Posts

September or Bust

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marshmallows roasting over open campfireI realize by writing this I’ll appear a horribly thankless Canadian mother, but I am SO DONE with summer.  By the time I post this story, school will have been out for 52 days, 18 hours and 10 minutes in Toronto (not that I’m counting … daily).  So like all parents trying to fill two relentless months of unstructured childhood, we have camped, cottaged and cavorted in the great outdoors until my obsessive UV protection practices have all but sunscreened the prints off my own fingers. Read more

Pool It Together

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“LOOK Mama, LOOK!” Delia demanded as she plunged into another frantic underwater handstand.  Had there been a lifeguard within eyeshot, a full-blown rescue would have ensued.  I offered my requisite clapping from the poolside deck.  Read more

Slippery Slope

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In our family, the last day of school not only marks the beginning of that parental oxymoron, summer holidays, but it’s also the eve of our annual road trip to the magnificent, cascading waters of Niagara Falls.  Of course, I’d be referring to the six-story indoor waterpark at the Skyline hotel.

What was originally a one-off end of school celebration in 2008 has since become a seasonal tradition for my kids.  Yet from their perspective, the splendor of Canada’s Horseshoe Falls is but a soggy second compared to Fallsview’s manmade rapids shooting down winding fiberglass slides with such fitting names as Kamikaze, Sky Screamer and Canyon Drop. Read more