Category: Glenn

Happy Moon Festival!

No good photos of food this year.  After two years off it is just rough getting through the week at times so this year’s dinner was more simple than other years.  We did (one of the few times I say yippee to being gluten free) have moon cakes for dessert and the girls gobbled those down.  After dinner we had our annual lantern parade outside.  Katrine is an awesome big sister and took her job of showing Elspeth how to holding her lantern, turn it on and joining in on Elspeth’s “parades”; all with a huge smile on her face.  To top it off the moon was beautiful.  A happy Chinese thanksgiving to all of you.

Apple Picking and Kitchen Fun

The fall always brings with it a trip to the apple orchard.  We decided not to make our big batches of apple sauce, crumbles and pies this year.  With me back at work in a new school and job that was simply too much.  Instead we picked small apples perfect for the girls’ lunches and enjoyed the sunshine but cooler temperatures.  We also went to pick fall raspberries.  However, we went in the afternoon (because I slept in; thank you Glenn).  As a result, the berries had been picked over and there were not many left.  Oh well, Elspeth got to see where raspberries come from and the few that we did find were sweet and delicious.

Of course, we had to take the occasional taste test to ensure quality.  This involves the old “wipe it on your shirt” trick.

“Mom look! Just enough for our lunch!”

The orchard was also selling pie pumpkins.  Now a few years back, Katrine and Glenn made pumpkin pies and ice cream from scratch.  I think it was a year where both Katrine and I took trips to the pumpkin patch and we ended up with a half dozen pie pumpkins.  Well, didn’t she remember and beg him to do with her and her sister once again.  He, being a great dad did just that.

Then I put the girls to work today making their own lunch. (which doubles as school lunch tomorrow too)

Plus, the helped to fold dumplings for Thrusday’s moon festival dinner. Gluten free dumplings!! (If I could eat gluten, I would just be buying the things and steaming them.)

 

 

 

C.N.E.

This year we introduced Elspeth to another family tradition – the C.N.E.  We have been taking Katrine since she was little and she loves going.  2011 Elspeth had been home for a little over two weeks so a visit was definetely out and last year she still wasn’t quite ready as she would have been too overwhelmed by the crowds to enjoy any of it.  This year was a different story.  She did so well on our trip and at Santa’s Village that we decided to give it a go.  Fun was had by all and to top it off, I even got to eat!

Let me begin with this cuteness.  “I wear my hat like Baba at the CNE”

Elspeth was a half an inch too short to go on most of the rides by herself.  It breaks my heart that kids a year or more younger are able to go on these rides by themselves and here she is almost four and she has to ride with one of us.  Her favourite rides were the merry go round and the motorcycles.  Katrine was able to do rides in both the kiddie zone and the midway.  Boy did she have some fun.

She rode well into the night with her Baba.  This was her last ride of the day.  If you look carefully you can see the larger figure with a green shirt.  That is Glenn.  He hates spinning rides yet here he is being a trooper for his daughter.  What a dad.

The girls both loved the farm building.  They did all of the kid’s activities with the fishing zone being a particular highlight.  After our late dinner, Glenn and Katrine went to enjoy the midway while Elspeth and I cycled back to the farm building where she redid everything.

Her Aleigh had to come with us, of course.  Apparently Aleigh quite enjoyed seeing extended family from the farm.

Looks like Elspeth raced her pony to a ribbon!

Elspeth practiced casting for these plastic fish.

Katrine tried to catch the real thing but settled for a softer fish.

There were also the necessary fair games where the girls selected twin frogs as prizes.  I tried to convince them that different was better but as you can see I failed.

Here is one of my favourite displays, the sand sculptures.  I also enjoyed the butter sculptures but the photos didn’t work because of the flash and glass.

Some shows, a parade, dinner and then it was time to break into two groups.  Once we finished at the farm building it was off to the Arts & Crafts building for some more crafts.  I think that this was one of our most crafty CNE visits.  We created with playdough, coloured, made masks and finally, art trading cards.  I think that Elspeth did a great job for 9:30 at night.

Promptly there after she fell asleep as we were going to meet the other pair for the final CNE tradition – mini donuts.

Okay, now for the gluten free food!  Lunch was nachos.  I only got meat and cheese as I was sharing with Elspeth but I could have had beans, lettuce, salsa.  They were yummy despite their simplicity.  Dinner was fries from Chicago Fries stall.  It was too bad that I didn’t pay closer attention or I could have opted for the sweet potatoe fries.

 

Cottage Time – a photo essay

Ahh.  Candy bags and the lake…okay, we relaxed after the car ride so now let’s swim!

Mmm, free range and organic blueberries.  The perfect snack to balance out all of that sugar.

Fishing!  Elspeth did much better this year because she was rushing to reel it back in.  Katrine still didn’t touch the worms but she was very encouraging to the fish she caught that help was on its way.

Sparklers while waiting for the fire.

Look at the giant marshmallows.

Aftermath of toasting giant marshmallows.

This year we did not really go searching for mushrooms.  Instead it was frogs and acorns.


Too much excitement for a competition

The best part of the weekend was watching Katrine skate at Summer sizzle.  She landed her axels, met her goal of finishing ontime and walked off the ice with a smile on her face.  To make that better, my parents and brother and his family were there to watch her.  I must say that the dress also looked okay.  To top it off she placed 6th (had a slip up in the final seconds of her performance on the loop jump).  Not bad considering the morning we had had before making it to the arena.

Glenn and I decided that we should stay over night at a hotel to avoid leaving home early.  That way Katrine could have maximum sleep as well as time for a hot breakfast.  Help her to be at her best.  Sounds like a great plan.  Unfortunately it didn’t work that way.

At 5 am we were awoken to a ponding on the door…well it was actually the door of the hotel room that ajoined out room.  “Police, open the door.”  In my groggy state I am like what the hell.  So I go to open the door where I saw a police officer standing shaking her head at me like “Nope lady, wrong door.”  Pounding continues as I close the door.  “Come out now with your hands up.” (The actual dialogue might be off due to tiredness)  I am walking back to the bed when it dawns on me that there are cops outside our room with guns and a guy refusing to open a door next to us as well as a set of doors between our two rooms.  Elspeth is scooped up from her sleeping bag at the foot of our bed near said door and into bed with Glenn she goes while I head to Katrine.

By this point the canine unit is joining in.  Now that was cool to hear.  I mean, the dog was sooo well trained.  He barked on a simple command and it had Katrine shaking in her bed.  Anyways, more yelling, call for back up, some guys voice next door.  Aparrently, he had to put his pants on before he could open the door.  Door opening.  More calls for lady to exit room.  Yelling between lady and guy in hall over who had called the cops.  We hear robbery, drugs, adbudtion and are left wondering who the hell we had been sleeping beside all night.

Anyways, it was all over between 5:30 and 6:00.  The yelling stopped.  Barking stopped.  Then we had one girl confused as to where the dog had gone and why she had to go back to sleep when the sun was coming up to play while the other one was working on stopping crying in the other bed.  Glenn was trying to convince Elspeth that it was most certainly not time to sleep while I was trying to neither cry nor laugh.  No one was truly rested when we headed down for breakfast at 7:00 am.  On our way back from breakfast the cops were still there carrying bags from the room.

We were suppose to spend the day with the family but not one of us has the energy.  So, we packed up the car after lunch and headed home.  And that was the excitement of Katrine’s first competition of the season.

A Gotchaversary and Summer Fun

Two years ago today our little sweetie met us in the lobby of a hotel and began to cry.  Those cries were a wonderful sound to us.  Two years later here is how she has spent the last three days.

Today:

Cuddling

Painting

Tuesday:

Science experiment with slime.

Monday

Science experiment with water.  “Hey mom, it makes ice!”  Yes Elspeth it certainly does.

My favourite – homemade waterslide!!!  Girls thought this one up themselves.

An Anniversary Trip for Two

After 15 years married and 21 together, Glenn still knows how to make me feel special.  One way is to plan a trip for two without the girls.  He put a lot of thought into it and it turned out to be a wonderful grown-up version of our honeymoon (aka nice jacuzzi tub as opposed to heart shaped jacuzzi tub).  We spent three nights at the Inn on the Twenty in peaceful Jordan, Ontario where we got to sleep in EVERy morning (no 5:30 bathroom wake up calls!).  We also drank copious amounts of locally produced Cave Springs wine…mmmm.  Most importantly we smiled, relaxed in the little courtyard garden and talked.

On our actual anniversary we went for a small hike, as I had broken my toe the previous week, at the Balls Falls Conservation Area.  It was beautiful.  I only wish that my toe had been healed so that we could have gone on a longer hike.  We did manage to fill the extra time with a tour of the Cave Springs winery and a wine tasting.  Did I mention…mmmm.  It was wonderful.

They had a really nice display of needlework.

We met this little guy along the way.  Thought he was a rabbit at first.

The day before Glenn took me gluten free shopping in the States which might not sound that romantic but really it is.  Over the course of our marriage he has seen me grown into my food issues and knows first hand how much food means to me.  So, he took me to buy GF Bisquick, cereal and cake mix.  While there I discovered that Pillsbury is now making tubs of GF pizza dough, pastry and cookie dough but I couldn’t buy those as we were not heading directly home.  We did stop in Niagara on the Lake for dinner and I got a really pretty new hat.

The hatty couple (but only mine is new)

We did the Falls themselves on our last day as that is when we actually arrived 15 years ago.  It was kinda neat to be there stolling around as we had done years before.  That said, by the end of the day we were really missing our girls (who had spent the time with my parents – thank you mom and dad) so off we headed up north to have a family dinner and pick them up.

Believe it or not this little oasis is at the foot of Clifton Hill.

Another weekend, Another Reunion

This seems to be the summer of reunions.  Thankfully, both have been a lot of fun and neither was rained on.  The reunion this past weekend was for Elspeth’s China family.  Both girls have been blessed with families who want to try and foster strong connections between the children.  They have also been blessed with truly great China sisters and brothers.  These kids are so much fun to be around and we are honoured to watch them grow up.  Luckily the grownups that go along with said children are equally as fun.

Altogether this made for a Saturday full of smiles and laughter….oh and a slew of balloons being taken to my backyard for the heck of it.

Canada Day and a Family Reunion

What a weekend! We began by driving up to my parents bright and early on Saturday morning so that we could get things set up before the parade.  We got done just in time and enjoyed the parade with family.  My dad and his group the Loyal Order of the Pumpkin were back in the parade.  The girls were super pleased to cheer on their grandpa.  And as you can see in the photo, he was thrilled to have so much family support for his efforts.  Oh, and did you notice my nails?

This is the second time that Elspeth has celebrated Canada Day but the first time that she has done so as a citizen.  We went all out to celebrate these two occassions at once.

As the parade and community barbeque were over, we headed back to my parents’ house to welcome even more family.  The last time that we got together as a group was about 7 years ago and that was without our family from Florida.  This weekend, however, saw all of us (minus 3 second cousins and spouses and their 4 children) together.  I love my family.  We are an entertaining bunch.  When I think back on my childhood, Christmas eve comes to mind.  Driving in a car squished between my Nana and brother driving to a family party.  As soon as we walked in there was my great aunt and uncle to greet us along with the rest of the family.  I remember visiting another great uncle and dancing for him while being scared of his yapping dog.  I remember funerals, weddings, birthdays and showers.  At each one I felt safe, loved and happy.  I wanted that to gift that sense of belonging to my two so when my cousin suggested a reunion I jumped on the band wagon (Thank you Gil).  I am so very glad I did.

While I visited and organized (because no reunion is without it’s hiccups), the girls ran around with family.  They played fight the zombies, tag, frisbie, bury our cousin in the sand…pretty much, you name it and it was played.  Most importantly they smiled and laughed.  This afternoon after we got home and had unpacked Elspeth asked where her friends were.

Elspeth was lucky enough to find people who were willing to let her “tie” their shoes.  She never got it quite right but boy was she focused.   

Today? Actual Canada Day? After a bit more playtime and some clean up we headed home amidst the traffic. Neither girl wanted to leave. However, their sadness was short lived as once we had unpacked there was a knock on the door. The girls were invited to go just down the street to a friend’s house to pick cherries. Even though we didn’t make it to the fireworks tonight, cherry picking ended the day on a high note.

Strawberries!

Yup, that time of year again, so off we headed to the berry patch for some picking.  We tried a new patch this year.  Well, not really new because we picked at a patch on the farm where we go to pick apples each fall.  They had a lovely large field that is close enough to home that Katrine was able to bring a friend with her.  That was really nice as the pair of them went off by themselves down one row while I was able to focus on helping Elspeth fill up our basket.  Even though they were off by themselves picking and giggling in the sweltering sun, I was able to keep an eye on them.  Not sure how much ‘quality control’ they carried out but I know that Elspeth ate about as many berries as she picked.

After a short tractor ride back in from the field, the older two went to play with a water pump (“Hey look mom, just like pioneers!”) while Elspeth prefered the swings and slide.  The morning drew to a close with a snack of fresh made strawberrry rhubarb cruellers.  These left all three in a sticky mess and led to another visit to the pump.  All in all a very fun morning made all the better by a return home to air conditioning.

Oh!  Check out the baby apples.  It looks like it should be a better crop than last year.  Already looking forward to that fall outing.