The bake fest continues....

I think Abigail REALLY enjoyed her day of baking, and we have a pantry full of delicious treats - her brothers and Sister were all thrilled to come home and find so much to choose from!!! Yum!!!

Skills learned? Science, math, reading, home economics, health and hygiene, nutrition......lol but most important we had FUN - the two of us together :)

Baking fest!!

Every week while Sam is at PreK and the older three are at school, Abigail and I have our 'girl's day'. Abigail is free to choose whatever she likes for us to do with our day!! This week, Abigail chose to come home and spend the day BAKING!!!!! We dropped Sam at Pre-K for 9am, then came home and cleaned up the kitchen before getting started!!

Abigail started with a simple Jello cheesecake mix from a packet which Lloyd had picked up last night - he LOVES them and had put ina request for Abigail to make him one!!! She rustled that up VERY fast!!

Cookies were next - 'wholewheat and oat cookies with chocolate and butterscotch chips' to be exact!! She followed the recipe - getting all of the ingredients out and measuring everything.....using my kitchen aid mixer (which she always loves to use). The cookies came out perfectly!!! Totally yummy!

After that Abigail peeled all the potatoes I needed to go with my pot roast for supper!

Then after lunch she set to work on making cupcakes - marble chocolate chip cupcakes - half of which she then iced in BRIGHT BLUE icing!!! Lovely ;) Sam was definitely impressed :) 4 year olds LIKE bright blue icing :)

Cityscape...

I snapped this through the car window last night driving back from town....Lloyd commented on how the city looked so nice with the sun so low. WE were both saying how sad it is that it gets dark so early already. The weather is so incredible right now and waaaay above average!!! They said tonight that by the end of next week we could be waaaay BELOW average temperature-wise, so I guess Fall will arrive with a BANG!!!!

I hope they are wrong!

Pot roast....

I'm still loving my crockpot!! Yesterday I made chicken madras in it......soooo good! We had that with Basmati rice and I cooked up some pappadums just before Lloyd arrived home :) Yummy :)

Last night I prepped this - a beef pot roast. It was cooking ALL day today and by the time it was served - with crispy roast potatoes and brussel sprouts - it was soooooo tender, that it was just falling apart!!! Delicious!!!

Next to come - sweet and sour chicken with yummy pineapple and baby carrots!!

Sam's first day....

Sam started PreK today. He was very excited to go again - this is a new class at a new place for him and he was thrilled to be going! He has been counting down the 'sleeps'!! He had his new indoor shoes and backpack and lunchkit....and he was all set :) We got there nice and early as I wasn't quite sure how long it would take us to get there, but we weren't the first one's there anyway - a few people were starting to arrive - and being early gave us a chance to say hello to the teachers in the quiet and look around the place without too many people around!!

I wasn't sure how Sam would be as he had been soooo upset in June about not going back to his old friends and teachers - but he has grown up so much over the Summer, and he just went on in really excited - he wasn't bothered about us leaving at all - a quick kiss and he was off to play!

He is gone for a full 'school day' - and if you want to see what Abigail and I get up to while Sam is busy at school, then check out the homeschool blog later ;)

In our thoughts...

A family friend of ours (and colleague of Lloyds) has had a brain aneurysm which led to brain surgery. She is now in a coma at the U of A hospital.

She is a single Mom of a large, active family and we all need her to recover quickly and be home with her children as soon as possible.

Lori, you are in our thoughts.

XXXX

Playing horseshoes...

After lunch we played horse shoes....

Early morning Lady Bug catching...

The weather has been very hot the last few days - around 28c.....so we have been out and about eraly this morning before it got too hot to play in the sun!! Sam and Abigail Enjoyed the sand box, trampoline and climbing frame BEFORE settling down to their studies!!! It worked out quite well actually because it gave me a chance to get dinner in the crockpot, tidy up and get other chores done and have everything organized and tidied up and they had a little less bouncy energy ready for when it was time to sit down and get started!!

they came inside thrilled to have found a lady bug and soon found a jar to put it in. They studied it for a while before letting it go on it's way.

A few weeks ago we found another fascinating bug - a Burying beetle!! To find out more about this AMAZING beetle, you can read about it on our family blog here: escapingthecity.blogspot.com/2009/09/burying-beetles.html

Scrabble Junior...

Board game fun....after they had done some of their workbooks. they had both used mini pompoms as counters today - and then the kitten came along and had great fun kicking the pompoms all over the kitchen floor and chasing them everywhere :)

Abigail is learning that subtraction and addition are very closely linked and that she can use addition to check that her subtraction sums are correct!!

Sam starts his all day Pre-K class tomorrow - he will go one day a week and that will give me a full day with Abby to do whatever she would like! She has chosen to bake all day tomorrow! So this week that is what we will do!!! Other weeks we can go swimming or to museums, skating...the muttart, downtown to meet up with friends - anywhere she chooses!! Funny girl actually chose to stay home this week - and bake!! :) I think one week we will go to one of those places where you go and prepare meals - or one of those kids kitchen places!!!

Cards for a sick little boy.....

Remember the 6 yr old little boy I asked you to keep in your thoughts and prayers? The little boy who has cancer? He's going to be undergoing very intensive treatments. He's going to be in hospital for a long time, missing out on lots of fun over the coming months.

We're hoping to make a difference in a very small way by getting people to send him cards to put a smile on his face.

Will YOU brighten up his day with a card, some stickers, a picture your child drew, some jokes, a puzzle, a postcard? Maybe even a few dollars to spend in the hospital store? If you'd like to send a card to this little boy then please leave me our Email address in the comments section OR Email me at JaneThorpe@syban.net and I will let you know the details so you can send a card to make this little boy smile!!!

Festival of Leaves

Call 780-416-6730 for more details and reserve your spot.


Join Parent Link for our third annual celebration of change. It is a great opportunity to mark the transition from summer programs to fall programs. Find out about our fun line up of fall programs.

Date: September 22, 2009

Location: TBD

Time: 4 p.m. to 7 p.m

Cost: $5/family

Celebrate Neighbour Day!!!

Join us at the Sherwood Park Farmers' Market as we celebrate Strathcona County's first ever Neighbour Day!

Positive connections with our neighbours help build healthy and strong communities. Help us recognize and celebrate this important connection.

Visit the market then join us at Broadmoor Lake Picnic Shelter to:
participate in crafts, face painting and fun family activities
enjoy free pie and apple cider
receive a special card to thank your neighbour
connect with others in the communities
When: Wednesday, September 16
Time: 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Other ways to connect with your neighbours:

Welcome new neighbours to the neighbourhood
Help neighbours who may have difficulty shovelling snow or mowing lawns
Offer to help your neighbour with their roll out cart if they are away
Say "hi"
Further information
780-464-4044

What colour do you feel today?

The stupid things he says......

So Lloyd says this morning:

"I wonder if I could get my car to go 200km an hour through a mud bog"??????

Uh yeah right Lloyd.....and this comes from a man who dodges tiny little puddles on the road in case they make his car dirty!!!!

Sigh.......

Love you Lloyd ;)

Watching the mud fly!!!!

Silly me, despite Tamie telling me to take ear plugs for Sam - I left them at home!!! He did fine though and just covered his ears for the REALLY loud ones!!! :)