I Met This Man...

This is Leon Leyson.

Leon is an amazing person with an amazing life story. He is courageous, lucky, kind, strong, and just plain amazing. I had the privaledge of hearing him speak at our school on Thurs. Leon is a survivor of the Holocaust. He is one of the survivors on Schindler's List. He told us his amazing story of life as a Jew and what being on Schindler's List meant to him and his family. He spoke for a little over and hour and it did not seem that long. His story was so riveting. He did lose 2 of his older brothers and his grandparents during this time but his parents, a brother, a sister and himself survived. He came to the US in 1949 as a displaced person and ended up in LA. He married and had two children of his own. I think it's important to remember this time in our history. Now, in the words of Leon himself, "You are all witnesses of what happened to me and you can share that so others don't forget."

Ben & The Olympic Torch

Ben came home from daycare with this picture in his backback.

He didn't tell us about this special event at daycare. Apparently the director of the daycare new the woman who is in the white suit who ran with the torch and she agreed to bring it in to show the kids. When he was asked about it he was quite excited to tell us all about it. He said that it was pretty heave, but not too heavy for him! (Although it is almost as tall as he is!) He explained that when he was holding it he did a little jogging on the spot just like the runners with the torch did! We told him how special it is that he got to hold the torch and not many people get to touch it. Personally, I am a bit jealous. We are so proud of Ben!

Festival du Voyager

It was the first weekend of Festival du Voyager here in Winnipeg. Chris is away in Florida (rough life) until tonight. The kids were climbing the walls, I was going to get no studying done, the weather was beautiful - only -6C. So I bundled them all up and headed down to the Forks in the van. After finding a parking spot, we walked around and took in all the sights. I didn't bring skates because we all know what happened last time I went skating. Plus, Ben and Sam aren't strong skaters so it would be pretty hard to get them all going on the ice.

An ice castle. Ben was disappointed he couldn't go inside. He will have to go to Quebec City sometime when he is older.

Typical boys watching the train going by on the train bridge!

This street car is open and has benches in it for you to put your skates on. Winnipeg is proud to have the longest outdoor skating area in Canada.

I propped the camera up and took this picture of the 4 of us.

This is a sun sphere. It is constructed of aluminum pipes and then they places a fine mesh netting over it and sprayed it with water. So it essentially a frozen sphere suspended from a train bridge. There is a hole in the bottom and if you crawl up inside there is a bench made from rope for you to sit on.

The boys inside the sphere.

Nova Scotia Snow!

The weather here has been a lot like in Nova Scotia the past few days. It has been damp and when it snowed yesterday, it was snowman snow. The kids had a great time building this snowman, who Ben named "Oatmeal"! Then we had a snowball fight followed by tunnel digging. We all had a great time. Even the dog who ended up with snowballs in his fur. The extra kid in the pictures is Aidan's friend Nathan.

Santa

This is a bit late being posted but better late than never.

I didn't actually think I would get a picture of the 3 boys with Santa this year. Sam can be very shy. We went to see Santa at the mall again this year and we had Sam all phyched up to see the man in red. As we were in line I asked him if he was going to sit on Santa's knee and he didn't seem to keen. When the boys were called for their turn, I haven't seen Sam moves so quickly and try to push his brothers out of his way to make sure he got on Santa's knee.

Our New Puppy!!!

He's not really new, this is the same pup we got in June, he just got a haircut and looks like a new puppy. I clipped Percy while the kids were in bed, so in the morning to get Ben out of bed I tild him we got a new puppy while he was sleeping. He came running out of his room greeted by the clipped Percy and said, "You're right Mommy, we did get a new puppy! I love him!!" Then I told him that it was really Percy with a new haircut and he replied, "You're right Mommy, it is Percy, but I think I will call him Thomas."!

Percy Before

Percy After I got to him with clippers!!

His legs still need a bit of work, he and I were both getting tired so we decided to stop. Percy was fabulous. Once he got over the noise of the clippers he just laid there and enjoyed his haircut. What a lot of hair he had!!! And I figure if nursing doesn't work out I could be dog groomer!

Remembrance Day on Valour Road

Pine Street in Winnipeg was renamed Valour Road after three men who live on the street, before going off to war, won the Victoria Cross during WWI. The three men were Cpl Leo Clark, Sgt. Maj. Frederick William Hall, and Lieut. Robert Shankland. Leo Clark and Fred Hall both died in the war and Robert Shankland died many years later at the age of 81.

Today was the 5th time they have held a Remembrance Day ceremony on Valour Rd at the memorial there. It was very nice. They gave the citation of each man that was published when they recieved the Victoria Cross. A relative of Cpl Clark was there to read about him. The man related to Cpl Clark was the grandson of Cpl Clark's brother.

The kids were realtively well behaved. The ceremony was just long enought. We laid our poppies on the monument after the service and each of the kids laid a poppy we made that said "thank you from (each child's name)". I made one too.

The kids and the poppy's we made. A heart shaped cookie cutter has many uses. Ben looks quite impressed, I'm not sure what his problem was.

Chris in his uniform on Valour Road.