Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Coins, Skateboard, Dragons and Hockey

Two weeks ago, Danica had a sleepover, so it was JJ's turn on Saturday. I don't know if the kids do this to humour the old folk or because they actually like spending time with us. Whatever the reason, I'll accept it.

He recently got interested in sorting pennies, and then Sue remembered that we had some old coins from my mother, so she had them ready for him as his first activity on this sleepover.

The oldest coin that he found was a half penny from Hibernia, 1822. I found out that Hibernia was an old name for Ireland, and I had thought it would be Scotland. A little bit of Googling indicated that this coin might change hands for $20 - $50 today, depending on its condition. Not that one would want to sell it, but it was interesting to discover this information.



There is some Irish ancestry on both sides of my maternal line although it seems to go back a few generations, so I guess that's how the coin got into the family.

Sidetracking: My maternal grandmother was born in Canada, but she came at least partly from Irish immigrants. I am not sure if her parents were first or second generation Canadians though as I haven't traced that far back. My maternal grandfather came to Canada from England, but his family had moved from Ireland to England at some point. If I recall, without looking it up again now, he had been born in England but his father emigrated from Ireland.

Although it had rained earlier it cleared sufficiently to take the boy out to try out his new skateboard.




Then we walked the adjacent tail for a while. JJ wanted to find a tree to climb, but low branches seemed to be unavailable. There were stones to skip, however.




His sleepover present was a book, Dragonology, that he had seen when his cousin visited, and he fell in love with it. It was hard to get, but it arrived from the UK just before his sleepover after I had given up hope, thinking it had been lost in transit after more than a month of waiting.




We read the first few pages at bedtime.



Sunday morning and his first hockey game of the year. As so many things in Canada wind down after Thanksgiving, there is always hockey. 😄

He's the one with the puck in this photo, and he got off a good shot. What shocked me was seeing this relatively tall kid out there; I barely recognized him at first. It took me awhile to get used to his new size, for last year as a first year player in Novice, it just didn't look like this. Now, in his second year, he is one of the bigger boys.



That afternoon, Sunday, we had our Thanksgiving feast although officially, TG is always on a Monday. As I write this on Monday, I'm not sure what we are going to do today, if anything. The leaves are finally showing some colour and we would like to take them in, and there is a studio tour nearby which would be nice to visit, but it's gray now and there is rain in the forecast, so we may be housebound.

9 comments:

Tabor said...

I noticed how he had grown. The photo of the two of you reading the book is so lovely. His hair is also interesting...new style...new fad?

Marie Smith said...

JJ looked taller to me too, Ac. How quickly they grow! I think the alone time with each of the kids is really important to them. Ours love it too.

Joanne Noragon said...

My friend's son went from the height of my granddaughter (5'1") to almost as tall as his brother, 6', over the summer. All the boys I know are doing that lately. Good for JJ.

Mage said...

You should be pleased with that first photograph. Yes, the one of the two of you reading is very touching. :) We did that one year with five of the grandkids. :)

Silver in AZ said...

what a lovely sleepover; thanks for sharing it with us! Really cool about that penny!

Kay said...

That's such a sweet photo of the both you. So much love...

Mara said...

I love old coins and whenever I find one, I will put it in my money box. I don't think I have one that old though. And certainly not from Ireland (Scotland would be Alba by the way).

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving, whatever you did.

Debbie said...

goodness...the boy has gotten so big!!!

Jenn Jilks said...

Fun having sleepovers!
They just get busier as they grow, our grandies. My daughter's MIL is visiting, too! sigh. They'll be scarce. I was quite peeved we had to have TG on Saturday. And my boys wouldn't come here on the Saturday. Sorry, venting... I have issues with my youngest.