Making Bread with Grammy

This year we were lucky to have Grammy come for a visit on her birthday.  While she was here, we picked her brain on making bread.  Way back in my previous gluteny existence I could make cake, pastry, cookies with the best of them.  I never made gluteny bread though.  When I began baking gluten free it was a whole new ballpark for those things that I was good at previously so I never tackled bread.  Recently I was asked by my sister in law if I knew of a good gluten free bread recipe as she was hoping to enter a loaf in the local fair this fall.  My immediate answer was no but the girls and I have been having fun playing around with food this summer so I thought that I would give it a go….with some help.  This is where mom came in.  Unfortunately, even with her insights the loaf came out looking good but tasting YUCK.  Oh well.

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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!!

We took Grammy along for the ride.
We took Grammy along for the ride.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

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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.

Aren't they cute?
Aren’t they cute?
Baby Horse
Baby Horse

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UGH!
UGH!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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We topped it off with some peddle sulky rides.

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A busy Easter weekend for all

What a great weekend it has been so far.  Only one day of rain and the rest of sun!  A nice spring day.

On Friday, we started the day off with rain.  It led to some great puddle splashing in the afternoon.  Then, we had a great Easter dinner with my parents. Turkey, the fixings and bunny shaped birthday cake.

The girls decided to dress up and surprise their grandparents with their Easter finery.

My happy birthday girl.

We finally got to see my mom’s latest craft project – Easter Bonnets!  They were adorable and loved by all.

My beautiful mom

On Saturday, we started the day with the Lion’s Club Egg Hunt.  The girls got to meet the Easter Bunny (a big deal to Elspeth and Katrine was game and humoured her sister), faces painted and balloons.  Katrine was in awe of the field full of eggs just waiting to be found.  Elspeth was excited to get to sit in a fire truck (although she still insists that she wants to fly like a bird).  Then it was time for the hunt. The buzzer went and the race for an egg was on.  The girls gleefully filled their baskets full of eggs before we headed to the local legion for cookies and hot chocolate before claiming our giant chocolate bunnies from Grandpa.

After the excitement of the hunt we headed back to my parents where we let the girls run off some of that sugar energy in the backyard.  We also had Katrine’s present time.  One of her favourite gifts was her Great Nana’s easel.  After running around, she took the easel outside for some art time.  I think that she is already planning her next big art project.

Sigh, snow still.  At least it was fun to jump off of.

Waiting for gifts.

Ooh, pastels….

The moment that she saw her easel.  Happy girl.

Her doll was her very first model.

This morning dawned with Easter baskets followed by an egg hunt.  Giggles, smiles and happy girls.  I think that the big sheep pillows and fleece blankets were among their favourite treasures.

When we got home this afternoon we had some outside time, finished up some homework before our final birthday/Easter dinner.  BBQ’d burgers.  Delicious.  Made even more yummy because Grammy joined us.  I love how much the girls love their grandparents.  Katrine had asked for the bunny cake as well as an ice cream cake.  Well, we had my version of ice cream cake.  A block of ice cream with a variety of toppings.  Tons of toppings.

Mint chocolate chip “cake”

 

HAPPY EASTER!!

The Final Christmas Celebration of 2013

Yup, that was tonight.  Instead of a traditional type of Christmas dinner we went for hot pot with Glenn’s mom, brother and sister-in-law.  It was delicious!  Maybe the two hours we spent outside this afternoon made it extra delicious, but that is another post.  Doesn’t it look yummy?  We cooked up rice noodles and some veggies along with LOTS of meat.  Mmmm.

(The one side is clear chicken broth while the other is oh so spicy broth.  Delicious when mixed with some extra garlic, ginger and spring onions.)

The it was dessert with extremely candy caney white chocolate bark…oh and Martha Stewart style sugar cookies (because the other Heather is an awesome baker) and of course, more presents.  The girls each got a bean bag chair.  I will let the photos show their reactions.

Boxing Day Snow Fun

Actually today saw us joining Glenn’s family for a great extended family Christmas celebration.  It reminds me of when I was a kid and we spent Christmas Eve with my dad’s family.  The cousins would gather together and just have fun.  I can’t recall what we actually did but I know with certainty that it was fun.  Today’s outing involved great conversation for the adults and bonding for the kids.  Some of that bonding occured outside in the snow which gave me the opportunity to play some more with my camera.  Here are waay too many photos of the girls at play.

Those are two of my favourites.  At Glenn’s cousin’s house there is a wonderfully large lawn off of the deck.  The kids got quite the speed running down the stairs and out across the snow.  At one point there was even a train waiting to sled on down.

Elspeth also enjoyed the icy playset.  Who knew that swimming on a frozen swing could be fun? (Yes, she is sitting on a layer of ice and did so for a full 20 or so minutes.)

One of the cousins shared their jumping rock and the girls embraced this concept.  I was quite surprised to see Elspeth get in on the action given that she usually needs to be holding on to a hand in order to jump off of something into an unknown ( in this case a pile of snowy grass).  Seeing her sister and cousin jumping encouraged her to give it a try and then it was hard to convince her to try anything else outside.  By the way, I love how my new camera takes action shots!

Merry Christmas

The girls gave us a real present today – they slept in!! And on Christmas Day!! It was wonderful.  Once we were up and their grandparents were up it was off to stockings.

Then once breakfast was done and we had fueled up the unwrapping began.  I will let the photos do the talking

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Finally dressed for dinner.  Not a bad looking pair!

Once they had collapsed in bed, it was out into the snow for some shoveling.  What a beautiful way to end the day.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

 

Christmas Eve

In the morning, I took the girls outside to play in the ice/snow.  We have some of those Sno*Markers which meant that they had something to do aside from slid on the ice.  They got pretty creative.  I can honestly say that if you launder snowclothes covered in this “ink” it comes right out of snow clothes.

We had picked up Glenn’s mom yesterday and then my parents joined us at our place today so we have a full house right now.  My parents got a new tree and as a result, they donated their old one to us.  Now we have  two trees.  As you can see, there are a few ornaments on the new one but that is okay, we can grown into it.  The girls talked their Grammy into helping them.

Then Katrine got roped into helping her Grandma do the prep work for the lentil soup for Christmas Day.

The work in the kitchen was no where near done.  There were sugar cookies and Baby Jesus’ birthday cake to be iced as well as a gift for Mom to be made. (Katrine did the ‘Saint Jesus’ on the cake.  Never heard that before but oh well).

Glenn worked with Elspeth to make me Candy Cane Bath Salts with Katrine as the official photographer.

(Epson salts; add peppermint oil and food colouring; stir and bottle.  Smells great.)

After dinner it was off to chruch for the evening service followed by a tour of local lights before the Santa set up began.

The girls even had their stuffies get in on the act.

Sugar Cookies Anyone?

The girls will be enjoying gluteny sugar cookies this year because I am feeling lazy and I saw this prepackaged roll-cut-cook stuff when shopping.  Insta Christmas goodies.  So this afternoon I put them and their Grammy to work.(One of the bonuses of the recent power outage is extra time with our Grammy.)

Another bonus is that I won’t need to worry about cookie calories ’cause I certainly won’t be eating these!

Christmas Market

Last night we took Glenn’s mom with us on a festive outing downtown to the Christmas Market.  We went last year but thought that it would be a nice family outing which it was.  The lights are truly beautiful and all of the snow last night made them even more so.  Imagine walking along to the sound of christmas music amidst a swirl of snowflakes as lights dance in the breeze over head.  Oh, and there is a huge tree and tons of festive decorations.

We made a family visit to Santa before ducking inside for much needed hot chocolate.

A little bit more walking took us to a chocolate shop.  What a heavenly smell greated us as we walked in.  If we hadn’t already had hot chocolate I would have stood in that super long line for some.  Instead, we saved our pennies and watched the machines making chocolate.  Mmmmm.

Oh and a head update: the tape is finally off of Elspeth’s head and it is looking much better than when the tape was on.  Just a pink line.  Yippee!

Wound update

Well, I can now say that I recommend opting for stitches over glue when given the chance.  Elspeth seemed okay until Saturday morning.  That is when there was some blood on cleaning.  Again today.  She is being a trooper but it hurts as her hair is caught in the tape.  Guess we are heading back to the doctor’s.  Sigh.  On Wednesday she wrote a note to her teacher explaining what had happened.  It is very cute.  Makes me smile.

In amidst all of the drama there have been good things as well.  Yesterday the whole family went to see the pantomime Peter Pan.  It was hilarious for both the kids and adults.  Top that off with time spent with cousins, uncle, aunt and grandparents and you have a great time. A great early Christmas gift.

Still smiling over all.

 

This afternoon was the annual Advent Craft Dinner at church.  The girls LOVE it!  They spend time doing crafts and being part of the church community.  Top that off with dinner, ample dessert and a family centered worship service and it is a sure fire success.  A great way to kick off advent…well, that and their Playmobile calendars.

Hard at work crafting

The evenings work…aside from the cookies which disappeared in a flash.