Recent Goings-On

I had trimmed Keira's hair, and then cut a few stray hairs while she was in the tub, leaving the scissors on the counter. Since Aidan had never ever grabbed any scissors or tried to cut anything, and Keira hadn't done anything similar either, I didn't think much of it.

However, there is a first for everything and now Keira has a nice rooster top/mini mullet. Thank goodness she didn't cut it shorter! For now we're just parting it on the other side and pulling the hair over top since she *freaked* out when I took her to get her hair cut. *sigh*

This is the look of mischief right here!

And here is complete innocence! What a goof!

Aidan and I have been working on reading 2 books a day together to help improve his reading skills. Of course Keira wants to do everything Aidan does, and Aidan enjoys reading some of the simpler books to Keira.

As usual, it devolves into silliness and goofiness

This would be a perfect picture of them if I would remember to wipe Keira's mouth after she's done dinner!!

This is how I found Keira sleeping for her nap

Closeup ... cuz I think she looks cute just passed out. When I woke her up she told me that she had 'put on her hat' (her hood)

Sitting down with some 'guys' - Miga, Mrs. Pomegranate and Blue Teddy - and some treats in comfy PJ's to watch Stuart Little for Mini Party

Keira was the first one ready and commandeered a good portion of the couch for her and all her 'guys' as well as her books and treats.

Princesses!

One Friday while Michael and Aidan were away in Abbotsford, Keira and I were just about to sit down to a yummy dinner of pancakes and strawberries when our doorbell rang. We weren't expecting anyone, but it was my friend Jennifer and her son Noah. They said they have been at Value Village and had spotted a Disney Princess table and chairs. They had both been very excited to see it and had immediately thought of Keira, so Noah had offered to sit on the chair while Jen when to talk to a staff member and then they had driven straight over to deliver it! How sweet!

Needless to say, Keira was SUPER excited and her voice jumped at least an octave so it was very high and squeaky. They brought the chairs in first, Cinderella on one and Snow White on the other and as soon as Keira saw them both she said "Where's Aurora?" thinking there would be another chair with Sleeping Beauty on it :)

Makka Pakka sitting on the Snow White seat

Before the wonderful surprise delivery, Keira was going to eat her dinner either on the floor or on the couch (while being watched like a hawk by me) but now she got to eat it in style at her new Princess table and chairs! What a lucky girl!!

Ironing Board Cover

Since I've started sewing more again, especially quilting, I've been using the iron a whole lot more. It's not even my iron, it used to be Michael's before we were married, and I think it's pretty old - though it works great! The ironing board, on the other hand, is a small tabletop piece of particle board with a token piece of super thin foam and a very *jazzy* 80s/early 90s cover. I should have taken a picture of it before I threw it out and I can't find anything online that is similar.

I like looking at the projects on the Moda fabric blog and one day they had one for a Quilted Ironing Board Cover (You can find the original recipe here.) I thought it would be a great project to try - even more so when I found some notions-themed fabric on sale at Fabricland!

This is what I was hoping for:

And this is what I made:
I hadn't really given the size of the ironing board much thought, and so it didn't turn out quite right. I think I should have adjusted the sizes of the strips, but I think it turned out pretty good for a first try.

And here's another picture with the iron :) The best part is I have enough fabric left for one, maybe two more covers to perfect my technique with!

Pink Pancakes

Tonight we're having Pink Pancakes for dinner. This is a recipe out of Deceptively Delicious, a recipe book by Jessica Seinfeld and the whole idea of the book is slipping vegetable purees into anything and everything to get your kids to eat (more) vegetables. I love the idea and so does Aidan. He always asks what's hiding in his food, and then when I tell him, he says "Oh, I can taste it!" even though he can't :)

My kids are really good eaters and I'm glad because Michael and I have been very intentional about not raising picky eaters. If it's on your plate, you eat it. You don't have to eat it, but there are no second choices. Because of this I don't have any problem getting them to eat their vegetables, but sometimes it's easier to slip in beets or spinach or squash than serving them steamed, on the side of whatever we're having for dinner.

We have pancakes quite a bit at our house and the first time I made these they were such a big hit that Aidan asked to have them again as his birthday dinner! I thought I would see if I could find fresh beets at Superstore today and not only did I find beets ...

I found BEETS - these guys are huge!! Well, maybe it would be more accurate to say that their stalks and leaves are huge - and I was happy to see that they were not being sold by weight! :)

If you're interested in trying out Pink Pancakes, here's the recipe:

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup ricotta cheese (I use cottage cheese pureed in a food processor)

1/4 cup beet puree

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup pancake mix

1/4 cup grated apple

In a blender or food processor, combine the water, ricotta cheese (cottage cheese), beet puree, vanilla, and cinnamon and blend. Dump the mixture into a medium bowl, add the pancake mix and apple, and stir until just combined. Do not overmix - the batter will be a little lumpy.

Coat a griddle or large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and set it over medium-high heat. When hot, add some vegetable oil. Spoon the batter onto the griddle or skillet, using about 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook the pancakes until bubbles form on top and the batter is set, 1 to 2 minutes. Then flip the pancakes with a spatula and cook until golden brown on the other side, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve warm, with syrup or fruit.

If you like it - buy the cookbook! The picture of the pancakes shows them served with raspberries and icing sugar sprinkled over top - yum!!

Tomorrow I'm trying another recipe from the book - Blueberry Oatmeal Bars with pureed spinach!! Aidan's dubious about how tasty they'll be but I'm sure they'll be yummy :)

Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy

On Saturday I had a job at Superstore, so the kids and I headed out along with my lifesaver, the mini-dvd player. Aidan is almost too big to fit in the bottom of the cart beside Keira, so there were a few squabbles over squishy-ness, but I was very impressed with their behavior.

Pineapples were on sale and I was going to buy a small one, but of course, those were sold out. Then I saw that coconuts were on for $0.99, there was a carton of super juicy strawberries 50% off, the massive pineapples looked nice and ripe and Aidan was interested in a furry little kiwi. So I bought it all and figured we'd have a tropical lunch.

Let me say again, the pineapple was MASSIVE. And is VERY tasty.

When I was a kid, we used to buy coconuts once in awhile and then throw them down the back porch stairs to try to break them open. I have fond memories of this. However, we do not have porch stairs and it is also still winter up here. So I looked it up on the internet. This is what I found:

"Note the seam that runs between the "eyes". Follow the seam to the equator of the coconut. Using the blunt edge (not the blade) of a heavy knife (for example, a chef's knife, meat cleaver, machete) tap firmly around its equator as you rotate the coconut in the palm of your hand. Continue to tap and rotate until the coconut splits completely open. If it's done right, after just a few turns, the coconut will break open into two equal halves."

Let me first point out - my google search was "how to open a coconut at home". Who has a machete lying around?!? Or a meat cleaver for that matter?

At the store, I thought "Oh! A coconut! I remember having coconuts when I was a kid and it was so much fun! I'll bet my kids will love it as much as I did!"

At home I thought "Oh crap, how do I open this thing??" and then I remembered the internet - you can find out how to do ANYTHING on the internet. So I found the little blurb and thought "Oh, this won't be very hard at all!" Then I spent about 8 minutes whacking the thing with the blunt edge of my knife in the sink until Aidan came up and said "What are you doing Mommy?" Good question. Then I went outside and whacked it on the concrete step until it opened. Who needs the internet??

A horrible picture of the gross coconut 'milk'. Aidan tried it, made a face and then tried it again which made me laugh. Keira wouldn't try it at all

Half the coconut - looks so cool!

So after about 3 hours, this is what I had. And after I had opened the coconut, pried all the 'meat' off the shell and cut the brown skin off I wondered what I was going to do with all that coconut. Superstore really should have paid ME to take the coconut off their hands!!

This is what we had for dessert - Ice Cream Fruit Salad with freshly grated coconut. It's not a very good picture but the kids pronounced it 'very yummy!'

Yum!

Double yum!

Aidan wanted me to take a picture of him making a funny face and then he did this. I wasn't sure whether he was really cold, had just bitten his tongue or had a brain freeze. Turns out this was his funny face ...

And then of course Keira had to do a funny face!

I think we're going to be having freshly grated coconut on EVERYTHING from now on because I have a lot of coconut left!!

Vancouver 2010 - Latham Style

The boys have been back from their Olympic trip for almost a week now, though it seems much longer. Michael is already away again for work (boo!) and Aidan has been back to school and is off for Spring Break (double boo!). I wish the Olympic trip and Spring Break could have coincided, but oh well. They left here at midnight on the 17th (or 18th if you want to be technical) and arrived back home at around 3 or 4am on March 2nd

Okay, here we go. And brace yourselves, there are a LOT of pictures!!

Aidan cuddling with Miga a few days before the trip. Between Miga and the Power Rangers outfit, I think that's the best $20 I've spent in a long time!!

The place where Michael and Corey arrived to see the Victory Ceremony (medals) and hear their favorite DJ play - Deadmau5 (the 5 is supposed to be an 's', so when you say it, it sounds like Deadmouse)

Michael is SUPER excited, he's been trying to see this guy for a couple years now. They arrived very early to get good spots, but then had to wait for a long time - without mittens. They tried to buy some red Olympic ones, but were told the whole country was sold out. By the time I went to our local Zellers to buy some, all they had left were youth sizes.

Deadmau5 arrives!

Doing what he does best. You'll notice he's wearing a large mouse head with the eyes x-ed out. Michael wants me to make him a 'hat' like this and even found a step by step guide online, however I am not sure how well it would turn out. If I do attempt it, I'll be sure to post pictures!

Apparently there were cut outs like this all over Vancouver. Just begging for people to do silly poses inside of them!

Armin Van Buuren plays the nightclub Gossip! In addition to Deadmau5 at the Victory Ceremony, Michael was able to see a number of other DJ's while he was in Vancouver including Calvin Harris and Armin Van Buuren. He even got to see Deadmau5 again at the same club (Gossip) after the Olympics were over. He told me a funny story about a guy who tried to climb up on stage and make off with the mouse head - seriously?!? How did he think he was going to make it through the crowd and out the door?!?

USA plays the Swiss

Michael and Corey, very excited to be at the game!

A crazy crowd of people entering the arena (I think)

Another hockey game. Michael had tickets for 3 Mens quarter-final games (all on the same day too!), Womens bronze and gold and the Mens semi-final between USA and Finaland

Another picture of the crazy crowds - with Science World or Telus World of Science in the background

And another crowd - if you can't tell, I think the crowd pictures are great. It's fun to look at all the different people and all the red and Canada stuff

Squatchi, Michael, Corey and Miga. This was the day before the semi-final game that Aidan would be going to and Michael planned to track Miga down and get a picture with Aidan. They were able to find Miga and Aidan was able to touch her, but weren't able to get a picture which Aidan was really disappointed about. As soon as I can get my Adobe Photoshop working, I am going to photoshop Aidan into this picture though, so it looks like he was there :)

Hey! It's George Stromboulopolous!

Women's gold game - USA and Canada

Two - Nothing!!

Yay! We win gold!!

More excitement!

And more excitement!!

Lining up to get the medals

'We're number one!'

Finland gets Bronze!

The WHOLE crowd is red!!

Group shot

Michael had 4 tickets to the semi final game and brought my brother Luke along with him, Aidan and Corey. Aidan is wearing his Cheerios Vancouver 2010 Olympics t-shirt

This is Abbotsford in February. *sigh* Grande Prairie still has knee high snow.

My mom loves to walk around Mill Lake in Abbotsford, so Aidan got to go along with her

There are always lots of ducks and geese - most times too many - and Aidan had fun feeding them

There are a couple parks on the way, and of course Aidan had to stop and play

He found a boy who had the exact same Please Mum brown polarfleece pants as him which was extremely cool.

All in all they had an AWESOME trip!!!