Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Mmmm

Mikah had his first pudding last night and he attempted to lick the cup out. I think he likes pudding!

No More Cooking for Me

Well, it looks like I am out of a job. Mikah has decided that he can get himself food now.
















He was so proud of his potato snack. He was excited that he had thought to put the raw potato on a plate and bring a fork. Dig in!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Kids; gotta love them

Alek has a friend over for a playdate this afternoon. While I am in the kitchen making a snack his friend comes in to help.

Friend: Barb, how old are you?
Me: I'm 32.

Friend looks horrified.

Me: Hmm, does that sound old?
Friend: Yes, it's really old for a young lady like you.

Friend takes the plate of snacks and goes back to the toy room.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Fall Into Fun

The Fall Leisure Guide is here! The Fall Leisure Guide is here!!!


Am I the only one who awaits the seasonal Leisure Guides like kids await the Wishbook? I don't look at it the moment it comes either. I let it keep for awhile until I have a nice quiet moment to savour it and dream of the possibilities that it contains. This time when the kids were in bed (and asleep, I checked) I made a cup of Epicure Cocoa and curled up on the couch with the Guide, a pen, a blanket and the cocoa. I read and circled for at least an hour. Then I repeated the process at the kitchen table the next morning substituting cocoa for coffee, just in case I missed something.

This Guide is full of new activities too which is so nice. Last year, thanks to my work schedule, there were no extra activities being enjoyed but I vow to change that this year. The kids need a couple of things to do to keep challenging them and tire them out. And I need some "me time" activities as well, where I can escape for even an hour and re-charge.

So... here are my highlights. It will be interesting to see which ones make the final cut.
  • swimming lessons (Alek and Mikah)
  • Homemade pasta cooking class (it might encourage me to use my pasta machine)
  • Pilates (community association is offering this. I've been dying to try it but balk at paying the price at the pilates studio. Can't go wrong with $40 for 8 weeks)
  • Learn to play Mah Jong (I brought a set back form Hong Kong but haven't been able to find anyone who can teach me.)
  • Art Adventures (to help encourage Alek to draw other things besides Medieval scenes and Star Wars)
  • Pilates on the Ball (I can use all the help I can get)
  • Tae Kwon Do (for Alek. Enough said)

7 Year Old Logic

"Whiskers just gives himself baths all day long. He sure must be bored to keep doing that because he doesn't even DO anything. Too bad that he doesn't like having real baths because he could at least play with toys then."

Good point Alek. Good point.

Lovely Afternoon

Yesterday the boys and I met up with a friend of mine and her golden dog for a walk by the river. It was so nice and now I have a new favorite spot in this beautiful city of ours. The sun was shining and there was just enough breeze to keep the bugs at bay and the sweat from flowing. I finally got to see how the new stroller did off-roading and it handled wonderfully. We tested it on the path, through the wild grass, down rutted trails, up and down steep hills, and through the softest finest white sand that I've seen in years. After all our walking we ended up on a secluded beach that felt like the middle of no where, even though there were cars driving by on the other bank. The kids played, the dog swam, and the baby slept.

It was beautiful; peaceful; memories were made.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Lesson Learned by 8:00am

Soap in the mouth will not work as punishment for Mikah when he starts to swear. Turns out that he likes the taste of soap; dishwasher tabs anyway : )

Sunday, August 17, 2008

I Feel...



"Girls, Girls, Girls"

I'm in need of a girls night. I think I deserve it. Heck, we all do!

I'm thinking supper and then a screening of this show...


Who's in? The sooner the better! What about Tuesday night???

Hmm, haven't run this by the hubby yet...

Finished.

Well, the weekend is over and the cake making is finished and it was a huge success.

I am so happy with the way that it turned out, I guess all of the stress was worth it in the end. Maybe the "rush" explains why I do this to myself...

It was quite an ordeal around here though because it seems that "someone" thinks that we can never have too much on our plates at once. The night that I finished baking the layers Mikah woke up screaming and proceeded to scream until 3:00am, when he woke up Lukas who started crying because he was burning up with a fever! We still don't know just what Mikah's issue was. He wasn't crying really, just lots of high pitched screaming. His specialty.

Thursday was mostly a write-off because Lukas was so sick. He didn't want to eat anything. He looked like the saddest little monkey in the world. Plus, I could not get the fondant that I made to work. It looked so promising each time that I rolled it out, but it stuck to the counter every time. It probably didn't help that I was absolutely exhausted because I had gotten no sleep the night before. Then Lukas woke up every 30-40 minutes Thursday night and so did Alek who had come down with a sore throat. We had cuddles and sleepy time tea at 1:30am. Oh, and Advil. Thank you Advil (from both of us LOL!) I think that I survived because my mother-in-law had called Thursday evening wondering if I could use a helper Friday. YES I COULD!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you. The kids were all starting to feel better Friday but with her help I was able to get out of the door at a reasonable time, somewhat sane and with a big bucket of fondant that I bought. Homemade fondant is a big pile of rubbish.

Friday night was long but by about 10:00 Heidi had the bottom layers assembled and filled and the cake was setting in the fridge. I had the top two layers covered in fondant, ready to be decorated the next day. At 7:00 Saturday morning I was at the kitchen table kneading about 8 lbs of fondant. In order to cover the bottom layer which was 14.5" in diameter and 7" high I needed to roll out a piece of fondant that was about 27" wide and 27" high. Then because Heidi and I work so well together she held one end of my homemade 3' rolling pin, I held the other and we rolled the fondant up and draped it over the cake. It worked on the first try! I almost had to sit down with my head between my knees for awhile. I think it was the sickest I had felt since I found out that I was expecting for the third time LOL! I spent the rest of the morning doing the scroll work and it was ready to be taken to the wedding site. The bottom layer weighed about 60 lbs.

The cake was a breeze to set up and it looked fabulous when it was finished. About 6 guests asked me if I had a card while Iwas assembling the cake. It took all of my will power not to shout "Good God No!!!" at them. I think I let them down politely, but at that point I was so dizzy with relief maybe I really did shout "Good God No!!!" That could explain the sudden silence. Hmm...

The Groom, in his posh British accent, said that the cake was "F%$&ing Awesome!"

High praise indeed.



I guess I didn't feel immediate relief that the job was done because hallucinations of the cake imploding kept me tossing and turning for quite some time Saturday night.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

OMG!

I am beyond tired. The last 2 nights I have baked 4 - 14" round cakes for a wedding cake that I'm making for this Saturday. Each round takes 2 batches of batter. I am so exhausted and I swear that I am never doing this again. Plus, I had decided that this time I was going to make my own fondant. So far it's easy but it's just one more thing to do.

Why do I think that I enjoy doing this??? Hmm, maybe because the last time I did one I only had 1 kid and he could fend for himself most of the time. 3 kids (and 2 babies) makes everything so much harder. I told both Lev and my sister to remind me next time I'm asked to make a wedding cake that I am never doing this again. They both laughed. Hmm...

However, now it's late and I'm laying back on the couch polishing off the rest of the magnum of champagne that I used for the cakes.

Love champagne. Love the couch. Love silence. Heck, I even love the cake scraps, which is a good thing I guess.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Wrap Video

Well, I've reached a whole new level of embarrassment now.

I made a video.

And posted it on You Tube.

And I did it for my own enjoyment. No, not really. I made an instructional video (with Heather's help) for people to use when they buy my WonderSling. I originally tried writing instructions; with drawings; by me. They were horrible. By the end even I didn't know what I was talking about and I made the carrier. So I thought making a video would be easier, and it was!

I'm pretty proud of how it turned out (despite the lisp that I never knew that I had). I even have special guests making a cameo appearance. Not bad for one take, I think I can even live with the lisp problem for now. Maybe someday we'll re-shoot it lisp free.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Mmm Supper

Tonight I tried something new for supper. I cut and marinated some squid tubes and made Grilled Chili Lime Calamari and Sweet Potato Fries. I had never cooked calamari before and it turned out quite good. All the kids licked their plates clean.

It's so nice having children that will try almost any food. In fact, the stranger the food the more Alek seems to like it. His only complaint about the calamari was that it was just tubes and there were no tentacles or mini whole squid.

Mikah likes anything if there's ketchup involved.