Remembrance Day 11-11-11

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Lieut.-Col. John McCrae

 November 11th. 11th hour. We remember our soldiers bravery.

I'm off to my kid's school's Remembrance Day ceremony.  It is always so beautiful.  They show a slideshow of the kids family members who served in the war.  As far as I know none of my relatives were in World War I, but my dad served in the Angola war against Portugal and I believe my Father-in-law served in WWII.

Will you be attending a Remembrance Day ceremony?

Or just have a moment of silence at the 11th Hour?

CAN YOU HELP MY FRIEND BUY FARM ANIMALS?


My friend and fellow blogger Carla at My Half Dozen daily recently posted asking her readers to help her raise enough money to buy a goat, 2 hens, & a rooster for World Vision Canada!!! She was hoping to raise $150 which would help provide a supply of nutritious eggs, milk and cheese for food and income for a family.  Last time I checked, Carla (with the help of her fellow bloggers and readers) has raised over $500, and has increased her goal.  I am sharing this with you, cause I'm hoping you can join us in raising more money.  The minimum donation she is asking for is $1.00 through Paypal.  Please email  Carla at moraliaweblog (at) yahoo (dot) ca for her Paypal addy!!


She is keeping a running total on her side bar of how much money she has raised and what she is hoping to buy with the money. 
 
Bloggers and readers... let's unite and Bless another family less fortunate.

My Baby Girl is 11!

 Today is my baby girl's 11th birthday!



Today I picked her up from school for lunch.

I asked where she wanted to go... Eastside Mario's, Boston Pizza or Tim Horton's.

She picked Tim Horton's because she wanted to try the Lasagna Casserole Soup that she has heard about.

She ended up getting a Turkey BLT sandwich and Honey Cruller Donut (her grandpa's favourite).

We then picked up some cupcakes for her 27 classmates. Of course we got the vanilla cupcakes (and a couple chocolates ones for the other kids). She was excited to share the sugar with her friends.

For dinner I asked what meal she wanted me to make. She wanted me to make her canja (a Portuguese Chicken soup) .

This coming weekend she has decided to invite two of her friends to see Puss 'n Boots and then dinner afterwards.

Happy Birthday Haley, I hope you had a good one.

It's official.... We Have a Teenager in the House!

Yesterday, was Sydney's birthday! She is officially a teenager!

We celebrated her 13th birthday, by going to see The London Knights at the JLC.  Hubby's work was hosting the company with box seats.  Corey Perry's #94 was retired from London Knights last night. It was cool to be there!

Hubby also arranged a few surprises for Sydney.

She got her name on the big billboard for the 9,000 fans to see.

 (after all, they were all there for her... not the hockey game or to see Corey Perry.  lol)

She got a cupcake while we all sang Happy Birthday to her.  She was a little shy.

Then she quickly ripped the ribbon off and ate the cupcake.

I think she a fun evening.

Today she is going to go see Puss'n Boots with a friend and then dinner afterwards.

Time Flies.  Feels like only yesterday, that we found out we were expecting our first baby!

Welcome to your teen years baby girl.

Can you guess What I'm up to?

I'm busy today... really busy!

Can you guess what I'm up to?

I'll give you two virtual cookies to whom ever guesses what I'm up to. :)

My Scary Ghouls

Hello,

I hope you all had a safe Halloween night!  We had a total of six kids come to our door trick or treating.  Two of them were the neighbors kids that went trick or treating with Anthony and the other 4 were Haley's friends that came calling on her.  So now we have tons of candy that I will need to freeze and hide (from me). Last year we had 15 kids and this year we had 6, the numbers are dwindling.  Granted it was raining last night, and we don't have a sidewalk on our side of the street, but hubby did say their lots of kids out.

Today I thought I would share some pics from last night. Beware they are quite scary!  lol



Watch out!  He's going to....



...bite you!! The red marks are supposed to be blood. ;-)

Haley is a fashion Barbie (of course she is!)

Her imitation of Marilyn Monroe. (she didn't even know who she was)

No autographs please!

Sydney is a Red M & M.

with matching red lipstick!

Sydney will be 13 in a couple of days, and she declared this morning, that this will be the last year she goes out trick or treating. She feels she is "too old" to go out. 

Did your kids go out? We're your trick or treating numbers down as well and now you are "stuck" with a bunch of candy? And most importantly, what age do you think is to old to trick or treat?

A new Camera

Well Hi there!

I think I might have mentioned here awhile ago that my point and shoot camera was on the fritz. Well it ended up dying last Spring. At first I thought it was the battery, so I fiddled with the back-up battery and kept switching them up.  I think it was in April and I was in mid-picture taking at Canada's Wonderland and the shutter wouldn't close. I came home switched the batteries again... and nothing... nada... zilch... zippo.  I brought it to a local camera store and they said I couldn't order another battery, and the cost to have the camera looked at was about 1/2 the cost of buying a new one.  hmmm... no thanks. 
So the entire summer I did not get a decent picture of my kids.  We had Anthony's birthday... no camera.  We went camping... no camera.  Pool... no camera.  First days of school... no camera.  I can go on, but I think you get the idea. Oh yeah, and no blogging, cause who wants to blog without pretty pictures to upload.
Well, with Halloween and the girl's birthday's coming up, I had had enough.  The number one thing on my Christmas and Birthday list was a new camera. A new expensive DSLR camera.  That's all I want.  And yes, I have been quite vocal about telling hubby.  So this weekend I sweet talked hubby and off we went to talk to the fine knowledgeable folks at  Henry's and after about 2 hours and a quick lunch we walked out with my new camera!!!

We went with this one from Sony ...  SONY ALPHA A55 DSLR W/18-55 LENS


 

We also, bought an extra lense... cause I knew if I didn't do it now, I never would.

SONY ALPHA 75-300MM F4.5-5.6 ZOOM LENS

I had certain criteria that had to be met for my ideal camera.
 
Are you ready?  This is what I told Caralyn at Henry's..
 
"It has to take pictures fast... and I have to be able to be in the back of the school gymnasium and take pictures of my kids singing/performing/standing on the school stage."
 
Pretty technical stuff huh?
 
So after two hours and looking and testing a bunch of cameras, this is the one that met my criteria.
 
I took the kids to the park yesterday and took a bunch (about 300) pictures, I'll share those later on these week.  But here's one that I just love (and the one up top too).
 

Thanks to my hubby for my early birthday/Christmas/Valentines/Anniversary/Easter/ Groundhog and-every-other-holiday gift!

I am very happy!

So it's gonna be quite the learning curve, considering this past summer I have been taking pictures with my cell phone. I might take a photography class or two as well. Have you seen any on-line that you would recommend?