a remote controlled jet") we drew pictures and put them on the wall of colour and we "mended" broken pottery by gluing it back together. Jesse was disappointed they didn't have tape. He loves tape.

Bed of Nails!

Perhaps the biggest excitement of the day came when we went to the gift shop. He brought his wallet and wanted to buy something. There was a lot of thought and consideration that went into his purchase and lots of questions for the girl at the counter. He finally settled on a wind-up robot that dances around. He was quite thrilled with him and spent most of the ride home looking at the little book that accompanied him.

One of my favourite things about my special birthday days with the kiddies is seeing their unique personalities develop and being a part of the process. Happy birthday Peanut. Love you!

The Strong Silent Type

A long time ago, there was a commercial that featured a blond-haired kid with glasses. He didn't say a word during the 30 second spot, but just dipped his french fries in ketchup and ate them.
My nephew Josh reminds me of Jay. The strong, silent type. He is a really neat kid but very, very quiet. When we do our birthday outings, I'm at a loss as to what to talk about. I usually get a "yes" "no" or shoulder shrug.

This year we went to see How To Train Your Dragon at the JLC in London. Before the show, we headed to The Works for a burger. I came prepared for our conversation time and had lots of questions to keep him talking. I must say, I was surprised at the response!

He told me all about fishing - the different kinds of fish, styles of fishing, how to filet them, eating them, how he likes playing baseball and football, he'd like to learn how to play the violin and I learned all about his vegetable garden. What a great time we had! And the dragons were pretty cool too.

What a cutie!

I recently spent the day with my niece Kaelyn to celebrate her 7th birthday. Celebrating birthdays this way is tradition with Auntie Janice and usually I post about it here. However, the month of December was a flurry of activity and it did not get done.

This pint-sized ray of sunshine is always fun to spend time with. Kaelyn has a happy-go-lucky nature and is easy to please on our outings. I've told her many times I'd like to carry her around in my pocket so I can pull her out when I'm having a bad day. As you can see in these photos, she is quite the cutie.

This year's celebration included a trip to The Grand Theatre to see Cinderella. How exciting! It was Kaelyn's first live performance. We got dressed in our very finest and attended an excellent production at the Grand. My little princess got lots of compliments on her outfit (including gloves) from everyone. We went for dinner at Prince Albert's diner and later in the evening made cookies and watched The Muppet's Christmas Carol (one of my faves)

What fun we had and I look forward to the next time Kaelyn :) Love you lots!

Silver Boots

I spent Sunday afternoon with my niece Abby. Twelve years ago, she made me an auntie which has been a pretty cool experience. And now, I can hardly believe she is on the verge of teenagerism and taller than her mom!

We spent the afternoon shopping while I got a glimpse of who she is becoming through her selection of stores and items she liked to look at and the constant chit chat about school, friends and things she thinks are cool.

Our first stop was Winners and when we wandered through the shoe section, I spotted what I knew would be the purchase of the day... silver sequined boots! Abby loved them and immediately tried them on. A perfect fit! We decided to put them "on hold" until we did some more shopping, just to be sure.

So we completed her Christmas shopping (one gift for her brother, one for her sister) and also picked up a sweater and t-shirt for her. But, we ended up back at Winners for the silver boots. She was over the moon!

We stopped at Coffee Lodge on the way home for a hot chocolate/coffee and I discovered her favourite subjects at school are very similar to what mine were. Music, art, french and she's good at math but doesn't like it. I played the grown up card and told her it would be a wise move to take french as long as she could and keep it up as a language. We also talked about music and I tried to educate her about my faves - explaining who the Beatles were and also the genius of Paul Simon :) I found out she's making a claymation video at school and I can't wait to see it!

A great day spent with one of my favourite little people (who's not so little anymore) AND...I was pretty proud when someone said she looks just like me. That's pretty cool.

Wisconsin

Another weekend, another date with my nieces and nephews. This time it was Madison's turn. Her birthday is actually in February but she was in Florida for her birthday. Then she returned when I was busy finishing up school...and then I bought a house...and finally we celebrated in October!

Our first idea was to make a scrapbook. Madison really likes crafts and I thought that would be something fun to do together. However, once I saw the forecast for the weekend, I knew we had to be outside. We opted to go apple picking at Apple Land. We had a great time with perfectly sunny skies. We picked apples, rode the train, had a picnic lunch, saw the animals and finally headed home.

We decided to make apple crisp with some of our apples and Madison did all the reading, measuring and mixing. All Auntie Janice did was use the knife to peel and cut the apples. It turned out great and she was able to take it home to share with Mommy & Daddy.

We had such a fun day together, I can't wait to do it again. Happy belated birthday Madison. I'm so happy you decided to join our family eight years ago :)

Liam's Big Day Out

As is tradition, I recently celebrated Liam's 4th birthday with a special day just for him. Jo-Anne brought both boys over for dinner on the Friday night. We had planned on having a fire in the back yard, but it was pouring rain, so we stayed inside instead. Having a wii makes Auntie Janice pretty popular with these boys and there was a lot of excitement while bowling, boxing and other wii games.

When it was time for bed, Jo-Anne & Jesse went home and Liam got to stay for a sleepover! In the morning, while we were having breakfast (and the day hadn't really started yet) Liam declared "this is the best day ever". LOL...cuteness. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and we hit the farmer's market before going to Green Lantern for lunch. You see, Jesse got to go to Green Lantern on his big day out (I think he just liked the name) and Liam had to do the same. He ordered a chocolate chip pancake...just like Jesse. It was cute.

After lunch we headed to Leaping Deer Legends Corn Maze. What a fun day! There is so much for kids to do here, we barely had time for the corn maze! Liam's favourite was the big slide, but other highlights were a wagon ride, feeding a baby goat, cheering on our favourite pig during the pig races, climbing on lots of straw, and of course a big (and I mean huge!) ice cream cone to end the day.

We had so much fun. Happy birthday Liam...can't believe you're four years old!! Love you so much. xo

The Peanut

My nephew Jesse recently turned 6 and as part of the celebration, he got to do something really special with Auntie Janice. Since Jesse has always been a huge fan of Lightning McQueen and the Cars movie in general I decided to take him to see real race cars. Actually, it was HIS idea and I thought it was a great one.

My friend Kim's brother races micro sprint cars, so I asked if we could go and see him race and get a "behind the scenes" look. Kim's dad was all over that and sent me free passes in the mail. Jesse was going to love it!

The day of "the big day out" as I like to call it, Jesse came over before lunch. First on the list was to play the wii. He LOVED it. Especially the boxing game. It was hilarious to watch him fling himself around like a wet noodle! When it was time for lunch, we consulted the Urban Spoon app on my iphone. Jesse thought The Green Lantern sounded cool so that's where we headed. He was quite thrilled to get a chocolate chip pancake for lunch...and he ate the whole thing!

The rest of the afternoon we spent making our way to Grand Bend Speedway, making stops along the way to meander through some interesting places. Of course, ice cream was on the agenda!

Once we got to the speedway, we walked around and found Mark. He was doing some maintenance to the car and explained a few things to Jesse. We decided to look around at the other cars and Jesse even got the chance to sit in one! Soon it was time for the races to begin. Exciting! They were loud, so we pulled out the earmuffs. The look on his face was priceless. We had a lot of fun.

Jesse had his first sleepover at Auntie Janice's that night and he did great! No tears or anything. In the morning I made chocolate chip pancakes as per his request and that was a big hit!

I had a blast hanging out with Jesse. Six year olds are such a great age....they are full of questions and everything is fascinating. During our drive to Grand Bend he didn't get bored once. He just looked out the window and gave me a running commentary of factoids he has picked up in his young years. He is quite hilarious. So, happy birthday Peanut! xo