Exploring Toronto With Sir William

After exploring New Zealand, on December 3, 2015, we flew home and up to Toronto to join our own little Hobbit, William, in his home town of Toronto!  We had a week of fabulous fun there before heading down to Philadelphia for the holidays.

One of the privileges of grandparents is to pick your grandchild up from school.  We exercised this privilege with gusto.  William decreed that, this day, we would walk all the way home from school rather than riding the streetcar.  That was a mile of imaginative fun!

First we had to explore faces on the pavement:

Then we -- and I mean ALL of us -- had to crawl over, under and through the public sidewalk sculptures:

Rides to and from school on other days were filled with games of, "I Spy With My Little Eye..." and, every day, a cookie or other treat was happily consumed on the streetcar ride home from school.

Matt and Weina had a list of local restaurants to introduce to us.  At one, William found a fascinating little fountain to understand:

Back at home, it was time to trim the Christmas tree that Matt brought home.  Here, Matt, William and David apply the final decorations before William decreed the tree Fit For Christmas:

Meanwhile, Kathy and William experimented with making angel wings from paper:

Little William got a stomach virus after we arrived and needed to stay home from school.  David (aka "Ye Ye") fell on the sword and agreed to babysit William during the schooldays.  However, as a consequence, Kathy had to drive down to Philadelphia on her own for Cookie Baking Day and a doctor's appointment.

David and William spent two big days together looking for trouble they could get into.  One bit of trouble was to revisit "Fox and Fiddle," a restaurant which was the scene of the crime where David and Kathy introduced William to chocolate chip pancakes.  This time, William opted for a grilled cheese sandwich and french fries, as he had with Kathy and David earlier in the week.  Of course, both days, lunch was topped off with some tasty ice cream!

Here, William entertains David with crayons and a spoon while they waited for lunch to be served:

Another adventure while Kathy (aka "Nai Nai") was occupied in Philly, was a picnic in the "Lion Park" near Matt and Weina's apartment.  The weather was chilly but sunny.   Here, William demonstrates the best method of enjoying pita bread:

Two full days of four-year-old fun requires a great deal of creativity for old geezers such as David. By the end of the second day, we were getting quite novel in our activities.  In the photo below, William shows off the little chicks he made from cotton balls, popsicle sticks and cut-out paper eyes and beaks.  There are chicks of different colors for William, Matt, Weina, Kathy and David:

By Saturday, December 12, David was recovered from William Duty and flew down to Philly to meet Kathy, so that we could drive our rented cargo van to pick up stored items for Katie and deliver them to her in New Haven.  On Sunday, we helped Katie move all her earthly possessions out of her apartment and into U-Haul storage boxes in anticipation of her Big Move across country to UCLA.

Come Monday, we continued on our way in the cargo van back up to Toronto to deliver a dining table and chairs back to Matt and Weina, but not before having a wonderful breakfast in Albany with Laird and Risa!  We spent the rest of the week with them before driving back down with them to Philadelphia for a Merry Christmas.  More on that in the next blog entry.