50 Things To Do Before You're 12

The other morning I read an article posted from the Globe and Mail about a bucket list. We all know how much I love bucket lists but this one really intrigued me. It was 50 things for kids to have experienced before they are 12. It made me think about how awesome my childhood was and how great my parents were at exposing us to so many things as youngsters.

I am also lucky to have grown up with an awesome family and extended family along with 3 grandparents who had amazing homes to visit, explore and experience a lot on this list. Plus, we had a family cottage in North Bay, Ontario that was in the middle of nowhere so exploring, being in the forest, animals and snorkeling were the best part of the trips.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/young-children/

The list

1. Climb a tree - loved tree climbing but hated trying to climb back down

2. Roll down a really big hill - still have the scar above my eye from St. Joseph's Hill with my brother

3. Camp out in the wild - Circle R ranch had the best camping along it's little stream, you could hear the water running all night plus there were a ton of stars to see

4. Build a den - we would take blankets and attach them to our front porch and live under there for the afternoon

5. Skim a stone - my brother once got 9 skips

6. Run around in the rain - Cardiff where my Little Grandma lived had the best rain showers

7. Fly a kite - every Easter we got kites as gifts and would go to the park and lie on our backs watching our kites up in the sky

8. Catch a fish with a net - my brother taught me to do this at Pawdash Lake

9. Eat an apple straight from a tree - we had the biggest, baddest apple tree on Dunboyne Cres and every fall we would pick them and make pies as a family. We got to climb the tree too but one day we all got on the same branch and broke it - needless to say, that was the end of the apple tree climbing.

10. Play conkers - never played but I did throw chestnuts at passing cars when I was a teen

11. Throw some snow - some snow? How about huge snow fights where you are soaked at the end.

12. Hunt for treasure on the beach - still love to do this in Florida and Grand Bend.  I have found money, earrings, dead fish, and a lot beautiful shells.

13. Make a mud pie - my dad would set us up in the backyard and water a big mud hill for us to pretend to be chefs and make all kinds of mud items

14. Dam a stream - grandma and grandpa Z had the best creek for this

15. Go sledging - lots of hills, lots of spills

16. Bury someone in the sand - still one of my favourite things to do in Florida

17. Set up a snail race - we loved frog races better

18. Balance on a fallen tree - we would float down my grandparents creek on fallen logs

19. Swing on a rope swing - never could hang on long enough to land in the water :(

20. Make a mud slide - nope never did this because I wasn't a fan of getting dirty

21. Eat blackberries growing in the wild - how about blueberries in North Bay?

22. Take a look inside a tree - park behind our house had 2 old trees with tons of stuff living in them

23. Visit an island - Tilden Lake near North Bay gave us lots of places to explore

24. Feel like you’re flying in the wind - isn't that what picnic blankets were used for after you ate?

25. Make a grass trumpet - still can't do this an an adult

26. Hunt for fossils and bones - loved fossils on the beach

27. Watch the sun wake up - a million times

28. Climb a huge hill - the sand hills near Grand Bend gave us these adventures

29. Get behind a waterfall - Lennie actually got me to do this at his house with the amazing waterfall along side his home.

30. Feed a bird from your hand - how about chipmunks at the cottage

31. Hunt for bugs - loved zapping them with a magnifying glass

32. Find some frogspawn - never found any as a kid but our pool each spring is full!

33. Catch a butterfly in a net - I have terrible eye/hand coordination and I do not remember ever catching one, but I do remember running for an hour and laughing the whole time

34. Track wild animals

35. Discover what’s in a pond - Pawdash Lake had amazing small ponds around it where we saw all kinds of creatures

36. Call an owl - whooooooo

37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool - love love love water and checking out what is living in it

38. Bring up a butterfly - how about a chicken?  Yep, had a pet chicken from science glass in grade 7

39. Catch a crab - crayfish work? Lots in Pawdash Lake

40. Go on a nature walk at night - I can't remember doing this but I love looking up at stars at night

41. Plant it, grow it, eat it - dad was a wicked gardener and shared all his success with us

42. Go wild swimming - Lennie took me in the Rouge River and it was WILD.

43. Go rafting - mom paid for me to attend a huge grade 11 trip to the Ottawa river where we camped and rafted for days.

44. Light a fire without matches - never could get it to light, I would fail on the show Survivor

45. Find your way with a map and a compass - I remember an awesome school trip to learn how to do orienteering

46. Try bouldering - I could never do this as I had and still don't have any upper body strength.  I have done a ton of climbing though thanks to Fitness Ridge and the Utah mountains.

47. Cook on a campfire - camp YMAWACA gave me this experience a ton of times

48. Try abseiling - our grade 11 PE class took us to the Niagara Escarpment where I was the first to go over and down a huge rock face

49. Find a geocache - never did this as a kid but I bet I would enjoy it now.

50. Canoe down a river - favourite memory from North Park Youth group was canoeing down the Thames with my first love Brian S.

My honourable mention - 51. Pretend you have long hair by putting a poncho over your head

What do you remember from your childhood that makes you smile?

Christmas Letter 2012

2012 BZ Adventures

What a terrific year we had at in 2012. This year had many highlights and just a few low lights. We had a pretty quiet winter, beautiful March Break in Florida, and then more fun started.

The spring saw Lennie get his knee repaired and lots of rehab to get him back to the rink playing hockey up to 4 times a week.

In May Lennie strutted his stuff on the catwalk again for the Thyroid Foundation fashion show while I dealt with Crohns disease :(. We planted our vegetable garden of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, carrots, celery etc. and it turned out to be an amazing harvest in the fall.

In June we celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary and we played tennis at the local high school to kick start our summer of fun.

We also celebrate a lot of birthdays and Lennie finally got to strike “attend a London Majors game at Labatt Park” off his bucket list.

July saw lots of pool time and visits from family and friends. Tracy and Harvey Mott popped in for the weekend and lots of fun in the sun. Len and the boys went on their annual golf weekend to Michigan while the wives relaxed.

August saw a wonderful Grieve family BBQ and pool party, our family room reno, and a trip to Vegas with Jeff and the Purvis’ to celebrate birthdays with Johnny and Vicky. We returned home for a terrific visit from our cute niece Felicity (along with her parents Dwayne and Sheila).

In October we travelled to Chicago again to visit the Rutherford clan while I completed my 3rd marathon on my 44th birthday. Len won his annual Crown Royal Classic golf tourney and brought home the “green jacket”. I finally joined a gym and got a personal trainer to help me get into better shape.

November was an eventful trip to NYC with mom to run the marathon which eventually got cancelled because of super storm Sandy so we hit all the hot spots, saw the Lion King, and ate lots of yummy food.

December, well, you can only imagine the craziness this time of year. We wish you all a Happy Christmas and a healthy New Year.

Pulpapalooza!!!

Needless to say, me and Mr. Fun have some weight to lose.  Seeing ourselves in pictures, not fitting into certain clothes and don't make me talk about looking in the mirror - argg.

Recently, I joined Good Life Fitness and arranged to get some personal training.  I was so lucky to be matched with a trainer named Sonita who is awesome.  Turns out we know each other from a long time ago when Lennie and I used to work at the London Blues Fest and she was in charge of Belemire Farms pub - small world. 

Anyways, she has got us pretty pumped about changing our eating habits and told us to watch a documentary entitled Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/ about a guy who was overweight and needing to make a big change in his life.  It focuses on eating habits and the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables - something not too popular in our house - at least not a balance of them.  We do have a great vegetable garden each year but really it's just tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, peppers, celery, and jalapenos - not totally balanced.

So, Sonita encouraged us to buy a juicer.  Since they are a tad expensive we ordered one through Air Miles account and got it for free - including shipping.  It arrived this week and we are eager to try it out as a way to incorporate more fruits and vegetables.

Last night Lennie and I hosted 8 people for drinks, appetizers and games.  When I was cleaning up and telling people to take home the stuff they brought our friend Scotty said, "Why don't you keep it and juice this stuff." in a mocking tone, but really it was brilliant, and that is exactly what I will do.

So, I got up this morning after Lennie left for hockey, opened the juicer, read the manual, cleaned it, set it up, and got to work on making my first juice.   I had no idea how easy, fun, and the amount of pulp that fruits and vegetables generate - more on pulpapalooza later.

I literally threw all the leftover stuff in the juicer; broccoli, celery, cauliflower, apple, pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapes, carrots, limes.  I did get hit in the head with a flying apple and a rogue broccoli floret but I needed to learn to get the presser thing on the stuff fast or it comes flying out of the throat part. 

I was thrilled when juice actually started to come out the bottom.

Wow, imagine if we drink this, the amount of healthy vitamins and minerals we will be getting.

Normally, most of this stuff would have gone to waste - except the watermelon as that is my favourite thing in the whole world.  But the broccoli might have made it to a soup, the carrots would have shivered up and been tossed and the cantaloupe, well, who likes cantaloupe.

All that stuff turned into a little over a litre of juice - amazing really.  So, tried it and I love it, it tastes delicious and it is so filling.  I realize that it has a lot of fruit in it so it is pretty sweet but I can totally see myself being able to throw spinach, kale and other yucky stuff in there and not even tasting it.

But the best part is the pulp that we got in the collector part.  I ran to the back yard (in the pouring rain) and dumped the stuff in my garden - imagine the mulch we are going to get and be able to use - it is coming full circle now.   Clean up was not too bad - if you have ever used a food processor it is about the same amount of work so I would make sure I make a big batch of juice to save time.

The funny part was when came back in from the garden after dumping the pulp I took the machine apart and found a TON more pulp all in the machine - literally twice as much.  So I learned to take the machine apart and scrap the pulp into the collector - nothing will go to waste.

So, the big question is....did Lennie drink the juice and like it when he got home from hockey?  He has said that he wants to get his weight down and eat better.  Will juicing help?  Will he get off his Diet Coke, peanut butter, and ketchup diet? 

We took some before pictures of ourselves in workout clothes but they are so extremely embarrassing they will never see the light of day. 

Do you juice?  Have you seen this documentary?  Do you have a personal trainer that rocks?