Random February

It snowed enough for Spencer and the kids to get in our backyard and make a snow man.  It was perfect snow....the wetter, stickier snow.  The kids got tired since this activity was preceded with sledding at a near by hill.  So in the end it was  Spencer's snowman and his good time. 

Nothing like using things from around the house.  Strawberry eyes, carrot nose and some rocks from the backyard for his mouth. 

Here are a couple of pictures of my kids all getting along and playing nicely together.  We have to find appropriate and fun things to do every Sunday morning since church doesn't start until 1pm.  I told them that I remember making "forts" out of blankets and couch cushions and that inspired them to make this. 

Pi Day

Thanks for Spencer volunteering to bring in pie's for pi day (March 14 or 3-14) for his group I was busy in the kitchen concocting some pies.  I do a lot of other baking and cooking in the kitchen for my family but pie isn't on top of the list of things that we like to eat.

I decided to try making a banana cream pie and a lemon meringue pie.  Everything was done from scratch except the pie crust.  They both turned out really well and both were eaten up at Spencer's workplace.  I had some left over filling and some tart shells in the freezer so I make up some extra tarts for the kids and I at home. 

Here is Evan giving a thumbs up!  He was sampling the banana cream pie and all the kids really liked that one.  The lemon meringue not so much. 

Next year if Spencer wants to volunteer again he'll be the one in the kitchen whipping up some pies or purchasing them for his group.   

February Update

It has been a while since I last posted....things are of course busy and this was at the end of my to do list...but here we go.....
For our date a month Spencer and I went to a Saturday afternoon performance of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.  We started with some lunch downtown, unfortunately I thought that the Old Spaghetti Factory would be a good Italian choice, I was way wrong.  The price was right but the food according to me was two thumbs down.  Thank goodness the company was good and it was close to our next stop; the Winspear center.  I especially love listening to the orchestra. We were way up in the top balcony 'cause those were the only seats left with two together, but even with those seats the sound was amazing and you actually got a great view of the whole stage and orchestra, maybe just a little smaller version of everyone.   The theme was "Disney" and they had singers who would sing the songs and there was even a little Karaoke for everyone to participate.  Before the show there were Disney Princesses in the lobby that you could talk to and get your picture taken with. 

Spencer outside the Old Spaghetti Factory. 

Me outside the Winspear Centre.

Me with Snow White. 

Some other highlights this month include our visit to the Silver Skate Festival. It turned out to be a beautiful day. We were lucky enough to find some parking down at the event. It was pretty packed. The kids spent a lot of time slowly walking across all the mounds of snow that were left after they cleared the lake for skating on.

Here we are at the start of the festival.  There was lots to do.  The kids standing in front of the first snow sculpture; a man carving a skate. 

There was a ton of other ice sculptures and here is one more snow sculpture; a cool couch in the shape of a clam shell.

There was a french activity of making some maple syrup candy on a stick.  We patiently waited in line for our turn.  The man would pour a row of maple syrup down a trough lined with snow and you had to roll your section of maple syrup around your Popsicle stick until it got hard and would stick.  That was yummy to taste. 

There was also a Native Tee pee and inside you could see what a real tee pee would look like.  They also had some crafts in there but the kids weren't too interested in waiting around.  They also had Bannock (a native bread that you wrap around a stick and cook over a fire).  My kids tried that one year and didn't too much care for it.

Here is Evan trying his hand or feet rather at cross country skiing.  He actually did fairly well.  It is always a bit tricky when you fall and have to get uncrossed and back up.  Aaron is down below getting the hang of sliding with just one ski on. 

Here the kids are going down the ice slide.  They loved this and would go again and again.  Now this is winter time fun!

Getting Out...

We had a bit of extra fun in January.  We headed downtown to participate in Metropolis which is a winter festival.  There are 4 huge covered/heated structures that house different activities.  On the Saturday that we went, one tent had break dancing going on.  That was fun to watch.  Then there was a food tent and beer tent and a children's tent.  We checked out the food tent, not much really going on that we liked in there for a treat, we obliviously skipped the beer tent and stayed in the children's tent for a little bit. 
They had a few crafts to do, story books that you could take and sit down to read, they had a giant inflatable slide that you could go on, a caricature artist, and a magician. 

Megan wasn't too into the crafts and was pretty grumpy, then the magician came up to her and included her in his tricks and pranks. She started to smile and enjoyed herself. He multiplied rabbits (foam bunnies) right before her eyes, in her very own hands. She was in totally awe about that. Then Evan joined in the fun along with other kids in the tent. He was really good. 

The video above he is teaching them to juggle.  The video below he is playing his little flute and trying to tell them how to dance celtic style...this is what he got out of them.

Megan was interested in going on the slide.  So we payed $2 and she climbed up the stairs and had a good slide down.  Evan was too scared, but when he saw how fun it was he decided to go to.  Aaron was asleep in the stroller the whole time. 

One afternoon I was busy cleaning in the kitchen and washing vegetables and prepping them for the fridge, when I thought that we would "paint" with different vegetables.  So here is Aaron loving his time painting. 

We used an apple, carrot, I cut a potato and made some different shapes, and the root end of a bunch of celery.  He is very proud of his painting and loves to look at it and tell me what everything was made with.   This was one of those good mom moments.

January Date

So we started our new year off with a special date that I pulled together for us.  I marked it on our family calendar that hangs on our fridge.  I have one date a month planned and one trip to the temple planned for the entire year.  This year I'm going to try having our dates on a Saturday afternoon.  I don't enjoy the rush of Friday night dates so Saturday we can take it a bit slower. 

So I made a little invite to let Spencer know what we would be doing....I cut out words from the newspaper. 

We started off with lunch at Packrat Louie's.  Spencer had been there before for a work lunch and wanted me to try it too.  I remember living in the white ave. area while going to school and walked by this place often wishing that someday I'll be able to afford to eat there.  (I can check that off my bucket list!)

The weather was still a little chilly so for the next part of our date we took a short cut through Old Strathcona farmers market.  I love that place.  Spencer stopped to enjoy a singer/quartet playing blue grass/country tunes. 

We had to walk a few blocks to reach the Ice on Whyte festival that was at End of Steel Park.  It was neat to see all the ice carvings. 

Here I am standing if front of a church. 

One of Spencers favorite things was the ice slides.  A little cold on the bum but fun to go down.
There was a tent with heaters and hot chocolate and free entertainment.  We stayed for a while to get warmed up but then went back outside to finish looking at the ice sculptures. 

A dragon. At night there are lights that shine on the sculptures so I think it might have been easier to see the details in them.  

This one is of a dragonfly and a little fairy on mushrooms.  There were teams from all over the world who came to participate.  There was a competition and with winner was one of the Chinese teams. 

Oh, What beautiful skin you have....

We got a book about homemade facials, skin treatments, hair help...etc. from the library.   Megan found a couple of things that she wanted to try.... I think that she made a oatmeal/honey/milk facial scrub.  All natural and totally edible. 

She is a little unsure at first....



It was my pleasure to help her spread the goop all over her face.  

Winter Fun

While Christmas holidays were in full swing we decided to spend some time in Sherwood Park at their recreation center.  For $20 we had tons of fun. 

We started off with skating...

Then we moved on to the indoor play area.... indoor equipment, huge blocks to build with, slides, rock climbing wall, toys and other kids to play with. 



We took a break and had some lunch at the food court there and it cost us more to eat than to do all of our activities!

We finished our day with a swim in the wave pool.  Aaron loved to be safe in a little boat that floats and he kept making sure that whoever was helping him was holding on the the rope so that nothing happened to him.  Evan enjoyed the play structure with slides that they have.  Megan was good right up at the front of the waves in the pool with a tube.  Everyone enjoyed floating along in the lazy river.