Valentines Day 2012 :)

Papa likes to surprise me a day early with Valentines day stuff :) This year the kids and I got 3 boxes of chocolates to share and I got these lovely flowers in a mug!! Perfect fit for me as I love mugs ;) and the red rose in the bunch is fake and will not die on me like so many of my flowers do. Also I love daisies :) as they remind me that summer will come again.. even when winter seems amazingly long as it does every year in the north. The message on the mug puts a smile on my face every time I see it.

For supper on February 14th we had a snack night and for dessert we had chocolate fondue.. with out the fondue?? So maybe we should call it fruit drizzled in chocolate! Very yummy! 

LOOK it's a J3 fondue!! 

 I think he liked it! :) I know the rest of us did! :) 

Feast!!

Mr and Mrs B came over for supper one night recently and we OH we feasted BIG time!! Mr. B and Papa did pretty much all the cooking. Mr. B did a pork roast on the BBQ that was heavenly!! Papa and Mr. B did shrimp together, Papa did these mussels resting in our sink in a white wine sause and we dipped them in a wonderful butter/lemon juice mix before inhaling them!! We had baked potatoes and salad and veggies and dip. It was amazing!! 

Attacking Mr. B is always on the menu :) 

Awana Grand Prix

They really loved it and Papa and I really enjoyed watching them love it :) 

J loved it because it was new and exciting and his car did really well.

L loved it because it was cars and racing and FUN!! (His car also did really well but he hardly noticed!)

E loved it because well.. because her brothers loved it and she loves them. 

R loved it because she got to cheer on the other kids and dream about when she could do Awana. 

J3 loved it because he is a boy and he loves cars. He loved to clap when we clapped. 

Baby G could care less about car racing but Momma was there, Papa was there, J3 was there and she had smiles for anyone who came her way!  

L placing his car! He really worried the 1st time he had to go up there and put it on the track so Papa went with him the 1st couple of times. Too many people for him. 

L waiting with a friend to see who's car won! L's car won almost as many times as J's. E's car did really well too and was only ever beat by one of her brothers cars!! (and maybe one other?)

E picking up her car at the finish line :) 

J placing his car.. I think of all the times he raced he only came in second once!! 

E placing her car!! Oh so carefully. I really liked how they had the ladder for the smaller kids. Made the little kids feel like they were important! 

J and his trophy for the second fastest car in the Prix!! 

He was pretty excited!!  

Their home made and painted cars now race around my living room, sleep in their special boxes, and have an active part in everyday life. They are already planning their cars for next year and J is already planning on bringing home another trophy :) This time he wants the 'most original' trophy :) 

What a fun way to learn about playing fair, playing to have fun and that life is not about winning or losing but about living for God and treating others the way you'd like to be treated, no matter what life throws at you!  

Yogurt Love :)

I recently found this online.
 
Took me all of 4 seconds to talk Papa into ordering it for me :) Here Glengarry Cheesemaking is where he ordered it from. My new butter churn I got this summer is right under the yogotherm :) I love it too!!

I LOVE IT!! It makes 1/2 a gallon of yogurt at a time by simply keeping it the right temp. I recently did a bit of an experiment where I did my half gallon of milk heated to the right temp of 115F and added the starter; about 1/4 cup of yogurt from the last batch, stirred for a bit and poured it into the half gallon bucket that fits nicely into my new yogotherm pictured above. I had a little bit left over so I poured it into a plastic container, put a lid on it and placed it beside the wood stove on a table. I expected to have yogurt in both containers when I finished as this was how we used to make yogurt.. though with not a super good success rate which is why I got the yogotherm. In about 7 hours I took the container and the bucket and placed them in the fridge.  The next morning J wanted yogurt for breakfast so I took the container and opened it.. the milk had separated and not made yogurt!! I was a bit apprehensive but got called away and J got the bucket out of the fridge and placed it on the table.. and dished it up and it WAS yogurt! When my old yogurt failed I assumed it was because the starter had not worked.. but I learned with this experiment that it had not failed.. my temps by the wood stove must vary too much to keep the yogurt alive but the insulation in the yogotherm keeps it regulated and makes perfect yogurt every time.. or at least the 3 times we've had enough extra milk to try it :) Like I said I LOVE IT!!!

THAT STUFF MUST GO!!

The kids have a cute Berenstain bears movie where Papa Bear is trying to get rid of a stump in the yard and he keeps saying.. "That STUMP must GO!!" Well I've been going through the kids clothes, the back bathroom (also know as a catchall for all things), closets and the whole general house and bagging it up in black garbage bags and hauling it to the second hand store. I'm not nearly done yet but I'm getting there. I took 9 black garbage bags, so far, and probably 10+ boxes of stuff out of our house so far.  The boxes went on to the floor.. some of jars, clothes that will still be needed for the younger children. It's amazing how much more ROOM we have now..

You might be wondering why I'm getting rid of all this stuff.. some of it simply doesn't fit in the house anymore.. those cute foam chairs J and L used to have out in the living room to watch movies in just simply not longer FIT in the living room.. E and I are both allergic to polyester and I can't even wear clothes washed with fuzzy polyester so we are getting rid of TONS of polyester clothing, blankets and all. I plan on going through all the totes of kids clothes on the floor and culling...eventually :) SO if anyone is interested in going through some of these bags before I send them off to the thrift store.. let me know what your looking for and when I clean out those sizes I'll let you know and we'll set it up.

Ice Rink.

With all the nice cold weather we had there for a bit in January Papa expanded the natural ice rink we had beside the house and made it quite a bit bigger.. it's not huge but it's a nice size for a learning ice rink. He flooded it several times a day when it was -38C and now it's a nice smooth rink. This picture was right after the kids had been skating so there is a lot of snow on it.. it's a bit longer then the picture shows as well. 

A Little More Fun Science!

The first part of Papa's talk about batteries.. Baby G was in my arms and she started fussing, you can hear her on the video and as she goes from 0 to 60 in 4.2 seconds and I had to miss the rest,but I thought I would share it anyway to give you an idea of what they talked about. 

Fun Science.

Papa does Science with the kids for school. He enjoys it and homeschooling gives us the flexibility so that he is able to do this fun stuff with the kids and call it school. J's science this year is all about liquids, solids and gases. His teacher sent a great book. 

Which we have really been enjoying. They have done a couple of the experiments now and we have a list of others they want to do.. some of them even make ME excited about science and that means it's a pretty neat book as I'm not normally even a little excited about science :)  

This one was called Indoor rain and you were suppose to use a ladle that you had frozen in the freezer but it was -38C outside and Papa's frozen hammer worked just as well. :) Basically you boil water and put the frozen ladle over the boiling water and it condensates and makes rain!  

It's hard to see but he's holding this....

This ones is called Strong Air. Water in a glass with a piece of cardboard over it.. tip the glass upside down and the air pressure keeps the cardboard on the glass and the water in the glass. Very cool. They all got a turn pulling the cardboard off and seeing how little air pressure it takes to keep it there. 

Did you know??? If you throw boiling water into the air at -30C it will not hit the ground?? It works. We tried it, several times :) Papa found that the smaller amounts of water got the best reaction. There are several youtube videos if your interested in seeing it for yourself and don't have cold weather. The water goes from a liquid to a gas and floats away! VERY COOL!! Very cold too.. brrr... glad it only stayed a few days.

Looks like fun right? What does it have to do with science?? Well I'll admit not much.. but it turns out that because of the way we cut the trees here in the front the wind makes a circle and it's just about impossible to fly a kite in that open space!! So they learned quite a bit about wind currents watching their kite go around and around and crashing to the ground :) Papa took them to the neighbors field and they got to really fly the kite there.. "Way up so high you could barely see it Mom!!' Very cool. 

They took a break from skating one of our warmer winter days recently to watch as Papa took apart and explained a old frozen car battery. Apparently there was no danger involved as the battery had frozen solid proving that there was no more acid in it. 

The fins and dividers in the battery. My children now know more about batteries then I do.. 

~One Saturday Afternoon~

Cousin L had a birthday awhile ago and because it was on a Saturday and Papa, because of the extreme cold, had to take the T-all to work as the car actually froze solid in the -38C weather we had earlier that week, we couldn't go. Then Grandma called. She was going and she offered to take J and L with her. So we quickly got some lunch and then ready to go. They had a blast and got to go bowling for the 1st time ever! 

SO while the boys were off with Grandma, J3 and Baby G sleeping, E and R and I had some fun!! I asked them what they wanted to do and they both yelled, "BATTLESHIP ON YOUR IPAD!!!" Ok so I shared my ipad2 and let them play a couple of games of battleship on my app. While they were busy I cooked up an idea.. 

Yup we had a Tea Party :) 

Chocolate Milk, cookies, goodies Grandma had brought them, marshmallows and chocolate chips :) 

The kids love Tea Parties and they love to use LOTS of play dishes :) They also all like to have their own 'pot' so we each had our own teapot full of chocolate milk. To make it extra special we lite a candle. We had fun and I was surprised how good the girls conversational skills were. We talked a bit about manners and being a good hostess. E really has wonderful instincts at being a good hostess.. I have no idea where she got them from as I have NONE! Maybe next time we have company I'll ask her what I should do :) I love to watch my children mature and grow and I love that they surprise me and outdo even what I expect from them. I guess we really are a family of overachievers :) 

Spring Rolls, Coffee and Fun!!

Our dear friend Mrs. L came over the other day and taught Papa and I how to make spring rolls. The pork we thought we'd gotten out of the freezer turned out to be beef but they still turned out really well. We both learned how to wrap them up in their flour warps and I have to admit all mine turned out to be short and fat and all of Papa's were perfect.. long and skinny. Humm... I guess he can have that job :) They turned out to be a lot easier to make then I thought. Mrs. L doesn't use a recipe so I didn't get one either but basically it's fine noodles, graded and squeezed carrots, meat, sugar, salt and pepper, soy sauce, eggs and the mystery fungus.. some kind of chopped mushroom that looks like tiny stripes of fabric. Despite being hamburger instead of pork they turned out wonderful.
The next night Mrs. L brought her 4 children and Papa took them on sled rides with a sled he borrowed from work :) And of course they had to warm up with hot chocolate and cookies!! They had a blast!! Papa also BBQ'd some chicken which we served up with baked potatoes and green beans :) Chocolate chip cookies and Kettle Popcorn made for a great dessert. While Papa and the older kids were outside Mrs. L and I baked the potatoes, played with J3 and Baby G and visited. Great times!!