Tuesday, July 3, 2007

O'CANADA!!!

(x-posted to Maple Leaf Mafia)

This Lactose-free Canada Day is brought to you in honour of Matty Swaby.

July 1st... The day Canada celebrates their Independance! YAY!

Headed to M.F. for a day of celebrating the Homeland. Hammer had maple cookies ready and a maple leaf flag banner up. We started the afternoon with a rousing game of NHLopoly. I would've won if I hadn't have let Hammer cheat and stay in jail in order to avoid the "ticket prices" in Ottawa with the arena built. She won. Lame. Now I know not to be so congenial.

We tagged my car with red car-chalk. Violette (my vehicle) is still proudly rockin' "CANADA DAY '07" on her back windshield.

The roster ended up beign rather full - The whole female contingent of the Maple Leaf Mafia was there (Hammer, VonHammer, Laces and McPhizzle) along with 3 of Hammer's friends and 1 little nugget named Michael - the little 18-mo.-old cutie that totally stole the show.

We all wore "Canadian leis" (aka red mardi-gras beads that left our necks pink - Mike thought I had gotten sunburned when I got home), and most of us were wearing some combination of red, black and white (we let VonHammer slide with the HNIC shirt). We also put temporary tattoos on our faces. When Laces came in she asked, "Can't I put it on my guns?" Your guns?! No, now you HAVE to put it on your face for asking that way.

Before we ate dinner, the Canadian Anthem was sung reverantly at the picnic table.

the Alberta Beef Tenderloin with Gingered Saskatoon Berry Compote was AMAZING!! As was the potato salad (in honour of PEI's 65 varieties of potaoes, of course... Who knew they had that many?! "Is there enough land to grow that many there?" "Maybe a row of each?" "We found a new variety of potato, eh!" "Well, go plant it next to the other 64, eh!").

After dinner, the fun and games began. We took a Canadian History test... We should've studied. lol. Question #15 was "Which part of the US space shuttle was designed by Canadians?" VonHammer was QUITE excited that she knew the answer and when Hammer was reading the correct answers aloud, she shouted at the top of her lungs, "ROBOTIC ARM!!!!!" which we affectionately re-named the CanadArm.

Somehow the topic of Lester B Pearson (14th Prime Minister of Canada) and how he got the nickname "Mike." Apparently "Lester" didn't sound tough enough, so they picked a new name for him. Odd little tidbit there. Apparently Mike is a tough name.

After the quiz, we started playing the "Great Canadian Adventure" board game that Hammer uses as a Friday treat in the Canadian History course she teaches.
  • One of the questions Hammer gave to Laces was, "Who is the Canadian Hockey player who they call The Great One...." we all groaned and rolled our eyes at the easiness, especially since questions to the rest of us were freakin hard...
  • When someone landed on a "Heroes" space, VonHammer shouted, "TERRY FOX!!!!" before her sister could even begin to read the question aloud. Hammer's response? "Great, now I have to choose a new one."
  • To make up for the ease of Laces' queston, the next question posed to me was "WHo was the first Aboriginal head coach in the NHL... I matched VonHammer's intesity yelling, "TED NOLAN!!!!" (and as always, I added, "he's on LonGisland!")
  • Our little nugget got to roll the large, neon pink dice for his mom and dad. He beaned Laces with it once. (a Picture Essay will follow once they are transfered onto my computer from VonHammer's camera)
  • Hammer and I started fighting about how the only reason she won the NHLopoly game was b/c I let her cheat... when our voices had raised to their limit and I ran out of little sister things to say, to end the argument I said, "IT'S A GLITCH!" the laughter and thought of Brad and Vinny stopped the arguing at once.
  • As the questions got harder, Hammer gave us hints... She's a master of disguising names in hints.... here are a couple examples, "It rhymes with Schmick Schmanson" (Rick Hanson), "It rhymes with Meline Sleon" (Celine Dion) and my personal favourite, "It rhymes with Muffalo." (Buffalo)

When we'd been sufficently munched on by the mosquitos, we went inside for a little chatting and so Laces and The Nugget could play a little pick-up game of carpet hockey with the pink hockey sticks I picked up at Target in the Holiest of places, the Dollar Spot. Laces' comment about her opponent, "We're about the same height, so it's ok."

While the game was going on, the father of the Nugget gave us his opinion of hockey, "They serve beer and get in fights. Its a good game."

When he finished telling us about a game he'd been to in Seattle where there were something like 8 fights and 6 were the same guy on Seattle, my comment was, "I bet his name started with a 'Z' and ended with 'ack FitGerald'."

During the conversation about that particular T-Bird, the puck went under the little breakfast nook and behind a scrapbook organizer and it turned into a scrum along the boards at my feet, so i blew the fake whistle, bent down and dropped the puck back on the playing surface. VonHammer's comment, "The Ice Girls got that one."

When it was time for the Nugget to head home, he was QUITE sad to leave the Canadian and hockey goodness. We gave him his first taste of hockey and he's hungry for more!! :) Corrupting young minds. That's what the Maple Leaf Mafia is all about.


3 comments:

Tracy said...

That's one of the funnest Canada Day celebrations I've ever been to (albeit I was there vicariously through this post...) Fun times. :)

Shmee said...

Awesome celebration. You did much better then me. I just went to a ball game and drank beer till the only way I could speak was in burps.

The Royal Family said...

Tracy - Glad you could party with us vicariously!!! Next year we're doing a brunch with Maple EVERYTHING (and possibly Saskatoon berry syrup... mmm...)

Shmee - If M.F. wasn't a 45 minute drive from Casa de McPhizzle, I would've been chugging the Molson until I forgot the words to O'Canada :)