Banff & Johnston Cannyon Falls

 

Summer Usborne Book Party & FAYA Orphanage Clothing Drive

Summer Usborne Book Party & FAYA Orphanage Clothing Drive

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Faya Orphanage Clothing Drive

FAYA Orphanage Clothing Drive!

The purpose of this event is to raise money for Faya Orphanage – a loving home for HIV+ kids in Nazaret, Ethiopia.

 

Faya Orphanage Clothing Drive

Please bring new or gently used children's clothing donations (and/or monetary donations) for Faya Orphanage in Ethiopia. We will be holding a clothing sale on August 1st, 2009 (Saturday) and all proceeds from the sale of the children's clothes will go to support Faya. The remaining clothes will be taken by families going to Ethiopia this year, together with the monetary donations and Usborne book donations.

 

Children clothing donations should be clean, undamaged, and reasonable wrinkle-free. Clothing can be folded and packed in sturdy boxes or bags. Please label the age group and boy/girl clearly on the outside. Please avoid hangers. Items that come in pairs (shoe, gloves, socks) should be kept together (shoe laces can be tied together, gloves and socks can be stuffed inside each other). Please keep pockets emptied and any belts should be securely fastened to their appropriate items.

 

Clothing Sale (from your donations):

Where: 549 Rocky Ridge Bay N.W.

When: Saturday August 1^st, 2009

Time: from 8AM til 3PM

All proceeds from the sale of the children's clothes will go to support Faya Orphanage

 

About Faya Orphanage

When you think of children in need – no home since their parents passed away, living on the streets, begging for food, taking care of younger siblings, missing to opportunity to go to school and slowly losing weight and the fight against a terrible disease: THESE are the deserving and precious children that Faya Orphanage takes care of.

 

Located in Nazareth, Ethiopia, Faya Orphanage was established by a vibrant young lady in her twenties from Saskatoon in August of 2008. It is a loving home run by competent Ethiopian staff for HIV+ (and some HIV-) children who don’t have parents or family to care for them. There are approx. 5 million orphans in Ethiopia – many of whose parents have passed away from HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, other diseases, and poverty. Faya is one of the few places that some of these children can have a permanent home, go to school, have access to food and medication, and live without the stigma attached to HIV. Recently, the organization has also begun to sponsor poor children in Nazaret to go to school, as well as coordinate adoptions for some of the children in the home.

The organization is a registered non-profit in Canada and has applied for charitable status. Learn more about Faya Orphanage: http://fayaorphanage.blogspot.com

Please feel free to forward this information to any friends or family members that might be interested in the party, clothing drive, or clothing sale. And thanks so much for your help!

We can't wait to see you there!

Waterlife

The interactive Story of the Last Great Supply of Fresh Drinking Water on Earth.
A wonderful Great Lakes story and winner of the HotDocs Special Jury Prize - and hear Ecojustice Senior Scientist Dr. Elaine MacDonald share our leading work fighting sewage pollution and toxins, and the steps needed to protect and restore the largest freshwater reserve on Earth. It is going to be in Toronto, but I am crossing my fingers for them to come to Calgary!

Circo Udi Grudi

Calgary International Children's Festival

We enjoyed the Calgary International Children's Festival for the first time this year and we will be going there every year I think. Because we just LOVED!

Show No.1 - Butterflies
By Compagnia T.P.O., Italy
Butterflies is sure to enchant anyone who is - or ever was - a child. This stunning interactive performance invites you into a virtual world of "paintings in movement" to unleash the beauty and expressive possibilities in mixing theatre, sensory boundaries, dance, visual magic, music, and emotion. Allow yourself to be enveloped in this beautiful atmosphere and create your own theatrical art as the piece itself responds to you.

Show No.2 - O Cano
Circo Teatro Udi Grudi, Brazil
This is a show for anyone who loves music, comedy and laughter! Our three clowns live between the absurd and the unexpected. As the performance unravels a magical musical metamorphosis occurs where everything becomes something else and nothing is what it seems. This hilarious adventure is a symphony of percussion created through juggling, acrobatics, fire-swinging and clowning! Although Leo fond this show a little bit overwhelming in places, overall we really enjoyed this show!

A companhia de teatro Udi Grudi fundada em 1982 em Brasília, chegou à Calgary em Maio para participar do Festival Internacional da Criança. A companhia já percorreu mais de 20 países e diversos estados brasileiros. Desde a sua fundação, a companhia cria um show de mescla de linguagens, com circo, teatro e mísica, sempre com uma linda pitada de humor. O espetáculo chamado O CANO!

Thursday & Friday in Edmoton

Well, Leandro and I decided to drive to Edmonton while Kerry was in Montreal. So I took two days off work and headed to Edmonton on Thursday. We spent time withe grandparents and great-grandparents. It was fun! We timed so we would pick up Kerry in the airport on Saturday. Here are a few pics of this time!

Dorothy the Dinasour Show at Martha Cohen Theatre - Just Leo & Mommy

Leandro and I spent some 'mom and son' time alone, as Daddy went to Montreal for a week (work reasons). So, we decided to enjoy a show at the local theatre. It was Dorothy the Dinasour at the Martha Cohen Theatre (Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts) in downtown.

The show stars Dorothy the Dinosaur, a graduate capital of R.A.D.D (The Royal Academy of Dinosaur Dancing!) Australia’s favourite dinosaur has performed at New York’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Apollo Theatre in London and even in Shanghai and now returns to the Australian stage for this brand new show! The new Dorothy the Dinosaur show has been written by Blue Wiggle, Anthony Field, who also produced the music. Anthony Field (Wiggles) has recorded the Rosy Orchestra performing songs for Dorothy and her friends to sing along with, such as the delightful "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"! Children will love dancing to "Dr Knickerbocker" and bouncing up and down to "Come On Let’s Jump"! Captain Feathersword will be joined by Don the Postman, who sings his signature song. Wel shaked our hips with Wags the Dog and dance a fairy jig with "The Fairy Dance". Along with such hit songs as "Romp Bomp A Stomp", "To Have A Tea Party" and "Balla, Balla Bambina", audiences were ecstatic as the show culminates with "Let’s Have A Party"! The dancing is delightful and the music is really rosalicious.

Meu Amigo de Ouro

Amizade
Sincera amizade
Faz de um amigo um irmão
E do irmão um amigo
Do peito, do coração,
Amiga irmã, irmã amiga,
Não importa conotação,
O que importa é o sentimento
Que temos no coração.

“A amizade é a forma mais doce do amor”
- poesia de de Inoema Nunes Jahnke

* Poema dedicado ao amigo de ouro do Leandro. Foto tirada no evento Thomas The Train at the Heritage Park, Calgary, Alberta (12 de Maio de 2009)

The Garden

THE GARDEN is an engaging and powerful look at the famous political and social battle over the largest community garden in the US (located in South Central Los Angeles). A follow-up to Kennedy’s award-winning documentary OT: OUR TOWN, the film shows how the politics of power and greed (backroom deals, land developing, green politics, money) tragically intersect with working class families who rely on this communal garden for their livelihood. Equal parts THE WIRE and HARLAN COUNTY USA, THE GARDEN exposes the fault lines in American society and raises crucial and challenging questions about liberty, equality, and justice for the poorest and most vulnerable among us. Kenneth Turan of the LA Times said: “It’s tempting to call “The Garden” a story of innocence and experience, of evil corrupting paradise, but that would be doing a disservice to the fascinating complexities of a classic Los Angeles conflict and an excellent documentary that does them full justice.”

Happy Mother's Day

"Arise then...women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts! From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with Our own. It says: Disarm! Disarm!"— Julia Ward Howe, Mother's Day Proclamation, 1870

Any similarity is pure coincidence

I cannot stop thinking that there are some similarities with these two! Both are really cute indeed, but look at these big eyes and little nose. Aren't them pretty alike?
For a long time I loved Jiji from Kiki's Delivery. She is cute and sweet. I actually have two of these stuffed cats at home. No wonder we own a black Kittie now. Preta is just like that. But she is not so little like Jiji anymore. Because she has gained a lot (I really mean a lot!) of weight since has been adopted from the shelter.

My seeds and I can count them too!

This was so cute. Leo was studying the different seeds and being creative about what the dyed water (colours) looked like. If you noticed, the water that belongs to the Sugar Maple seeds he called it 'syrup'. Mommy was a bit excited about the counting. 8-)

Our tree Science Project

Here are the seeds being prepared in water. Many tree seed species possess what is know as 'embryo dormancy' which must be effectively overcome before the seed can be forced to germinate given the appropiate conditions. We soaked the seeds in warm water for 48 hours and some of them are going to be under cold stratification for 4 months and others for only 2 months cold stratification followed by 4 months of warm stratification.
Stratification: seeds are in a ziplck bag filled with moistened peat and stored in the refrigerator's salad crisper compartment prior to removing and sowing seeds. That is the delicate part of the process and we are crossing our fingers to be successful.
Please wish us good luck and hope we will have some good news in a couple of months.

And the Science Project Begins

We have a fun new litte family science project: Trying to grow different types of trees. Mostly different species of maple trees. So, I got nine different of seed packages from Angel Grove Seeds. They are Flowering Crabapple, Japanese Crabapple, Sugar Maple, Virginia Creeper, Red Norway Maple, Norway maple, Japanese Maple, Amur Flame Maple and Colorado Blue Spruce.

Yeah! I really made the vanilla cake!

My first Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Icing

I had this pictures in file for a while, but now I thought would be nice to share with you. Leo making his first vanilla cake with chocolate icing. Check out, Mommy was his assitant and camera woman at same time ; -)
He was pretty good and even wanted to double check the instructions! We took the cake to our friends house for dessert and everybody loved! They were all Leo made the cake. And it was DELICIOUS! Good job!

Mercury In Tuna - Mercury Contamination Increasing In Tuna And Other Fish - thedailygreen.com

Mercury In Tuna - Mercury Contamination Increasing In Tuna And Other Fish - thedailygreen.com

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Enjoying the Nice Weather

Can we actually say Spring is here? Well, we live in Calgary, and it means we can never predict tomorrow's weather. But still, it is really nice to be able to enjoy once more the warm and sunny weather. A couple weeks ago I started my garden box project (pictures to come soon) and I am proud to have made a 8ft long x 4ft wide x 2ft tall cedar wooden vegetable box. I followed tips from: Watch My Food Grow and my friend Arnica's Vegetable Garden Box. My talented friend gave me valuable information! Soon I will be able to plant beans, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli and lettuces. Can't wait to enjoy fresh vegetables this year!

Happy Earth Day!

Celebrated every April 22, Earth Day is the largest, most celebrated environmental event worldwide. How was your Earth Day? Mine was pretty informative and fun! My company promoted a Earth Day Fair today. Lots of 'green' prizes and 'green' giveaways as well as information on a variety of different topics (composting, eco-friendly landscaping, transportation alternatives, energy management, etc. We had a display of an electric car in the parking lot in front of our building. It was an old red Volkswagen beettle. Cute!
People brought in our old electronics, batteries and light bulbs. Proceeds from sales at these tables will be donated to various charities. Cool, hey?!

Top 10 easy to-do actions on Earth Day:

1. Buy what you need, not so much what you want,
2. Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs,
3. Walk, cycle, car pool and/or use public transportation,
4. Choose local and/or organic foods that are in season (Let's support local food producers!),
5. Wash full loads of clothes in cold water (Hang to dry if you can),
6. Install ceiling fans and programmable thermostats,
7. Travel and work as close to home as possible,
8. Take short showers and close taps while brushing your teeth,
9. Choose natural, non-toxic cleaning products,
10. Donate, re-use and recycle items before throwing them into the garbage.

Those are just 10 simple things one can do right now to help the environment and the Earth. Good luck!