Tag Archive | curry

Examining October

Well, you can already see pictures from Halloween HERE, as usually it was a fun time.

Neko-Chan and her Halloween prop

Neko-Chan and her Halloween prop

Echo’s wedding dress photos are HERE.

October was also Ken’s birthday… his 40th if you can believe it! We kept it low key, just as the birthday boy requested. He is not a big party animal. But he also was given an award for his hard work involved in getting his mental health under control and advocating for the association that helped him. We got to dress up and everything!20171005_183253

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New outfit and all

New outfit and all

It was a fun sort of duo season month with time to jump in leaves (and rake them up, slightly less fun)…20171023_132448

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Gavin

Gavin

And a bit of snow to toy with as well.20171027_100640

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We even had TWO foreign visitors, Jeff flew down from Canada to hang out. Never a bad thing, friends and family flying down when we still can’t return ourselves.20171024_170421

With Jeff there is ALWAYS yummy curry.

With Jeff there is ALWAYS yummy curry.

And Karyn!!! A shorter visit than her normal yearly visit but we packed in the fun and hugs and … shopping of course!20171010_115528

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UNO

UNO

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So we may enable each other... just a little... and we like it that way!

So we may enable each other… just a little… and we like it that way!

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We had our yearly pumpkin patch trip with our friend Trish and her two kids. Always fun and thankfully on a day when the weather mostly cooperated.

I am so grateful that Trish is willing to embrace our loud and crazy family.

I am so grateful that Trish is willing to embrace our loud and crazy family.

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20171020_150620Ken made pumpkin pie from scratch.20171022_111019

The twins took on acolyting at church.IMG_20171022_095158_027

20171029_091707We worked on all sorts of school stuff from crafts to book work and more.20171031_135121

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20171031_093754We had the Novaks over for VR fun.20171014_201627

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I continued my obsession with Neko-Chan pictures.IMG_20171022_000542_936

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We had a bonfire with the Schwartz family and I got my cat fix.20171013_205711

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I worked my buns off at the YMCA, with the family in tow, of course.20171022_173545

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Emanuel and Trinity even got their YELLOW belts!!20171012_181358

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And I crafted, my sanity is very closely tied to crafting it seems.

Seasonal!

Seasonal!

Of course more images to enjoy. Fall really was pretty last year!IMG_20171022_151323_502

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Face painting!

Face painting!

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...asleep

…asleep

Company On Top of Company

August 18-24

The girls are over the moon with their mini fashion shows. We are so spoiled that Gammie can and does send us so many outfits.101_9281 101_9285 101_9287 101_9313 101_9317

In celebration of Jeff being here AND he and Daddy being busy in the sub basement we had an outside lunch on the front stoop.101_9289

Right after that I realized that We had missed a rather special LARGE present that had been mailed previously from Texas. I think she got the most excited opening this one. The way it was rigged up the large caterpillar sort of popped out for her. Instant favourite.101_9290 101_9291 101_9295

That evening we had special plans. Jeff headed out with Chris for beers and visiting and the rest of us were off to Aunty Judy and Uncle Jim’s for a special family celebration of Echo’s 4th birthday complete with a cake made especially for her by Uncle Jim! He works for the Pilsbury company and makes an AMAZING cake!101_9301 101_9303 101_9304

I really can’t think of a place the kids get more excited about visiting than “Robbie’s House” and he wasn’t even there that visit!20140818_204537 20140818_191820 20140818_174959 20140818_194011 20140818_194035

In the morning the kids pitched in and worked on Echo’s birthday present from Jim and Judy – a Barbie lego set! With a little blue pool.101_9305 101_9310

We continued our learning… mostly shark related…101_9311 101_9314

And then we paid each of the kids and extra dollar of allowance to spend the week pulling weeds! What an efficient crew we had out there from the biggest to the smallest.101_9308

And the guys continued their gaming… interspersed with cleaning out of the sub basement. This all went SUPER well until they were at the tail end and found… a leak. Sigh. I am so proud of Ken for jumping in an working so hard to create space and organization in our world. This new and improved healthy Kenny is AMAZING.101_9283

We had company on Wednesday, well additional company. Robbie and Alicia came over for dinner and gaming. The kids are in love with these two, rightfully so. And it is doubly amazing that they can enjoy boardgames with us.101_9319 101_9321

101_9329I found a spare moment and finished up a special wallet for my Renaissance Festival outfit. It will loop around my handle so that I won’t lose my ID etc. I love it, I altered a basic billfold style wallet pattern to fit what I needed and there you go – no lost nothings when I go out this year!101_9322

There was time for playing outside AND checking out the garden with our guests.101_9323

101_9325 101_9326All this while Ken and Jeff made us dinner – Curry and a yummy sort of pudding pie. SPOILED US!!!101_9328 101_9327

On the 21st you can check back and see our Treasure Box we got in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa Mike HERE. We evened that day out with Munchkin (game) and time outside.101_9341

All the weed pulling led us to tweezers and patience as we removed burrs that attacked everyone pretty equally.101_9342

The kids have been loving another adult in the house. Especially one that knows all about Canada. Eases the homesickness a little, just like Grandma’s Canadian Treasure Box.101_9345 101_9351 20140816_175127

What a week!!!101_9358 101_9357

 

Really… can we keep Jeff forever? Because Ken has been so positive and the kids and I have enjoyed the company so much! We had all of Saturday and half of Sunday to enjoy with him and some lovely weather.

 

But then it was time to say good bye! Definitely a hard one… I don’t think anyone who visits us down here really realizes how much their visits and packages mean to us. A taste, touch, sound of home… thank you so much everyone for remembering us!

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Curry, Pie, Tux and Other Happy Things!

Our first truly chilly Saturday has kept us hopping busy! We started out at Michaels with our 50% off coupons. I finally have my advent exchange for my online egroup for stitchers and she is leaning more towards a stitching package so I made sure to go down the cross stitch aisle and pick out a few things. I LOVE 50% off coupons – especially since flyerland now has the Michaels flyer so you can print off as many as you need!

Ken took his coupon and got the green tinsel embossing powder for our Christmas cards. We also go a package of cream/beige coloured cardstock for the same project (it was already on sale for 3.00). Definitely a great way to get what we need and keep it under 10.00! So now all I need is some time to MAKE the cards! I have a bunch of ribbon bits and pieces from other projects I am going to use up making them and then will have to head back to Dollarama for more.

After Michaels we went to H&W… 20 lbs of potatoes for 5.00. This has me frantically using up the last of the 20lb bag mom and Mike bought us. So I made up a huge vat of mashed potatoes (I just wish I had had some sour cream to mix in – but when I use them later I can always add that) and Ken picked up some more containers and into the freezer it went. Apparently you can freeze mashed potatoes for 2 months… I doubt they will last that long in this house!

We go the simple route – peel and cube the potatoes, boil in water until you can pierce them easily with a fork, drain and then add milk and butter and mash! MMM yum!

Mashed Potatoes!

Mashed Potatoes!

I also managed to find the time to make up the newest double batch of sugar cookies with Ken. He is icing these ones red – we are going to try out a bit of cherry flavouring to see how it goes (to match the mint green icing of course!). No time for my applesauce muffins sadly – but there is always tomorrow! And extra apples from H&W so I can make another batch of applesauce anyway!

Laying by the Stove Soaking Up the Warm!

Laying by the Stove Soaking Up the Warm!

In our brainstorming for future lapbooks I came up with the idea of making what we have called “melty beads” spiders. So of course I had to hop on the internet and search… well after checking all over the place I remembered that we had labelled packages (mini ones) of them that I had bought from Michaels which meant I could look up that name! What a great site! The Perler Bead site is an absolute gem, though we currently have Ikea brand ones (way less colour options) I am rather sure I can do quite a few of the patterns they have. (that and I printed out another 50% off coupon for Ken and the boys for tomorrow when they are out and about after Sunday School… hint hint hint) What amazing options for patterns – the one I am DYING to make is the gingerbread house! It is 3D! So up on the wish list it has gone… and tomorrow I am going to try making leaves and a Christmas mitten. It amazes me how many of these sites CANNOT ship up here to Canada! This site, of course, is one of them.

I sorted through the survey groups I am a part of and managed to request 16.00 worth of cheques… one more Christmas present paid for! Or a chunk of my advent. But either way, doing surveys is starting to pay off. It will take a few weeks probably for the cheques to get here but at least I am adding to the family coffers!

Our evening was a gaming evening – game of choice – Chez Geek with Chris and Chris. Tonight was their treat food wise! And what a treat!

Nom Nom Nom

Nom Nom Nom

This was my second experience with curry… total yum though the sticky rice and the steamed bun filled me up quite quickly and even though it wasn’t  totally spicy my mouth was not impressed! Definitely something I would not mind having again AND they left us the leftovers! LOTS of milk was imbibed as well.

Desert was another treat – pumpkin pie and whipped cream… mmm. So we were definitely spoiled rotten!

Pumpkin Pie!

Pumpkin Pie!

Tonight I was back to stitching, this time the Tux to make a spare in case of interest. Again I am tweaking the pattern as the half stitches are just not clear enough in my mind for the right arm. Ken has PROMISED me new patterns as early as tomorrow so I can get back to work on the ideas spinning in my head – as well as the pattern page back up and running.

Tomorrow is Sunday School for the twins, I am planning on keeping the younger two home as a friend is dropping why on her way to picking up another friend. So in order to be here for the relatively brief visit I need to skip out on church. I figure that gives me the time to make a batch of applesauce with the apples we got today and maybe even do some extra cleaning. It is a long weekend here in Canada so I am going to take every chance I get to do more and more sorting and cleaning. Although with this house it is a lack of storage upstairs that gets me every time!!

Keeping Busy and Being Creative! (Zander middle)

Keeping Busy and Being Creative! (Zander middle)