Wednesday

Plans, of course, are vastly over rated. We ended up going to the Fabric Store in the morning and the Discovery Center in the afternoon (Neil got to come, which was a nice change). We went to the art supply store but everyone was too tired to deal with small hands and many desirable objects.

It's been two days since I've blogged so I will hit the high points.

The Discovery Center has a new exhibit (I forgot to take the camera, thus missing many super-cute shots!) I think it's about motion. Clearly, I didn't pay enough attention to the interpretation. There were some cool things to do - a simulated tornado to put your hand in and change the airflow, a ramp to roll things do and multiple buttons to push and things to see.
The kids got to show Neil the rest of the space and we discovered quite a few things we had missed the first time. One thing that Neil spent the most time on was testing his speed - against a sprinter, wheelchair sprinter and racehorse - and mine and Chloe and James' times. This involved alot of running down a simulated track. The kids spent the most time playing on a truck- that they could pretend to drive- they had great fun using the blocks as food? Who knows, it made sense at the time.

Yesterday (it's 3am) we went to the Shambhala Sunbeams program at the Shambhala School.

Here's a link to the school - you can see the outside of the building and read a little about their philosophy- pretty cool.

The program meets once a week (Tuesday for us) from 9.30am to noon. This means Tuesdays for the next four weeks are taken care of - yipeee! The School was built in 1916 and must have survived the explosion. Which is odd because it's only a block away from the water and a couple of blocks from the Hydrostone. Physically the building was lovely - the way they used to make schools with high ceilings, lots of dark wood and beautifully lighted rooms, lots of big windows! The progam was small - 8 children and their caregivers, one dad, one grandma and four mums. Everyone was very friendly and kind. The kids sang, danced and moved, and painted. It was very, very good for them to interact with children again. Chloe is missing her friends a great deal at the moment and talks about them often.

I managed to totally score too. We have been talking about going skating but haven't got skates yet. Outside the classroom was a box with skates, helmets etc. I got James a pair of skates for free and Chloe's for $5!!! They are in great shape. Now we just need skates for me and Neil and helmets for them.

I almost forgot to tell you about the most amazing wool shop I've ever seen, in the Hydrostone. Packed to the gills with the most incredible variety of wool. Not only mass produced but hand spun and dyed. Just lovely- I am determined to master my mittens and become A KNITTER! Neil got wool to make a scarf and he's done about 4 inches so far.

Today (did I mention it's gone 3am!) I'm going to go to step aerobics and then maybe drive across the bridge to Dartmouth. We drove by it today and the kids were entralled and begged to go over it. We got to see quite a few ships in the harbour- lots of naval vessels- made me realize how busy a port Halifax is.