Happy birthday-and-a-quarter, Button!

This post is only three months out of date, as Button celebrated his birthday at the end of May. But we were travelling on a birthday surprise trip at the time, and I hadn’t gotten the post ready in advance. Then once we got back, end-of-school-year busyness took over, and holiday preparations… so there you go.

In the past two years Button has grown (now over 4’2”/125cm tall!), developed, matured (still a ways to go…) and been lots of fun.



The birthday surprise went like this: I walked the kids to school in the morning. I had already written a note for their teacher that someone would pick them up to come home. That someone was me!!! The note to the teachers had specified that we were heading off for a trip to Stratford to see Peter Pan and Kiss Me Kate, so the children would miss two days of school, but that it was a SURPRISE so not to say a word to either of them about it.

When I showed up at 2:30 the kids were both very surprised to see me. Button’s teacher wished them a “good weekend” which they found surprising as it was only the middle of the week, but she covered it up by saying “Well, I won’t be seeing your Mom before the weekend.” Once we got into the car I told them we were heading off on a trip!! We stopped at home just long enough to drop off their backpacks and load some food from the fridge and then we hit the road!!

It’s a long drive, and after a mere 200km I was tired and getting sleepy, as I’d gone to bed late the night before. But a bite of supper, a cup of tea, and an iced cap from Timmy’s revived me and off we set again. We stopped for the night in Toronto and stayed with a family we’d met last November when they spent a few nights with us. The next morning we took off by nine and made the rest of the journey without stopping. Our Stratford accommodation was provided by a family on an acreage outside the town – their property was lovely, complete with pond, forest, lawns, dog, cat and rabbits.

Our friend Chuckles met us there and we traveled together to see Peter Pan that afternoon. The impetus for the trip was that the Festival was offering free tickets to Peter Pan on a child’s birthday – so Button benefitted from that (as did my pocketbook). The production was excellent and we all enjoyed the acting, staging, and story. After the play we headed off to a local pizza joint for a birthday supper, complete with cake and singing.

Friday was a free day – we spent most of the day just enjoying the acreage, but headed into town in the late afternoon to do some shopping, watch the swans and geese (we saw goslings and a mama swan sitting on her next), and have a bite of supper – which mostly consisted of a huge ice cream cone for each of us!

Saturday morning we went to the neighbouring town for the Mennonite Relief Sale. This is a huge event where quilts and other items are auctioned off to help raise funds for relief and development work overseas. There are also numerous food booths, which were the main beneficiary of my funds. I gave the kids their allowances to spend there: Mustang found a nice necklace while Button purchased a lovely small pouch from Nepal. We met Chuckles there and took off after lunch for our second show, Kiss Me Kate. This one was more complex and I’m sure the kids had a bit of trouble following the storyline, but it was still fun.

On Sunday we took of fairly early for the long drive home. Chuckles was with us so she took a spell driving. We stopped twice – once for a stretch and once for lunch – and arrived home a bit before 5pm. It was a good trip all around!