Last Day Of Kindergarten

Today is my daughter "E"s last day of kindergarten. I can't believe she's finished already! In a couple months she'll be onto grade one and have school every day. That will be different for sure. She doesn't want to have summer holidays though. She said to me, "Why can't I just start grade one tomorrow?" "E" loves school and enjoys her time there, especially playing with her friends.

She has one little friend in her class that she absolutely loves. She informed me the other week that they weren't allowed to sit together at all anymore. They get too distracted and just want to chat and play with eachother, so they don't do their work. I don't think they will be put in the same class in the fall. I'll have to schedule lots of play dates.


"E" loves to do art and crafts and sometimes makes cards as well. She wanted to make a card for her teacher to say thank you.

This is the front of her card. It's her teacher. I loved how she cut out pieces of paper in different colours for all the pieces of her person.

On the inside she created a forest scene using some fun stickers, markers, and paper cutting. I love that each ray of her sun is a different piece of paper. She is so creative! I didn't help her with this at all.

This is a birthday card she made last week for her friend. She drew him, and I just thought it was super cute.

Graduation Card

Here's a cute graduation card: 

This was created using the Every Day Paper Dolls cartridge from Cricut.

This is th inside (those are pencils and books, by the way).

Flooding Update

The rain has finally stopped, and so has the waterfall in my basement (see this post). There is still a pool of water in the storage room and I'm still waiting on the landlord to come by and use the wet-vac to clean it up. Luckily nothing was damaged but a few empty boxes.

They found where the leak was coming from and brought in a back-ho to dig a huge hole in the driveway. Sometime soon (hopefully) the landlord will come and pour some cement and seal up the leak for good.

And to top it all off, while all this junk and stuff was going on, this happened:

Not at all my best weekend.
But, compared to a lot of other people in town, we didn't get it bad. There has been lots of flooding and at least ours wasn't sewer backup! At least the sun is out today.

I Have A Waterfall In My Basement!

It has been storming and raining pretty hard here for a few days. We live in an old house, and lots of rain causes problems. We recently had some plumbing problems (you can read about it in this post) and now we have flooding problems.

It started a few days ago with a bit of water in the storage room in the basement. Nothing new. We have to run a de-humidifier down there 24/7.

Yesterday a big storm rolled in.

This is from my back door. It was around 3 or 4 in the afternoon and so dark outside. It normally doesn't get that dark until 10pm up here. Just a minute or so after I took this picture it started hailing. It was hailing hard and fast and the average hail was aound the size of a pea. After about 15 minutes of that, the rain came. I went downstairs to get something and heard the sound of running water. I found water streaming from the wall in the little furnace room. (I had a video, but for some reason can't upload it. I'll try again later.)

There is a waterfall in my basement!
Now today, there is a pool too.
The landlord is here trying to take care of it and hopefully he can fix the leak and drainage problems.

I guess the good thing about storms is, that when the let up, these show up:

It's hard to catch a rainbow nicely on camera, and this picture doesn't do the rainbow justice. This rainbow reached all the way across the sky and was so beautiful!

Thank You Card

A thank you card I whipped up today.

Fruit Sushi

My daughter and I had a fun time making fruit sushi the other day. We got the recipe from the Friend magazine here. We tried the banana sushi:

Banana Sushi

1 banana, 1 piece of fruit leather, sprinkles

1. Peel the banana.
2. Unwrap the fruit leather and wrap it around the banana.
3. Have an adult cut the wrapped banana into 1-inch (2.5-cm) slices.
4. Add a few sprinkles to the middle of each “sushi” slice.

"E" chose the dinosaur sprinkles :)

Toddler Bed

It's official. My 2 year old son "G" is not a baby anymore.

Last night my husband took down the crib and set up the toddler bed. My little baby is big enough to sleep in a real bed! I feel like it's the next stage - no more baby. Also he has been growing so fast. He's getting tall and growing out of clothes, his vocabulary is exploding, he's slowly weaning himself off naps (boo-hoo), and not wanting to sit in his booster seat at the table anymore - he wants a big chair like daddy. It's exciting and sad at the same time. Exciting to see him grow and learn and become a real little person. Sad that he doesn't need my help so much anymore and that that baby is gone.

Switching "G" to the toddler bed went all right. He was very excited at first and loved that he could climb on and off his bed without any help. When we put him to bed he laid down and stayed in his room for a good 15 minutes before venturing out. After trying to return him to his bed, he had a pretty good tantrum. After reading some books and cuddling, he went back to bed and stayed there all night. Almost all night - he fell off the bed once, but was fine and went back to sleep after my husband tucked him back in.

Overall, the switch went all right. I guess I'll have to wait and see how he does tonight.

Mermaid Craft for Kids

My 5 year old daughter "E" loves to paint, colour, make crafts and create. The walls in her room are plastered with her art and creations. Yesterday she came home with a craft book from the library, Things For Girls To Make and Do by Usborne Books.

It's a fantastic book full of fun princess, mermaid, and other girly crafts. "E" wanted to do a craft right away and chose a mermaid craft.

Here is her result:

I helped her draw the mermaid, she did the rest.

Aluminum foil and glitter glue make a shiny and sparkly tail.

She can't wait to do another tomorrow.

Bugs and Flowers

Here are some flowers and bugs I did today for a few scrapbooking pages:

Caterpillar.

Grasshopper

Layered flowers

Some more.

Leaves

Sunflower

More sunflowers

The caterpillar, grasshopper, leaves, and sunflowers were all made using the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge for the Cricut.
The other flowers (black and blue-gray) were cut with the Accent Essentials cartridge.

Diamond Willow Bed

My husband just finished making the most beautiful bed for our daughter. He used Diamond Willow wood, cut the tree down himself, peeled the bark, carved, sanded, etc. He did an absolutely wonderful job and "E" loves her new bed!

Now my husband is going to make a queen sized bed for us, and I can't wait! It will be wonderful!

Cream Puffs

These are so yummy I could eat a whole batch to myself! This is an easy recipe that's a lot of fun to make:

Cream Puffs

1 cup water
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup flour
4 large eggs
Sweetened Whipped Cream (about a 500 mL carton)
Powdered sugar

1. Heat oven to 400 F (200 C)

2. In a medium saucepan, heat water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour; reduce heat to low. Stir vigorously over low heat about 1 minute or until mixture forms a ball; remove from heat.

3. Beat in eggs, all at once, with spoon (not beaters); continue beating until smooth. Drop dough by large tablespoonfuls about 3 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 35-40 minutes or until puffed and golden. Cool away from draft, about 30 minutes. Cut off top third of each puff; pull out any strands of soft dough.

5. Fill puffs with whipped cream; replace tops (do not fill puffs while still warm, as this will melt the whipped cream). Dust with powdered sugar. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Store remaining cream puffs covered in the fridge or freezer. (Frozen cream puffs are delicious!)

I missed the powdered sugar on this batch, just imagine that it's there.

I don't cut the whole top off, but instead leave a flap so it closes nicely. Or if you are fancy and have a garnish and cream syringe (something like this) then you can inject the cream directly into the puff. This will give you a clean more professional looking cream puff.

Try out the recipe and enjoy! Let me know what you think.

Birthday Card

I really love this new card I made today with a friend.

Here's the front. For the girl, I used the Everyday Paper Dolls Cartridge for the Cricut (I absolutely love this cartridge!). For the balloons, I used the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge, and some silver thread

Here's the inside. For the text, I used the Sweet Treats cartridge.

Plumbing Problems

I live in an old house and the plumbing is atrocious. The toilets plug on a regular basis with ease. It doesn't take much. Any normal toilets would be fine. So yesterday, the drain in the basement near the washing machine overflowed all over the floor (again) causing the nearby toilet to back up. There is dirt, water (and who knows what else) all over the basement floor. I have cleaned it all up a couple of times, only to have it overflow again and again. To top it all off, the upstairs toilet has been semi-plugged and slow draining for at least a week. I am afraid this morning to do dishes or have a shower or even flush a toilet. Finally this morning my landlord is coming to fix it and hopefully the drain and toilets will be clear before my kids really need to use the bathroom. Worrying about this is draining (pun intended). I can't wait to move into our own house!

SNOW!

It is snowing.

It is June and it is snowing.

I was wearing shorts yesterday and it was at least 25 C. We went to the park, played in the sun, had a BBQ and ate popsicles. It was a normal June day. It was lovely.

But today it is snowing.

Favourite Childhood Toy

Last night I was putting my 5 year old daughter "E" to bed. She had a million stuffies on her bed and she insisted she needed them all to sleep.

"Really, all of them?" I asked her.

"Yes. All of them. But I specially need my favourites: Meow, Soft Rainbow, and Falissa," she said. "E" then proceeded to pull out of the pile a baby tiger, a rainbow coloured teddy bear, and her very favourite, a cheetah that moves it's head, growls, and has eyes that light up.
"And I have to hold them like this." She lined them up next to her, wrapped her little arm around them and gave them each a great big kiss. "I love them so much!"

It was so sweet to see. She snuggled and cuddled her stuffies and made soft sighs of comfort and joy.

"Mom, how did you sleep with Baby Tara?" she then asked me. Baby Tara was my favourite doll when I was younger.  I remember loving her so much that I could not sleep without her, just as "E" can not sleep without her ginormous pile of toys. I enjoyed Baby Tara so much that I kept her all these years, and have recently given her to my daughter. True, she is a little worn, has painted lips and fingernails, and has dirt in creases that I have never been able to get out, but she has her original clothes and is pretty much in tact.

I dug Baby Tara out of the pile of stuffies, laid down next to "E" and showed her how I used to sleep with my favourtie doll. As I pulled Baby Tara close against my chest in a familiar spot underneath my chin I was surprised; I felt a sudden surge of comfort and happiness. I had forgotten how it felt to hold my doll close to me and I understood my daughter a little better. I understood (or rather remembered) her need to have all her favourtie toys close to her. It was such a warm feeling and I was so happy that I could share that with her.

My Baby Tara
A Playmates (copyright) doll from the 80's

Another Birthday Card

I made this card for my sister-in-law using the Stretch Your Imagination cartdride for Cricut. I used the card and card frame features for this look.

I like that it is really simple, and you can really play with the colours to make certain features of the card pop.