Fruit Roll-up Fail

A few weeks ago a friend shared around a link to a blog that had a bunch of DIY things on it. One of those things were homemade granola bars. I gave them a try and they are fantastic. So I figured other things on that site would be good too. There was a recipe for homemade fruit roll-ups and I thought, great! My kids are always begging for them so I figured making my own with nothing but fruit in them would be great.

The original recipe called for mangoes but they are expensive (and I could see S saying she didn't like them). Reading through the comments on the original blog I saw that you can make them with strawberries. Again I thought great! Strawberries were on sale this week so I picked up some. I followed the recipe - puree them in the food processor, spread them thin on a parchment lined cookie sheet (I don't have Silpat mats), and pop them into the oven.

After three hours I checked them and parts of them were dried to a crisp and others were still goopy. I left them in for a while longer in hopes that the goopy parts would dry out. Most of them did but of course that made the dried parts get crispier. Finally I pulled them out. Next I covered them with wax paper, just like the recipe says. I flipped it over and began to pull the parchment off. This is what I ended up with:

It doesn't look anything like what it's suppose to although it does taste good. J says it tastes a little sour to him so maybe I should have added some sugar to it. I was trying to figure out what went wrong and all I can come up with is that I had the puree spread too thin in some places and too thick in others. It looked like it was even but apparently it wasn't. Also, I think having a Silpat mat would have helped. Next time (if there is a next time) I may also spread all the puree in one tray rather than splitting it up. They will most likely end up more like fruit bars rather than roll-ups but that's okay with me.

C has a dinner meeting tonight so it was just the kids and me for supper. When I asked them what they wanted to eat their response was pizza. Now, ordering pizza and having it delivered here is expensive. And since I had to go to the grocery store anyway I picked up the stuff to make our own pizzas at home.

I picked up what I thought was just two crusts but there were actually two crusts per package so I had the potential to make a LOT of pizza. I ended up sticking one pack in the freezer. The other pizzas ended up being half cheese, half ham/pineapple (J's request). Here they are before baking and after:

Of course S pulled her "I'm full" routine which just means that she's tired of eating whatever it is we're having. She started saying that after her cheese came off and I refused to give her a new piece until she finished her current one (yeah, I'm mean that way). J gave the pizza two thumbs up. So at least I got that right today!

I had planned to make blueberry muffins today but the failed fruit roll-ups took so long that by the time they were done it was almost time for the pizzas to go in. I will make the muffins tomorrow. They aren't my homemade ones but I'll add some little touches to make them seem like more than just a mix. Sometimes you just have to go for easy over homemade!

Adventures in Camping

I survived camping. It was touch and go at times whether I'd survive but overall it was fun. The kids had a blast and C had a fantastic birthday weekend, so all is good. So, what happened? Let's find out!

Friday we arrived at the campsite and were greeted with this view.

Yes, our campsite overlooked the beach. I was a bit worried because the campsites were really close together but the waves created enough white noise to drown out the sound of the people around us. The kids were thrilled that there was a family next to us with kids around the same age. They were also thrilled that there was a playground across the street from our campsite. It kept the kids busy while we were busy putting up the tent.

We finished setting the tent up and realized we were all starving. So C got a fire started in this cute fire pit and we heated up some hot dogs over the fire. We only sacrificed one hot dog to the flames.

When we went to bed that night, I knew it was going to be cold. What none of us realized was how cold it was going to be. All of our sleeping bags are rated for summer and it felt like winter that night. I slept for maybe 2 hours at the most because I woke up shivering. S woke up very early (like around 4:30) and climbed into my sleeping bag with me because she was cold. We kept each other warm and were both able to sleep for a while. It was crazy how cold it got that night.

Saturday it was maybe 6:00 when I stumbled to the washrooms. I spooked some crows along the way and they took off flying. I was half asleep when a bird buzzed by me at head level, maybe 6 feet away from me. I figured it was a crow until I saw a large white tail flying away from me. I looked up into the tree and saw a very large bird sitting there.

It was pretty amazing to see a bald eagle just chilling in the tree outside the washrooms. She (or maybe he?) spent the morning sitting up there, just people watching. Even the park employees were fascinated by it because they said the bald eagles usually hang out by the entrance to the park rather than near the camp sites. I guess it just wanted to give us an up-close view of the wildlife.

While we were eating breakfast the fishing boats started coming around checking their lobster traps. It was fun to watch them. I hope they got a good catch!

For breakfast, C baked some biscuits in the new dutch oven we got. They actually turned out pretty good. While we cleaned up, the kids spent the morning playing with the kids from the campsite next to ours. Around lunchtime we decided to head into town to see what we could find to eat. We ended up at Avonlea which has a bunch of restaurants. The kids ended up with grilled cheeses and C and I had turkey clubs with chunks of roasted turkey on them. They were good! Afterwards the kids decided that we needed ice cream and I agreed. They were a bit chilly while eating so S and J sat in the sun to eat their ice cream. It was very cute!

After having ice cream the kids realized the ponies from the pony rides were back from their lunch. They begged us to let them ride the ponies, so we agreed.

After that we headed back to the campsite. C took S on a walk on the beach while J hung out in the tent and read his book. I sat out in the sun, knitting and watching an osprey hunt in the ocean, which was really neat. I also watched a family park their pop-up camper two sites down from us. As they were getting it set up, I thought I recognized the mom and son. When C and S got back from their walk, the boy came running over to S. Turns out that I did recognize them - the boy was in S's class this year. Both children were thrilled to see each over. They spent the rest of the day entertaining each other. S didn't go to bed until after 10:00 because she was in the boy's camper (with all the other kids) watching a movie.

Playing on the beach with a school buddy

While the kids were busy playing, C got the wood prepped for the evening fire. He was having fun splitting wood and getting to play with his hatchet.

We cooked some burgers on the lid of the dutch oven for supper and they turned out good. We finished up the meal with some delicious s'mores. I didn't get any pictures of them because they didn't stay around long enough. As soon as one was made someone was eating it!

At bedtime we made sure that everyone was bundled up a bit more than on Friday night, although it wasn't as cold. Everyone slept much better Saturday night, including me! I was wearing three layers of shirts, two of pants, socks, a hat, and C doubled up the blanket before putting it over me. I was toasty warm and got a decent night's sleep.

Sunday morning we had a simple breakfast of cereal and then the kids went off to play while C and I broke camp. We got the tent folded without too many problems and reloaded the cars (we brought two rather than try to stuff everything and everyone into mine). The kids had fun playing on the beach while we were working. Everyone was pretty tired when we got home but we all had a good weekend. 

That evening, no one wanted to cook so we headed out for an early supper. While we were eating, S's front tooth FINALLY came out. It was very loose earlier in the day but she refused to let anyone near it. She was blowing bubbles in her milk when it fell out. I am so glad that darn tooth is out. Now she can go back to eating normally instead of just on one side of her mouth. The Tooth Fairy was so tired last night that she forgot to come until this morning. Thankfully S was tired too and was still asleep when the Tooth Fairy showed up. That was a close one!

It was a busy, fun-filled weekend. We have another hopefully fun-filled weekend coming up when we return to Cape Breton in search of moose! But that's a few days away so I have some time to get ready. Now I think it's time for a nap - I'm still not recovered from my lack of sleep Friday night!

Crazy week

This week has been a bit crazy, thus the lack of blog posts. We're going camping this weekend (like in a tent, that kind of camping) and I've been working on making sure we have everything for it. The one thing we lack is a big enough car. I've stuffed what I can in the back of the car and the rest will have to go up in the roof rack. It's amazing how much stuff you have to take for 4 people for just a few nights of camping.

The kids finished up school today. S says she's sad that she's done with kindergarten but J is happy to be finished. I'm trying to switch my brain from having free time during the day to having the kids around all the time for the next two months. I tried to take advantage of my dwindling free time this week. I went over to the Hush Puppy food truck for lunch one day and had a delicious roast beef sandwich and real hush puppies. Hush puppies are fried balls of corn bread for those that don't know. It's a southern thing that I have missed.

Looking at this makes me want more hush puppies

I also managed to get time to go in and have my nails redone. My verdict on the shellac? Excellent! I chose to do it again because it stayed on my nails in spite of me trying to do everything possible to get it to chip off. It cracked, I broke a few nails, but it didn't chip. It is pretty good stuff I have to say. I swear it's the only way I can keep polish on my nails for more than a few days.

I've just about finished my secret knitting projects that I've been working on. I have one I need to finish but it's easy so it won't take me long at all. I need to get some buttons for trim so I will work on that next week when we're back from camping. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to take any knitting with me this weekend. I guess it depends on how much space we end up having in the cabin of the car. I know knitting doesn't take up much space but then we don't have much space left.

I will take my camera with me and get some pictures over the weekend and share them on Monday...if I survive. Camping in the backyard is looking pretty appealing right now...

Oops...

I realized last night that it had been a few days since I posted anything on my blog. I was going to work on it last night but we were all curled up watching Big Hero 6 and I really didn't feel like sitting at the computer. So here I am now, writing. S has a friend over, J has disappeared into his room, and I have a few minutes of quiet.

What have I been up to the past few days? Hmm, let's see. Thursday I wasn't feeling well so I spent the day resting and being fairly lazy. I did make a batch of homemade granola bars. You can find the recipe here. I mixed dark chocolate chips and dried cranberries into mine. I did find that they got better after they had set up for a day or two. C suggested that I add almonds to them next time. We're going camping soon so I will make another batch and try his suggestion. Oh, and I had a check-up with the dentist for my night splint. I'm slowly getting used to sleeping with it in at night. It's going to take time though.

One interesting thing from Thursday was that S discovered there were some new friends on our back deck...

If you can't tell what those are, they are a whole lot of baby spiders. They had hatched and were slowly moving around. By Friday afternoon they were gone, hopefully off to eat all the flippin mosquitoes around these days. Go forth and feast upon the mozzies, spiders!

Friday I was feeling better which was good because S had a birthday party to go to that evening. She had a blast at the party. There were only 6 kids total so it was small but all the kids said they had the best time ever at a party. The girl having the party loves Avengers and Transformers, which is awesome! S picked out some Avenger action figures for her and the birthday girl had a Transformer's cake.

Saturday two of my neighbours had a yard sale. We really only had a few things to contribute. We cleaned out a lot of stuff when we moved a few years ago. I had some bags of clothes but decided not to mess with them. We did manage to sell S's old dresser (that we had since J was a baby) and a few video games. S's old bed didn't sell but that's okay - I can haul that over to the donation place easily. The dresser was too big to fit in my car so I'm glad it sold.

After the yard sale was done we headed over to try out a new food truck in town. It's called Hush Puppy Po'Boys. They specialize in southern comfort food.

Their special this weekend was the Gator Po'Boy. Now I've had gator before and while some people say it tastes like chicken, it doesn't. It has kind of a fishy taste to it. J hadn't tried gator before so both he and I got the gator. It was pretty good, although the pieces were a bit big for a sandwich. C got a roast beef and gravy sandwich and S ordered fries since they didn't have much she liked. She ended up not eating the fries because they had a Cajun spice on them that she didn't like.

Afterwards we headed downtown to get some ice cream. There was a solstice festival going on so we looked around. I bought some buttons for my gloves and a cute pair of earrings. The kids got to touch a lobster, look through a special telescope to see the sun and sunspots, and then they dressed up like lobsters. At the ice cream place they were giving everyone a free upgraded cone (dipped in chocolate instead of just plain) so we all enjoyed a cone. S had trouble eating hers since she has a wiggly top tooth but everyone still had fun.

Sunday was Father's Day. C decided he wanted to go for a hike so we headed off to a section of the National Park that has hiking trails. Of course both of us forgot to pick up the bug spray so when we got there we opted to go hiking on the beach instead of through the woods (damn mosquitoes!). It has been many months since I hiked on sand so I am feeling it in my calves today but we all had a great time. Here are a few beach pictures:

As you can see, it wasn't very crowded. J had fun practicing skipping stones. He was getting pretty good at it! After our hike we headed to a cool little fish and chips place nearby. C and I both had the fish and chips, J had chicken wings, and S had her usual chicken nuggets. We also ordered a plate of mussels, which came out of the bay across the road from where we were eating. Talk about tasty and fresh!

C wanted to get ice cream again but by the time we got back to town it had started to rain. Instead I ran up to the store and picked up a cake topped with lots of fresh berries (and yes, I picked up the whipped cream to go with it!). This is what's left of it. Do you think we enjoyed it?

Today has been rainy so I've spent the day at home doing laundry. Exciting, eh? I've also been working on some secret knitting projects. I won't be able to post them for a while because they are a surprise for someone who might be reading this and I don't want to ruin the surprise!

Shellac update - well, I've almost reached two weeks with my shellac nails. 

There are definite cracks in the polish but not a single bit has chipped off. You can tell my nails have grown a lot by the gap at between the polish and my cuticle, but overall I'm happy with how it's held up given how much I have used my hands in the past two weeks. I go in Wednesday to have them redone. I'm looking forward to it!

Field Trip!

Today S's class went on their end of the year field trip to a provincial park and I went with her to help out. The park is on the edge of the Murray River, which looks like this:

Pretty, isn't it?

The kids traveled to the park on the school buses while parents traveled in cars. I rode with the mom of one of S's friends. We started out later than the kids but still arrived at the same time - school buses travel slower than cars I guess. :-) The first thing I noticed when we got out of the car was the mosquitoes. The park was thick with them! We all loaded up with bug spray, including the kids. We then headed down the path to the play area.

On the way we passed some large statues of storybook characters like the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg, Peter Rabbit, The Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears, and the characters from the Wizard of Oz. I meant to take pictures of them but they were in the woods and the mosquitoes were really thick in there. They weren't as bad in open areas where the wind was blowing so we tried to stay in those areas.

One thing that surprised me was the fact that the park had an old fashioned, fly-off into the air, break a bone merry-go-round. These things are hard to find these days. I remember one at the playground near where I grew up and it was fun and dangerous. We would get that thing going so fast and if you didn't hold on you'd go flying off and tumble through the grass. I actually managed to get a picture of this one without any kids on it since they were eating lunch at the time.

You spin me round!

This park was a strange mix of old equipment and new. I didn't take any pictures of the new stuff because it looks like playground stuff you can find anywhere these days. But I did take some pictures of the old things because you don't see stuff like this often.

The Fort at the Playground

The Old School Metal Slide

The Jack-o-lantern. It scared me a bit.

The kids had a blast running loose all over the park. It's surrounded by trees (thus the mosquitoes) which created a natural fence for the kids. There was also a dairy bar which sold really good ice cream. All the kids were able to get an ice cream as a treat before heading home.

The field trip was a lot of fun but I was tired when I got home. I had gone on a hike through the woods with S and her friends and some of the other parents yesterday, didn't sleep well last night, and was on my feet pretty much the whole time we were at the field trip. I am ready for bedtime already!

Shellac update: It was last Wednesday that I got my nails done with the shellac. They are still holding up better than I expected:

If you look at them from a normal distance they still look nice. But I have noticed the shine is starting to fade and if you look closely at them you can see cracks starting in the polish near the tips of my fingers. Nothing has started to chip off yet, so I'll be interested to see what happens over the next few days. My appointment to get the polish removed/new shellac applied is a week from today. We'll see if I make it to then without any chipping.

The Most Popular House

We have become The Most Popular House On The Street this week. And this is why:

Yes, we got the trampoline put together on Sunday. It only took C and I between two and three hours to get it put together. It probably would have taken less time if we had put some of the parts together the right way the first time. C did the hard part of pulling the springs into place. S was happy she got to help by retrieving springs from the box for us.

Once it was done the circus began. First one kid and then another and another showed up in our backyard. I had to start timing bounce sessions so that everyone was getting a turn. We started out with just one kid at a time but we bumped it up to two kids because it was taking a long time for everyone to get a turn even with the timer set to two minutes. Many children went home very tired yesterday evening.

Today as soon as the kids got home from school they wanted to go bounce. S's friends came over to bounce with her and then J's friend came over too. Things were going well until it was time for J's friend to go home. I was trying to get supper started and J's friend couldn't find his bike helmet. We spent a good 20 minutes running around trying to find his helmet. Finally he walked his bike home and discovered he had left his helmet there. Oops!

Things went back to being calm for a few minutes and then more kids showed up to use the trampoline while I was trying to make supper which made it tough for me to supervise them. But then C got home and he was able to keep an eye on the kids while I got the food ready.

I've already decided that the trampoline will be closed tomorrow. Both of my kids need a break from jumping and S has soccer. I want her to have energy for running around and jumping on the trampoline wears her out. I have a feeling the neighbourhood kids will be disappointed the trampoline is closed but the kids do need a break.

It was a busy day for me today. I went out and got us some camping supplies for our camping trip in a few weeks. Then I went to the fruit and veggie market and then to the grocery store. A new fruit and veggie market opened near us a few weeks ago and so far I've been impressed. Their prices are lower than the grocery store and the quality of their food is as good or even better than the grocery store. And I like supporting local small businesses.

After putting away all the groceries I had to take my car into the dealer to find out why it was making that awful rattling sound. It turned out to be loose heat shields. They ended up removing the back heat shield and adding clamps to the front one. Problem solved! The other day the tire pressure light had come on and I asked them to check that out for me. I'm glad I did because it turned out that I had a nail in my tire which they fixed after they took care of the heat shields.

Shellac update - I am incredibly impressed with the shellac. I figured my all my nails would be starting to show some wear or be chipping by now, especially after helping put the trampoline together yesterday. So far only one nail has had any problems:

The pointer finger on my right hand has a chip in the bottom. You can also see where the split in my nail has opened up. I expected it to start chipping around the split but it hasn't. My nails are starting to grow so you can see a small space at the bottom of each nail, which is expected. I am very happy with how well the shellac is holding up with all I do with my hands every day.

Lazy but Fun Saturday

Today was a fun, lazy day. It started out rainy and quiet since J was still at his friend's house. S got up and found the Phineas and Ferb marathon on Disney XD and sat quietly watching it until I got up. I made apple cinnamon oatmeal muffins for breakfast.

What's left of the breakfast muffins

Once the rain stopped S went out and played with her friends. Once J was home from his sleepover another friend of his came over and they played video games for a while until we kicked them out of the house. S had a great time playing with her friends. And because we have awesome neighbours, both of our kids were fed lunch at their friend's houses. After lunch there was more playing because it had turned into a beautiful sunny day until a thunderstorm sprang up out of nowhere. There were only a few cracks of thunder but they were loud! Thunderstorms here on the island are rather rare. There were huge raindrops with the storm but within 10 minutes of that first crack of thunder the storm was over.

One of the awesome seasonal seafood restaurants opened today so we headed down there for supper. We followed the thunderstorm as it moved east across the island. The kids got excited because they could see lightning bolts off in the distance as we were driving to the restaurant. It's a bit of a drive from here but totally worth it.

The restaurant is right on the edge of the beach so this is your view while you're eating:

The boys had lobster rolls - one warm, one cold - and S had a grilled cheese because "lobster is the last thing" on her to try list. She just doesn't know what she's missing. I had a lobster and brie panini and it was very tasty. It was quite rich with the brie cheese so I think half of a sandwich would have been enough for me. We also got an order of clams and chorizo and they were delicious. We finished off our tasty supper with some fresh made double chocolate chip cookies.

After supper we went over to the lighthouse that is next door to the restaurant. The views from there in addition to the warm sun and breeze totally make up for the awful winter we had.

Point Prim lighthouse

Point Prim looking back towards the Chowder House

The view out from the lighthouse towards the ocean.

After we got back from supper we went and hung out in the neighbour's driveway/garage. She has set up a nice sofa and chair out there and they have a freezer out there with treats for the kids. The kids were having fun riding their bikes, drawing on the driveway, and playing games. The best was watching C play leapfrog with the kids from our street. J, even though he was dog-tired because they went to bed very late at his sleepover, went down the street and played street hockey with his friends for a good hour. He's reading in bed right now but I expect he will be falling asleep with his light on tonight.

Today started out rainy and lazy but turned out to be sunny and fun, which is how it should be!

Thursday/Friday Recap

Yesterday was...interesting and not completely in a good way. It started out with me helping S put on a sweater and the muscles across the middle of my back seizing up. It made moving rather tough. I loaded up with pain relief and a very hot shower and it helped to loosen them up enough that I could move without wincing in pain.

I had my dentist appointment yesterday. It started out with a check-up and I got a good report! My gums around where the cursed tooth was have healed up nicely and my over-all mouth health was good. She did some scraping because I swear that even if you have the most plaque free mouth in the world they still have to do some scraping to make you feel like they are doing their job. :-) My appointment was scheduled for 90 minutes but it only ended up taking 45 minutes, so yay me!

Of course my appointment to get my night splint fitted didn't start for another 45 minutes so I plopped down in the waiting room with my book. But my dentist is awesome (I never thought I'd say that!) and he squeezed me in between two patients. I was altogether finished about the time I was suppose to be getting started.

The night splint is...interesting. It will definitely take some getting used to. I didn't sleep well last night, probably because every time I rolled over my back would hurt and it would wake me up. Then I'd be aware of the splint and it would feel weird again until I fell back to sleep. I think tonight I will take something to help me sleep because I really need a good night's sleep!

Today I ran some errands and then met C downtown for lunch. I did a lot of walking downtown today and it seems to have helped my back loosen up more. I am almost back to moving normally. I will just need to keep getting up and moving around tonight before I go to bed to keep it loose.

When the kids came home they went out to play with their friends. J got invited to spend the night at a friend's house tonight. I think he will have a good time. We'll see if the boys get any sleep tonight. We don't have anything on the schedule tomorrow so J will be able to take a nap tomorrow if he needs to.

Yesterday I finished one of my knitting projects. I finished the Song of the Seas cowl. I took a picture although it still needs to be blocked.

I was winding up some yarn for the shawl I'm working on and it was such a disaster today. What should have taken me maybe 5 minutes ended up taking me over an hour. The yarn was so tangled that I had to wind it by hand to get all the tangles out. Then once I finally got the tangles out and started to wind it up it got tangled again! I got to the point where I just cut the yarn and made two balls instead of one because it was such a disaster. The yarn is silk but it doesn't have a smooth finish so it tends to halo as you're working with it. Those halos seem to catch on each other and for tangles. I finally got it done though. After I was done with that yarn I wound up some other yarn for a new project. Lucky for everyone that yarn wound up perfectly.

Shellac nails update: Today is day 3 with my shellac nails and so far, so good. By this point with normal nail polish I'm usually starting to see some chipping but I haven't so far. The only place I'm seeing any trouble is on a nail that had started to split in a way that my nail tech couldn't fix it. She buffed it down and the shellac has been acting pretty good as a patch. Today I did catch my hair in that spot  and it has started to crack but it's because of the split, not because of the shellac. The first day I was trying to be careful but by today I was doing things like I normally would if my nails weren't painted. Here's how they look today and vs Wednesday (for comparison). So far I'm happy with them. We'll see how they continue to do!

Wednesday Nails

Friday nails

Nails, Knitting, and Soccer

Today I went and had a manicure. I usually don't get manicures because a day or two into having my nails painted the polish starts chipping off. Even polish that's suppose to last 14 days only lasts me 3 or 4 days. But this time I went with the shellac polish. I chose a fairly neutral colour so that if it should start to chip it won't show up as much.

It's a nice light grey colour and goes well with the red I chose for my toes. I just chose regular polish for my toes because they seem to do better than my fingers, probably because I'm not constantly washing my feet like I do my hands. :-)  Anyway, I will be documenting my shellac nails from now until my next appointment in two weeks to see how they hold up. I'm rough on my hands, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

I remembered today to take some pictures of my knitting projects. This is a cowl called Song of the Sea and I'm using my Sip-n-Stitch yarn for it. The pattern is suppose to look like waves, starting with small ones and then moving to medium and finally ending with large waves.

I'm also working on a shawl with some silk yarn that I got from Belfast Mini-Mills here on the island. The shawl is interesting because every other row you increase one stitch so you end up with a swirling curve. I tried to get a picture of this but it's tough because it's getting big. I like the lace sections that come in between the garter stitch sections. It ends with a lacy section and has a fancy edging. I'll get there eventually!

Last night S had her first summer soccer session. She and some of the other girls on our street are signed up although she ended up on a different team than her friends. But she has a classmate and a fellow rink rat on her team so she's happy. The people running soccer this year are so much more organized than last year. Last year all the kids got white shirts but this year each team has it's own colour shirts. Also, they only had six of the 12 teams come at a time so there seemed to a lot less chaos going on. They had two teams per field with a coach and a tween/teen assistant to help them. This allowed the coach was able to work with one team teaching them a skill while the assistant worked with the other team playing a fun game. Overall, I was very impressed with how the first practice went. I hope this continues through the rest of the summer.

Tomorrow I have not one, but two dentist appointments. One is a check-up to see how things are going now that my cursed tooth is out. The other is to see if the lab made my night splint correctly. I've been sticking to the plan that the hygienist gave me at my initial cleaning so I expect she will be happy with how my mouth is doing.  I'll find out tomorrow!

J is for Jump!

Surprise, surprise! This morning I received an email telling me that the trampoline was ready for pickup. I was sure that I wasn't going to ever get that email so I had planned to go over to the store today and look for one. Now I don't have to. I figured the box was going to be either too heavy and/or too large for me to move by myself so I made the wise decision to go to the grocery store before going to pick it up. I chose wisely because the silly thing is heavy! Luckily two strong guys carried it to my car and loaded it for me. C was able to slide it out onto the garage floor by himself and then 'walk' it across the floor. It will get put together this weekend.

I also received a call today from S's school. The administrators met with the parent of the boy causing trouble on the bus. They decided it was best for everyone if they moved him to a different bus for the rest of the year. I am happy with the decision and I know my neighbour, whose daughter was the main focus of his attention, is happy with the decision too. She was going to pick her daughter up from school today but when her daughter found out the boy wouldn't be on the bus today she decided to ride the bus home. I'm very pleased with how seriously the principal, vice-principal, and teachers at the school took this incident and I made sure that they knew that I was happy with the way things turned out.

S starts summer soccer tomorrow - provided it doesn't rain! She is a little disappointed she's not on a team with her friends from our street but she does have another friend (a fellow rink rat) and a current classmate on her team. Also, there is another boy on the team whose name sounds familiar so I think it might be a classmate from preschool last year. The people running soccer this year decided to split the teams up into two time slots and it is a good decision. There will only be 6 teams on the field at a time rather than the 12 teams they had last year. It should keep the chaos down to a minimum, I hope.

This evening I decided I wanted grilled chicken for supper. Last time we grilled C gave me a lesson in how to start the fire since I really hadn't done it before. Well, tonight I did most of it (with a little help from C). See, fire!

And since I forgot to post this last week, here's the fire in the fire pit.

Last night we decided it was a bit too cold out to sit by the fire pit. There was a freakin' frost warning for last night! In June. Sigh. We stayed in and watched some TV and I got a lot of knitting done. Tonight isn't suppose to be as cold, so we may have to go light up a fire after the kids go to bed. Maybe tonight we'll break out the Smores kit. :-)

Chilly but Fun Sunday

Today was a chilly but sunny Sunday. The kids started out the day by going and playing with friends while C mowed the lawn. I enjoyed a little time knitting and then I sat out in the sun and read for a while.

For lunch we headed out to our favourite seafood place. Surprisingly it wasn't busy but that may have been because it was chilly and windy. I had the lobster roll and it was good. C got the fish and chips and I have to say, their fish and chips are the best I've had. They use potato flakes in their breading and it makes the coating light and crispy. J had a lobster burger which is lobster with warm butter on a roll. S won't eat seafood so she had the chicken tenders. I stole some of her chicken and it was very tender and used the same coating as the fish. It was a delicious lunch.

After lunch we came back and the kids disappeared. J went off to play with his friends (who apparently were coming by every 5 minutes looking for him while we were gone) and S went out to ride her bike with her friends. C and I spent some time sitting in the backyard reading. Okay, maybe I did a little snoozing. Then we came inside and C snoozed while I got more knitting done. Every now and then I'd see S go by the house with her friends.

At one point S came bursting into the house, begging to go to the neighbour's pool. Now, it was around 53F (11C) outside but she insisted on going. The pool is heated which is awesome when you're in it but getting out is cold! S went immediately into a hot shower when she was finished swimming. She decided to put on her PJs even though it was only like 5:00. I guess she thought she was ready for bed but of course after she ate supper she saw her friends outside riding their bikes and wanted to join them.

We spent a good hour outside while the kids rode their bikes and the parents chatted. Some parents that aren't out often actually came out to socialize. I feel very grateful that we live in such a friendly community where there are so many kids.

Now we need to decide if we're going to watch Game of Thrones tonight or have a fire in the fire pit. It's a hard decision because the fire pit is really nice but it is GoT. Decisions, decisions!

Busy Days

The past few days have been rather busy. Friday started out with our neighbour lettings us know that her daughter and S were being bothered by a boy on the bus. Apparently he's been forcing them to kiss him. It seems like he's been fixated on the other girl more than S but it was still a concern. So Friday morning was rather crazy, letting teachers and the bus driver know. The staff at the elementary school is awesome and they took the whole situation seriously. They have tracked down the boy and will be meeting with his mother on Monday.

In addition to that, I was busy baking cookies Friday morning for the school's spring carnival. I baked two batches of snickerdoodles and then delivered them to the school. I then had to run out and get a present for a birthday party. The whole time I was out I was expecting an email from a store saying our trampoline was ready for pick-up but no luck. The store had already canceled my order once and now they have pretty much ignored my second order. At least they haven't charged my credit card yet.

Friday night I took the kids to the spring carnival and they had a blast. J was busy running around with his friends for most of it. S saw a bunch of her friends but she stayed with me for most of it. There were so many people there that I think she felt a little nervous even though it was inside her school. As I was walking around, I was struck by how many people I have come to know in our time here. It's really nice to see so many friendly faces in one place!

Both Thursday and Friday night, after the kids were in bed, C and I went out back and started a fire in the fire pit. It was nice to just sit outside and watch the fire and talk. Last night we did bring a bottle of wine out with us. I needed a little something after all the craziness of the carnival. Thursday night was a little wacky since the June bugs were out. Those things are huge! And stupid. They kept flying into the house and would bounce off and then fly into it again. This is what they look like:

Today I got a chance to sleep in until 9:00. I probably would have slept longer but J's friend called to see if he could play and it woke me up. Even though it was raining we headed over to the horse track where they are hosing a RibFest weekend. There are bunch of rib/BBQ companies that have set up mobile restaurants. Since it has been forever since I've had good ribs, we donned our rain gear and headed over. There were only a few people there, probably because of the rain.

We tried some Alabama ribs first. They were good but C and I both agreed that they had too much sauce on them. I just had 1/3 of a rack so I was still hungry when I was finished with the first round. I got some ribs from a Texas BBQ place and they were a lot better. The amount of sauce was perfect and the ribs were meaty and delicious. I forgot to take a picture before hand but here's the results of my feast:

After lunch C and J headed to an event for C's work and S and I came home because one of S's best buddies was having a birthday party. It was a crazy, fun party. There was a small bounce house, a trampoline, and a ball pit (with 2000 balls) in the basement. Upstairs in the living room the kids decorated cupcakes and made their own ice cream sundaes. They didn't have a carpet in the living room which is good because there were sprinkles and icing all over the floor. By cake time, the kids were so full they didn't even bother to cut the cake. It was a really cute cake and I give my neighbour props for her decorating skills!

By the time we got back from the party and C and J got home from their event, everyone was pretty tired. I sure didn't feel like cooking (and didn't really have anything to make) so we headed out to the restaurant up the road for supper. The kids were so tired that they really didn't give us a hard time when we said it was time for bed tonight. Now I plan to go sit on the sofa and work on my knitting. With sitting outside by the fire I haven't gotten much knitting done lately, but the quiet time with C has been nice. :-)