Let's brush up on our history a little, shall we?

*Warning, the following post conains spoilers of events that happened over 400 years ago*
Last night I went to see 'The Other Boleyn Girl' with a few of my girlfriends. (read the book if you have to choose between the two of them). As we were exiting the theatre, I overheard one girl exclaim...I knew she was going to get it in the end. She was of course referring to Anne Boleyn. This made me stop in my tracks, of course she was going to get it...we all knew that going into the movie, didn't we? I mean, it was one of the most famous beheadings of all time, right up there with Marie Antoinette and Mary, Queen of Scots.
That's not all, a friend who was with me overheard someone else in the theatre exclaim, I thought she would have a girl...referring to Anne Boleyn giving birth to Elizabeth.
Granted, Philippa Gregory does take a certain amount of artistic licence in her writing (ie, making Mary Boleyn younger than Anne, and a lot more innocent than she was)...but some things you can't change. She's not going to write Anne Boleyn off the block. She's not going to make her suddenly give birth to a male heir and erase Queen Elizabeth's existance. I would have thought most people going into a movie like that would either: A) know some basic history of Henry the eighth and his 6 wives (set aside, beheaded, died, set aside, beheaded, lived)...or B) read the book the movie was based on...But I guess I was wrong.

Today's heartbreak...

Well, I did it. I dragged 2 kids out in an ice storm, so that I could rent a cake pan from The Bulk Barn to make Jeremy's birthday cake today. I realised that I'd have to make the cake today even though the party isn't until Sunday if I wanted to freeze it in order to ice it properly.
I made the cake and it was beautiful. It came out perfectly, and as I was oohing and ahhing over it, visioning what it would look like all frosted and decorated...I turned it over to cool properly, and broke it in half...not in a fixable half either...a half where a bunch of it went on the floor. No, I didn't cry (I wanted to, but I didn't). I quickly shooed Jeremy away from the fallen cake (no baby, hot! Ouch!) Put the floor pieces into the compost...cut a non-floor piece off for Elijah to taste and the rest into a big bowl (fortunately, I know how to turn broken cake into a trifle-like dessert).
Unfortunately, the cake had used up my flour and sugar, so...you guessed it, back out into the ice storm for the three of us, off to the Superstore for supplies to make my second cake of the night. It is now made, and cooling properly. It was a supermom moment really, because I made the second cake while overseeing Elijah's bedtime routine and keeping Jeremy from causing too much havoc in the kitchen cupboards.
Tomorrow, we're off to Moncton for the day (Jeremy's actual birthday) and I can rest, knowing that the cake is freezing, getting ready to frost.

What's going to work?

Teamwork!

If you have a pre-schooler in the house, chances are you knew the answer to that question. If you don't, well...something to look forward to one day. (Wonderpets) Yes, once again, it's Kristen's turn to rant about pre-school TV.

Most of you know that we don't subscribe to cable. We do get CBC Kids and we do rent DVDs. I've decided that really, I just need a child-friendly premise and character...add a pattern and I too could have my own pre-school TV show. The Wonderpets (our latest DVD rental) is a perfect example. It's essentially the same show over and over again. One DVD contains 8 episodes. They all start the same...you hear the Wonderpet's cheer...pan to outside the schoolhouse (show the squirrel running around)...zoom in through the window (the school is usually decorated to match the day's theme)...hear the children leave school for the day. Once the children are gone, the Wonderpets meet up out of their cages...the phone rings...an animal's in trouble...they get on their flying boat, and save the animal in trouble, and return home. There are recurring songs (your songs need to be catchy)...the wonderpets have their cheer song, the phone is ringing song and the teamwork song.
The difficulty in pre-school TV is finding something that kids enjoy and that parents don't find too annoying. Personally, I find Ming-Ming Duckling annoying...Elijah loves her. She's the character with comic relief...unfortunately, she also mispronounces her 'r's too much, this I find annoying (I know it's a common speech problem with kids...but when you are trying to correct your own child's speech, I'd rather not have a TV character encouraging the mispronounciation)
So far, I think that there are only 3 shows that Jonathan and I like without reservation or annoyance:
3. Curious George
2. Blue's Clues (and I mean the original series with Steve, not Joe and not Blue's Room)
1. The Backyardigans
Jonathan does get to see more pre-school programming than me...he's home in the mornings...and I get to see more DVDs. I'm glad of this, it means he gets Doodlebops duty and I don't. Doodlebops is another formula show that I find annoying, but Elijah (and Jonathan) like it. Conversely, I enjoy Diego more than Jonathan. Neither of us are big fans of Dora. Elijah likes her, but I'm determined not to rent any more Dora DVD's. I don't mind if she shows up in a Diego show now and then...that's about as much as I like to see her really.
I have one more pre-school show question/rant for today...where the heck are Max and Ruby's parents?