Tag: recipes

Second Week of Advent

On By LynnIn TurtleHead11 Comments

We’ve been having a lot of fun doing our advent activities…it’s been fantastic overall. Here’s a few highlights from the past week.

Several days ago we made books about Christmas. It was super fun — I think it was the best activity we have done so far — and we’ll definitely do this one again next year. I asked the kids to think of things we do at Christmas — a lot of their ideas came from things we’d done because of the calendar — and then they drew pictures of their ideas with pretty sparkly markers. Then we made a cover page and stapled it all together.

Here’s some pictures from the Captain’s book:



That last one there is not actually a pregnant Santa, but rather, Santa carrying a bag of toys (very close to his body) with a doll inside. Just in case you were wondering.

And here are some from Gal Smiley’s:



Aren’t they adorable? I’ll definitely be keeping these forever. I should mention that for many of the Gal’s pictures, I drew her an outline — the outline of a tree, say, or a stocking or a gingerbread house — and then she “decorated” it. The Captain was able to draw most of his pictures himself.

The Captain also decided to make a book about Star Wars, of course. Check out his totally awesome picture of Jabba The Hut:

These are definitely keepers.

Another thing we did was make gingerbread houses. I used graham crackers for the sides and roof, so we didn’t have to do any actual cooking. The Captain is allergic to eggs so we could not use the traditional royal icing for glue. Instead I made up a mixture of icing sugar and orange juice (1 cup sugar to 4 teaspoons juice) and it worked okay in that it dried hard and solid, but it was very runny at first and our houses kept falling over. Next year I’d give the icing 15 or 20 minutes to harden up a bit before assembly.

Once we got the houses to stand up, we braced them with cups and let them dry for an hour or so. Then the kids went nuts with the decorating:

And also the eating. They didn’t last long.

We also built a fort. Here are the kids inside it:

At first the kids were like, okay, nice fort, what the heck do we do with it? But once I gave them flashlights they were totally hooked. We left the fort up for a week and I barely saw them during the day — they were always off reading books or playing games in the fort. With flashlights.

See? Advent is fun!

Yesterday our activity was to make this:

This is called Peppermint Bark. IT IS GOOD. Also, it’s surprisingly easy to make and a very fun activity for kids of all ages.

I’ll put the instructions after the jump, since this post is already long enough!

Continue reading “Second Week of Advent” →

Take the A Train

On By LynnIn TurtleHead7 Comments

Here’s a fun meme I got from DramaQueen_23:

Comment on this post and I’ll give you a letter. List ten things you LOVE which begin with that letter, then post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own.

She gave me the letter A. Here’s my list:

Autumn This is my favourite time of year. Not so cold that we’re dealing with snowpants; not so hot that we’re swooning like Southern Belles. The bugs are usually closing up shop, the air is crisp and clear, there’s lots of yummy local fruit available and it’s time to break out the crockpot again. Autumn means back to school, Halloween, my birthday, and open season at Etsy as I begin my Christmas shopping. Joy!

Apple Pie My mom’s apple pie, to be precise. I come from a family of pie-makers, and my mom’s apple pie is, seriously, legendary. A while back I decided I better carry on the tradition and become an expert pie maker myself. My first couple of tries were okay — not mom-worthy, but the potential was there and they were definitely edible — but you know what? My family HATES pie. HATES it. So every time I make a pie, I end up eating all of it, which is not conducive to my current weight-loss plan. Thus, pie must remain a Thanksgiving/Christmas treat. Sadly.

Ant Traps, Ant Spray, and all other manner of Ant Killing Devices Have I mentioned our current infestation? It’s spreading. I’m horrified. I really hate bugs of all sorts and having a whole nest of insects somewhere in our house, crawling through our kids’ playroom, stealing our leftover crumbs, is NOT GOOD. We’re currently trying to battle them in the most kid-friendly, environmentally way possible but lately I’ve been thinking of just moving us into a hotel for a few days and having the place fumigated. Or maybe just moving. One or the other.

Almost Famous Cameron Crowe is one of my favourite movie-makers and Almost Famous is his masterpiece. I even love the four-hour director’s cut version — mostly due to the commentary by Cameron and his mom. Mrs. Crowe is totally awesome and hilarious. As you would probably expect.

Allergy Awareness I feel so lucky that we live in a time when the general public knows about food allergies. We still run across the odd misconception but in general, people understand that food allergies are real and that they are serious. There’s plenty of food alternatives available for us to buy (thank GOD for Sunbutter and Rice Dream), and there are thousands of other parents on the internet with tips, ideas, and sympathy. It would be so hard to live with the Captain’s food allergies even 20 or 30 years ago.

Andrew King Lately I’ve become much more interested in owning original art, “real” stuff created by real artists. Someday when I have some extra money I’d love to get something by Andrew King. His work is so vivid and unique and lovely. Plus, Sir Monkeypants doesn’t hate it, which is very big deal around here, as we almost never agree on art. It’ll be quite some time before I have an extra $1000 or so lying around, though, so I’ll probably ask for one of his paintings as a 25 year wedding gift. Or maybe a 50th — we do have three kids to put through university!

Amazon.ca I love books. I love to buy books. Amazon lets me buy books from the comfort of my own home, at better prices than any actual store. It’s win-win-win. Plus, they have the best customer service on the planet.

Jane Austen Some of her more fanatic followers would hardly call me a fan — I’ve only read about half of her books. But I love her wit, her strong female characters, and her fun storylines. Plus, her work makes for great movies, especially those featuring Colin Firth. Dreamy.

Alexandershishkabob A long time ago, when Captain Jelly Belly was little, I used to take him to classes at Gymboree. At the end of class we’d sing a little goodbye song — “Goodbye Aiden, Goodbye Kathryn, Goodbye Ben, we’ll see you here next time!” I used to sing it around the house all the time and often we’d use it as a goodbye-Daddy song in the morning, or a goodnight-Captain song at bedtime. One day Sir Monkeypants was asking how they can possibly adapt the song so that really long kids’ names could fit. I demonstrated with some longer names like Christopher and Isabella, and then Sir Monkeypants said, “But what if the kid was named Alexandershishkabob?? Huh, HUH?” Sir Monkeypants is a bit of a SMARTYPANTS.

Avocados I love, love, love avocados. My favourite way to eat them is just plain, with a dollop of cottage cheese in the little hole in the middle…yum. I also love guacamole, but please, DO NOT damage it by adding cilantro, ew!

Here’s one more reason to love avocados — my recipe for the best salsa ever. Have this with corn chips and you will NEVER EAT ANYTHING ELSE AGAIN. You are warned!

1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, quartered vertically
1 ripe Haas avocado, diced
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
1/2 tsp minced garlic (I use jarred)
1 tsp honey
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 tsp ground cumin
Gently combine all ingredients and then try to keep from eating the whole bowl. Better yet, make a double batch.

Comment below if you’d like your own letter!