Celebrating Eid part 1

Hello Internets! Eid Greetings, Happy Saturday and all that…

Remember my video blogging event... I think I’ll have to give you the delayed, condensed version of the day because here’s the thing – that plan was a teeny bit too ambitious… you know, given the 3 kids and the sink of dirty dishes, and so on…

In the meantime, here are some pics of the boys from this morning.

The magical art of facebooking

Facebook, oh how I love thee…

Back in May when I signed up for Facebook, I did it ritually… another social network site that I had to be a part of, for, you know, networking. And what I thought was that I would be able to build upon my relationships with other bloggers and my reader community. Of course some of that did happen, I do communicate with some of my readers on a more personal level through Facebook, but what I didn’t expect, was that I would connect with many people from my “real’ life.

For the past months, I have been finding old friends, classmates, colleagues, even some of those not-too-fond-off acquaintances, and as I reminisce, my husband would roll his eyes and give me his look of complete disinterest. You see, up until last week, my dear husband had no interest in finding people from his past, “why would I want to find anyone”, he naively said, trying to convince himself, I think, because this past week, I have had to listen to many, many stories of the little geeky, indian boy and his thrilling childhood misadventures! Most of the time I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation! Ummm, sort of. Needless to say, I have not uttered another word about my past.

Nostalgia people, you gotta love it!

It’s a funny Facebook phenomenon, but although we first get in touch with classmates from college or high school, it seems that the ones from elementary school are the ones that we are most excited to catch up with! Is it the innocence of those friendships that we had at 7 and 8 years of age, that make them stand the test of time? Or is it because these are the people that knew us when we were at our best, before we developed “baggage”, before we became the flawed adults that we are? Or maybe it’s only because we’ve forgotten any of those very old wounds, that clearly pale in comparison to caring for a sick child, or losing a loved one?

The most amazing part though, must be the new friendships that are emerging, and blossoming, with people I’ve only just met, or with other bloggers, but especially with old classmates who I’ve overlooked growing up, and are now so thankful to have in my life!

Ah, the magic of Facebook!

Beginnings

Hi, I’m muslim. It’s September 11th today and I feel I should say something on the subject, but the truth is I’m tried. Tired of a lot of things, and sad about other things...

But, today I sent out postcards to a few of my American neighbors, as part of Karen’s postcard swap and I thought the theme of “beginnings” to be somewhat appropriate.

So, whatever it is that you’re beginning, I hope you find success, fulfillment, and happiness.

Love, Shaz.

What’s an adventure in Ontario without a trip to Niagara Falls

For Day 8 of our adventures, we went to Niagara Falls, and although I have been there countless times, I had not been there on a summer day in peak tourist season for years and it was really great, except of course for the fact that there was barely any standing room! Day 9 and 10 were kind of hacked – we went to a park each day, once for cricket and once just for a walk – come on people, could you do 10 days of ‘real’ adventures with 3 kids under 5?! Yeah, I figured not!

*the rest of this post consist only of photos.

Treasure hunting for everyone!

Finally, when I was given a turn to pick the adventure on Day 6, of course I chose IKEA! Now, if you’re thinking that IKEA is not a real adventure, you’ve obviously never gone with my 3 kids!

We let them go nuts in the kids section, and I would say that it was a successful adventure!

Adventuring with kids tip #5: A small shopping trip can be considered an adventure if you talk about it in the right tone and add in a generous sprinkling of excitement!

On Day 7, we went on to what I would consider the most adventurous adventure; we went geocaching (which you can read about on our brand spanking new shared blog).

This was certainly the most interesting thing that we did all week, also the least expensive, and the in the closest proximity to our house! I was completely shocked at this world that I had not even heard about previously, but apparently geocachers have been doing their thing since 2000, so it’s possible that I may be just about the only one who does not know about this! If you have the opportunity, I really recommend trying it out, but maybe not with small kids, I think ages 7 and up should be fine.

Adventuring with kids tip #6: Adventures do not need to be all day activities or far away from home – geocaching can be a very inexpensive, nearby, mini adventure on days when you don’t feel like venturing too far or for too long.