Family Celebration

Peter loves his meat and for his family birthday celebration, he went with an easy meal. Grilled hamburgers, chips, veggies and fruit.

Some of the spread.

Emily is eating vegetarian when possible so I made black bean burgers for her and I had one also. They were really good.

A special cross stitch hanging from his grandmother. He loves these. You can also see the hat from Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bob. He loved that as well.

Opening cards.

Reading cards.

A swiss army knife from his sister. Love.

A big green monster puppet from his parents. Love.

His request was a chocolate cake with peanut butter cups. So we had them but not together.  All in all a successful birthday.

Look who is 12

Peter turns 12 today but he celebrated his birthday earlier this week with some friends. They started at our house with pizza.

Then they headed out to play Laser Tag. In between games they hung out at the arcade. I can remember when I was younger how much I loved spending my money at the arcade. Now it all seems like such a waste, but it was his birthday, so there you go.

They came back to the house for cake. Peter requested lemon meringue which turned out to be a big hit with all the kids.

Then it was time to open presents. 

And yes, Peter had a sleep over. So the boys then went downstairs and watched The Lord of the Rings movie until about midnight when Robin tried to quiet them down. Not an easy task with five 12 year olds.

The boys managed to wake up. Really, that wasn't a problem. They seemed ready and raring to go fairly early in the morning. Peter requested chocolate chip pancakes for his breakfast so that's what we had.

The boys all left before 11 AM so it was a very successful birthday. Peter was pleased with the entire event.

March Break Madness

The younger kids finally have their week of break. I also took the week off of work and even though we aren't going anyplace special, I have some activities I want to do with the kids. Last summer I bought The Story of the World as both kids are fairly week with their history. My sister surprised me with a book of famous figures that goes along with it. 

So we will do a little bit of ancient history each day this week.

The kids cut out the first figure and we read the first bit of the book.

Such a great and easy resource. Gaëlle kept saying, "This is just like school. But better."

Monday was also our service day. We made a huge batch of Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls and then passed them out to local RCMP offices.

Peter stirred the batch of dough once and then he was finished. But you know Gaëlle stayed by my side for the entire process. She loves to help.

The batch makes 8 round pans of rolls and so while they were still warm we set out around HRM to deliver them. Well, we kept one pan for ourselves.

We made sure to deliver a pan to our local I&P office. Gaëlle was cute. At one office, the person we delivered them to was very appreciative and Gaëlle said, "You don't have to share them. You can keep them all yourself."

We ended up our afternoon at the waterfront. 

The wave has a fresh coat of paint on it. Once again, Peter made it to the top without a problem, but Gaëlle just couldn't quite make it.

At least she can climb on the anchors. All in all, it was a great first day of break. 

The birthdays roll on

Birthday month continued with the celebration of Emily's 22nd birthday. Crazy, but still true. Our little girl is growing up.

She also received a hat from her California relatives. Both girls will be in camping mode this summer, so this will be well used.

We broke out the Princess bag and the birthday cup once more. Fun times.

Emily is eating a more vegetarian/vegan if she can. So I made an almost vegan meal. We had Thai Yellow Curry Veggies with rice noodles. Then it was Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake with Peanut Butter Glaze. It was good but my chocolate chips were not vegan. 

Everybody getting their picture taken with the birthday girl.

2 of my princesses.

Kaylin was home for her March break so it was nice to be able to have her join the party.

Emily was in full study mode because she had a big test on Monday but she made time for a few rounds of Bananagrams. We love you Emily and are so excited to see all the amazing things you are doing with your life.

A very needy dog

Nothing too exciting to report but I just want to share how interesting Snickers has been lately. Close to a year ago, she started carrying around this stuffed animal. She has done that in the past but they usually don't last long before she has them ripped to pieces and we throw them out. This time is different. Snickers has been unusually gentle with her little friend. She always knows where it is, she greets us at the door with her little friend in tow, and she is not destroying it. It makes us laugh. Such a cute little dog.

The Birthday Month has begun

Well we missed Kaylin's 19th birthday because she was away at school, and working hard. But she was home this week and so the celebration began. Even though we had to talk her into using the birthday cup, we still managed to have a party.

The 2 biggest believers in the birthday cup. Go Mickey and the most magical place on earth. Gaëlle wants to meet you and not just drink from the cup.

I tried a new salad; a southwest quinoa salad. It was good but the recipe called for chilli lime pistachios.  I wouldn't even know where to begin to get those, but I'm sure they would have put the salad over the top. 

Brothers just hanging around and waiting for the food.

Kaylin and her new hat. Thanks Aunt Ruth. It will be perfect for the summer job. More on that later, I'm sure.

Birthday hug and kiss from dad.

Birthday hug from mom.

Kaylin asked for a cheesecake but not which kind. So I surprised her with a Snickers cheesecake. It was good. Every year that we celebrate the birthdays of the older kids, I'm just struck at the amazing young men and women they are becoming. Kaylin is working so hard at her dream of being a nurse and I can't wait to see what the future holds for her. It has been a treat to have her home and to see her smile and listen to her laugh. We miss her but are thankful we can spend these moments together.

Songs and hair

The youth at The Club love to sing and talk with microphones. Guess who else loves it? Robin hooked some up to an amp my dad bought for the puppets (which is working out GREAT) and she went at it. Sorry the photo is a little dark but she was having a blast. As long as she had an audience.

I am a little discouraged with how Gaelle is handling her hair lately. She has really been playing with it along the front and the edges. It's so hard to ask her to stop when most little girls can twirl their hair and it doesn't do anything. But for her, it causes breakage and creates little knots that are hard to take out.

This week I decided to do something a bit different with her hair routine and it went well. After washing and conditioning the hair, I left some of the amazing deep conditioner in her hair.

Then I detangled the hair while it was still wet and sopping with conditioner and I put her hair in big twists. I let it sit in the twists for about 2 hours while I did other things. Then I rinsed out the conditioner without taking out the twists. While I styled the front of her hair, I left the back in twists. It seemed to make the styling process much smoother. I'll definitely try it again, but I don't always have time to let her sit while the conditioner soaks in her hair. 

Father Daughter Times

Every Friday night Robin and Emily go to The Club and last night was no exception. The Club had a Masquerade Gala as a winter fun activity. Apparently Robin wasn't wearing his mask all night but the 2 of them took time to pose for a photo. Once again, Robin and Emily had a great time interacting with some of the youth of Halifax. I wasn't there so I can't share any stories but I know there are some good ones.

A night at the improv

Robin has done it again. He and Emily have started up another puppet group. Actually, they are kind of involved in 2 new puppet groups. Last night the 2 groups met and what a night it was. There are 6 youth at our church that have been working weekly since November. 2 of them are leaders in the youth group at church. The other 3 are not always able to be involved in youth ministries, but are part of the youth group, and puppets is proving to be a GREAT fit for them. They are enthusiastic and seem to love being involved. The last member is Peter. He is not old enough to go to youth group but he loves puppets and so he is a part of the group. Gaëlle was the paper thrower last night during the black light song. Normally she is just part of the audience.

Their first performance was in December at our church and the puppets proved to be a big hit with young and old alike. They were then invited to perform at the Christmas Eve service. Another great night.

Last night they headed to The Club. Every Friday night Emily and Robin volunteer at The Club. They both love it and have started a puppet club there as well. So the church group performed 2 songs for The Club and then the club members put on their puppets and went at it. There was soooo much energy in the room. There were smiles and laughter and just generally a lot of people - young and old - having a great time. 

Last night there was another volunteer who does music therapy with the members of the club. She was fantastic and really added to the energy in the room. All puppet groups should have one of her. It's going to be so exciting to see what roads open up for ministry with this group of youth. Stay tuned.

Small Recap

Josh loves donair sauce. He introduced the kids to grilled cheese sandwiches with donair sauce. They think he is a genius. 

We had a lot of snow over the weekend. Fortunately Robin hauled out the snowblower and it still works. He spent a lot of time outside cleaning up the snow and not just around our house. He helped out the neighbors as well. And I think he loved it.

It was time to come up with some Valentine goodies for school. Gaëlle did hers all by herself. She was focused and was pleased with the results. I bought little stamps and notepads on sale at Michaels. So she put them in little bags and we stapled the card on top. 

I found an idea for Peter online. His teacher this year loves Skittles, the candy. So he asked if he could give out skittles. Normally the kids just give out cards. Home made or store bought. But I decided to let him give out candy. 

I found circle tags online which he taped to cardstock and then we stapled it to small bags of candy. He was also pleased with the result.