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A Mystical, Magical, Enchanting Afternoon

It's been a few years since I've seen her, so to hear that our little Toronto friend Catriona Mackie was celebrating her 6th birthday, was in itself a wonder. And when you're a beautiful little girl like Catriona, no ordinary birthday party would be fitting for her big day. Luckily her parents Francesca and Brian and Auntie's Jackie and Jen have magical connections making Catriona's party was fit for a Princess.

Joining the festivities was Sleeping Beauty. Catroina asked her if she knew the words to "her" song to which Sleeping Beauty said "I know the words to ALL your favourite songs" and began to sing. Catriona's mom then whispered "It's the REAL Sleeping Beauty", bringing silence and awww to the room.

Aunt Jen added brought more enchantment to the party with the fabulous Little Mermaid cake she had made just for the big day, a big hit with Catriona and her friends. Above we see a collection of photos courtesy of Aunt Jackie. Included in the mix are Catriona hand-in-hand with Sleeping Beauty herself, as they march upstairs, all the guests in their pretty dresses posing with the fairy tale legend and my personal favourite of Mummy Francesca styling Catriona's hair prior to the arrival of the guests.

Truly a magical event and one that brought tears of joy to the grown-ups eyes. And now that I've seen the photos, I can see why. Happy 6th Birthday Catriona, what a wonderful party it was.

Catriona's mother Francesca Mackie sent us this delightful message after seeing her daughter's birthday party featured in scribbles:

"Hi Kenny, thanks so much for your fantastic article on Catriona's birthday, we loved it!!! Made the birthday even more special getting such a great write-up in Scribbles. We'll print out the page & keep it with Catriona's 'special stuff'."

Bobbly Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law Don Papple who turned the big 6-0 on June 8th. We celebrated on Sunday with a family gathering at my mom's. We had a BBQ but it was a tad too chilly to sit outdoors, so the celebration was brought indoors. Don's presents included several 'gag gifts' poking fun at his age and I made him a special bobblehead card of himself, he got a kick out of that. Above we see Don with his wife, daughter and son (Kim, Erin and Patrick) and posing with his bobblehead buddy.

My participation in the event was limited as I had to lay on the floor for a while because I was in pain. One more sleep till the next injections. 

Reunited with Lady Lucy and friends

It had been almost 6 months since I last saw our friend Marsha Scott's cat Lucy but she greeted me like it was only yesterday. What can I say? She knows a cat-lover when she sees one. In fact, the very first time I met Lucy a few years ago (when we were both several pounds lighter -as seen in the before and now photos above) she immediately "kissed" me on the forehead with her rough tongue. It was no different this time around. In fact, she seemed to make up for all the months we'd been apart, by giving me several "kisses" (I won't need to exfoliate for a while thanks to this...LOL)

Lucy's "sister" cat Emily (left sidebar)  was also happy to see me again, nudging her head into my hand as if to say "Hello". After getting reacquainted with the "girls", Marsha and I then went to see our friend Shelly Stewart, for a delightful visit.

Shelly recently had to part with her guide dog Fozzie and is someone out of sorts without him. Did you know, guide dogs are only allowed to "work" for a specific amount of time before they must retire? Fozzie is alive and well and living with an acquaintance of Shelly's. Meanwhile Shelly will be teamed up with a new guide companion this Fall.

Happy retirement Fozzie, you were a fantastic working dog and we miss you.

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Little William's Daddy is Sideshow Bob!

LOL - That would be Fiction, adorable William Blythin is actually wearing his Auntie Stephanie's gardening shoes, which give him the appearance of having big feet, just like The Simpsons character Sideshow Bob. William's dad Neil tells us that prior to taking this photo, William also tried out daddy's shoes, which were even bigger, but there was no camera around at the time. Those are some mighty big shoes to fill William, but I'm sure that one day you will, it just might be a few years before it happens.

Great pix Neil, as always thanks for the open invitation to share it with all our scribbles pals.

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Skippin' Stones

Although he could only stay for a short time, because of his Uncle Ken's sore back, 6 year-old Graham Storie-Clark still enjoyed their brief visit to a local beach in order that he could toss rocks in the water.

As you can see, the beach was covered in debris, so Uncle Ken kept a close eye on what Graham picked up to throw in the lake and also made sure they both cleaned up with some hand santizer afterwards.

Graham was already asking when they would go back to the beach and Uncle Ken promised him they will go to a different (and CLEANER) beach sometime next week.

If you are in the Niagara area, the beach we were at is in Port Weller, close to a water-purification plant and it is not very well maintained. The beach we will go to next time is in Port Dalhousie, far more popular and much cleaner.

"Gee Dad, why'd we stop?

I could walk like this for hours"

 

Itsy Bitsy Chapel

Rob looks like a giant at the Living Water Wayside Chapel located on the Niagara Parkway. The tiny church was built in 1969 and is quite a tourist attraction, as evident by the many compliments found in the chapel's guest book

A Nice Day for a Drive

Rob and I pose in Niagara-on-the-Lake, while enjoying an afternoon outing. The little dog in my lap is 3 month old Daisy, who belonged to a friendly lady who offered to take our photo. The drive and visit were great until my back starting spasming and I had to go home for some pain management.

Surf's Up!

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Our rockin' Fort Erie pal Rich Hunt loves to surf almost as much as he loves to sing. In this series of photos from facebook and taken with his new "surfboard cam", we get a bird's eye view of what it is like to catch the waves.

Looks pretty exciting Rich, although since I can't swim, THIS is the closest I'll ever come to hanging ten.

"OK, you go ahead and eat first, I can wait"

They Grow Up So Quickly

A month or so ago, we told you about the Momma Robin who decided that Rhonda King and her partner Sharon Janzen's new outdoor light fixutre would be the ideal location to build her nest. Despite Rhonda and Sharon's early attempts to discourage the robin by dismantling her first nest, the determined bird rebuilt and laid her eggs.

As we see in the collection of time lapse pix above, those baby blue eggs hatched into creepy looking babies before growing into their looks. Rhonda tells us the babies are now flying, no doubt eager to tell their fine-feathered friends what a great place Rhonda and Sharon have for increasing the robin population. 

 

GLBT Business World Web Site Launches

by Melita Hoddinott

Hi Friends,

I have recently launched my new Community Networking Site: http://www.glbtbusinessworld.com/

We were formally known as “gay women in business” but in order to include and welcome our whole Gay Community we changed our name. We now welcome Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender MEN and WOMEN.

We have and continue to roll out many new and exciting features. We are focusing on the Business Community but, owning your own Business isn’t necessary. We offer all the features of other Social Communities where you can socialize, meet and make friends, plus many more...

Our hope is to bring the Gay Community together without restrictions or prejudice.

Some of our new products are:

Community Ads!

Community Ads enable users to create rich, targeted advertisement campaigns on our site for promotion of businesses, websites, and even their content on site: like listings, classifieds, groups, events, videos, etc.

The ads are more expressive and better looking than banner ads/simple text ads, and are much more likely to receive user attention and clicks. They are similar to the ones seen on Facebook.

Directory / Pages

Directory / Pages can be used for a wide variety of listings like businesses (hotels, stores, restaurants, etc), personalities, products, profiles, services, books, pets, etc.

With properties like excellent features, ease-of-use, great design, quick navigation and search engine optimized pages, this is the ideal solution for advanced listings. Its modular architecture allow you to have just the right feature set that you need for directory items / pages. Features like reviews & ratings, albums, videos, notes, documents, invite and promote and many more can be easily plugged into pages.

Documents / Scribd iPaper

Documents / Scribd iPaper can be used for endless purposes like: resumes, portfolios, articles, tutorials, presentations, reports, assignments, brochures, etc.

WOW! WOW! WOW!

I hope you enjoy our New Community and all it’s features. More to Come soon!"

Cheers...
Melita

 

That's all "Folk"

Sisters Kim Papple (left) and Jane Storie ham it up for the camera, at this year's Folk Arts Festival in Montabello Park, downtown St Catharines. The annual event showcases music and food from many cultures and just gets bigger and better.

Kim and Jane were joined by Kim's husband Don [hey, quit staring at me] and they enjoyed the sights, sounds and suds of a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Idol Finale Full of Shocks and Surprises

I'll admit it. With this year's American Idol Top Two both reign in Country music, I feared this year's finale might turn into a Country Jamboree. How wrong I was.

Sure we had some Country artists joining the Idols, like Carrie Underwood and my personal favourite Tim McGraw (As you may have guessed, I was up on my feet and squeeling with delight when he joined Scotty on "Live like you were Dying"). But Country was only one of many genres on this night. From heavy metal to gospil and everything in between the show had it all, including some big names including Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Tony Bennett and Sir Tom Jones.

Even the judges got in on the act. Jennifer Lopez bounced her bootie during hubby Marc Anthony's performance while Steven Tyler blew us all away performing "Dream On" on piano for the evening's final performance before revealing this year's winner.

And that winner was 17 year old Scotty McCreery. Did they get it right this year? Do you remember who won lost year? How about the year before? As history has shown, sometimes the "winners" make barely a whisper while other top contenders go on to fame and fortune.

Let's hope that Scotty will make it big, he certainly has the talent and distinctive voice, so maybe we have another Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood in our midst. Time will tell.

Who Won OUR American Idol Contest?

We asked you to vote between Scotty and Lauren in our American Idol Contest. 

Once the official Idol was announced, all the names of the readers who voted for Scotty were entered in our random draw.

And the winner is
Jackie Hughes

Toronto ON

Congratulations Jackie, you will receive a Special DVD  Collection including classic TV shows and the movie Big Fish.

Incidentally...Had it been up to our readers, Lauren Alaina would be this year's American Idol. We received 30% more votes for her than Scotty.  

Is Green Tea Healthy?

Info courtesy: DUMMIES.com Newsletter

Green tea has been a beverage of choice for centuries. The faithful tout it as a wonder brew, claiming its healthful properties aid our bodies in accomplishing everything from burning excess fat to destroying cancer.

Scientists know green tea contains chemicals that theoretically should have a beneficial effect on our well being. However, for the most part, the jury’s still out on whether or not consuming green tea can actually help us stay healthy.

Green, black, and oolong teas all come from the same evergreen shrub, However, unlike black and oolong teas, the leaves used to make green tea aren’t fermented. The pared-down production process allows green tea to maintain an especially high concentration of antioxidants.

Antioxidants help our bodies disable or get rid of dangerous substances called free radicals. Free radicals can damage and even kill our cells. The antioxidants in green tea are called polyphenolic catechins.

Gee, I feel like having a green tea now : )

 

Remember you can click on pix to see larger version

Blooming Beauties

It's always a sure sign Summer will soon be here, when I see my mom's yard in bloom. Above we see mom (Joan Storie) with one of her new hanging plants. There's plenty abuzz around the yard and I can't wait to see how things grow over the Summer.

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S.O.S. Yard Sale a Success

Gay parents Mikol Zahorchuk and Dave Nelson recently lost custody of their son Kolby. To assist them in getting their son back, Mikol and Dave hosted the Save Our Son (S.O.S.) fundraisingYard Sale on May 28th.

The yard sale was held at Mikol's sister's home on the corner of Geneva and Dakota Streets - a perfect location with high visibility and lots of eager people stopping by to be a part of it.

I dropped by with my furry sidekick Timmi and made a small donation to the cause. Mikol told me the weather held off (just a little early morning rain before the sun made an all day appearance) and they have tons of donations to add to the items for sale.

All the best Mikol and Dave, we certainly hope Kolby returns to his two daddies soon.

photo courtesy Brenda Baldwin

Pretty in Pink!

Current Imperial Court of Niagara Emperor Brett Woods celebrated his birthday with a big show at ENVY Lounge on May 29th.  Thanks to ICP Brenda Baldwin, we were able to see lots of photos from the big night including the shot above.

I think of it as "the Emperor's new clothes" and just check out those boots. My alter-ego "mcgraw" would kill for those boots (or get killed falling off them, they are pretty tall) 

Happy Belated Birthday Brett -looks like you had a blast.

Walk for Cancer Research brings out many scribbles friends

The annual Rankin Walk for Cancer Research was held on May 28th and brought out more scribbles pals who walked in memory of loved ones.

Richard Holditch and his daughter Tammie were joined by family and friends, as they walked in memory of Ricky Holditch, who as you'll recall, recently lost his battle with colon cancer, shortly after going public with his illness. 

My sister Kim Papple and her daughter Erin (left) walked in memory of our friend Paula MacArthur who left us 3 years ago. No doubt Paula's sister Samantha and many other family members were also in attendance at the fundraising event.

Kim tells us she broke her record for the 5 km walk, completing it quicker than last year. She credits her new fondness for yoga for her improved time. Kim said she also recently won an arm-wrestle with her 12 year old son Patrick. Her prize? The last cob of corn at dinner. WOW! That's some pretty extreme yoga Sis! LOL!!