Back before the wind hit!

9:30pm and all of a sudden the winds have picked up!

We just got home......I am so happy with what we got tonight! Especially the things for Chris - he really didn't want anything for Christmas and I ahd no ideas...until tonight!! :)

Lloyd and I sat in Starbucks for a while...me over my gingerbread latte...Lloyd over his Columbian....Lloyd bought a Frank Sinatra Christmas cd for his car lol....but I have to admit the classic Christmas songs on there really do give you a Christmasy glow :)

What else? We bought another fish.....even Abigail told us we are becoming a little obsessional about buying fish hahahahaha! We got home and everyone is asleep except Chris and Abigail...both of whom are now asleep already....they all had such late nights last night :)

Toys R Us seemed to have discounts on everything we wanted to get so we really lucked out! Perfect night to go as it was really quiet in there and we didn't even have to wait in line to pay!

Tomorrow won't be quite as easy as we are heading to WEM...but its not really for Christmas shopping - its for other things so we should be ok :) Best of all I told Lloyd I would help him choose a scarf for himself if he took me to Dollarama first :) woohoo!! Oh and theres a Pet store next to Dollarama.....maybe we could get another fish ;)

Lazy start to the weekend...

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Ladybug, ladybug........

....fly away home!!!!

Abigail was amazed to find this little Ladybug walking around upstairs! At the end of November!

Gak..gloop....slime.....

Today we made gak......it starts off gooey and slimey and ends up like a super smooth playdough that can be cut up :) it's super easy to clean up too which I LOVE...and the kids ahve so much fun watching the liquids change when they are mixed together!

One word of warning - if you use yellow food colouring, the slime ends up looking like snot from someone with a very bad nasal infection :( Ewwwww! I forgot to take pictures of it when it had firmed up a bit - so I will do that tomorrow!!!! In these pictures it hasn't been kneaded much and is still icky slimey stuff...th ekids loved it and like I said, clean up is EASY!!!

Recipe for Gak:

solution A -

1 1/2 cups of warm water
2 cups elmers glue
food colouring
mix together until completely dissolved


Solution B -

4 teaspoons of Borax
1 1/3 cups warm water
mix together until completely dissolved


Instructions -

Pour solution A into solution B. Do not mix! Lift Gak out and knead into shape.

A sunset spectular to end the week :)

Tonights sunset was stunning - it even lit up the sky at the back of our house :)

Wintry sky......

Too early

So we went on a walk this afternoon to meet Laurence, Susie and her friend from the school bus.....but after about twenty minutes I realised I'd made a mistake - we were an hour early! But we had a nice walk anyway and Charlie raced down the driveway after us and came for a walk down the lane.....two cars passed us while we were out - I wonder what they thought!

Sam took his magic wand with him and then Abigail used it to draw pictures in the snow.....and I thought I'd take a picture of Charlies footprints in the snow :) Charlie is so good - she just walks at the side of the road with us :)

Afternoon stroll...

Sam pulling the garbage can back to the house this afternoon on our way home from our walk......he pulled it all the way up the driveway :)

Friday fun....and a recipe!

This morning I took Abigail and Sam out for breakfast - it was so nice...our waitress Grace sat with us and chatted and she is so great with the children - spoils them rotten...she always complains when I tip her but she has no idea how easy she makes going out for breakfast with children :)

It was a lovely start to the day - but Val we missed you :)

Oh and Mom - Grace asked after you and said to say hello!

We got home around 11:30am and we finally made some Gak....gloop, slime...whatever you want to call it! Lovely stuff! Anyway I will post the pics of that on our homeschooling blog (homeschooling first grade - link to the right) and while the children were happily playing with that (for AGES) I made some chocolate snowballs.....the dough is chilling in the fridge ready to be rolled into balls and rolled in icing sugar or coconut! Yum! It already tastes great!

Chocolate snowballs are a really easy no-bake recipe that kids LOVE to make and everyone loves to eat :) I like to tell myself that the goodness in the oats counteracts all the badness in the sugar, syrup and butter ;)

1 1/3 cups of butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 cups of oats
1 1/2 cups dessicated coconut
6 tbsp syrup
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp vanilla
2 tbsp cocoa powder (I actually add more than this but its up to you)

icing sugar or more coconut to roll the balls in afterwards.

Mix all ingredients together until it forms a slightly sticky dough. Chill for one hour. Roll into bitesized balls (some of ours are the size of walnuts/ timbits though). roll in the icing sugar or coconut. Chill and eat :)

Chris is sleeping at school tonight - at 8am this morning he started a 24 hour fast to raise funds for the school they support in Africa. I sent him with sleeping bag and pancake mix as they are breaking their fast tomorrow morning with a big pancake breakfsat.

Laurence is going to a birthday party sleepover tonight. Susie is bringing a friend back from school and I am taking all three girls to the movie night at the community hall....they are showing Shrek the Third. The Susies friend is sleeping over here.

Last night I had to attend another meeting about the Christmas party - it only lasted just over an hour thankfully.....it was quite a good meeting - only 9 days now until the party.

I will figure out the pictures a little while later and add them here.

In the pic above, Abigail 'stole' a snowball as I was taking a picture...but I thought the pic was cute so I kept it ;)

Happy Thanksgiving to Heather and Debbie!!

I think Heather and Debbie are my only US readers??????

Happy Thanksgiving today - I hope you have been having a wonderful day and continue to enjoy this extra long weekend :)

Thinking of you

Jane
x

PS This is the closest I have to a picture of a Thanksgiving turkey.....a friend of mine has a DH who goes hunting and likes to display his catches on their wall...this turkey is above the heating vent in their family room and when the heating is on, the wings flap :) tasteful huh???? lol! All I can say is she must really love him ;)

Not even December...

Chris has changed the ring of our telephones in the house from a normal phone ring to 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas'...so every time someone calls I hear this tinny Christmas music coming from somewhere (normally under a cushion or chair or in a toy box etc lol)

It's driving me nuts already and its only been a couple of days....

But then at other times - when it clicks that its actually the phone ringing, it makes me laugh.....

OMG.....

You know.....sometimes I wonder how people get the ideas and thoughts they have...I know we are all free to have our own thoughts and minds but sometimes I wonder how people can be so closed minded and so judgmental of others.....todays topic in Current Events....it just saddens me....I am not going to get involved in that conversation on there but I am STUNNED by some of the thoughts people have on the subject.....

My thoughts? My heart goes out to that poor man who was obviously very distressed and scared....who didn't speak a word of English...who thought he was coming to a wonderful new life in Canada...who just wanted to see his Mom......who had arranged to meet her by the suitcase carousels....

10 hours TEN HOURS he was left there - his Mom the other side of glass doors kept asking for help and information and no one helped her.....the man was left alone ignored for soooo long and no one thought to get a translator on the phone, to get help or try to help with his distress.....

Its disgusting and very VERY sad and too late to make amends.....

I know everyone is free to see this story in their own way but my own opinion is that this family was let down by Canada in a VERY big way :( Canada should be ashamed. I know I am!

The new tank...

Lloyd will fit the filter thingies tonight but at least they have more room to swim and grow and more oxygen to breath....our water is very VERY salty...we have to have a distiller to clean some of the water to make it drinkable and although its drinkable, it seems to have very little oxygen left in it and poor Goldie can't breathe!!! Hopefully things will improve now and Goldie will live for a long time!!! We got him in February so we've had him for 9 months!

My miracle fish Goldie :)

Back from the brink of death again :)

Please welcome Blob!!!!

Here is our new little fishy Blob (aka Goldie2). he seems to have settled in well :)