Two Toonies

I just got two lovely surprises this week in the form of my 5 year old's latest birthday party invitations. Two separate invitations to "two-toonie gift" parties. As discussed in previous post on this topic, the idea is that guests are requested to bring two toonies in lieu of a traditional gift. The birthday kid keeps half and donates half of the money.
It makes me optimistic. Partly because I won't have to feel like I'm making my kids social outcasts by not giving regular birthday gifts at "normal" parties, and partly because maybe it means alot of people are sick of the birthday scene and looking for a way out. And if so, maybe it also means that alot of people are sick of accumulating so much unnecessary stuff. And maybe they too are disillusioned with our culture of entitlement. And if little kids are willing to give up presents without any fuss at all, maybe there is some real hope.

That said, today I bought some gratuitous stuff.

Like a 1950s housewife enthralled with appliances, I somehow convinced myself that I needed both an ice cream maker and a food processor. My intentions were good. I'm doing a hell of a lot of chopping these days to preserve all my organic, local, and home-grown food. And for goodness sakes, all natural ice cream can't possibly be a bad thing, right? But you know what they say about good intentions. In this case, as usual, it's the path to hypocrisy. Two scoops.

Walking the Walk...kind of

Earlier this year, I wrote a long rant about birthday parties. I swore that my own kids would have simple parties and we wouldn't even try to keep up with the Joneses. I took a "no loot bags" vow, and a "no presents" vow. That was easy, because neither of my kids had birthdays for at least 6 months into the future. But summer is birthday season in our house, and now I have to walk the walk. The results weren't as hardcore as I'd originally imagined, but we've just had two parties that kept (for the most part) to the spirit of my vows.
My son's was easy. He's just turning 3 and not so indoctrinated with neighbourhood birthday tradition. His birthday isn't until August, but we had a party for him in June to celebrate the beginning of summer with all of his daycare friends. He got it in his head that it was a birthday party, so we made a cake and he was totally satisfied with that. He was the only one who thought it was his birthday, so there were no presents or loot bags. Done.
5 year olds have been on the birthday circuit longer and thus have higher expectations. But we did okay with my daughter's party this weekend. We kept the guest list small, which granted, is easier to do with a summer birthday when school's out and you don't have to worry about too many people feeling left out. We had 6 friends and 1 little sister. Reasonable I think. We had the party at home (unusual in these parts since we all live in tiny houses), we made crafts (tissue paper flowers, beaded bracelets, and ahem, Froot Loop necklaces), we planted flower seeds in pots that the kids could take home, and we busted up some homemade pinatas (yeah, filled with candy- and each kid got a brown paper bag in which to collect their pinata winnings...so I guess that's a loot bag. Ooops). The birthday girl requested a Canada Flag cake, and we had pita pizza with organic dough, and a giant watermelon. All in all, pretty low key, easy, inexpensive and low waste. High sugar though...I'll work on that one for next year.
My favorite idea I found on someone else's blog (sorry, I can't reference it 'cause i forget where I read it), but we requested that instead of gifts each child brought two $2 coins. One for the birthday girl and one for a charity of the birthday girl's choice. At the end of the party, our daughter had $14 to take shopping, and $14 for charity. She chose a summer dress to buy, and after careful consideration, decided to give her charity money to a Conservation agency that works to save habitat for frogs and lizards. A little surprising for me, but hey, it's her choice! We were happy that our recycling bin wasn't full with toy packages and wrapping paper. All in all, the concept was a big hit and got great reviews from the parents involved.
I even got some feedback from parents saying that they are planning to try the 2 toonies birthdays too! Good luck everyone!

Large leaps to complexity

Large leaps to complexity. That was my husband's joke right from the beginning. Anytime I made a non-green choice I was teased with this line. But I think this time we're truly guilty of it. You could also call it hypocrisy. Or, if you're feeling kind, compromise.

Here's the thing: we bought a new vehicle and it's a beast. Okay, so it's not a Hummer or anything, but it's not a tiny hybrid either. It's a minivan.

We have survived with a tiny Saturn for 10 years. It was easy on gas, had enough seats for us as we added more people, and it got us where we needed to go. Last summer, however, we discovered some major vehicular shortfalls. We decided the kids were old enough for camping but realized that packing for trips became tests of human ingenuity. This winter we also realized that we couldn't fit both ice skates and toboggans in the trunk. Surmountable? Absolutely. Pain in the ass? Oh yeah.

We have vowed for years that our next car would be a hybrid. But used hybrids are hard to find. And they're still not cheap. The fact of the matter is that we're hard on our vehicles. I have a tendency to scrape them in underground parking garages, my kids tend to accumulate apple cores, goldfish crackers and sand inside, and my husband spills alot of coffee. It's hard to justify buying something expensive when 1) we don't drive too much, 2) we will make it look 10 years old in a matter of weeks. We opted for a cheaper, 4 year old, gas guzzling van with AC, tinted window, power locks, and an automatic starter.

Simplicity? Absolutely not. Right choice for us? Unfortunately, yes.

Stay-cation

I can't complain. It's been an easy winter, a great year to not be going away. But I can't say it wouldn't be nice to splash about in a warm, sunny locale right about now. Easy winter or not, the fact remains that it's -14 outside tonight.

I really only have one vacation requirement - good swimming. It's pretty easy to plan a holiday in Canada that meets this requirement in the summer, but winter is a whole different kettle of fish. My kids are still too small to skate, ski, dogsled, snowshoe, go tubing or any other such activity that we use to convince ourselves that freezing is fun. When you can't do these things during your winter vacation, really, what's left? This year we were thinking about going to Florida or maybe Mexico, but didn't want to go for a whole week, didn't really want to fly. In the end we opted for what we hope is a good compromise. A stay-cation with a big dollop of something that seems alot like Disney. Great Wolf Lodge - it's a resort chain. Mostly in the States. Isn't somewhere I'd have dreamed I'd ever be looking forward to going, but I am. It's close. There's waterslides, hot tubs, splash parks. Inside, heated. Not quite the real thing. Not exactly a natural experience, but hey, that's compromise, right?

I want to thank Nicole for her heads up about the Malivoire winery in Beamsville (further research also yielded Frogpond organic winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake). I think we can make it a slightly eco-experience with a stop or two the way to stock up on "almost organic" wine in case the going gets rough at the waterpark!