Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho!!!

Tonight was it!

Five kiddos to see the man in red!

This was the best pic of the lot....

Tricky to get all of them looking at the camera and smiling at the same time...

Santa was  FANTASTIC  and SO was the photographer!!!

He spent some time doing a couple different set ups with the kiddos.

I was smart to go @ 7:30 pm!!!

NOBODY in line!

:)

Consider this your Christmas card pic people!

Merry Christmas!

A DRY Morning...

It's becoming a "thing"...

When it's DRY outside...

We head to a park...

 It POURED this afternoon...

GOOD thing we got outside this morning!

 The 'owl hats' have finally made an appearance this Fall....

Who's who....or should I say... Who's hooooooooooo.... ?

 Almost had a full-blown smile....

NO problem getting this one to giggle today!

OW Park...

It didn't rain today!

We celebrated by going to Oliver Woods Park!

The girlz love to feed the ducks...

 ...and look for frogs...

 One of their favourite pieces of equipment is the "Spider Web"...

 ...plenty of climbing space and it's bouncy too!

 I can always capture 'g2' in her "Rebel Yell" mode.... 

 LOVE her left eyebrow....

 She was easy to snap today....

 ...and having a great hair day too!

[Even with the crumbs on her lips, she's adorable!]

 Gotta move fast to capture these two....

 ...I did ask them to hug again so I could capture the 'other' side...

Good thing we got outside today....

It's been RAINING ever since...

Oh well, you don't have to shovel rain!

Sprinkler Days...

This is what a hot day looks like in my backyard...

 ... these two imps running amock...

 ...hopping over the sprinkle snake...

 ... standing still for just a sec so I can capture their reflection in the water...

... and finally... one sweet hug...

Looks pretty good eh?!

- - - - -

Happy 10th 'Z' !!!

It was 'z's 10th Birthday today!!!

She chose an ice cream cone cupcake "cake"...

I think it turned out not too bad...

It was SO easy to do too!

Gotta LOVE that!!!

Easy & cute!

:o)

 

 'z' LOVED it!!!

All lit up! 

[kiddo & cake]

 Doesn't it totally look like she's getting ready to chomp into some serious ice cream cone-age???

[pardon my 'Valley' speak...]

Check out the inside!!!

Tie Dye cupcakes!!!

Went with her tie dye dress!!!

Happy 10th Birthday Kiddo!!!

- - - - -

btw...

I am not a huge super sweet frosting fan...

I used this Buttercream Frosting recipe...
http://www.glorioustreats.com/2011/08/american-buttercream-frosting-recipe.html
With the 1/2 brick of cream cheese option...
LOVE IT!!!!
It's not sickly sweet and the texture is terrific!!!

I added a bit more icing sugar so it piped well & kept it's shape!

I am definitely using this recipe AGAIN!!!

I am a fan of this frosting recipe!!!

That could be a very dangerous thing.....

Summer Fun Chalkboard...

Here's a list of thingz we'd like to do over the next bunch of weeks...

I scrounged a piece of plywood from a friend 

and used some chalkboard spray paint to 'make it happen'.

It's a pretty big chalkboard and sits right by our front door...

Only 2 boxes are crossed off... so far...

we still have seven weeks to have plenty of FUN!!!

:o) 

Caramelized Onion Fiends!!!

So I blogged about making this...

http://whozhungry.blogspot.com/2012/03/perfect-pizzette.html

Which started with making, what I thought was, a HUGE batch of caramelized onions...

I did five VERY LARGE onions...

When I set them out onto the platter to cool...

These two decided it was SUPPER TIME!!!!

 They dug right in!!!

 And kept right on digging so I thought I would just put some on a smaller plate and they could help themselves....

 Well they did help themselves and I reloaded the plate again....

Finally I just said ok...

Snapped a few pics and let them go to town on the BIG platter!

 Here's Miss 'c' double fistin' it!

She could not get them in, chewed and swallowed fast enough! 

Here's Miss 'g2'...YUM!

They ate at least 1/3 of the platter...

I snapped my pics and then walked away!

LOL.....

Yes, we are ALL caramelized onion fans in this house...

But we do have two wee ravenous fiends who would take us all down for just one more bite!

Finally Photos ON my wall!!!

I had a goal this year to do ONE photo project every month...

I say 'had' b/c January's did not get done...

And now that dh has no work...

I need to batten down the financial hatches...

BUT... here is February's project...

 Please pardon the disheveled book shelf... 

 Here's a closer look at my best creations!

I took snippets of pictures taken in the past few months....

Just casual snaps...

We're not very formal so these work for me!

- - - - - - 

I snapped the pictures tonight....

Thought I would try and capture it better in the daylight....

NOT!

TOO much glare!!!

So these wonky pics will have to do!

The pics on the wall are NOT fuzzy irl...

I picked up the frames @ M's just after Christmas when they were on SUPER SALE!

So they were a very good price!

And the pictures were printed @ Costco so they were a good price too!

I have several ideas for "picture projects" around the house.

I will have to wait until we have a steady cash flow again to make them happen though.

I'm loving how these look and the kiddos LOVE seeing themselves up on the wall!

'c' kept pointing @ 'g2's pic and saying it was her!!!

LOL... even THEY can't tell themselves apart in pictures!

Too funny!

Anyhow... just wanted to share...

Painted Toast!

The girlz LOVED doing this!

 Use any kind of 'milk'...

 We used Almond milk and...

 ... food colouring!

 'c' kind of stuck to the middle...sogging it out ...

'g2' nibbled as she painted...

I purchased some new paint brushes that will only be used for food purposes.

Once they were done, we popped them into the toaster and waited...

They came out just as bright as when they went in!

They were quickly consumed and we repeated the fun again later when the sibs arrived home from school and they saw the "paint"...

So this 'craft' works for ANY age!

That's always a good thing!

Muffin Munchers...

We made 'Black Bottom Banana Cones' today!

It's just a few chocolate chips tossed into the bottom of a flat bottomed ice cream cone...

then you spoon some banana muffin batter in and bake!

The girlz LOVED them!

Yes, they're still in their pj's...

Some days are like that...

It's part of our every day...

:o)

Two Tutu Cute!!

Mom made us tutus today!

We had heaps of fun!

Thanks Mom!!!

Jiggler-Time!

We did Jigglers today!

DUCKIES!

Lime & Orange mixed!

 Soooo many duckies!

Soooo tasty too!

YUM!

Stolen Scrappin' Moments!!!

So this past weekend I spent some time with my scrappin' sistas...

We enjoyed playing with paper and doing a wee bit o' shoppe-in'...

It's always nice to hang with D,N&D!

[Thanks for a much needed scrappin' break ladies!!!]

When it came time to go back home...

Here's where I ended up...

... in a hotel!

It seems our ferries didn't want to sail in the 110km/hour winds.

I'm OK with that!

We found a hotel and hunkered down for the night...

Well... we actually put on our pj's, scrapped a bit more and enjoyed watching the Food Network!

I was fortunate enough to get a hold of my brother who gave us a  ride back to the ferries in the morning so I could get back to my regularly scheduled Motherin'  life!

I'm so glad I can count on him!

Thanks big brother!

So THIS is me relaxin' in the hotel room with all of our paper goodies strewn about!

Loooove it!

[D snapped this pic] 

I always feel so rejuvenated when I return from a scrappin' weekend!

I guess someone was trying to give me just a few more hours to play!

I'll take it  ANYTIME!

Thanks!

Got SNOW?!?

We did!

 

 And this pic of 'c' is so EXCITING!

Why?

Because last year she would NOT touch the snow...

She just wanted to go back inside...

This year I actually coaxed her in to picking up some snow!!!

And she was HAPPY about it!

Just check out that dusting of "white-stuff" on her mitts!!!

Maybe next year she will actually get IN to it...

 'g2' has NO problem with snow...

She  LOVES IT!!!

She LOVES to lay in it, make snow angels and spend many, many minutes enjoying it!

I say 'minutes' because this is the last picture I snapped today...

'c' was begging to go inside and 'g2' was NOT having anything to do with it!

She wanted to stay outside...and roll, lay and play in the snow...

I was the only one home so I had to bring them both in...

Last year 'g2' was able to stay out in the snow with her older siblings.

Perhaps the next time we get snow there will be someone else home and 'g2' can get MORE snow-time in...