I see the sun!

We are LOVING the sunshine this weekend! I didn't even have to pull any teeth to get the kids outside!After our bike ride yesterday, I took Lovey down to Tulip's house while Murray was still on a walk with the other two in the woods. They got home with a bag full of "money cans" (recyclables) and boots full of mud and water. Two signs of a successful outing :)
Once they got cleaned up we went down to Tulip's as well while Murray went for a run in the sun. These two were all buddy buddy as we walked down which I love to see (as it's so rare ya know!) These two shots just make my heart go "awwwwwww!"

Tulip knew just how to start a party, Littlest Pet Shop or whatever they're called. They had plenty of animals to play with and were so content on the picnic table. I love to watch them play creatively. I don't find kids seem to play outdoors as much as we used to when we were kids, it's all iPod and DS and TV!

As much as I enjoyed seeing them and listening to the LPS dramas, I thought I'd wander around and practice some shooting, experimenting with various apertures etc.

Eventually we had to go home, much to their dismay and this is how Sweetie expressed her displeasure! LOL

More Wheels, More Fun!

The girls got roller skates for Christmas so we decided to break them out yesterday and see how it went! They were very excited about it. I was supposed to go for at least one more bike ride, maybe 2 and neither one wanted to come once they found out that the skates were coming out!

Since our road is a little rough, we went to Murray's office building where they have smooth floors and some empty space and they practiced some more.

After awhile, they decided they all wanted to go up to Murray's office and check it out. Usually any time we stop by there, they're very shy and we never stay long. This time they were fascinated and checked everything out.

Murray has these pictures that they made when they were 2ish. Everyone loves Sweetie's flair & exuberance that shine through so clearly. Can you spot which one has her signature technique???

Bicycle Built for Two

Lovey & I took our new bike for a spin today. Initially she was terrified and just kept screaming and saying "oh Mummy, I'm so scared! let's go back! ohhhhhhhhhh! Nooooooooo!" Like any good mother, I know what's best so I kept on going :) She's always worried about anything that involves movement and I was hoping that if I just went slowly and kept the bike as steady as possible that she'd get used to it. Within a few minutes (just before we got to the end of our road) she was enjoying it and thought it was the best thing ever.

Once we got to the main road though she balked completely. As I stopped to wait for traffic she dismounted and said she wasn't coming! I managed to coax her into coming with me and we headed along sloooooooooooooooooowly. We weren't going to be on this part for long and the traffic was pretty light so I was able to point out that we were turning off soon and then she was ok. She didn't want me going too fast on hills but that was ok. She quickly relaxed and started checking out the nice houses (only a short distance but a world away from our neighbourhood LOL) and we talked about which ones we liked. Our favourite was the big red one of course! although she was really taken with a ranch style one that was much wider than ours and had a wrap around deck. The deck feature really impressed her!

We ran into some people that I knew and we chatted for awhile but Lovey was anxious to be on the go so we kept going. I let her pick where we went at each crossroad. She loved being in charge and was so keen that she had a hard time settling on one option. "turn right. no go straight. No, turn right, turn right, turnriiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!" all in the span of 5 seconds and couldn't figure out why I almost missed the turn!

She commented several times that she looooooooooooooved the bike ride and was not really keen when I said it was time to turn back. Hopefully we'll be doing lots more rides now that we have some decent weather.

Murray & the other girls had gone for a walk in the woods so I couldn't get a picture of us together on the bikes, hopefully next time. For now, here we are in our matching helmets. Actually, I couldn't find mine and had to wear Murray's duct-taped wonder. I'll be digging around a little harder for mine tomorrow!

(wow this was not this blown when I had it in PS.....)

Easter a la Shirley!

Shirley came for a visit & we were able to convince her to join us for supper too! I made it worth her while with extra desser to take home! I'm not above a little sweet talking & bribery :)
She generously gave the girls some Easter goodies and they were thrilled to find their chocolate sheep in bubble wrap. For once the chocolate was set aside (and temporarily forgotten about!) and they had fun popping bubbles.
They also each received a game. Shirley initially mentioned that she could give me the sales slips if the items weren't right or didn't suit etc. After they made her play everything twice, I think she realized I wouldn't need to be doing any exchanges whatsoever. She was right on the money with these selections. Sweetie is in LOVE with her dominoes, mostly because they came in a hot pink satin box trimmed with matching satin ribbon!
a fairy game is always perfect for little girls and Honey couldn't have been happier with collecting all the right cards and making new "fairy friends".I forget what it said on Lovey's box but it's basically the game of Trouble from when we were kids. I love that you can't lose the dice! and everybody loves popping that bubble thing to roll for your turn! Murray was playing and left the room and they all ganged up on his men and bumped them all! (and found it quite hilarious to send them all home!!)

Thank you for coming to see us and sharing our supper! We enjoyed having you and hope your sweet treat erases all the craziness of the dinner hour! You can just munch away and maybe all that icing will block out the messy parts????? or is that part of our charm???? :))))

Making a Splash!

Ahhhh! spring is in the air and the mud is in our yard! The quickly melting snow has left us with another glorious puddle yet again!Nothing beats a good run through this muck! Luckily they have waterproof splash suits now and that helps quite a bit, until they start rolling around in there! Apparently the waterproof guarantee doesn't cover submersion, imagine that!
Well a little mud never hurt a girl and it wasn't anything a hot soapy bath couldn't cure.

Olympic Moment

I forgot about these pictures! Although the Olympics are well over and done with, I'm posting them anyway!
My cousin was a torchbearer and we went to see her big Olympic moment! Unfortunately they'd given the wrong location for her starting point and we didn't get the new spot in time to find her while she was actually carrying it. We did meet up with her afterwards though and the kids thought it was QUITE something to see!

We got to see real Olympic athletes! There was live entertainment and the girls danced & played their tambourines.

Here's the guy we DID see carrying the torch when we were scrambling around trying to find OUR torchbearer.

Cool Daddy!

The girls are trying to read everything they see lately and tonight they were looking at at Tshirt Murray was wearing. On it was "C O O L D A D D Y". After a bit of work & some prompting from Murray, they figured out what it said. Lovey's immediate response was "you're NOT COOL!" but Sweetie disagreed. I asked what made Daddy cool and she said

Well, he can almost juggle.

He's smart.

He's a fast runner.

So if you're ever having a bad day hawney, you can take comfort that at the very least, Sweetie thinks you're a cool daddy. Imagine if you actually learned to juggle more than one orange at a time!!!! ;)

The Story of Stuff

No cutesy kid stuff in this post but I watched this video today & thought it was worth sharing. Check it out!

http://storyofstuff.org/

Chocolate Chick Cookies- Fibre anyone?

We hadn't done any baking together in a long time and every time they found me with a batch of new cookies they wanted to know why I hadn't let them help! Usually by the time they get home from school there's not much time for the long process of having such dedicated helpers so I do it during the day while they're gone.
This week I decided to humour them and wait til they got here. With only minor fighting over jobs (choc chip measuring is the coveted role) we got the batch done up and the kitchen cleaned before Murray got home. Hooray!
Lovey was on a mission and washed all the dishes for me!
Here's a close up of my "healthy" flour mix. I got a cookbook that tells you how to sneak more good stuff into your kids without them realizing it and this is one of the tricks. Since white flour has almost no nutritional value, they suggested jazzing it up a little. Soooo, my flour bin is actually a blend of white flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ and flax seed. This gets more fibre in for sure! It's almost undetectable in things like chocolate cheesecake muffins, (and anything chocolate based)and banana bread and although noticeable in these Chocolate Chick cookies, they still taste great.
See my productive little chefs hard at work? I only had 2 spatulas and 3 workers so you can imagine how that went! They worked it out though by getting the 3rd person to move the cooled cookies into the container which they also love doing.

Now here's the ultimate secret ingredient that gives a major nutritional boost and makes these cookies sooooooooo light & super moist!! I use my MIL's recipe, substitute my flour blend and then chuck this whole can (drained & rinsed) into the batter and let the mixer beat them into a pulp.