Flies to Light

There is a summer site in Ottawa called the Carnivale Lune Bleue. According to their website the Carnivale is "inspired by the legendary magic and allure of the 1930s carnivale . . . (where all the) authentic all-senses escape where visitors become immersed in a colourful, gritty, surreal and frequently bizarre all-evening entertainment extravaganza". In their words, this is the old fashioned carnivale with the old fashioned Ferris Wheel and horse-merry-go-round and then all the freak acts - the snake dancer, the contortionist and way, way more!

Last night there was an independent short film being shot at the Carnivale in which Braden was the Producer, Kaleb was a main actor, Emma had a minor role and I was 'Bobby's' mommy. We started in wardrobe, hair and make-up at 6:45 and then were on set shooting at 8:30 and left the set at 1:00am! Yep - it was pretty much a 5 hour shoot with no breaks, trying to get in 27 scenes shot in that time - yikes!

The transformation begins - the make-up lady created this mask so that Kaleb's whole face wouldn't be in make-up and there would be less chance of it being rubbed off due to the length of the shoot. Great idea!

Let me introduce you to our Kaleb! After the shoot was done the make-up lady said that Kaleb could keep his mask and he was ECSTATIC!!! He couldn't wait to take it home, although he said that he was going to call it a bear, not a lion - hehehe!

The film's story was about 052, a science experiment guy who had light bulbs attached to his head, learning how to not only do what he was programmed to do, but rather to experience life and use that experience to direct his thoughts and actions - in other words, think out of the box. Emma was a little girl at the carnivale that was getting her face painted by a carny worker, Kaleb was the little boy who thought that 052 was a face-painter and asked him to make his face into a lion and I was the mom shooting a pictures of my son's amazing face.

Unfortunately because there was so much camera time I didn't get the photos I wanted, but I'll show you some better ones when the actually photographer's pictures come.

What we discovered about last night . . .

* Kaleb is actually a pretty good actor - great expression, great interaction and good memorization.

* When you are wearing a lions mane created out of real hair it it itchy - just ask Kaleb

* Kaleb can actually fall asleep while standing up after just saying a line

* Kids should not do this amount of shooting at this time of night for sooooo long

* Emma and Kaleb would do it again in a heartbeat!

The nice thing was that the kids got to go on the Ferris Wheel for free and also check out the snake shows. The not nice thing - the kids couldn't ride on the merry-go-round because it was just behind where we were shooting and if the shot was taken with them on the merry-go-round it would look like they were in two places at one time - not good!

Cotton candy was one of the perks of acting in the film - Kaleb had to spend from time 7pm till about 11:30 in the mane - itchy! His chin was done in make-up, which had to be redone a few times and he started putting emma's sweater over top of his to help warm him up. To say that he didn't have a few melt-downs, well - let's just say that he earned his "wages" last night.

It was pretty cold shooting so late at night so the girls grabbed some hot chocolate to warm up. Emma's friends, Victoria and Katrina joined the shoot as extras.

A shot of Kaleb watching another scene with 052 - the guy in the green pajamas. If you look close you'll see that he actually shaved his hear and has a very heavy contraption with 3 light bulbs attached to it. After shooting he had bruises on his head from it - and you could see them because the top of his head was bald! I guess work this week at the gov't offices that he works at will be interesting this week!!!

And yep - no shots of me because I didn't shoot any - oops. I was dressed as a normal lady though - although none of my clothes matched (black 40's style heels, at the knee - flowing floral shirt, bright purple velvet jacket, pink scarf with broach, natural make-up, straight hair and bangs)

So, the night was long and we're all exhausted this morning (expect for Navia who fell asleep at 7:30pm with her babysitter) and we're having a rainy day inside, working on a few projects and just hanging out as a family - yay!!!

(Oh, and as an aside, this independent film had no budget, therefore everyone who participated - from actors to crew, make-up, wardrobe and anyone in between all donated their time to the project just because they believed in the project and wanted to be a part of it - kinda cool! - Oh, but Kaleb and Emma were paid . . . Daddy promised them Backugans - hehehe!)

Spoiler . . .

so - tonight is going to be a late night . . .

* tomorrow's post will be in the style of Moulin Rouge (just for you Jenna!!!), but just how, I don't quite know, but it will be unique

* tonight, when the clock strikes 9 kaleb will turn into a lion, emma a princess and me, well even I don't know.

* how? you'll have to wait to see

Middle of the Night Excursion

I had another MRI last night done at 1:20am, but this one was EXTREMELY different from the last one! This time I went to the General Hospital and instead of parking in a dark parkade with no one around in the middle of the night, I parked right in front of the Main Entrance - in metered parking - with numerous nurses around. Then, instead of walking inside and not finding anyone to help me find the MRI Dept, I walked inside and talked with the parking security, who informed me that although it said I needed to pay for metered parking he doesn't give tickets so don't worry about it, and then met others as I made my way to the Admittance desk to get my hospital card. Then it was just upstairs and down the hall and TA-DA, I was there! Sooooooo, much nicer than the Civic Hospital (which I will never go to again!). There was also another nice thing about this hospital - I'd been there before because it was the hospital that Kaleb was born in - awwww - memories!

Another good part was that I didn't have to wear that horrible hockey mask thing that straps your head to the machine, but instead I just needed to wear a neck one - much less claustrophobic! And . . . instead of just listening to the machine make loud, obnoxious noises they put the radio on in my headphones - although I couldn't really hear it due to the loud, obnoxious noises, I still appreciated it. It gave me something else to concentrate on and not think about the little tiny space I was stuck in for 40 minutes.

So, now just to wait for the results. I'm pretty sure that they'll all come back normal as every other test has. Oh, just in case you didn't know I was officially diagnosed with klippel-feil syndrome a while back which is just a big way to say that my first vertebrae isn't normal and it can affect other parts of the body (so they're just making sure that it hasn't). And now all the middle of the night excursion should be over - YA!!!

This past weekend we went to "Concert Under the Stars" in Maberly, Ontario (about 1.5 hrs away from Ottawa). It was a Christian Music Festival with numerous bands playing for 2 days and camping at a church camp. We went out there with friends, Mike and Cynthia Burns and 4 kids) and camped on the same site together. There definitely have been better campsites, but overall it was a great weekend. Mike and Cynthia were only able to stay until Sunday morning, while we stayed until almost the end, just missing 2 bands.

The sun was incredible hot and suddenly the umbrellas that were normally used for rain came to to help give us a little relief from the hot rays - ug!!!

When the next group got on stage the girls screamed and ran as fast as they could to get to the front of the stage . . . needless to say . . . they LOVED this group and enjoyed every minute of their concert. The violinist was wicked - playing it behind his back and everything - a great show!

"Article One"

"Article One"

Victoria, Emma, Katrina (and Amanda is behind) up at the front of the stage, jumping and clapping and singing along to all the songs that they didn't know - hehehe! It was so cute watching how our little girls are getting all grown up!

Autograph time with "Article One"

Photo time with "Article One" - Katrina, Victoria, Amanda and Emma

Daddy and his kids hanging out at the concert with with glow-in-the-dark bracelets

Navia, Braden, Mike and Ryan hanging out with Cynthia and I were taking pics of the girls up front

"Natalie Grant"

"Natalie Grant"

On Sunday morning we got up and the boys cooked us pancakes and bacon and then we all went fishing, but alas, it wasn't really the best place to fish - too shallow - but the kids still had fun.

Navia showing off her shells

Kaleb thought that maybe he could net a fish if it wouldn't come to his hook

Emma thought that Kaleb had a good idea and tried too - but no fish were ever caught . . .

. . . although a salamander was caught at the campsite - they wanted to take "Sammy" home, but we figured that he'd miss his family too much and the girls FINALLY put him back under the rock they found him by.

The next day was definitely the better of the two days for bands (on Saturday 3 of the bands had cancelled) so here is the day from the eye of Emma - the photographer of the bands!

"33 Miles"

"33 Miles"

Autograph time with "33 Miles"

"The Letter Black"

"The Letter Black"

Kaleb and Emma with "The Letter Black" - missing the lead singer

This band was a thrash metal band and I was scared for a bit that Emma was going to get hurt in the mosh pit that was happening by her, but Daddy went up with her and the two of them had a blast watch and dancing at the concert together - memories are made of this!

"Group One Crew"

"Group One Crew"

Autograph time with "Group One Crew"

This group was pretty good - we all enjoyed it and Brade was again up front with his kids, rockin' out to the music!

"Downhere"

Downhere - Jason, Gord, Emma, Mark, Jeremy

Brade and I went to school (BBC) with the Jason, Mark and Jeremy many, many years ago

It was a great weekend of camping and the kids had a blast. A routine soon developed . . . band announced, run to front, watch band while jumping up and down, take pictures of band from up front, clap for band, run to Tabernacle to be first in line, buy CD of band, get band members to sign CD cover and CD. Now next band is one so do all over again! Overall - a great weekend to get away from everything and just hang out with good music and a great family!

Past Weeks

So . . . I've kinda been neglecting the blog for the sake of summer but I thought I'd give you a few pics to show what we've been up to.

Fishing . . . yep . . . lots and lots of fishing! Braden desperately wants a boat now so that he can "catch the big one". I think that's just his excuse for not catching any yet this year though - hehehe!

In this shot Navia is showing off her baby fish that she caught with her princess fishing rod. Daddy had been fishing for a while from that area when Navia suddenly decided that she wanted to fish beside him. Literally 30 seconds after casting her first line she caught this one - so cute!

The kids, on the other hand, started getting hot and so they decided to go swimming from the dock they normally fish off of.

Okay, so maybe they were scaring away the fish that Daddy was trying to catch!

We also did the Busker Festival in downtown Ottawa. The kids enjoyed it, but it was such a hot day that it made it a bit harder to stay there for too long.

Look behind the girl in the yellow and you'll see the three kids.

Navia needed a bit of help seeing the Hip-Hop Dancers as she's kinda vertically challenged in these situations :)

Braden has been building me a built-in bookshelf for my studio in the basement and a built-in bookshelf for Navia's room, as well as I've painted Navia's room pink, re-painted 2 pieces of furniture and we hung up a cute little chandelier in her room. It's almost done - just the wood-putty and painting to finish the bookshelves up and then I need to paint Navia's bed. Slowly but surely it will be done. (pics to come when they're done)

So, needless to say we've been making a few trips to Rona and Home Depot and the kids HATE those stores! But, being the creative mom that I am (hehehe!) I came across plans at www.howtoons.com a marshmallow gun made out of PVC pipe. I showed Emma the plans and then she figured out how many of each thing we would need to buy. SHE then asked when we could go to Rona so that SHE could buy the materials for the guns. Yep - worked perfectly! We made another trip to get the moulding and the kids had fun as they found their materials for the guns.

Instead of PVC Brade bought PEX (no sanding required) and then just used the miter saw to cut the pieces and the kids put them together. They had a blast making them and then shooting them . . . well . . . let's just say that Daddy's blue shirt suddenly had white circles all over it, as well as the lawn looked like it had snowed and the road . . . sorry drivers! The kids grab the used ammo and reuse it so it's not a total waste.

I forgot to take pictures of the war, but here is a pic of 2 of the 4 guns that they made. Daddy is now wanting to figure out how to make an automatic, rapid fire loader - and just for him!!!

Hold the bottom two handles (like a machine gun) and load your marshmallows in the top tube, where you blow them and they fly quite far and can definitely be felt when you're hit!

Thank you

Braden, Mom & Dad - 1974

I know that you aren't reading this, but I write so many times remembering that a big part of the reason I started my blog was for our moms and now there is just one mom reading it. When Navia does another of her "things" I remember how you called when you "needed to smile or laugh" and was wondering what "new Navia story" I had for you. Too many things to write or to say . . . but you knew. You knew that you were loved and we always knew that we were loved. Thank you. Thank you for your loving and for your wisdom and your prayers. We miss you.

"I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.” -Abraham Lincoln

Unwanted Visitors & Navia Finally Gets Her Way!

On Tuesday I went to the movies with Cynthia and when she was dropping me off we noticed that the garage door was still open (at midnight) and as we pulled up 2 big raccoons and a baby one ran out of the garage! Not cool!!! I quickly went up and pushed the kids' bikes back into the garage when I bumped the garbage can . . . suddenly out jumped another raccoon - thank goodness it was just a baby, but it had me running back to the van. Together Cynthia and I made our way back to the garage to make sure that it was now empty of the little garbage visitors when we found another baby raccoon, but it was so scared and huddled in a corner. Braden came out and nudged him until he ran away to join his family. So, the moral of the story . . . shut your garage door at ALL times or else you will have another family eating out of your garbage cans!!!

Navia has been asking (okay, begging) for us to paint her room for a long while now and we've decided to finally do it - but in order to choose a color we needed to get her her very first real bedding set - which is adorable! She's soooo excited with the new set and that Daddy is going to build her a built-in bookshelf in the empty nook in her room. We'll paint the room a light pink and then all her furniture white - we're kinda going for a cottage look. Very Navia!

Daddy and I found a new set for our bed too - which now means that we'll be having to paint our entire room so that it matches! I guess this is a purchase that will end up costing us a lot of time! So, we're going to go for a smokey wall color and then paint the existing furniture black . . . at least that's the thought for right now. We'll see!

Navia sitting on our bed