Guess where we went today......

Downtown Edmonton....

Canada Place (immigration) and the Shaw Centre (small Exhibition centre):

 The Fairmont Hotel Macdonald which you can read about HERE:

Australian Crunch

Yesterday I made a tray of Australian Crunch.  This is actually a square/ bar that we used to have many years ago at school in England.  I don't think it ahs any connection to Australia at all - but for some reason it was always called Australian Crunch.  It's a yummy mixture of cornflakes crushed up, mixed with coconut, drinking chocolate and a few other things and then baked...then once it is cooled you top it with an icing flavoured with drinking chocolate.  

Actually when I was at school I don't remember ever having it with the icing topping - we always had ours with a minty flavoured green custard made with cornflour (cornstarch and mint flavouring)  

It's a big hit with the kids - I made it so they could try something from my school days and have a treat to take to school in their lunch boxes!!!

Anyway, the recipe I used was:

Australian Crunch

Ingredients
3oz Sugar
3oz Coconut
2oz Cornflakes
5oz Plain flour
2tbsp drinking chocolate
6oz Margarine
For the topping:
8oz Icing sugar
2tbsp Drinking chocolate

Recipe
Melt the margarine in a saucepan. Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl (it's better if you slightly crush the cornflakes first), add
melted margarine and mix well. Grease a 7.5 inch square baking tin. Turn mixture into tin and press down firmly, bake in the centre of a pre-heated oven (Gas Mark 5, 190C) for 20-25 minutes. Leave to cool. Mix the icing sugar and drinking chocolate with a few drops of water to make a thick iced topping, when completely cold spread the topping evenly over the top and place in the fridge to set. When set cut into even squares.

I doubled the recipe and it came out fine!!

While I was making this, I also made a double batch of my usual banana bread, except I didn't have any white chocolate:  

One very happy infomercial addict...

Oh he was sooooo happy that this arrived so fast from our Airmiles!!  He opened it up and set it all up and made a smoothie straight away!!  He was explaining how to use it all as he has watched hours and hours of infomercials and knows how to use it all (he has also watched informercials on the cricut and could make some amazing things with one of those too lol - and is obsessed with Shamwows and all kinds of gadgets from tv shopping channels.  Chris jokes that Laurie will make someone a wonderful husband one day ;)

He loves the 'As Seen on TV' Store!!

We didn't see Ivana, but we DID see....

Phil!!!  ;)  

Hey Edmonton!!

Here's to Spring - to good weather, bbq's and the weather men mentioning the possibility of 23c at some point over the next 
few days :) I'm loving the temperatures we're having now - long may they last!!!! Looks like we're set to have a GORGEOUS weekend!! My annual addition of 'here comes the sun' ;)

Old pictures...

Playing around with picture collages again - like I did with our Mountain trip pictures a couple of weeks ago - this time with pictures form our Florida trip.

Oh the fun of a box!!

Still busy with his duct tape - first a car that he 'drove' all round the house.....and then a house for Keegan and Tigrey.  

Windy weather....

Last week we had a wintery storm blow through with winds as strong as 90km an hour.  It lasted about three days and was just horrible!  They had forecast a lot of snow and rain and although we did get some on Thursday night (remember our VERY frightening evening????)  unfortunately the strong winds evaporated much of the snow and we are no better off than we were before!!  It is still just as dry out there :(

Anyway, while I was emptying the camera card I found these pictures from last week when the snow was just starting!  

This time of year we get such a mixed bag of weather!  It has been cool the last couple of days - yet none of the rain or snow promised has actually arrived!  It is now set to warm up and is going to be 20c and 21c over the weekend!!!  GORGEOUS!!!

Yet we could still get a dump of snow before Victoria Day (the official start of Summer).

As they say here in Alberta - if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes ;)

Random Dozen...

1. How do you feel about "Gladiator" sandals, also called "Roman" or "Jesus" sandals? A fashion yea or nay?  Definitely a NAY for me....lol I won't repeat what Lloyd said hahahaha!!

2. What is your favorite pizza?  blegh  I am NOT a fan of pizza  - I will eat it because everyone else likes it but I am really not keen on it.  I usually just eat Lloyds crust which he cuts off for me.  If I get to pick I would pick a thin crust wholewheat base with things like feta, olives, spinach....peppers....and probably from a  REAL Italian restaurant - none of this crappy Pizza Hut or equivalent stuff.

3. There are plans in the works to sell roughly 1,000 items from Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. This means you could buy Picard's chair for your family room. If not a Star Trek item, what prop, background, set, etc. from what TV or movie would you buy if you could?
I'd LOVE a pair of  the Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz and the Witches Hat (which I have seen in real life) and Lloyd would like the bikini worn by Princess Leia from  Return of the Jedi (for me to wear) hahahahaha!!!  (in his dreams hahahaha)

4. Name a local food or restaurant that your area is famous for.  Alberta Beef,  Prairie Oysters,  salmon, 

5. What is your current favorite snack?  I'm not really snacking atm - the green monsters I'm drinking fill me up so I don't feel like snacking - I am drinking more water though.

6. Hypothetical: You are required to be a reality show contestant. Which show would you choose based on your probability of success?  Probably a show similar to Little People Big World - a 'fly on the wall' type show that follows our lives....a homeschooling/ unschooling/ schooling family starting a business building new homes/ running an IT consultancy....about to get horses....about to build another big addition.....British living in Canada... (sorry I didn't pick one of the options available)

7. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being uninhabitable and 10 being cleanliness that meets the standards of OCD, how clean is your vehicle's interior?  5 right now - Susie and Sam were paid during Spring Break to clean it out and vacuum/ dust it!  they did a good job for me!!  With 7 of us and 2 dogs and as it is our truck for going EVERYWHERE and we eat in it often and go for hikes and get in all muddy etc etc - it is NEVER going to be an immaculate car like Lloyds!!!  HIS is ocd level ;)

8. It doesn't feel like Spring until the leaves are out and the grass is green!

9. Something that made you laugh really hard recently is The idea of me in Princess Leia's bikini.

10. Tell me about a goal you're working toward.  Two - my health and fitness goal, drinking my smoothies and working out on my treadmill and lifting weights and swimming regularly again, as well as my goal of finishing my crocheted blanket - I am progressing very fast now with the granny squares and am so happy with it :)  

11. Share a thought-provoking or inspiring quote this week.  Every vice has its excuse ready.  ~Publilius Syrus  (I was searching up quotes on excuses after hearing quite a few of them this week)

12. Name one thing that you do as a parent that you absolutely know will make your kids happy.  I wave like a mad woman out of the window every morning as they walk down the driveway and I yell silly things out the window to them...and I blow kisses and tell them I love them as they walk to meet the bus...they laugh and blow kisses back and yell they love me back.  


Find your random dozen HERE

This mornings green monster...

....before it got blended up into a yummy creamy smoothie...

Studying over a late breakfast...

This mornings visitors...

....until Amber chased them off ;)  

New home...

The chicks have moved in to their new home...you can only see about half or a third of it in this picture...and once it warms up they will have a big outside area too but they are still little and it's cold out still - but at the weekend we will keep the dogs inside for a while and let the chicks out for a while to run around.  

Charlie would have loved having chickens around again :(  She loved her chickens :(

For today......

Outside My Window...It's grey - very overcast and they forecast a mix of rain and snow but a temperature of 6c.  To the East of us there are storm warnings - blizzards and snowfall warnings but they say we won't get that.  I hope we get a lot of rain.  We still need sooo much to get the fire bans lifted.  I was hoping we would wake up to snow.  They say it will be 17c by Friday and 19c on Saturday.  So we NEED rain or snow today please!!!

I am thinking...about how lovely it is going to be to have Lloyd home for the next few weeks...every single day with him.  I can't wait :)  

I am thankful for...the opportunities that Lloyds hard work allows me.

From the learning rooms.....Abigails been doing some multiplication - she likes the 7 times table especially, she's also obsessed with cats cradle at the moment and has been studying that on the net and teaching herself - borrowing peoples hands whenever they are willing ;)  we continue to write haikus, her bird project is LOVELY, plenty of reading and writing happening...computer work...we've been planning how to make the most of Lloyds time off - and have some field trips planned!  

From the kitchen...Lloyds bread baking continues, I am still using my crockpot, I have started to drink 'green monster' smoothies every day so the blender is in use daily now.  The apricot flapjacks were a big hit! 

I am wearing...my nighty as I'm in bed.

I am creating...crochet, ATC's, in my journals, I enjoyed creating a project about Canada at the weekend as part of a 'culture swap' on Swap-bot.  My knitting projects are still ongoing....various other craft projects ongoing - I like to have a few projects that I can pick and choose from as the mood takes me...

I am going...swimming this afternoon and then to the park to meet my friend Jennifer and her children for a playdate for a while - unless the weather is too bad and then it will be an indoor playdate!  

I am reading...magazines (Marthas Body and Soul magazine and Life Learning magazine)

I am hoping...we got spaces on the field trip next week.  I am also hoping the field trip in May isn't full yet - I need to book that today!

I am hearing...breakfast news, Sam and Abby chatting to each other in one of their bedrooms

Around the house...the chicks have moved into their new home - the chicken house!!  They are quite big now - I took a picture of them which I will post later.  They are still very cute :)  Lloyd is looking forward to being at home for several weeks to get a lot of work done around the house - he has a 'to do' list (a very long one) and is going to work through it.  

One of my favorite things...sitting in the big armchair reading the children stories.  Yesterday one of the books we read was a favourite - Walter the Farting Dog - oh it's sooo funny :)  And you have to hunt for the little spider on each page too - Sam laughs through the whole book and races to find the spider and it was just fun!!  

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Swimming, Laurence has gymnastics and badminton matches, Susannah has a sleepover party out at Elk Island Park, we may take in the Earth Day festival or Law Day...date night...and making the most of Lloyd being off of work :)  Woohoo!!!!  :)