Robbie Burns Day

After skating class on Saturday, we headed up to my parents’ house in Victoria Harbour.  Even though my mom had just got home from Scotland on Thursday (more about that in a future post), all five of us were heading to the Midland legion for a Robbie Burns night celebration.  Ever since Katrine began to take dance lessons, she and I have provided the dancing portion of the entertainment for this event.  This year we did two dances together and she wowed the crowd with two solo dances.  She can be quite the show-woman when she sets her mind to it (wish that would translate into her not complaining about having to practise, sigh).  The highlight for me was when we did a dance that was coreographed by our dance teacher back when I was maybe 10 (no old lady jokes needed).  It is just a fun dance; both to watch and do.  Plus, you gotta love the choice of music.

I do have to say that the rest of the party was looking pretty sharp.  Dad had on his Drummond tartan tie which is about as Scottish as he gets (not bad for a Sassenach spouse).  Mom had brought home a Drummond plaid skirt from one of her earlier trips home and the evening gave her the perfect excuse to wear it.  I have to tell you that Glenn was looking good in his new black Stewart kilt.  He doesn’t quite have the full outfit yet but he worked with what he had.

Now that Robbie Burns is over, we have started to put up the Chinese New Year decorations.  Yes, it is almost that time of year again.  The year of the Rabbit dawns on February 3rd.  Guess what we will be having for dinner that night?

Skating adventures with a sick child…and a birthday

Let’s talk about the birthday first because I LOVE my birthday.  I turned 37 last week.  I didn’t get the skating party with friends that I had planned (see note in the title about the sick child) but it was still a lot of fun.  After picking Katrine up from school on my actual birthday the two of us went to the skate trail together.  She is  quite fun to skate with when she is well.  The Glenn surprised me with dinner out and some fabulous gifts.  I had to make my own cake this year thanks to my growing list of allergies but it tasted like cake to me so all was well.  After Katrine was in bed Glenn made me up a peppermint soy steamer with my new milk frother.  Just think of all the money I can save not having to buy one!  I also had the gift of snow.  Looking outside it is beautiful.  White clouds of snow.

Now about the skating.  Yesterday Katrine was registered to skate in two events at the Winter Glitters skating competition.  Well, on Friday night she came home from Chinese class with a fever and complaining of a headache.  Now your going to be thinking, just don’t go to the competition she’s obviously sick; and you’d be right except that one of the events was a team event where the team consisted of only two people.  So we doped her up on Tylenol and headed out to Ajax.  The Tylenol got her threw the day but by the time we headed home she was miserable (poor thing).  That said, she skated really well.  She got a 1st in both her individual event (if you are going for one event you might as well do both) and a 1st in the team event.  Plus, she got her first bouquet of skating flowers because the other family thought that the girls would get a kick out of having them.  They were right.  She was thrilled.

Today she has spent the morning laying on the couch or playing her computer games.  I don’t blame her.  It was a long day yesterday.  Hoping that she gets better before next weekend because we are suppose to be dancing at the Robbie Burns dinner at the Legion in Midland.  We are even going to do a Mother-Daughter dance which should be pretty cute.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Happy January!

I could have started this post in a number or ways:  Happy new year! Happy Birthday to me!  Happy report card season!  Happy snowy weather!  But seeing as how it is the wonderful month of January, I settled on Happy January!  (Those of you who have known me for a long time, know how much I love winter…especially January -snow, cold, dead mold, no smog, skating, my birthday = simply awesome.).

We had a really nice Christmas with the exception that Glenn missed out on a lot of the celebrations as he was home sick.  Katrine and I escaped his germs by heading up to my parents to celebrate Christmas.  It was awesome seeing mom and dad plus my brother’s family.  The kids always have a great time when they are together.  The fact that my parents had an oodle of snow helped as much as their piles of new toys.  After each of our outings, my mom was there plying them with homemade cookies and hot chocolate (in Katrine and Charles’ case lukewarm chocolate).

We took them to the local ice rink one day.  Grandpa, Charles and Scott watched as we took to the ice.  Katrine had an audience cheering her on as she did tricks; which worked out well as it got her practising her salchow and kept her busy as I skated with Virginia.  This was Virginia’s first time out in hockey skates (having just recently out grown her figure skates, these were the only ones in the house which fit).  She was nervous to start with but did really well once she got going.  She was really proud of herself and rightfully so.  Once she had sat down to take a break, Katrine had me skating as part of a pair.  Nothing too fancy, stroking holding hands (not really in time with eachother but we tried), changing sides with a flourish, side by side spirals and then the big finish – one foot spins and a bow.  It was fun.

Then it was off to the sledding hill which is literally next door to the rink.  And what a hill!!  They whizzed down, spinning around on their crazy carpets…until Katrine took Charles out at the knees.  He was walking up the hill and failed to get out of the way, while her sled had spun her around backwards and she had no idea where she was headed.  No one was hurt and Grandma gave them an extra cookie so alls well that ends well.

On our last day there, I took Katrine cross-country skiing at the Wye Marsh.  She did really well for her first time on skis.  Lasted an hour and a quarter.  Plus, became somewhat of an expert at getting up after having fallen.  Most importantly, we had fun and I may finally have someone to go cross country skiing with.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Don’t feel to sorry for Glenn though.   We celebrated with his family before he got sick.  The whole crew of us went out for hot pot.  MMMMMMMM!  Then back to his sister’s house for dessert, gifts and a really great visit.  Plus, we came home bearing him gifts.  The best of which was his very own kilt.  It is the same tartan that he wore to our wedding.  I must say that he will look darn good in it once it is hemmed (Can you believe that it was too long on him?).  I can’t wait to see him in it on Robbie Burns Day later this month.

I will be making my birthday cake tomorrow.  I was suppose to order it but the bakery I bought from last year is closed while they move to a larger facility.  So, this year is self-serve I am afraid.  I am going to take my red velvet cake recipe, leave out the cocoa (allergic-big surprise) and turn it purple instead because purple is a happy colour.  Then  I will plop a nice, big pile of white frosting on top.  It should be delicious as well as pretty.

I wish all of you a fabulous 2011.  May it bring us all what we need and at least some of what we desire.

The snow was so soft.

This is Katrine’s new kilt.  Grandma T made her the socks.  She will be looking good for Robbie Burns this year if she can get past the fact the the socks itch and feel a bit wierd.

This was the present that Katrine made for Santa.  She wanted him to feel appreciated because he works so hard to give others stuff.

Here is the obligatory skating photo.  I had to put it in because she looks so pulled together in it…which is not always the case.

And this she learned from her cousin Dalia.  Yeah for babysitters!  Mommy can’t do this.  Couldn’t even as a child.

Isn’t the scenery beautiful?  I hadn’t been on skis since the winter before Katrine came home.

The Skate Trail is open again!

We are all set for Christmas and if the weather forecasts are right, we should actually have some snow by this time tomorrow!!  Yippee!  The last few years we shovelled all of the snow into a big pile beside our driveway so that Katrine had her own personal mini-tobogganing hill.  Can’t wait to get started on this year’s hill. (Thank goodness she is still short and young.  Soon we will need to take her to an actually hill for tobogganing).  I am also hoping to get both her and Glenn out onto cross-country skiis this winter.  It has been way to long since I skiied.

As usual we are skating.  Today we got out and enjoyed the skate trail at Richmond Green.  We will be there often this winter.  Keeping our fingers crossed that by next winter we will be teaching a new little one to skate.

A successful gluten free, egg free pie!!

Okay, this is really just a braggin post but heck, when you have been trying to make edible gluten free pastry for years and then found out that all of that work was for nothing because…gasp…you could no longer use egg; you have something to brag about. (and a run-on sentence to write)  To prove that I was successful I have attached some photos.  Now, I don’t have one of actually eating the pie but rest assured that we have been.  It was a nice success for a very fibro-type of day for me.

Katrine’s Song

Katrine decided to write the lyrics to a song tonight dedicated to those fabulous, mythical creatures that all girls love.  I thought that I would share it with you.  It goes like this:

La la la, unicorns are pretty

Ooh yes, they are pretty

La la la, I love unicorns

Sure lovely

Yes, are lovely a lot!

First Day of Grade 1

I picked Katrine up at After School Care today and was told that school was AWESOME!!  She thinks that her teacher is great, which always helps.  What did she learn?  “A few words in French, that I can’t remember. How to have respect for our school and we used clay…and I played with A***y at the park.”

I was pretty proud of her this morning.  An older girl was waiting at the bus stop with her.  The girl said, “You look adopted.” (Granted Glenn and I were waiting with her)  Katrine responds, “I’m not adopted.  I was born in China and then adopted.  Are you adopted?” Girl, “Um, no.  These are my real parents.”  The meaning of the last remark seems to have escaped her but that could be because she noticed the school bus coming down the road.  Sigh, I hope that we have prepared her well for the questions that seem to be croping up already.

To end on a happier note, I hope that you enjoy the photo.

Final Competition of the Summer

You can tell that the summer is coming to a close because Katrine is in culture camp, I am back in to school getting everything ready and we went to Bracebridge this weekend.  There is a really nice, small competition in Bracebridge and it is one of Katrine’s favourites.  This year she even had a friend from her dance class there.  The pair had a lot of fun reading a Pokemon book and practicing.

Anyways, all of Katrine’s practicing this summer and her hard work at dance camp this past week paid off.  She won in each of her dances.  She got a first in her fling and a second in pas de basque and high cuts as well as a fourth and sixth.  As you can see in the photo, she is super proud of herself which is why I thought that I would share.

Now for a pumpkin update.  You might remember that we planted pumpkins in our garden this summer.  Well our one pumpking met with an unfortunate fate.  It was eaten by the local wildlife.  I suppose that means we will be buying our pie and Halloween pumpkins again this year.

We have success!

Yesterday Katrine came back from a few days at her grandparents.  We took the training wheels off of her bike and have been working with her on learning to ride it.  Well, doesn’t she come back from their house riding it.  Now, she can only go a few driveways by herself before she has to stop but still that is riding.  Yippee!  We promised her that when she could ride well enough to go to our local gas station we would buy her a slushie and a treat.  It looks like she might just reach that goal by the time school starts up again.

We also have pumpkins.  They are small.  They are yellow.  BUT they are pumpkins and we are delighted.

July comes in with some fun!

Well, school is finished for the year and we celebrated by having some fun…mostly. On Canada Day we headed off to Embro for a dance competition.  Us go to a dance competition again?  I know, its schocking.  Embro really is a great competition.  On top of the dancing they have sheep hurding, bands, tug-of-war and fresh squeezed lemonade (Glenn and Katrine’s favourite).  There were two highlights for us this year: 1. There was a surprise fly-by during the awards ceremony which was fun to watch and 2. I did not break anything this year so no visit to the ER for us on Canada Day.  I will admit that alone helped to make this year’s Canada Day better than last year.  Katrine also danced really well which was an added bonus.  She was thrilled with her new medals and is continuing to work hard at practising her dancing.  Our next competition is actually next weekend and then it will be a nice long break until our final competition of the season in August.

The day after Embro, Katrine and I piled into the car and headed to Ottawa to visit with friends.  The trip was a bit of a breakthrough for Katrine as both families have large and friendly dogs.  This time she didn’t whine and try to run away.  She actually stayed calm.  Maybe, just maybe, we are turning a corner in terms of her being super afraid of dogs  Anyways, Katrine had a blast watching the hand-crank locks being worked in Merrickville.  She also found the glass blower pretty interesting.  There was some really nice shopping at the glass blowers which was good for mommy.  We had the most delicious meal, gluten free of course, at a local restaurant in Kemptville called the Branches.  I can’t thank Catherine and Gary enough for suggesting that we eat there.  I can sum it up in one word as YUM!

We also had the joy of visiting with one of the Yongning families;  the very one that we went to Disney with.  A delicious barbeque on Friday night and a whole fun filled day at Suanders Farm on Sunday.  I had a great visit, as well as some much needed relaxation, and Katrine had an absolute blast with her friend.  It was fabulous watching the girls play together and bond.  On Sunday night they hauled the hose around to the backyard and turned it on.  The two of them made a glorious mud puddle and then they proceeded to jump, splash and roll in it too their hearts content.  They had pure, uncomplicated fun.

What else are we up to?  Glenn has started to take swimming lessons.  He has sore arms but is enjoying it.  Katrine is also taking swimming lessons.  She actually swam a while using her arms.  She still has to work on her back strock though because she sinks quite well.  Me?  I am taking skating lessons at the same time as Katrine.  The teacher was showing on of the other students a simple waltz jump.  It looked sooo cool but I have promised Glenn and Katrine that I wouldn’t jump just in case we had a repeat of last year’s Canada Day adventure.  Instead, I am sticking to working on cross-overs and backwards skating.