Bleak

This afternoon during Evan's nap I took Vivian and Simran to - where else - St. Edwards Park. Within a few hundred yards of the car park the trail became a tangled mess of fallen-over dead trees and vines. Simran commented that the park looked very depressing. We imagined it to be the perfect setting for a depressing sad story. Vivian confused the word "impressive" with "depressing" and Simran helped her out. We passed a spooky tree stump - the remains of a tree struck by lightening. The stump was curiously filled with rocks and stones. Then we arrived at the knotted rope that hung down from a branch over a deeper portion of the creek.  We could almost imagine what it must look like in summer with children swinging off the trees and splashing into the creek. But today it looked desolate.

Vivian and Simran started weaving scary snippets into a scary story. By the time we walked back to the car they had quite a tale put together. They continued to build on it. Till we arrived at Amy's Ice Cream where the goodness of rich cream and chocolate wiped away all traces of bleakness.

Trip to Ramsey Park

Late Saturday morning the moms went to the movies. And Tim and I rounded up Evan and Ava and Vivian and walked to Ramsey Park.  As close as they are, Ava and Vivian are strong opinionated young ladies. Which means there is that tiny bit of respectful distance in their dealings. Evan on the other hand just loves Ava and doesn't hold back. But this last month Vivian and Ava seem to have grown even closer. It is fun to watch them together.

On this morning they ignored all structures specially built for children - like playscapes and swings and slides. Instead they ran to the top of the bleacher by the baseball field. And then they spent the rest of their time climbing inside this very twiggy brushy bush. From what I could catch of their conversations it appears that they imagined themselves to be wild girls who lived and slept in that bush.

A Bike Ride

On Thursday afternoon I had barely settled into the arm chair after a nice hot shower which was after an hour of soccer and a workout at Red Black gym earlier that morning when Vivian asked me to go outside with her. It was cold out there and I was tired and I almost said "No honey, stay indoors and watch a movie". A few minutes later we got warmly dressed and Vivian rode her bike to Rosedale School. Along the way she stopped to hug the old oak tree. Then we sat in the empty school park on the swings and chatted with each other for quite some time. I told Vivian how much I valued times like this. I think I embarrassed her into admitting the same.

Then Vivian said she wanted to go to the monkey bars which are on the other side of the school. After which we walked past the small vegetable gardens and she pointed out the vegetable plants and herbs by name. And then we were at the memorial garden. We walked by statuary with tiny plaques attesting to the short lives of many Rosedale students. Vivian asked me to read a few of them aloud. We finally arrived at the memorial wall. Vivian asked if I had known any of the dead students. I recognized several names, specially the two from this year. Vivian hugged me and softly slipped her hand into mine and we quietly walked back to her bike. A hundred yards down the street she was back to her normal self.

Happy Birthday Carol

Carol turned some respectable number of years old on Christmas day. Nicolle baked her a cake that contained a lot of strawberries. And the party was princess themed. This photograph is from Carol's perspective. It's hard to spot the tiara on her head in the foreground but it's there.

My dad woke up from his turkey-incuded after-lunch nap, took in the the pink explosion and tucked into the cake and ice creams.