Theme Park - a Day to remember forever

I think we had the nicest family day out in absolute YEARS. We decided to surprise the kids with a trip to the only Theme park in Western Canada. We told the kids that we were going shopping to the mall in the North of Town and it wasnt' till we went through the park gates did their mouths drop open. We have lived here for 3 years but we were lucky to go to Disneyland Paris the year that we moved and then last year we combined ABR in California with an extended trip around Disneyland for a joint birthday treat.

We got there shortly after the park opened and headed straight for the washroom lol! They spotted the kids Dodgems first and Oatie was 2 inches clear of being able to go on more of the bigger rides. The rides were colour coded so you could see at a glance who could and couldn't go on which ride which was neat.

So the went on the Dogems first, and Oatie managed to drive the car a bit and then got stuck for the remainder of the ride. So I have noticed that if you revisit something that he has got stuck on a little while later then he's had time for his brain to work it out. As he had to push the pedal with his feet and was independent driving something he has never done before. We went on the log flume and yes we demonstrated our Englishness... it was a hot 25'C blue skies and there i am pulling out our waterproof jackets. Well if you have ever been around Thorpe park in England and wearing jeans, (5 huge WATER rides if not more) you never go to a theme park ever again without them! It was nice we still got wet but just not saturated. Then we went on some trains, had a lovely lunch wattched the princess show, some more car rides, spiny ones, swinging boats, my husband and my older two went on the biggest ride the roller coaster and Oatie and i went on springy cars and hot air balloon ride (mini ferris wheel) we had delicious mini donuts for snack and then we went on a few more rides before I came across BLUE, yes BLUE candy floss (cotton candy) and it was just amazing in England with the humidity it's stickier and not as fluffy, but this was just amazing. Went on a few more rides before we headed back to the dodgems and this time Oatie got the hang of it, and got stuck and managed to steer out of the jam or wall and had the most beautiful manners, he said excuse me each time he bumped someone... he did so well, that we requeued and did it one last time where he drove around just like my other two and he also rode a few rides without me or my husband as we were too big and his brother and sister had their arm around him and you could just see that he grew, during the day. For the last ride we insanely headed back to the log flume and got we one for the road.


It was so nice to be able to go to a place where by disability was by the wayside and we got to all have a fun filled day out.

It's been Chopped!

Well I've done it. I hung on to my hair for a few more months. A friend of a friend was diagnosed with Cancer and it was uncanny how similar our hair colour was to each other. Anyway this lady had a hard time getting a wig and wanted to use hers and her daughters hair and with my hair we would have been over half way to getting a wig.

I have found that it is really hard to donate your hair. It's political and corrupt and in fact a total nightmare. You think one place is reputable and then it isn't and then you think another place is and then you see reviews or hear of that being corrupt!

I got in to donating my hair as I raise money for a variety of charities and well apart from asking the same people over and over and over again for sponsorship... Growing my hair is "free" and I know that wig makers love Indian hair it's the one that they apparently prefer to use so I purposefully grow to donate. Yep i'm the duffs who sits in a hot tub with my hair in a swimming cap... and yes I have a large volume swimming cap made by Speedo, I don't know if it would fit Marge Simpsons hairdo in it but When I donated 2 lengths last time my hair was below my waist and that fitted in the swim cap. Last time I had to post my hair to the USA... This time it can stay in Canada.

A lot of people are now beginning to SELL their hair and then donate that money to charity... Well I went for Pantene beautiful lengths, hopping in the fact that it's a large public multinational company if there was any profiteering from the hair that it would come to light... It was also an unbraided 8 inches donation I gave them 11.

The problem with all these hair donation places is that it is unregulated, and some of the people profiteer from (sell it), if it isn't cut properly it gets thrown in the bin.... Which when you have spent 2+ years growing your hair for someone who is going through the fight of their life you just want these people to have hair/wig if they wish to have one...

Know the upset and despair that this lady (friend of a friend) went through with not getting a wig and then then being quoted $000's in to making a wig... it is just ridiculous... What I found more shocking was that well 5 of us had hair for her... and it takes between 6-8 donations to make a wig.... this lady and her daughters and I gave our hair away and this lady gets a synthetic wig from a wig exchange company. Don't you think that this is just wrong, apparently this lady didn't qualify for a wig. Just last week another friend of mine contacted me to offer her hair....

There are so many other uses for hair, some environmental groups make Boom's from hair and animal fur to collect oil from oil spillages.... they can even used dreadlocks...

I know hair is relatively free... (I say that the cost of hairbands that i have had/gone through lol! well I let my hair air dry as much as possible lol!) but it is the one thing that they can't manufacturer, which is why I think it's so special.... they can manufacturer synthetics but not the real McCoy.

What is more annoying is that some places (who take hair donations) want 8 inches unbraided, some want 10 braided... and some wont' accept grey, it costs money for hairdressers to post of donations so they just throw someones ponytail in the bin...
I wished that there was a national or international hair programme whereby you can donate you hair whatever condition it is, permed, grey, highlighted and it gets used for the best it can be used for... the wigs could be given out for free... Considering the cancer rates these days and having 3 out of 4 of my grandparents who have all died from cancer....

I know you probably are shouting what's the fuss it's just hair. Well have you ever come out from the hairdressers when you have had a hair disaster and think OMG! I had my hair cut on our honeymoon and I got a flattop from this hairdresser who hated English people, Well at least it grew back... I think that people who are facing cancer should have the choice, if they wish to have a wig or not, and if they wish to have one to not have to pay for it if they can't afford it and not have some external person telling them that they have to pay for it. You know if you can afford it by not blanching at the cost of paying for it.

Each time I have donated my hair, the places I can donate to have changed, not running anymore, I wonder if any of it has actually got to a person that I have intended it for-to. Or did it end up on some rich person who wanted hair extensions and have been sold twice?

Well I'm growing my hair to donate again, in good faith. If by my next donation, I have more than 5% of Grey hair then I can't donate to Pantene next time... maybe we should campaign to them to accept grey hair. Like one wig manufacturer said, not everyone wants to be a bottle blonde, some want to have their wig to look like 'them'.

One week left of the holidays....

I have to say that I have really enjoyed the Summer holidays on the whole.  The kids had a great time at Skate Camp, we got two of them swimming and I have been making a figure skating dress for my daughter who is skating to a piece from the Nutcracker.


I love the holidays, the older two have like an ironman training during Skate camp, it starts up on the last week of school... they are on the ice for 3.5 hours a day, Monday to Friday, Run and bike outside, Swim, yoga, skate, dance for 3.5 weeks, they do group dances with the whole club from Senior skaters down to the junior skaters, the older ones team up with the little ones and the kids totally love it, with their friends who range from my daughters Age of 6 to 16.  After that, for the next 5 weeks, they just chil.


Oatie has got out on his bike a lot more and this tricycle is very basic, my eldest had it when he was 1.  The pedals are really hard to push, and Oatie actually managed two pushes.  I hope this April when the CP bike clinic is open that the cost of a special bike for him isn't out of our reach as I think this year he might be ready for a real bike.


The holidays are a time when the kids can rest emotionally, I think, there is no bullying or stress or illness, no one has been ill once.  Next week two of mine are starting a new school together.  Oatie is returning to where he started last year, but his amazing fantastic aide moved back East so I hope we don't have what we had last year.


Tomorrow we're surprising the kids with a trip to a mini theme park to enjoy most of the rides you have to be 36inches in height and phew Oatie cleared that, we're not telling them till we get there.


I decided to take the week off ABR, as next week is going to be crazy so I thought might as well have one more week of just enjoying the kids as I know it's cliché, but they are growing up so fast.

Fell of the wagon

Well I think I spent more time on the title than on the actual post lol!  Well I kind of fell off the wagon with my ABR since the operation.  I still can't swim more than 50metres without a tugging feeling in my throat (used to swim 2000metres before the operation 5 times a week).  And my ABR hours fell off the radar (it used to hurt to do ABR well even wear a round necked top).... and I found it really hard to get back in to my ABR routine, especially during the holidays. Well there was one very special family that got me back on track :), who are really special friends over at Healing, Empowering and Thriving, I wouldn't have got going again without them.  The ABR trainer was also lovely, he broke our routine down to baby step to get us going again.  Well we have got our hours back up to 2.5-3 hours a day.  The challenge is that you have to use both hands obviously and having your 8 and 6 year old at home during the day too has been inventive to keep them occupied while my hands are occupied if you know what I mean.  I'm finally getting the hang of it with 1.5 weeks left!!!


We have taken the kids swimming almost every day and finally got my eldest to swim 20m and my daughter 15m.  Their goal each is to swim 25m by the end of the holidays.


Well on a side note, I have to say that I absolutely HATE it when I see other families with their1-2 year old COMPLAINING that they can walk or they can RUN. "Oh I can't STAND that X can walk, I'm always RUNNING after them" arghgghghghghghgh In fact I think I always have!  My daughter didn't walk till she was 2 and I found that restrictive back then, couldn't put her down on the floor (rains a lot in England) and she wouldn't/refused to stand up (I found out that she didn't want to get her pink shoes dirty).  4 years with Oatie now.  I think from being such an outdoorsy person that I find that the hardest.  There are some amazing adaptive gear out there now.... look at Everyone Outdoors.  It's because it's so expensive like a 4 year olds bike is $100-150 for Oatie it would be at least $800 and when they need a new bike it's another $800+ so somethings we will just have to wait :)


Well sorry if there are bits missing in my sentences my keyboard is cutting out every 8 seconds! 

Why is everything excluding!

Well... we have found that the Nintendo Wii is a platform that they can all play together, have fun and it's not desk bound like the computer so it works well... Oatie can sit on the beanbags just as well as my older two... so it's a nice equalizer...

We usually play Mario kart as it's challenging for each who play and everyone get something different out of it. Anyway the Easter Bunny did bring Mario the Olympics for Easter this year and we never opened it... my belief was that we were totally SICK and TIRED of snow and couldn't face seeing another vision of it on the TV either!

Well now it's 25-30oC outside, we're all quite happy to cool off and play it....

Well it was just something that I noticed. Mario Kart the last player doesn't have to finish it, for the game to move on... it will just end it when the 11th player finishes,,, 8 out of the 12 is the computer playing.... The Olympics Mario, not the case....

Oatie can't make it around a course of Mario, he know's he can't but he's quite happy picking his character, team and kart and joining in and having fun. He is getting better, he knows that the blocks have special things etc... and just loves it.

As you know that Oatie's dream is to skate.... the Winter had the figure skating, naturally my son creamed me... on ice and land with figure skating... he got his jumps to perfection and well my Mii wobbled on it's landing... lol! i was chuffed that I could look good skating somewhere even if it was pretend lol!

Oatie's face BEAMED on the figure skating as it skates around and finishes after a set time, so if you manage a jump you manage a jump etc...

So, why oh why doesn't the Wii have an option to select a player to finish after a set time or say that they have "special needs/co-ordination" mode... as well not just Oatie what about people with balance problems or all sorts... I can't believe that a device like that doesn't think that people who are physically challenged for whatever reason doesn't want to play too.

So our stop gap for that is that they quit the game and move on, that Way Oatie thinks it just finished (like Mario Kart) as if either my son or daughter try to finish his characters lap for him, he gets very angry.... like the cats have their paws over their ears ANGRY! "No I do it!!! and then a high pitched window shattering SCREAM"

Long Weekend

We've had a really nice long weekend. We've taken the kids for an ice Skate and Swim on the Friday & Saturday

Then we went for a Starbucks to cool down...

We watched Star Wars, had a water balloon "fight" that was just so much fun... Oatie was in the middle of it just squirting everyone! That was just so much fun.... Followed by a BBQ. Lots of bike riding. My eldest has outgrown his bike and we said that he could have a bigger bike if he managed to come around the estate with me. So he cycled a 4km circuit around two blocks of our neighboring acreages.

We've played the Wii, baked banana bread, re-organized the kitchen and even got some ABR in too! Played some board games to get out the heat...