And Sew On

I've been working out of the house on a show for the last 10 days, but this morning I don't have to work! I could do laundry...actually I AM doing laundry right now...but instead of staying home to fold it, I'm going to take the girls to Bonjour Brioche for hot chocolate and pains au chocolats. Priorities, you know.

(Audrey in front of the Eiffel Tower, April 2008)

The Grocery Store Card Game for Kids

The Grocery Store Card Game for Kids was invented by yours truly (or at least, I hadn't heard of it before) when I was contemplating a trip to the grocery store with two kids, at 4pm on New Year's Eve.The kids love to help put things in the cart-- but how to occupy aisle after aisle? And keep them in the cart while I'm at it?

Game Pieces:I grabbed some scrap paper and cut them into small cards-- one red, one yellow, one green. (If you aren't a scrapper, check your junk mail for colourful paper):

 

How to Play:As we walked through the grocery store, we started looking for foods or packaging that matched the cards. I'd called out "Red!" and they turn their heads from side to side, looking for something red. Of course, we didn't buy everything they found. I'd say, "Oh, we have that already", or "That's too expensive here", and they'd move on to the next colour. It worked like a charm. One woman actually noticed what we were doing and stopped me to say she was going to try that with her kids.

The Prize: A fairly painless trip to a very busy grocery store.

Happy Birthday, Audrey Quinn!

Four years ago, I brought this teeny little 6lb. baby home from the hospital:

Today she is four years old-- bright, energetic, funny, sensitive, cuddly....so many adjectives to describe this wonderful girl:

And for a wonderful girl, there was a wonderful cupcake baking party:

They had so much fun-- it really went off without a hitch. (Thanks to my Mom and Eunice who cleared away everything and cleaned as I kept the festivities rolling! Thanks to Sonya for the wonderful photos!)

Lily wanted to be part of the action, of course.

While the cupcakes were baking, the girls decorated tiaras...

... and played "Ring Around the Rosie".

They all took cupcake baking very seriously. There were definitely some works of art in the bunch!

Happy, happy birthday, my sweet! We love you!

Aprons and Beet Chips

After finishing up a project for the Pebbles Inc. blog last night, I am taking a short break from scrapbooking to get ready for Audrey's fourth birthday party. I am having 6 little girls over for a cupcake party tomorrow morning. We will bake vanilla cupcakes from scratch, decorate tiaras with rhinestones and flower punches, and play pass the parcel. I think it will be fun and right up Audrey's alley!

In preparation for the big event, I printed off a birthday banner, prepped 7 little tiaras, and made 7 little aprons. (Rather than loot bags, the girls will each get an apron to take home with their name on it.)

Audrey was not into posing today, but here she is in her apron:

I found $2 artists' aprons at Dollarama:

(Sadly, they don't have the cute white stitching, as pictured.)

Now, these are for adults, so I had to do a little creative tailoring to make them work. I put one of the aprons on Audrey and folded it up at the waist to it would (kind of) fit. Upon consultation with my mother, I bought Heat'nBond hemming tape, and used the iron instead of possible breaking my sewing machine. I'll be honest, getting the first two done took FOREVER,  but then I got the hang of it and the last 5 went by pretty quick.

After they had cooled I used some old foam stamps and some even older fabric paint to stamp each of the girls' names on the aprons. I picked up some glittery foam stickers, too, so each girl can personalize her apron when she arrives. (I figured that was a good craft to waste 15 minutes as people are getting in the door and getting settled.) Audrey, of course, wanted to put stickers on hers right away. I tried not to stifle her creativity, and I only mentioned the "visual triangle" once. I swear.

She loves the pockets the most. This afternoon I worried that the ties were now in the wrong place with the hemming, so I cut off the original black ties and used my Cropadile to punch holes in a better spot. I tied cute pink ribbon that I had in my stash to each side, and now they fit much better. That's my story, anyway, and I'm sticking to it.

*******

Beet chips. Microwave beet chips, in fact.

I read a blog entry a while ago (can't remember where) about microwave potato chips and thought I'd give it a try. They were so good-- and the kids loved them so much-- I thought, why not try it with sweet potatoes, or the bag of beets that came in my organic food box? Turns out, the beet chips were a huge hit with the girls. Whenever I pull out the mandolin, the girls say...and I quote..."yay! yay! Beet chips!"

Yay, beet chips? Any beet recipe that gets that kind of reaction from my girls is a keeper in my book. So, without further ado, Beet Chips:

1. Get one beet out of the fridge. One little beet is plenty:

2. Get out your mandolin:

A mandolin is very sharp little tool that cuts veggies and things super thin. The metal ones can be expensive. This one is by OXO and cost me $12 at Canadian Tire. (If you don't have/want a mandolin, I'm told you can use a veggie peeler.)

3. Set your mandolin to the thinnest setting, and slice your beet paper thin. Do not slice off your finger in the process:

4. Cut a piece of parchment paper into a circle that fits the plate in your microwave. (In the blog post I read they said you don't need the parchment per se, but it would be kinda messy without it, I think.) Spritz the paper with Pam, or an oil mister, then set your beet chips down in one layer. (You'll probably need three goes to get through all the beet chips you sliced in 30 seconds with your mandolin.) Sprinkle a teeny tiny bit of salt over the beets, and spritz one more time.

5. Place in the microwave on high for about 4 minutes. Now, microwaves differ a fair bit, so I would suggest the first time you do this, check them after three minutes. The beets will go from raw, to shrunken, to chewy, then finally crispy. If you haven't gotten to crispy, they're not done yet. In the end, they crunch like a chip and have the sweet/salty thing going for them.

Again, it wasn't a good photography day for me, but you can see how much the girls love them:

I'm thinking of trying it with turnips next.

"Yay, yay! Turnip chips!"

Under the Category of...

...why not to bother buying toys: Two jumbo boxes fit perfectly over two little monkeys. Multiple minutes of fun.

Today I...

...brought the easel outside for the kids to fingerpaint. (Could only stand the mess for 10 minutes, though.)

...am going to yoga for the first time in a week.

...went to my LSS to order some more American Crafts D ring albums.

...made a broiled tomato-brie sandwich for lunch, with olive oil and lots of pepper.

...put the leftovers of this cake out for everyone to eat:

 

...am fighting with the old Mac that I'm using while I wait for my laptop's power cord to arrive. I can blog, but I can't figure out iphoto. I think it's mostly because it's old and slow.

...am recognizing Lily's inner tyrant more and more. She turns 2 in a few weeks. Lookout.

...am keeping an eye on Audrey sleeping in the stroller in the backyard.

...keep reminding my husband to call his brother to wish our niece a happy first birthday.

...can hear the radio going in the basement as the drywall taper works down there. It seems all that's on are updates from the world cup.

...bought three 8X8 frames at a store on the strip for $20 total. Planning to use them for a decor project in the kitchen.

...am looking forward to our friend, James, flying in from NYC tonight.

...am pondering pantry organization before we load everything in there. Might google it.

 

(If I DO figure out iphoto, I will try to post "An Ocean Apart" photos tonight. I also have some great shots from Canada Day!)

 

Riverdale Farm and Bonjour Brioche

Yesterday was a super busy day, with activities all day long. The weather was beautiful, and it was our first day back at Riverdale Farm for the Song Circle class we've been attending since Audrey was less than a year old. The goats were out, a few sunning themselves on a picnic table set up in the pasture, and the ducks were having races all around. It was a very sunny morning, so to get a shot of the girls together I put them up against the side of a barn. I'll be putting this (and a few others) into a layout soon!

After lunch back at home, a kitchen meeting with the architects, and a too short nap for Lily, I decided it was best to get out before everyone got cranky. I decided on a Mommy/Daughter date to Bonjour Brioche, my favourite french cafe:

 

We took a table by the front window and ordered two pain au chocolats, two croissants, and a big bowl of cafe au lait for me. (The french would never have pastries and cafe au lait in the afternoon, but c'est la vie!)

Lily immediately chowed down:

I asked the waitress to take a photo of the three of us together:

 

Lily continued to eat, while Audrey had about half a pain au chocolat.

 

(Oh, those deep brown eyes...)

 

Lily polished off the end of Audrey and my pastries before we set off for home.

 

Lily wanted to stay outside when we got home, so I took the opportunity to get a few shots of her. This next one is a little fuzzy, but it is so Lily:

 

This Old Navy coat was a gift for Audrey when she was little. It fits Lily perfectly right now:

Melt my heart, why dontcha?

This Weekend:

Friday:
Muffin tin lunch.

Audrey had a low grade fever on and off-- lots of sleeping and Junior Advil. (This continued all weekend.)

Scrapped at Sonya's. Came up with this layout, using my favourite Collage Press line, "Sweet Shoppe", and two of my favourite CM punches: The Scallop Circle, and the limited edition Butterfly.

 

 

Saturday:
Playing with markers.

Playing in bubbles and water at the sink-- a great game until Audrey started pouring ladle fulls of water into a collander on the counte

 

Made some dog cookies for Millie-- more of an activity for Audrey, than a treat for Millie. When you are happy to eat poopy diapers, the word "treat" takes on a different meaning.
Practiced shooting in Manual.

Watched Lily dress up in funny ensembles.

A very funny bath.

Installed Pioneer Woman's new free actions for PSE. (Yay!)
Went to Pilates at Pilates Patio-- close to my house, and a real challenge.
Watched a fair amount of HGTV.
Planned some new layouts for CM-- I currently have 12 layouts I'm working on for them. Wowza!

 

Countdown to Christmas Begins

It's December first, and the countdown to Christmas begins. Audrey had been very focused on the change from November to December (probably something they are covering at pre-school), and I'm glad that I took an hour yesterday to make an advent calendar with her. Although I would really like to make a beautiful felt advent calendar that we can use from year to year, with two little ones it just doesn't seem practical. I got this idea from the Curious George Christmas special, aptly titled "A Very Monkey Christmas". In it, George counts down to Christmas by crossing off numbers on a Christmas tree. I made a very simple tree with cardstock, then printed the number 1-24 in my new favourite font "Ripe", which you can download for free here. I punched out all the numbers with a 1 3/4" circle punch, and stuck them on the tree.

There's an Imaginisce cardstock sticker on top, and Jenni Bowlin Studios "25".

\
 
I was going to gather 24 christmas stickers, but Audrey was just as happy with punches out of Imaginisce Christmas paper, with polar bears and candy canes, and words like "jolly" and "noel". She put mounting squares on the back of each one:

(That was a HUGE hit.) I put the tree on the fridge, so she can see it throughout the day, and I put the punches in a ziploc bag on the fridge next to it. She can pick one a day to stick to the tree:

Today she picked a hot chocolate punch.

By the way, I am not planning on keeping this at the end of the year-- it will go in the recycling bin. :)