growing season

We are trying our hand at growing beans here.
Like you did in school -- putting a bean in the bottom of a jar and some damp paper towel. We have three jars on our dining room window getting full sun.
Sophie's job is to spritz them with water when the paper towel is dry.
She quite loves to spritz other things around the house too.

And the Scholastic book order form appeared at daycare today.
I love Scholastic. I think a Fancy Nancy book is in order this month.

"first food for fynn" (say that 5 times fast)

I've been trying to hold off until he was officially 6 months old (April 10), but
based on the looks he gives us and the tongue thrusting he makes during our dinner, I figured he was aching to start. We did the rice cereal -- exactly the same stuff we first fed Sophie.

Very typical first food reaction. A look of "what the heck is this stuff?" Sophie had the honours of feeding him his first few spoonfuls.

Speaking of our girlie, she wore her little jumper that I sewed up for her this weekend (thanks for the help, mom) when she went to daycare today. I insisted she wear tights and a t-shirt underneath, less the daycare think that I am truly a negligent mother sending my daughter out in a summer dress when we are still having the odd flake of snow here.

And the photo of my feet/pants are in honour of me wearing dress pants for the first time in 5 months. I went into a meeting today for work. The past few times that I have been into the office, I've dressed in my schlumpy-dumpys (okay, not that bad), but too casual to feel right. It felt GOOD to get a little dressed up today. But equally as good when I got back home and into my schlumpies again.

Foodie Fridays (on Wednesdays)

Keeping Sophie busy is always interesting on Wednesdays when she is home from daycare.

The weather was crummy today, so we couldn't go outside.

I picked her up a Dora preschooler "learning lowercase abcs" workbook. She managed to go from letters a - h this morning (with help of course). Between doing that and tending to Fynn, cleaning up, changing her sheets, and having a shower it took us close to 11am. Time for some painting. That is usually good for about 20 minutes or so. I think when the weather warms up, I'm going to move her eisle outside.

After lunch we had enough time to do some baking. I was going to save this project until Friday, but today seemed as good as any. The recipe came together nicely -- the proof will be tonight when we have it for dessert. It just had the required 50 minutes (the bundt which we did takes longer) in the oven and then it was time to head down to the library to take back our books and for Storytime.

We are back home now and just relaxing. We are done....I am done. These two little people kick my butt some days :) I think I'm going to lock myself into my bedroom and watch Oprah and the "hoarder" lady this afternoon.

House Project and 10 for Tuesday

1. The foundation walls are getting ready to be poured for our house. Here are some photos from today.

2. I went back to Fabric Land today -- and, no the lady who said she would drop off a bunch of kid's patterns for me hasn't yet. I got a "flake" vibe from her, so I doubt she will. Not that I need a bunch of patterns, but it is always interesting to me to see if people will follow through.

3. I went back to Fabric Land mainly to get the little sticker on my membership card updated. I bought my new membership last week, and when I got home I noticed that it still had the 2007 expiry date on it. Needed to get that fixed! Luckily I also had my receipt with me.

4. Sophie needs slippers for daycare. We are taking a trip to Zellers tonight. I wish we had some other option than Zellers. Nothing wrong with them, but every child in daycare has the same stuff.

5. Sophie and I are going to make this tomorrow. I had to run out and buy some carrots and some new baking powder today. Ever since my flat biscuit experience awhile back, I try to keep an eye on when my baking powder might be expired.

6. I don't know how Pioneer Woman finds the time to cook, take beautiful photos of what she has cooked and tend to 4 children. Anybody know???

7. I dropped off a load of gently used, outgrown kid's clothes to the Salvation Army today.

8. Sophie has another birthday party coming up....oh, but again! Actually, this one is for her best friend Abby. It's all good.

9. Our ensuite toilet is completely unuseable now. After months of problems with clogging, if finally gave up the ghost last Thursday. It wouldn't stop running. We turned off the water so it wouldn't overflow while we were away for Easter. We have to get it replaced before we list the house, so a visit from the plumber with a new one is coming.

10. I think Roll up the Rim is a scam! Vic and I usually treat ourselves to one of their coffees every couple of days and since the contest started, the most we have won is ONE of their coffees! Shouldn't we have one a Matrix by now or something?!

unpacking, regrouping...

We had a very nice Easter weekend at my parent's home, but the unpacking, regrouping, etc when we come home is tiring.

The drive itself is about 3 1/2 hours one way. By the time we pulled into our drive way this afternoon, Sophie was getting pretty antsy.

Then came the obligatory unloading, laundry, putting away of things and refilling our fridge of stuff we ran out of before we left last Thursday. With 2 adults, 2 children, a triathalon bike, craft supplies and Easter treats, it is simply a lot to deal with. Sophie is glued to Enchanted right now and we are having an easy dinner of chicken fingers, pasta and 4 bean salad.

Here are some photos of the weekend (the cute baby with the big brown eyes is my nephew Jackson):

Happy early Easter!

shhh...this little basket is going with Sophie to daycare tomorrow (Thursday) morning. It's got Easter sugar cookies and chocolate eggs in little goodie bags
for the kids. She'll be a little surprised when she wakes up to see it.

Happy Easter!

haircuts, sunshine, sewing...

Fynn was in a cranky kind of mood this morning, so I thought we were in for a tough day, but all turned out fine.

I find it helps to have somewhere to go - Fynn needs a change of scene. So off we went, in search of adventure:

Fabricland - Sophie only got told ONCE by the clerk to please not re-organize the colour coded spools of thread. Nothing will stop her in her tracks faster than when someone else tells her not to do something. We picked up the supplies for
this jumper that we will attempt with Grandma S's help this weekend. I must look like a "seamstress" or something because one of the women in the store saw that I was purchasing a little girl's pattern and offered to give me a bunch that she had at home. After assuring her that I was a BEGINNER, she insisted I take these patterns. I'm supposed to go back and pick them up. Okay, fine.

Library storytime - much nicer storytime this week. Last time a little girl who really NEEDED to learn some sitting still skills basically hyjacked the session. I felt sorry for the poor librarian who was constantly interrupted. Her grandpa who brought her thought it was funny for his little darling to be annoying.

Sophie needed another haircut. Her hair grows fast. She let the stylist at the mall wash it in the sink, which was so nice as she got it really clean (something we struggle with at home). All ready for Easter.

After a quick sugar pick-me-up from the Cinnamon bun place, we headed back home.

We had arranged with the neighbour for Sophie to come down and play with their little boy, so off she went. She doesn't mind being left alone without me when she is at the neighbour's, so that's a great break (maybe not for our neighbour)...they have 3 boys! Anyway, it was super nice weather today, so they got lots of outside playtime.

Here she is for the 24 hours or so where her hair will still look nice and fresh.

House Project

Vic and I stopped by the building lot this afternoon.
Things are really moving along. The forms for the foundation
are being put in place. You can really get a feel for the dimensions of the house now. They had to remove 200 loads of fill from the lot!! Fortunately for us, the City of Salmon Arm needed some fill, so they took it off our hands, otherwise we would have had to pay for it to be dumped somewhere. That's our General Contractor in the front of the photo.

The price of gas is crazy here -- as it is everywhere! We didn't even manage to fill up the Pilot today and it cost us $60.

Sophie and I are going to make some treats for Thursday at daycare -- I see some more Pillsbury Easter cookies in our future. I had a .75 off coupon which I put to use, which for me is amazing, since I always forget to bring coupons with me to the store.

Fynn is winning hearts everywhere. Even with our accountant. We were picking up our taxes today and he was all smiles, hamming it up for the women in the office! Little loverboy :) If only he would go back to only getting up once a night. He was on such a roll for awhile, with only one nightime feeding. Now he is getting up 3 times or so each night. I'm exhausted by the morning, so I usually end up having a nap with him once Sophie is off to daycare. Tomorrow she is home with me all day, so she will have me running.

eating like a middle-aged man

Sophie likes her eggs and sausage.
Atleast the eggs can be scrambled and not fried.
I should be grateful for that.
Whenever we go out for Sunday brunch, she always orders the kids' egg special.
The "Little Logger" is her favourite.

In the spirit of letting kids be kids, I'm letting Sophie paint on the dining room table. A few rules still apply....like lots of newspaper has to be spread out and she can't run around with the paint - she needs to stay seated. So far it's working.
The girl can really wield a glue gun too. She did a nice little "collage" for spring.

****
Our doctor called and Fynn's chest x-ray was fine. Just a nasty cough.

Here's a layout I did from the February Cocoa Daisy kit. I don't belong to any kit clubs --- I could never keep up! But this one looked interesting and it has been fun to play around with.

****
Vic's been sprucing up our place like crazy...getting it ready for listing next month. We still need a handyman to come into the house and repair a few things, but the outside is really coming along.

Did you know...

1. That the humble Pussy willow has many cultural and modern references? Good old wikipedia. We have two trees in our backyard. Sophie has artfully arranged a few branches for a little display.

2. That my husband can scare the beejeezus out of me when he runs into the house with his workboots on (because he never wears boots in the house) exclaiming that we need to take our daughter "to the hospital or something!" She fell (badly) on the neighbour's driveway. A lot of blood from her nose, but nothing broken or serious. Just scary, and much better after a cold cloth was applied (see Pussy willow photo for proof of wellness).

3. Minute Rice brown rice is actually quite good (and I feel rather superior serving this to our family since it is "whole.")

4. Fynn WILL be crawling before we know it. He's warming us up to this idea by doing little flip overs from his back to his front all the time now.

5. The KitchenAid food processor that we got, thanks to a gift card from one of Vic's clients for Christmas, makes quick work of chopping up apples for applesauce.

Foodie Fridays

These probably barely qualify as food, but it was fun to make with Sophie and very seasonal.

In other news, yesterday I had coffee with my friend Kim who happens to be our family doctor. She heard Fynn's cough while we were chatting, and as a double-check precaution she suggested he get a chest x-ray. She wanted to rule out pneumonia.

So, after we had just come in from some errands downtown today, we got a call to be at the hospital, as they could fit us in for the x-ray. Off Sophie, Fynn and I trudged again.

Sophie had a chest x-ray once when she was very young, so I imagined they would have Fynn lie on the table the same way. Instead, now what they do is put the baby in this little upright contraption. It is a plexiglass holder (like this one) that keeps their torso straight, with their arms straight up overhead. As predicted, Fynn cried -- not because it was hurting him (they assured me), but just an uncomfortable position to be in. The radiologist told me his x-ray look fine, but we will get the final report next week.

And finally, after 5 months of not getting out for a couple of hours sans children, I called up our babysitter Irene and asked her if she could look after Sophie AND Fynn. It all worked out fine - and we got to see this movie, which was great.

The grocery business

We have 3 grocery stores in our town: Safeway, Overwaitea and an independent called Askews.

We like to support the independent when we can.

Askews:
What I like: they have the 7th Generation diapers we like.
They support local producers (fruit, etc)
Their staff turnover is low and they are friendly.
Prices are okay.

What I don't like: cramped aisles (they will be moving to a larger store, which can't come soon enough).
It's dingy.
The parking isn't great.

We usually shop at Safeway.
What I don't like about Safeway: the staff turnover - always training someone.
The staff can be downright rude (not all, but some)
Prices are higher on certain things compared to other stores.

What I like: big aisles, big bright windows.
Good variety.
Handi wipes so I can wipe the yuk off of the shopping cart handle
Excellent parking

Overwaitea:
Bad all the way around. Some Overwaitea stores are new and modern. Ours is not.

The local health food store:
We also shop there for these very good crock pot mixes - all natural, extremely tasty, made in the Okanagan. And we like their dried apple rings. I guess I could make those if we had a dryer.......

Farmers Market:
Demilles - we shop there for really good natural apple juice and their homemade bread. The downside to Demilles is that it is a few kilometres out of town and is completely out of the way.

Today at Safeway, I was watching my prices (because sometimes I don't :(
I saved a total of $4.60 by using my Safeway card.
A 2 litre jug of skim milk was 2.79 (regularly 2.99)

Chedder Cheese was 6.49 which I thought was a good deal - normally $8.18 for the block I bought, which was .457 of a kilogram (I hate metric). I was really tempted to buy the pre-shredded stuff as it would make dinner prep easier tonight, but it was over $8.50 for that. A bit much for the price of convenience.

Chicken breasts were $7.40 (.448 of a kilogram). Chicken is expensive when you buy it deboned and de-skined. But that seems to be one area where the convenience factor outweighs the price for us. I'm not about to debone chicken.

What are your favourite grocery stores? The good, the bad....

10 for Tuesday

1. Our washing machine is now fixed. It was a blown motor control board. $156 to replace plus $68 in labour. I am so grateful for having my washing machine back in order, and for repairmen.

2. Vic bought 3 yards of drain rock crush. It is to make the side of our yard look better (we don't use this portion) and to stop the neighbourhood cats from making use of it as their bathroom. They have been a real problem for us. The photo shows him shovelling the crush after work today.


3. Our building lot project is coming along. The photos show the retaining wall that has been started. It will really extend our yard.

4. Fynn seems to be recovering from his croup. Still teething up a storm.

5. To add to poor Fynn's ailments, I accidentally nicked his thumbnail when I was clipping his nails today.

6. There is a daycare board meeting tonight. We are waiting on news from the Provincial government for a (hopefully) big grant to help with our building expansion project. I'm the fill-in secretary for the Board.

7. Fynn turned 5 months old yesterday!!

8. The movie Enchanted is out on DVD next week. I think this will be a surprise tucked inside Sophie's Easter basket.

9. My lats hurt from push ups yesterday.

10. Sophie and I are going to watch a preschool gymnastics (tumbling) class tomorrow morning. She seems pretty keen to join, so I think we will likely sign up for the Spring session (much less work for mom and dad than skating).

The very LAST day....

of skating lessons, that is.

Way back in October, before Fynn was even born, Sophie started preschool level skating lessons. We were all ready to drop out by the second lesson when she was having full meltdowns before and during the usually abbreviated lesson.

We shall persevere. We will not quit. Actually, I'm also way too cheap to forfeit the cost of the lessons and the price of new skates/helmet to quit so early.

So she ended up sticking with it and doing back to back fall and winter sessions.
She has really come along. Not only with her skill, but her confidence level too. I think she had about 20 sessions in total.

It was a family effort. Fynn, daddy, Sophie and me -- all at the arena every Monday afternoon. She got a little goodie bag and a ribbon for completing.

****
Our washing machine went on the fritz tonight. We have to call the repairman tomorrow....and the piles are piling up on me.

observations from a birthday party

Sophie went to a birthday party this Sunday afternoon.

Actually, it was a party for two girls, as they are both close in age, so the moms combined the parties. A good idea, since many of the children have friends in common.

This was an all girls party.
Lots of princess dresses, a cute craft (they made crowns), and a treasure hunt.
And a bit of crying too....I'm not sure if this is specific to birthday parties for
girls.

Sophie managed it all just fine, but I think she was ready to decompress after 2 hours and come home and just play by herself for awhile.

****
Poor Fynn. He can't get a break. Super-duper teething machine. The little guy is whimpering and moaning about it. At least his cough is loosening up a bit.

Saturday

Poor Fynn - his croup is back.

His cough was so barky that we made a visit to the walk-in clinic today.

In other news, Vic sanded and painted all of the exterior door frames on our house to spruce them up for our upcoming sale. They look great. Sophie was his little helper.

I had a little break, and enjoyed a couple of hours of scrapbooking with some friends from daycare (until Fynn's cough got nasty and we left early).

Fynn is just starting to wear blue jeans. Most of his pants are hand-me-across, from friends or relatives. This pair is Baby Gap that is still a little long on him.
Those toes sure are cute.

And that yummy bowl of fruit, frozen yogurt and a cookie was our dessert last night.

Foodie Fridays

Today we tried chocolate chip cookies from the Rookie Cookbook.
It started out okay, but I think we made the cookies too big which didn't work with the 10 minute baking time. The first batch was not so good, but subsequent batches improved.

I'd give it 3 stars (but mostly because of operator error).

Baking is fun, but inevitably the floor needs vacuuming afterwards. And so a 20 minute baking project turns into an hour clean up.

House Project

This week, our builder started clearing our building lot.
These photos are of the excavator levelling the lot and preparing the grade
for the rear retaining wall. Four dumptruck loads of snow had to be removed first.

In other news, Sophie had another playdate with our neighbour Jacob (this time at his house). They had fun painting, playing with blocks and even Junior Monopoly. I thought Sophie might be a little young for that, but with some support and help she seemed to do just fine.

Fynn of course, came along for the ride.

a fun quiz

So, which Jane Austin hero are you?

Take the Quiz here!

and here I am with my new glasses :)

In other news:
- little Fynn is snuffling away with a runny nose. Poor little guy - can't do much for him except snuggle.
- Sophie is geared up for another week of asking me when is "pajamaday,Abbyday,Mikayla'sbirthday..." yes, she talks like that sometimes because she gets so excited about her "days". She does know the days of the week, but she still is working on the order of them.