This will be a photo post.
One month of summer holidays down
Month: July 2014
Horsecapades
While looking into what is going on at the CNE this year I came across an ad for Horsecapades. Most importantly it is FREE. Now who can turn down free activities? In this case it was free-tastic!!
The girls got a chance to ride a mechanical horse (which is as close as they will get to riding a horse for a while). Elspeth was ready to go until she learned that one of us would have to hold onto to her because she is so small. Katrine decided to name her horse Blackie.
There was also a couple of educational displays about horses (with the exception of a section with general farm activities – hence the pig photo cause they were so very cute). Elspeth was quite pleased with her horse hat and pretended to be Baby Horse for the rest of the day. Katrine enjoyed looking at the life-sized insides of a horse display and was thoroughly grossed about by the section on horse parasites. The girls also got to touch and feed various horses. I think that the Minature Horse named Pablo was their favourite.
The highlight was definitely the horse show. What gorgeous creatures. They both loved the unicorn being ridden by a fairy. Elspeth enjoyed the lasso and trick riding portions while Katrine enjoyed the horse races and musical poles (aka chairs) game.
We topped it off with some peddle sulky rides.
16 Years
Here is a blast from our past from July 25, 1998. When we were cleaning to get ready to paint I pulled my dress out of the cupboard and the girls took a look. They found it hilarious that it no longer does up. They also told me that it was super poofy. In fact, Elspeth hid underneath the skirt. They both tried on the veil which was apparently substantially less funny. Don’t think that either of them will be sporting my style on their wedding days. My bouquet was the most positively received item.
Happy Anniversary to us!
Pastry 101
When I was a teenager, my mom taught me how to make pastry. Nice gluteny pastry. Flakey, tasty goodness. She had learned from her father who was a baker so you know she is a pastry pro. Way back in the day I could make top notch lard or shortening pastry. Then it happened – Celiac. Since my diagnosis I have not been successful at making pastry from scratch. It just hasn’t turned out right. When Katrine asked to make butter tarts I knew that it was time to contact the pro. This past week while up at her grandparents Katrine made tarts from scratch in all their gluteny goodness. Apparently they were flaky and suitably buttery.
She inspired me to try again. I thought it was going okay but it was an epic fail. The pastry was suitably flaky but way too grainy to be tasty. The key lime filling for the pie was limey but didn’t set. Neither did the egg tart filling. Sigh. Time to try again.
New rooms for the pair
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.
The Seige of Castle K&A
The tale of the seige as told by K&A Minstrels
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Once upon a time, there was a king named OmNom who lived in the land of NomNom. He was married to the beautiful Queen OmOm. They had a daughter named Sue (which is really a unique name in the land of NomNom). Sue also had a pet dog named Chicken-om.
Sue asked her dad to build them a castle. So, the king and his knights looked for some land.
“Okay, knights, you search for land and don’t forget your mace and sword. Then come tell me,” said King OmNom.
They found some land in a place beside the Land of PomPom. There was nice green fields and water for a moat. The king hired a builder and his workers to create a castle. The builders started.
“I want you to get some stones and build this castle stat!” yelled the builder.
A year later,
“Dear,” said Queen OmOm.
“What honey?” said King OmNom.
“Is the castle done?”
“Yes.”
“Princess, the castle is done!” called the queen.
“Yeah!!!” (Back flip)
And so, the family and their court moved into the castle.
“This castle is awesome.”
They all lived happily in the castle for a long time. Until….one day there was an evil laugh on the roof of the manor which signaled an attack. The family was driven from their homes by some jealous PomPoms. They fled to Chateau Pompom and asked the Pompom king for help.
“HELP!!!! We need your help our castle is being over run by your subjects!”, they cried.
“That is outrageous. I will get them at once. Knights, we are laying seige.”, replied the PomPom king.
TUNE IN FOR THE EXCITING CONLUSION.
“I wasn’t expecting a seige. No, no, no, no.” screamed an evil guy before jumping into the moat and being eaten by a crocodile. Crunch!
The PomPom army appeared on the horizon with their catapults!!!!! And then, their archers close behind.
“Ready, aim, fire.”
The battle was epic and laid waste to much of the castle but the army was victorious and the castle was returned to the OmNom king and his family.
Finally, some grown up popsicles
Okay, not all of our popsicles have been successful. One of our flops was the pureed apricot ones. Normal they were sweet and juicy. However, pureed and mixed with some sugar and they tasted SOUR!! Pretty bad.
A more successful popsicle was the Caramel Apple-sicle. Both the kiddie and the adult version. In fact, I enjoyed the adult version and may have to make a few different variations over the rest of the summer.
juice, caramel yogurt and caramel sauce
no apple juice please, cider instead 🙂
Sunny Afternoon Fun
I am going to start by sharing snapshots of my two beautiful daughters. Just love them.
I am loving having the afternoons free for fun; especially on sunny days – outdoor fun!!
Sand Play
Catapults – Phase 1
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.