Friday, November 19, 2010

I am smarter than a GR 1 student

This really made my day. On Thursday I got to go and help out in my daughter's class. Did some "work" for the teacher and also helped reading with some kids. It was an awesome opportunity to do something different and observe my Gr 1 daughter in class. She is a sweetheart. :)

Anyway, I take this little girl out of the class room and she directs me to head to the computer room, which is next door. Noisy, but we get to sit on chairs which is a bonus ( yay I get to sit down for 7 minutes and 32 seconds ) and we start reading. A bunch of GR 3 students are staring at us occasionally, but we just focus on reading. This book is about flooding that this little girl is reading - lets call her "A"....We come to a scene in the book where the pictures show a man in a motor boat, and a family standing on their balcony of their house, the roads are flooded. "A" stops reading and looks at me wondering: "Why do they need a boat? " Hmmm...good question...So I start explaining...well, the roads are flooded, the water is deep, they might not know how to swim, they need to go to a safe place...bla bla bla....so when I am done explaining she say to me with a serious but happy voice: " You are very smart".

I guess I am smarter than Gr 1 student. :)

The only thing I kept thinking of that day was this sweet comment....It really made me smile and made my day.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Bicycle Double Page Layout

Hello my fellow scrapbookers!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. I am not doing much at all today just laying low, feeling very tired. Pretty much a lazy couch kinda day. Trust me it is a bliss, since I do not get to lay on the couch a lot and do nothing with with 2 kids around, but we are visiting at grandma's so she was busy with the grand kids today.

Here is a double page layout I made for my daughter. She was getting ready to go out for the frst time on her two - wheeler. All summer long she kept asking us to take off her trainig wheels which daddy was not keen on - worries too much. :) So he just kept adjusting the training wheels so it felt like Chloe was riding a two - wheeler once she was in balance. So to our excitement just before school started this fall we took her training wheels off and she took off no problem! She was very proud, and we were too. :)






Bye for now,
T. :)




Easy Chicken Broccoli Divan With Fusilli

What a beautiful day! I am enjoying the sun shine through the huge glass doors up north in grandmas living room.I tried to take a nap in the arm chair, but grandma and toddler boy was too noisy playing with bells and listening to videos recorded on grandmas phone. Oh well, I got some rest anyway. Everybody is busy outside so I took the opportunity to write this post while it is peaceful in here. :)

So here is the recipe of this divan I fed, well try to fed my family last night. :)


Ingredients:

3 cups hot cooked broccoli florets
2 cups cubed,cooked,skinless chicken breast
1 can cream of broccoli soup or mushroom soup
1/3 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tbsp dry bread crumbs
` tsp margarine or butter, melted
3 cups of uncooked tri-coloured fusilli

1. Arrange broccoli and chicken in 1.5 qt ( 1.5 L ) baking dish. Pour in mixture of soup and milk. Sprinkle with cheese. Top with mixture of bread crumbs and margarine.
2.bake at 425 F ( 220C ) until heated through - about 25 minutes.
3. Cook fusilli according to package directions,omitting salt, and serve immediately with divan.

Bon Apetite!


here is the tofu version.....just cubed up some tofu and fried it until golden brown.
Here is a picture of the chicken version.


I used an organ can of Amy's cream of mushroom soup....lol...it was a mistake. Next time I will try this recipe with cream of broccoli since my daughter hated this dish. I liked it. My toddler dude had a good amount for dinner. The husband picked out all the mushroom pieces into a small dish...So over all since my family is not a mushroom lover unlike me this dish was not a hit. As I said next time it is going to be made with cream of broccoli. Other than that it is a great weeknight dish.
Have a great weekend!I am off to join the family outside now. :)
T.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Remembrance Day

Please take a moment and remember.




In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army


In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Poppy Facts

•During the Napoleonic Wars, the poppy drew attention as the mysterious flower that bloomed over the graves of fallen soldiers.
•In the 20th Century, the poppy again was widely noticed after soils in France and Belgium became rich in lime from rubble during the First World War. The little red flowers flourished around the graves of the war dead as they had 100 years earlier.
•In 1915, Guelph, Ontario native John McCrae, a doctor serving with the Canadian Forces Artillery, recorded this phenomenon in his famous poem In Flanders Fields.
•Two days before the Armistice, Moina Michael, an American woman from Athens, Georgia, read the McCrae poem and was inspired to wear a poppy year-round in memory of the war dead.
•In 1920, Madame E. Guérin of France visited the United States and happened to meet Miss Michael at the YMCA at Columbia University, where the latter was a volunteer. Madame Guérin then resolved to sell handmade poppies around Armistice Day to raise money for poor children in the war-torn areas of Europe.
•In 1921, Field-Marshall Earl Haig, the former Commander-in-Chief of the British Armies in France and Belgium and the principal founder of the British Legion, was sold on Madame Guérin's fundraising idea and approved organization of the British Poppy Day Appeal by the Legion to raise money for poor and disabled veterans.
•The same year, Madame Guérin visited Canada, and convinced the Great War Veterans Association (predecessor to the Royal Canadian Legion) to similarly adopt the poppy as a symbol of remembrance in aid of fundraising.
•Today, the Poppy Campaign is one of the Royal Canadian Legion's most important programs. The money raised from poppy sales provides direct assistance for ex-service people in financial distress, as well as funding for medical appliances and research, home services, care facilities, and numerous other purposes.

T.

PS: My Father in law just mentioned that he had 3 uncles who fought in the war and has some paper and medals from them I will take pictures on the weekend and share it with you.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Random Photo Post

I was thinking about photography all day...... I am certainly NOT a photographer, I am a wanna be...but hey, I have kids, and I love taking pictures, so I thought I will post some random ones for you to enjoy.


My DD having fun while waiting on her picture day.

My little pumkin.

I just L.O.V.E. this shot!
My DD was excited to finally get her recital costume.
Up at the farm...by her tree she loves to climb.
Out on a bike ride up north.

Daddy's little helper.
Pretty...

No, you are not strong enough to pick that huge pumpkin up.
Peek-a-boo.
Fall stroll....



Can you say: messy????








Have an awsome day and take lots of pictures!
T.
















Monday, November 8, 2010

Thankful Layout for Sandy's Workshop

YAY! I am so happy, finally a scrapbook related post! A layout! A double page layout!
Do not ask, I have no idea what products I used, I will get back to you on it once I visit The Workshop again, hopefully next week. I really wanted to get some proof up hereof my weekend away.
But anyway, here is a double layout for your eyes...

I love the photos, they are one of my fave fall pics of my kids. We were up north at one of the local pumpkin patches. They had fun playing peek-a-boo.







Hope you like the layouts, let me know. :)

T.

Mommy's Little Helper - Boy's pants with pink line

So I was away for the weekend, as you know I scrapbook, and I enjoyed every minute of the retreat. Thanks to my darling husband who looked after our kids all weekend, keeping them busy with play dates, going to the indoor play park, visiting with friends etc...God Bless him, he even helped me doing laundry! I guess somebody washed the dark clothes with some red clothes, well, I can just assume since I did not even ask him...I guess Ishould just go now and mention it to him just to get an idea as to what happened. Never mind, it is just a pair of pants and I was away, who cares right?!

So here is my little man's pants with the white lines turned pink. :)

I appreciate everything my husband does for our family!

Have a good night!
T.

Scrapbooking weekend away - Strattford

So I am back from an awesome scrapbooking weekend thanks to Sandy's Workshop and my 3 room mates .

Friday morning

My friend "A" picked me up Friday morning and after unloading all her stuff from my truck and loading all our scrapbooking stuff into my truck we were all set to go. We were followed by our friends "I" and "N" to Strattford. The drive took a little more than 2 hours but listen to this! My new scrapbooking friend "k" drove ALL the way from OTTAWA! Seriously! 6 hour drive! :)

"A", "N" and I had a tasty lunch at the local Williams Coffee Shop! OMG! Yummy french onion soup with grilled vegetable goat cheese pannini and a delicious cappuccino was my lunch.Pictures to follow soon! Come on ladies I need my pics e-mailed to me! :)

After we settled in we started to create layouts after layouts. Look at me! Heheheee...pictures were sticking everywhere! Later I will post some pictures of the layouts I made.


What a crazy day! Saturday afternoon all of a sudden the hotel's fire alarm went off ! The alarm was deafening. The only thing I was worried about was what happens if the sprinkler system kicks in!!! All I could think of is where do I hide my paper and pictures and all my beloved scrapbooking supplies. So after 5 minutes of alarm noise "N" and I decided to get out of the Hotel...Guess what, I ended up at Williams Coffee shop again.

So the firemen came, found nothing, alarms were turned off by the time we got back. Funny, or not I guess, It made us nervous, we smelled electrical burning smell just around the corner where our room was. See the firemen checking and testing...Yeah, I know, I had to take pictures.



Us crazy ladies on Saturday night! We had a great time did not we??? We laughed so hard our stomach were in pain, and tears were rolling down our cheeks.I can not wait to scrapbook the pictures we took this weekend especially that infamous long note "A" wrote.


Guess what!? We needed this trolley well, not me in specific, but some ladies brought an insane amount of scrappy supplies! This was the transportation device between the car and scrappy room.
I managed to make 15, well, 16 double page layouts! Pictures are coming soon! :) I promise.
That is it for now!
Have a great afternoon!
T....