Makeshift Story: Stop!

"Don't cut things with scissors that you are not supposed to cut"

I have a bunch to share today. A bit of thematic art, some squirrel saga updates, and a load of pictures from the week's activities and adventures. So without further ado:

1. The "Stop!/Permission" Series

Now that Linden has his own desk, he'll often go off to work on projects. Almost exclusively, these projects involve a series of pictures depicting a circle with a line through it, and some scene in the middle, letting everyone know what they should not be doing. It is perhaps inspired by these lovely signs that Juniper made for their doors:

Sigh. Anyway, Linden has his own versions -- so many that I could only choose a select few:

"Don't wake up before the sun is up on your clock!"

"No being mean to people or yelling at anyone"

"Stop being crazy"

2. Squirrel updates

You may remember the trouble we've been having with the squirrels eating all the birdseed from our feeder, and scaring off the wee birdies in the process. For awhile, the slippery squirrel shield worked (ie, the one from the video I posted), but they eventually found means of thwarting it. Clark has come up with various other solutions since then, including the most recent one, where he bought a remote control car, attached the inner mechanisms to a chopstick, and hooked it up it so that you could make the chopstick spin by using the remote. Ingenious though it was, the squirrels just thought it was amusing/annoying, and kept on munching away while the chopstick thumped at their bodies and tails. I have thrown snowballs at these things, trying to get them to go away, and they've just assumed I was throwing them food, and bounded up on the deck to see what I'm trying to give them, while I simultaneously squealed and slammed the deck door shut before they could venture inside.

In the meantime, however, they have upped their game. Not only have they been stealing our food, they have started stealing our Tibetan prayer flags (which, incidentally, Theresa brought us back from Bhutan years ago). I kid you not! Little jerks. So far, the squirrels are definitely winning this war.

3. Feed the birds....

Erin called me up on one particularly gorgeous day last week, and invited me on a walk through a marsh and forest trail, which boasted (among other things), a whole lot of chickadees who would happily land on your hand for a bit of seeds and nuts. It was thrilling! Check out the magic:

Erin and a friendly chickadee

A closeup of one on my hand

4. Museum Day
On Saturday, we went to Erin's monthly family yoga workshop, and sandwiched it between two different museums. The first was the Children's museum, where there was a special Thomas the Train Engine exhibit, and the second was the good ole' Nature Museum. The Thomas exhibit was a bit of bust - the line up to get in was ridiculous (Clark waited for at least 45 minutes with a bunch of screaming kids, dubbing it the "line-up of despair"), and then it was so crowded that you could hardly get a turn with any of the stuff. As one mother grumbled to her husband, "I'm really glad we just paid $40 so that he could play with trains here instead of at home". But the kids did have fun at the exhibit (Linden, in particular, was very serious about the huge train table), and the kids and I got to do a bunch of other fun stuff while Clark was waiting in line. In particular, we spent a good long time at the theatre exhibit, where Juniper took the stage in various different costumes, while Linden joyfully worked the light and sound booth. They even had some coded signs and symbols so that Juniper could indicate which lights and sounds should happen when.

A very dramatic queen

The blowing wind, I believe

Working the sound and light booth

One of the museum highlights - you get to stamp your passport at all the different areas or exhibits

In a driverless tuk-tuk

Front and centre at Linden's favourite part of the Thomas exhibit. Linden had to crawl under the table to claim that spot, with enough speed and dexterity to not lose his train to someone else in the process. He had it down to an art by the end.

I love this picture, because of the looming (and very creepy) Sir Tophan Hatt, staring at you from the background

The Nature museum was a hit as always. This time around, Linden and I went to a 3-D movie while Juniper and Clark went off to explore. When we found them some time later, they were enjoying the bug exhibit, having just preserved some beetles on pins ("for the museum's official collection!" Juniper excitedly informed me), and sketching some mounted butterflies.

Carefully pinning a beetle

The museum's "official collection". See if you can find Juniper, Clark and Linden's beetles!

5. Winterlude
We finally made it down to winterlude on Sunday. This is an awesome, big event that Ottawa puts on every year. There are loads of different activities, spread over both Ottawa and Hull (ie, across the river in Québec). Normally one of the main features is skating on the canal, but so far this year it has been too warm for the canal to remain open. Nonetheless, there was much to see and do - we chose to head to the area with the ice sculptures, and spent many hours enjoying the festivities.

As we were walking there, we found this amazing display of icicles. "How did that happen?", Juniper asked, then pondered: "I guess life is just a miracle". Not sure where that philosophical thought came from, but it was pretty cute!