Robin Hood a great play

Last weekend I took my boys to Granville Island to see The Merry Adventure of Robin Hood as put on by Carousel Theatre. The boys had never heard the story of Robin Hood before (can you believe it!!), so I gave them a quick precis. I was worried that they wouldn’t understand the play. Well, I worried for nothing.

The play was fun, colourful, interesting, and exciting for them and me. The acting was great, the stage was lovely, the length of the play was perfect (one short intermission, two hours in and out all told), and the boys had no trouble following the action.

Like all Carousel plays adapted from classic books (I’ve seen a few and recommend them), Robin Hood stuck pretty well to the classic story. There was a bit of kissing and romance (so warn your boys!), but it was mostly a fun romp through medieval times with a happy ending.

Take your kids. It’s playing until January 2, 2009, and tickets are still available.

A family walk — up Grouse Mountain

My family did the Grouse Grind yesterday morning. Yes, all of us, even the 8 year old and the 6 year old. And before you laugh at me too hard, yes, I was the last one up.

This wasn’t the kids’ first time climbing Grouse. Both climbed it a couple times before — the younger did it at age 4 (and yes, he did it faster than me then too). But it was the first time I climbed with them. Dad has always been the one to go with them before. In fact, two years ago, after my then-six-year-old did the climb in a reported 90 minutes, I went up the next weekend with a girlfriend trying to just beat his time (I didn’t, I tied it. Stop laughing!).

So this weekend we all climbed together. In my own defense, I have asthma, and it’s exercise-induced asthma, so when I climb a lot of stairs (and in case you’ve never experienced it, the Grouse Grind is described as Mother Nature’s stairclimber — it’s a mile straight up a mountain after all!), my heart rate skyrockets and I need to take a lot of breaks to slow my breathing down. The boys can just scramble up easily, even using their hands for the steeper steps. I can’t.

Anyhow, I told the boys to go on ahead with Dad and not wait for me until they reached the top, but they took a few long breaks and I managed to keep up with them. In fact, their time was 83 minutes, and mine was 86. Not too shabby for an old lady, right?

While it may not have been a crowning moment of athletic achievement for me, for the kids, it was an amazing one. They’re only 6 and 8, and they climbed Grouse Mountain in under 90 minutes. I am so proud of them, and so proud to have been able to do it with them.

And okay, none of us could even dream of doing it more than once, let alone 13 times like this superhero, but still, those two boys are my heroes.