Three At Last!

When you're little, it seems to take forever for another birthday to arrive, but last week Callum celebrated being THREE!

OlderSon and The Equestrienne booked a birthday party at the local 5-pin bowling alley (YAY! Glow In The Dark Bowling) but it turned out to be a brutal weather day with high winds, blowing snow and freezing temperatures, and not all the birthday guests could brave the roads to join in the Glow In The Dark fun.

Oh well, bad weather's to be expected in Canada for a February birthday. Perhaps Callum should celebrate an official birthday in June, like the Queen.

The Equestrienne created yet another work of art in the form of a scrumptious birthday cake. Cakes 1 and 2 were a train and a car. All forms of transport, I wonder what next year will be? I'm told that the big C on the tail stands for CallumAir.

He did a great job of blowing out the candles.

And then he ate one of the wings. And then it was prezzie time.

Like all little big boys, Callum's really into Matchbox cars. But he also got a toy kitchen complete with pots and pans and vegetables and pies, and has been having fun cooking dinners with it ever since.

Life's pretty good when you're THREE!

Angel

Does this look like an Angel to you?

Angel is a sculpture by local artist Ron Baird and was erected on the Sculpture Walk in September of 2010.

Ron Baird was the first director of our town's Latcham Gallery, and has donated another work, Nutum, which stands outside the Gallery building.

Angel is well travelled, first exhibited in Sudbury, Ontario, then in Ottawa, and then spending some time on the Baird property before being moved to Stouffville.

White on White

A little milder this morning. Mother Nature is giving us a break from the bitterly cold wind for a couple of days. Temperatures are forecasted to rise to the plus side of zero!

But probably not for long. We can't get rid of Old Man Winter that easily. Meanwhile I'll be puppysitting TessaDog for a couple of days, and I'm hoping to enjoy a walk in the forest without freezing my toes.

Colours

Outside, it's been so cold and windy, and everything is painted in black and white and grey. Typical February weather in Ontario. It seems that I haven't set eyes on green grass for so long. I miss it!

So when my former neighbours came for lunch and brought me these lovely flowers, the world brightened up considerably. I'm really looking forward to Spring.

Community Spaghetti

Last night YoungerSon, The Bride, Isaac and I enjoyed a splendid spaghetti dinner for $1.00 per person.

Yes, that's right.... just a buck each! Imagine!

A group of young families who are new to this community decided to rent the local Lions Club Hall and cook a spaghetti dinner for whoever would like to enjoy meeting new neighbours, and advertised it in the paper. Everyone welcome, bring a friend!

Sorry, no photos, I left my camera sitting on my kitchen chair in full view and then couldn't find it when it was time to leave the house!

The hall was full of folding tables set end to end, making seating for about 150. The dinner was a generous helping of spaghetti with meat sauce served on real china plates, fresh salad, a big slice of buttered calabrese bread, finishing up with homemade brownies and squares, and tea or coffee, and juice for the kids.
An unsupervised donation box was sitting on a table.... we were trusted to put in whatever we wished to donate. I peeked in, there were lots of $5 and $10 bills in there. Any profit was going to the local Food Bank.
Lots of toys were up on the stage for the kids to play with, to allow the adults to have an undisturbed chat with whoever happened to be sitting at your table.
There were young families with babies, lots of kids, some teens, people on their way home from work, some seniors, quite a cross section of the community.
People who have spent their whole lives here.
And people who only moved here in the past couple of years.

And lots and lots of smiles.

What a great thing those young families did for this community. I hope it happens again. Anything that brings the community together like that has got to be a Good Thing.

The story even made it as far as the Toronto Star! Here's the link.