Linaloo

Graham Cracker Houses

A bunch of neighbourhood mums got together with our children this weekend and decorated these mini gingerbread houses.  I made the houses up with a friend the day before using graham crackers and icing à la Martha and then they went to town with icing and candy.  Not before I photographed them in the dusting of snow we had in the morning.  Madness, but they looked so magical!
The Christmas after we first moved into our house, a neighbour, who we barely knew and who has since unfortunately moved away,  delivered one of these on a plate with a bag of candy and a bag of home made icing to each of the children in the neighbourhood, ready to decorate.  Such a wonderful and unexpected gift that my children have never forgotten.

Paperwhites, marbles and beads

Forcing paperwhites in water ready for blooming in time for Christmas (they take anywhere between 4 to 6 weeks).  I pitched them to the children as a kind of alternative advent calendar  - hopefully they won't bloom too soon!
I've never grown them this way before but apparently you can use pretty much anything to anchor the roots to keep the bulbs stable and submerged, as long as it's not metal. I used dollar store rocks and the children made their own versions, with plastic beads and marbles.   And good old mason jars of course.

Berry brain freeze

Berry season is in full swing and frankly I can never get enough of them, with yogurt and granola for breakfast, in pancakes, muffins, cakes, I'm really not fussy.  As a rule however, I'm generally not an icecream or frozen yogurt lover as I seem to be susceptible to painful brain freeze when eating anything frozen.  But I make an exception for this one, David Lebovitz's frozen strawberry yogurt (without the alcohol). Nothing quite beats the homemade flavour.
This little contraption is a hand crank ice cream maker purchased at my favourite thrift store last summer for a couple of dollars.   It's a perfect way to get the children involved - they crank the handle for 5 minutes, it goes back in the freezer for an hour, gets cranked again for 5 minutes and so on for about 4 or 5 hours.  Not too labour intensive and really worth the effort!

 
So good, it makes brain freeze almost bearable.

 

 

Summer journals

 
 
I'm a year late completing this project having only just printed off photographs and taken these to the copy shop for binding but I wanted to share my children's 2010 summer journals.  Last year, thanks to some inspiration by friends with older offspring, I forced gently motivated my children to write/draw a little something during the summer holidays about what they had done each week as a kind of keepsake. To complete the journals I simply added some tickets, swimming certificates, photographs etc with a bit of glue tape. Despite their relatively low tech assembly, I am excited by the end result, in a kind of dorky "wish I had done this when I was young" way.  I love that they are able to see how far they have progressed in their handwriting and drawing abilities too - here's hoping that it provides them some motivation for this year as I will definitely insist suggest that they repeat the exercise.
  
Highlights include the tooth fairy forgetting to come (turns out that even she gets a day off on Canada Day) and my son's pride in his swimming prowess!

Weturn of the wittle chickies

 
Ruby asked if we could make chocolate Easter nests for her class again this year, I'm sure her teacher will be thanking me later for the resulting sugar fuelled behaviour of 20 grade two students. Hard to believe that it was 3 years ago since we last made them for her preschool pals.  I have since then, found a little shop locally which sells all manner of British goodies, including such necessities as golden syrup, hobnobs and hula hoops. Chocolate cornflake cakes were one of my childhood favourites, the ultimate retro sweet treat.

Little chickies courtesy of the dollar store. Recipe here. 

Wishing you a happy Easter!

Ready for the tree

 
There is a random rule in our house which means not putting up the Christmas tree or any other decorations for that matter until 2 weeks before the big day.  I'm not sure where it came from but the tree will be bought and decorated this weekend.  In anticipation, the children wanted to add to the already very eclectic mash up of decorations with some homemade ones.  We opted for cinnamon apple dough (not edible, its made with glue) which smells awesome and looks just like gingerbread dough.  They were made with cookie cutters and stamps, baked for a few hours at 200F and decorated with a white sharpie and some red ribbon.

Recipe for the dough is here.  Yep, that would be Martha again.

Teacher gifts 2010 (why reinvent the wheel?)

 
These were so easy and such a hit last year, and, because the children have new teachers, we made cookies in a jar again as Christmas gifts.  Using the exact same recipe as last time too. What's not to love?  They're simple enough for children to make themselves, the recipient can make them when they want and the packaging is reusable. 

This year we made them on a slightly larger scale - a dozen in total for teachers, neighbours and friends.  I bought ingredients in bulk (thank you Costco) and used canning jars that I already had.  We had a nice little production line going in the kitchen and were finished in less than an hour. 

The clean up (not yet started) might take slightly longer mind you.

Big thanks once again for Launder, Fold and Repeat for the inspiration and recipe.

And they call it button love...

Anyone who reads this blog regularly will likely know of my affection/obsession for vintage buttons.  Recently I've tried to curb my instinct of saving things for best and now I'm on a mission to stop simply admiring my button collection and start using them. First up, these two bracelets.  I'm no great jewelry maker, in fact, I find it rather a tedious process for some reason, but I love the end result. 
Then I remembered this free printable from How About Orange a while back and used it for teacher thank you notes.  I'm not making gifts this year, but still wanted the children to send a small thank you note to each of their teachers. I pretty much let them pick whatever buttons they wanted from my jars - some old, some new. 

I love what Ruby wrote to her teacher who's expecting her first baby shortly...spelling mistakes in French somehow seem more sophisticated than English!

Dear Madame Gabrielle, I hope your baby comes out of your tummy.  Thank you for being my teacher.  I hope you have a lovely holiday.  Ruby.

A week of smoothies :: Apple pie smoothie

Day seven :: Apple pie smoothie

Ingredients: 2 apples, peeled, chopped and cored, 1 cup apple juice, 1 cup low fat evaporated milk, 1/2 cup of plain yogurt, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinamon, 2 tablespoons of oatmeal and a pinch of nutmeg. (Serves 4) 
The verdict: 3 out of 4 testers gave this an A plus.  It really did taste like apple pie, and would make a great alternative to hot chocolate, served warm on a winter's day.

Thank you for all your smoothie appreciation this week, my blender is having a well earned rest for a few days!  For more smoothie ideas visit:

Smoothieweb, FlowerCarole, Allrecipes and Europe's Best.

A week of smoothies :: Mango pops

Day six: Mango pops

Ingredients:  1 mango cubed (or 11/2 cups of frozen mango), 1/2 cup of pain yogurt, 1/2 cup of milk, 1 teaspoon of maple syrup, 1 teaspoon of lime juice.  Freeze for 12 hours. Makes 4 - 5 popsicles. 
Verdict: it may not be popsicle weather yet, but these went down a treat and the lime and maple syrup made for a tangy sweet combination that was very moreish.

Last smoothie recipe tomorrow!