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.

Family Night at School

The kids' school had a family night and depending on what grade your child is in, you send in different items for the games/events.

So lucky me, kindergarten students bring cakes! So I made three cakes in 2 days and brought those into the school. That was some tricky icing work! Although I admit, the 3rd one was not fancy. I iced it and threw smarties on top. Lame, I know, and although I felt guilty for copping out initially, after the night was over, I was glad!
The cakes were for a "cake walk". The kids walk around chairs, musical chairs style and when the music stops everyone grabs a seat. The nice part was that there were enough chairs for all the kids and there was no pushing & shoving. The chairs were all numbered and they drew a number to give a cake to. Ok so now the bad part. They had tonnes of cakes!!! My cakes were all in cardboard boxes, at the back of the table & at the bottom of piles that were 3 & 4 cakes deep! I peeked in to see how things were going through the evening and was dismayed that no one had picked my cakes. NOT ONE! I went to round up the kids to force them to play another round of "cake walk" but no one was really interested. They wanted to play more games that won little prizes to play with. I had to let it go and hope the cakes weren't tossed in the trash at the end of the night. Surely someone would want it???? I was tempted to stay to the end and just take them home but that might be considered rude!

The girls enjoyed the jello eating contest, which surprisingly enough, Lovey did NOT win! I had my money on her for fastest sweet treat eater but someone beat her out!

Another big hit was the spin and win candy wheel. Candy galore, woohoo!!
Grandad will approve of this event but might want to start some lessons as prize winning was a bit on the random side!


The girls had a great time playing all the stuff and picked up some fun prizes. They got tired after awhile so we didn't stay all the way to the end. It was cute to see them excited about the event and we ran into a lot of their classmates throughout the evening.

One on One- Sweetie Time

Sweetie & I went for a walk last weekend, just the two of us and it was so nice to be able to listen, focus and pay attention to just one person! They all love to have our undivided attention and she talked a mile a minute while she had mine! She remarked on how great it was to be able to talk and say what SHE wanted to say without worrying about someone else interrupting her or me being called away. We really should try to do this more often, there just doesn't seem to be a surplus of undivided attention to go around though!

and while I'm on the topic of Sweetie, she is finding herself quite amusing these days. She loves to make us laugh and when she notices that she's gotten a giggle out of us, she really hams it up. For our family movie last weekend, we watched High School Musical. Just in case we're NOT the last people on the planet to see it: the two main characters are strangers until they're thrust into a kareoke number at a party. As they get more comfortable with their song, they turn and sing toward each other as they gaze into each other's eyes.

Ok, so now you're up to speed. So, we're all watching the movie and at this point, Sweetie bursts out with "oh YUCK! They're falling in LOVE!!!!!!!!!!" which cracks Murray & I up as it was so unexpected. Since we obviously think she's hilarious with this theme, she keeps up with her disgust any time the two are together in a scene. At the end of the movie we were talking about how we'd enjoyed it and her big finale comment is: Yeah. High School GROSSical!!!!!!!

She can make a Batman shadow!

Children's Choir

The kids sang in church this past weekend! We had a new pianist filling in (thanks Jack! I owe you a dessert for the next youth event!) and we had some trouble getting our timing in sync but it worked out pretty well considering we had never practiced together before! The kids love to sing during the service and have been practicing for quite awhile. Our numbers are growing and one little guy in the congregation had quite a fit when he wasn't up on stage with the others! He came and told me after the service that he wants to sing with me next time :) I had noticed him crying his little eyes out and giving his mother quite a hard time but had no idea what it was about. Who knew I was so popular???? We've already started working on our next piece so hopefully we'll have it ready before summer.....

Lovey on the Loose!

Lovey got their camera out and went on a shoot out around the house this weekend. I always find it entertaining to see what caught her eye & thought I'd share!Here I am, scanning the ads, trying to get rid of flyers we don't need while mentally composing my grocery list & menu plan at the same time.
Lovey thought this was absolutely beautiful
and then went for the self portrait :)

getting tips from Mumma, the shopper extraordinaire!


our Easter decorations


not the best place to sit.....

Letters for Leprechauns

Ok, I think this is my last post about leprechauns so bear with me if this topic is getting old!

They drew these pictures & wrote notes to the leprechaun and sealed them in an envelope and left them by the side door. Every day they would check to see if the leprechaun had gotten his mail. After a couple of days, I got curious and opened them.

Now if you're not used to kindergarten writing, this may be tricky to read. The note above actually begins on top of the leprechaun. "I hop(e) you" and then they ran out of room so you have to go over to the left side to finish the message: "hav a grat tim" (have a great time).

This one reads "Der leprcon I love you" (dear leprechaun)

So do you think they enjoyed the whole St Patrick's day thing or what? Lots to live up to next year, if they're still keen! It was so much fun to watch them play this week and really get into it. There was so much excitement and enthusiasm and they enjoyed themselves so much, it was worth running up and down the road. Also pretty cheap entertainment for $10 and they got lots of exercise and fresh air too. Can't beat that!