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Story Mobs

October 9, 2015/in Uncategorized /by ValleyFamilyFun

Join the Story Mob Over the weekend I had the opportunity to have my second story mob experience! What’s a story mob? I’m glad you asked! StoryMobs are where great kids’ books meet flash mobs with a dash of Mardi Gras thrown in. The idea originated by two women in Ontario and the idea has […]

My Twin

October 9, 2015/in Family Life, Valley Family Fun /by ValleyFamilyFun

Do you Have a Look Alike? “Whatever the real truth behind doppelgangers, belief in the spirit double has instilled both fear and wonder in people for thousands of years.” A doppelganger is someone who looks like someone else. My three-year-old neighbour thinks I look just like Stella from the book seires by Marie-Louis Gay. What […]

Story Mobs

October 9, 2015/in Uncategorized /by ValleyFamilyFun

My Twin

October 9, 2015/in Family Life, Valley Family Fun /by ValleyFamilyFun

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Story Mobs

October 9, 2015/in Uncategorized /by ValleyFamilyFun

Join the Story Mob

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to have my second story mob experience!

What’s a story mob?

I’m glad you asked!

StoryMobs are where great kids’ books meet flash mobs with a dash of Mardi Gras thrown in.

The idea originated by two women in Ontario and the idea has spread across the country. See their website here!

Like other flash mobs, StoryMobs appear out of nowhere in an apparently spontaneous way, in a busy public space, at a (quietly) designated time and then disperse without any additional fanfare after they have finished.

Last fall, my family and I participated in a Story Mob in Wolfville, NS for the book Green Eggs and Ham. As you can tell by the pictures, we really hammed it up!

We had over 20 readers, with people coming in costumes and using props to help tell the story.

Even Wolfville Mayor Jeff Cantwell got in on the fun!

Here is a video snippet of the event. Can you find me?

This year we crashed Kentville’s Harvest Festival where we celebrated pumpkin people! There is even a book by local authors Sandra and Ron Lightburn called The Pumpkin People. This is the book that we read to the crowd.

Here are some of the pictures from the event.

This year, Daniel got to be one of the readers!

Authors Ron and Sandra Lightburn!

MP Scott Brison, Kentville Mary Dave Corkum and Pumpin People Mascot, Spike

Our story mobs are organized by Angela Reynolds who is the head of Youth Services for the Annapolis Valley Library. She made many of the props, divide the reading parts and flawlessly orchestrate the event. Here’s some information on how she did it.

If you connect with the StoryMobs group in Ontario, they will also hook you up with information on how you can start your own mob!

Grab some friends, involve the local library, and help make reading fun in a new way!

My Twin

October 9, 2015/in Family Life, Valley Family Fun /by ValleyFamilyFun

Do you Have a Look Alike?

“Whatever the real truth behind doppelgangers, belief in the spirit double has instilled both fear and wonder in people for thousands of years.”

A doppelganger is someone who looks like someone else.

My three-year-old neighbour thinks I look just like Stella from the book seires by Marie-Louis Gay. What do you think?

Spirit twin? Long lost relative? Complete coincidence?

Whatever it is, I also have a real-live look-alike twin.

Photographer Francois Brunelle undertook an interesting project: hunting for look-alikes or ‘doppelgangers’ and setting out to shoot 200 pictures of couples who, despite not sharing the same blood, have strikingly similar faces. Check it out here.

I’m lucky that I didn’t have to search far and wide for my twin, as she lives in the same town, and she happens to be a good friend of mine!

Meet Heather.

I first met Heather through the school. Our sons are approximately the same age, and we have many mutual friends.

To make things more confusing, Heather and I have the same last name. However, hers is through marriage. It turns out that Heather’s husband is actually my 6^th cousin.

I am related to him, and not to her, and yet we are the ones who look alike!

I don’t think we noticed the similarity right away, that is until strange things started to happen!

The first incident I remember, was when picking our kids up at a birthday party, my son ran to Heather instead of me!

Other funny things have happened to us, too.

One time, Heather was shopping down town. My husband’s colleague came up to her and began talking to her – launching into a big conversation. Heather stood there with a confused look on her face, until a mutual friend had to explain, “that’s not Laura!”.

It happens to me, too. When I walk through the school hallway, kids say to me, “Hi A’s mom!” I went to change my son’s medical records at the school and they said, “for A, right?”

“No! Wrong child! It’s Thomas!” I quickly had to correct before Heather’s son had the wrong allergies recorded!

“I saw on Facebook you went canoeing this summer!” No, that was Heather’s picture!

“You run the Valley Family Fun website!” No, that’s Laura.

We’ve gotten quite used to just answering… “oh, that’s Laura/Heather”. Or smiling and waving at everyone who thinks they know us.

It’s funny that when I finished writing the draft of this blog post I went to a school track meet. Twice in a span of 5 minutes: “Hi A’s Mom!” and “How will S do in his run today?” I had to remind her that I was Laura and my son was Daniel. Not S.

We haven’t quite worked out how we can use this to our advantage… yet! It’s just good to know I have a stunt double available!

As for who is the evil twin… we’ll let you decide!

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Join the Story Mob

Do you Have a Look Alike?

“Whatever the real truth behind doppelgangers, belief in the spirit double has instilled both fear and wonder in people for thousands of years.”

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