Sean Cassidy comes to Bruce T. Lindley School

Thursday, June 18 Sean Cassidy came to my local school where Hunter attends grade 2.  We were pretty excited since we love Gummy Toes and Sometimes it's Good to be Small.  We also love his art in Wake up Henry and especially Hannah Bear's Christmas.  Not knowing his schedule, I einvited him for lunch.  Lots of times, authors and illustrators have to drive straight off to avoid the rush hour crush. But we were lucky.  I also attended the "readings" which were more  interactive drawing and reading motivational talks for the young and restless.  I loved how the kids got right into it, bums in the air, tongues hanging out in concentration.  My photos don't quite capture their enthusiasm and total absorption.  I drew too and that was fun.  Sean taught us all to draw expressions, happy, sad, angry and then by mixing up happy mouths with angry eyes to show other moods.

Although I always enjoy author or illlustrator talks, I really didn't expect to have so much fun.  

Snakes and lizards Ontario Science Centre

Today we were excited to attend the press sneak preview of the Snakes and Lizards exhibit at the Ontario Centre.  It was baby Jadzia's first visit and she liked the Sparks section especially the baby portion with the blocks.

The we went to Budha Dog for Today's Parent Toronto.  We love hot dogs and this was a sufficiently different kind of place, very eco and local produce.  Our conscience was fine eating 10 of the suckers.  Afterwards we had Polish pastries and William totally got into his cupcake.

Mustang Mortie

When we first got Mortie, he hated car rides.  He got over his fear to some extent on our road trip to New Brunswick.  This year he's really enjoying the breeze through his fur in the Mustang with the top down.

Ride Mortie, Ride.

Trip to Ottawa--a writing perk

Whenever kids ask me why I write, I'm a little gobsmacked.

I actually wonder why everyone wouldn't  want to write.  I find I'm always explaining the world to myself--it's very therapeutic.

But what about the travel perks?  The other editor with my magazine, Alison Wood, became too busy to do a feature on travel to Ottawa so, with some arranging with Ottawatourism.ca we had a press adventure pass and a free hotel for a couple of nights.

Of course when I travel for Today's Parent Toronto I need to bring a young person and Hunter's always up for the job.  He's a great traveller and enjoys museums, weird food and pools at any hotel.  

He also likes to pose for weird photos.  These won't be in the magazine: Hunter posing over the Eternal Flame so that it looks like he's on fire, Hunter's head poking up in a Polar bear diorama at the Museum of Natural History.

So we had a great mini holiday.  I won't say we made a million but memories are worth a lot too.