What's up with Glenn, Heather, Katrine, and Elspeth
First, some random cuteness which I could not bear to leave unposted.
Glenn has a few weeks of holidays this summer. This week the girls are up at their grandparents for a few days and we are not relaxing. Nope. We are painting bedrooms – pink. Before dropping off the pair, we put them to work helping to tape the trim and then paint the closet. Pain got in the hair, on the hands but they had a bit of fun until they lost interest. I will post some photos of the finished rooms.
When searching for ideas for school in the spring, I discovered this website (http://www.housingaforest.com/simple-catapults/). Now I have already posted about creating the bubble snake blowers and the pop bottle sprinklers. This afternoon’s project was foot catapults. The girls were super excited because this process involved the use of tools as well as sending things flying.
This weekend, weather permitting, we will launch phase 2 of this project – the castle siege. At Katrine’s suggestion we have settled on water balloons as the ammunition for the backyard attack on Chateau K&A. I expect it to be an epic battle but we are hopeful that our troops will be victorious.
This past weekend the girls worked with Glenn to create a homemade sprinkler out of a pop bottle. Elspeth donned her goggles and actually got herself a bit wet.
There was book reading, cloud watching and learning to slide down the pole at the playground. Loving the summer.
We have been so much fun making different types of popsicles.
Here are the diced cherry with cherry yogurt ring pops.
We also made up watermelon creamsicles. Super simple because all we did was mix pureed watermelon with some greek yogurt.
The favourites so far have been caramel greek yogurt and banana fudgesicle. Literally mashed bananas and cocoa. A fun treat for breakfast.
Have you heard of a Tim Tam Slam?  It is, according to the girls an “awesome treat” from Australia.  I’d heard about it previously, but then I saw a demonstration and I knew I had to find some Tim Tam’s for me and the girls to try.  Luckily they are available in Canada in many supermarkets so a couple of packs later we were ready to try.
If you need a more detailed demonstration, hit up ZiggyD’s How to Tim Tam Slam like a True Blue Aussie for all the details.
Canada Day:
After watching the second Star Wars movie (finally convinced the girls that it wasn’t a boy movie and they both enjoyed it. Now they are asking for their very own lightsabers. Anyways, after the movie we headed out to enjoy some sunshine before coming home to make ring popsicles.
This past weekend we started to make popsicles. I was cleaning and found some molds. Our first batch was plain juice and when they were chosen over freezies we kicked it up a notch by adding cut up melon to the juice. Another hit. So, when I found these fun ring style molds at a dollar store I snapped them up and we broke them in. Our first batch was diced cherries (the ring’s jewels) topped with a mix of black cherry greek yogurt and apple juice. Another hit. The girls are asking to try banana fudgsicles next.
Weekdays:
Other than Katrine’s skating and Elspeth’s swimming lessons, we have been spending a lot of time crafting, playing in the kitchen and going to the park. It has been relaxing except for the day when Elspeth developed a stomach bug…well that was relaxing considering it brought more screen time. That said, the four or so hours we spent at various parks today were much more my speed.
Kites:
This evening there was a nice brisk breeze blowing so we broke out the kites. Unfortunately we were not able to coax the really cool dragon shaped kite into the air. The girls took it in stride and had a fabulous time flying the cheap Care Bear one.
The girls LOVE going to the Wye Marsh with their grandfather and this weekend was no exception. So off to the Marsh we went. We discovered waterlillies in bloom, birds, insects, bugs and secret steams. A great journey into the woods.
Now that is quite a combo isn’t it? That however, has been the last week or so. We finished it all off with Katrine’s final project of the year which was due today. It was the food chain and I don’t think that I have seen her so thrilled to simply be done in a while. This year she has enjoyed many more of the projects but her favourite part of this particular one was finishing it.
I was given some mehndi recently so decided to take advantage of it and decorate my children. The designs are nothing fancy. In fact, on one of Elspeth’s feet it clearly states the name of her favourite cartoon but hey, she is thrilled. Katrine of course, opted for more of a skating centered decoration while I tried for pretty. If you look closely, you can see that Elspeth was so excited about me “drawing on her” that she even wrote about it in her homework journal.
Elspeth wrote, “I have mehndi. It is cool.”
Last month I went searching for fun things to do during prep with one of the classes at my school. I came up with a number of great ideas along the way for both school and home. So far we have tried frozen banana slices (which only I enjoy), frozen yogurt dots ( a hit) and corn starch & water “chalk” paint. This weekend we tried another new idea from (http://www.housingaforest.com/rainbow-bubble-snakes). It worked!!! The girls had a blast. Not only did it actually blow long “snakes” but they kept holding toghther once they fell off the blower. I think that our next project will be to give the pop bottle sprinkler a go!
We finished up the weekend with strawberry picking. Of course this meant that there is strawberries and cream for dessert as well as strawberries and chocolate. It also meant hot fun full of giggles and smiles. Both of the girls enjoy getting out and picking the berries; not to mention taste testing as they went. I like that they get a sense of the amount of work behind harvesting the food that we eat. Unfortuanetly the raspberries were not yet ready so we may need to go back.
If you look closely, you can see the ring of red around Elspeth’s mouth.
We have been all over the place thus far this month. The wrap up of the school year tends to do that to us. So far we have had 3 school BBQs:
Katrine’s school (no photos cause I forgot the memory card 😥 )
Katrine’s After school
(Yup, Elspeth is finally big enough to get on some inflatables)
Elspeth’s Daycare BBQ
We all went down to the ROM to see the Forbidden City exhibit which was quite interesting. The highlight for me was actually getting to see imperial robes and their needlework up close (as wonderful as in pictures).
Still loves to examine the rocks and minerals
Really enjoyed the dinosaurs. Perhaps having just finished a dinosaur unit peeked her interest.
Elspeth got to play with the big band during one evening practise which was pretty exciting. She also got proper drumsticks this past weekend. Now all that is left is to find an appropriate drum.
Katrine had a great time performing in her school’s arts evening at the local theater. It was fabulous. Everyone involved put in a lot of hard work. We were really proud of her.
This past weekend Glenn and the girls enjoyed a quiet time together. They ran errands, watched cartoons, read books and took quite a few trips to the park. Quality father daughters bonding time. Where was mom? Eating on the other side of Canada.
This year’s Canadian Celiac Association Conference was in Calgary. My mom and I really enjoying going to the conferences together so as part of my 40th, they gifted me airfare to Calgary. Off I went after work on Friday. I didn’t arrive until late but there was delicious goodies awaiting me – perogies, fruit, a lemon poppy seed muffin and skor cookies. All gluten free of course and simply scrumptious. After a long flight and missing my girls it was the perfect end to the day. (Now the full bed to myself with its mound of pillows didn’t hurt either).
In the lobby waiting to go in to the seminars.
The next morning we were up bright and early to hit the breakfast and seminars. Each time we go to the conference I learn something new. Of course, right next door was the exhibit hall with its free samples. Oh how I ate – coconut milk ice cream, cookies, pizza, perogies…. My highlights were the coconut milk ice cream by Screamin Brothers (really intense fresh flavours can’t wait until it hits the shelves in Ontario), the cinnamon dessert pizza (Coco Brooks) and the perogies (Stella’s Perogies). I also found gluten free Goldfish Puffs. I didn’t try them until getting home but delicious! Then there was the buns provided at lunch. Heaven. Soft, untoasted yumminess. They alone have me wanting to go back to Calgary. Thank you to Care Bakery. Sandwich and bread deliciousness. Is that it? Oh no, I still have some GF meat sticks that I am hoping the girls will eat (not spicy – Grimms), new healthier takes on the traditional sesame sticks (can’t recall the company name), some GF Breton crackers awaiting sampling…mmm, food.
One of the free samples. I didn’t know that Stax were also GF.
It wasn’t all about the food and an auto immunie disease; I did manage to get outside. Heck, by lunch when I was full (only until it was time for an afternoon snack) mom and I along with a fellow conference attendee ventured out to enjoy the sunshine along the main tourist strip. It was a beautiful day and I rather enjoyed getting out and stretching my legs.
The girls would have loved splashing around in here.
Once the day’s sessions had finished, we all headed out to the nearby mall to visit the Devonian Gardens. Mall? Gardens? Doesn’t sound like something you see everyday and it is not. It is located on the top floor of the mall and offers a nice oasis situated near the food court. I quite enjoyed the tranquility.
From there we went to the Fairmount for a nice dinner (yup, even more GF goodness). Dad wanted to do something nice for mom becaue the next day was their 45th wedding anniversary. At the end of the meal, our came dessert complete with sparkler and chocolate message. Mom’s face just lit up. Oh and it was gluten free too!
Steak and roasted garlic & potatoe soup (GF) with vegge.
I was sad to leave my oasis of gluten freeness and return to reality but at the same time happy because it meant coming home to my Glenn and the girls. Overall it was a great weekend.
Our haul.
Elspeth ran around this little trike circle for about 16 laps. She fell asleep pretty quickly tonight.
The pedestrian strip
45 years