Big C's mailbag

Don't know what happened with Canada Post this past week but the mail was not moving at the same time. A couple of the neighbours have mentioned having trouble as well so who knows.

Grandma sent a card to Big C and it has now arrived! Yay! He tore it open on Mommy's lap and then proudly showed it off to everyone he could find.

DpoD April 22nd - Earthday Mailbag

Another postcard arrived today and Monkey was overjoyed to open it.
He carried it patiently down the hallway while daddy asked him politely to wait until he had the camera ready before he opened it.
He stuck in his finger and pulled the envelope apart.
And inside he found...
A picture of him with the fish that he made at grandma's house. Was he excited?
ohhhhhh yessssssssssss!!

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!

Happy Earth Day to all.
(well, almost everybody)

Whole Wheat Pancakes with a Banana hidden inside

This is a great recipe since you can really make it healthy and full of fibre without compromising flavour.

1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour

3 tbs granulated sugar

1 tbs baking powder

1 tsp salt

Mix together these four ingradients

1 egg

about 1 3/4 cups of milk

a couple of mashed up bananas (ripe or overripe work best)

Take a 2 cup mixing cup and drop in the egg. Fill the rest of the cup, up to the 2 cup line with milk. Mix well.

Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and throw in the bananas. Mix until dry lumps are gone being careful not to over mix.

Cook over medium high heat. You can add fruit or chocolate chips to the pancakes in the pan as desired. You can also make them in to fun shapes.

Milk Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Yummy and your kids wont know that you put chick peas in them!

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter or margerine softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

2 tbs milk

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup quick or old fashioned oats

1/2 cup raisins or nuts if you want

1 can of chick peas pureed in the blender or food processor

Combine flour, baking powder, bakinig soda, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in egg. Gradually beat in flour mixture and milk. Stir in chips, oats, chick peas and nuts or raisins. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake in preheaded 375 degree oven for 10-14 minutes until they reach the desired firmess. Let stand for two minutes then remove and cool on a rack or on the counter.

Enjoy without feeling badly about it!!

The April birthday Part-ay

Saturday night was a fun one chez WB. We had 22.5 people (including us) at the house. That was made up of 12 adults and 10.5 children ranging from the oldest at 4 years and the youngest at 22 weeks gestation. It was a *wee bit* of a zoo. That's cool, we loved it!!

We had some birthdays to celebrate and we did it up in style. We had a big pot luck with lots of food and a reasonable amount of drink as well ; )

One papa needed a high chair to feed his little one. We no longer own such a contraption...what do we own in large quantity though....you guessed it!! This little darling has never been so secure during a meal.

We had the basement, backyard and main level crawling (and reverberating) with children and their joyous noises. I tried to get some photos of the melee as well as a video.I need to remember next time to get a video of the bunch of them doing laps around the main level.

We ended up with an extra blue serving platter...does this belong to you??

Since my photographing was haphazard at best I managed not to get any head photos at all of anyone whose birthday we were celebrating-oops!

Sleeping Buddies

I have no idea why Monkey is asleep in the middle of his bed.

Big C will soon need a bigger bed, not to accomodate Big C, but rather to accomodate all of the toys that he sleeps with : )

Adorable

Another fun sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

DPoD April17th - More Mail!!

yay! More mail for Monkey and Big C.
We love it!!!!
Thanks so much Heather and Nick, the boys were absolutely overjoyed!!

Lone Star Gift Certificates

Dave is part of a fundraiser where they are selling $10 Lone Star Gift certificates for $5.  They expire on July 31st.  They are good for use at the Baseline location only.  Please get your money to Dave and let him know how many you want and he'll pick them up for you.  You can email him or reply in comments.

 

DPoD April 15th - A sign of spring to make Mommy smile

We're here!

Monkey's view:

Daddy's view:

(We took our pictures at different times. I didn't even know that we'd each taken pictures of the same flowers out there. Personally, I like his better. What a great little camera!!)

We love you mommy and we love spring too!

Happy Birthday Dave!!

After the excitment from Grandpa's day wore off read:Grandpa had a good sturdy nap, the rest of us went out to celebrate Dave's birthday and Cadie's visit at the Lone Star.

We are family...I got my sister and my cousin with me...

Grandpa is feeling better

On Wednesday Grandpa had 5 hernias operated on. By Friday night he was vomiting and feeling quite dreadful. He was re-admitted to hospital.

The troops rallied and a deck of cards was brought to the hospital to see how badly his thinking process was compromised. We all remember the game that aunt Heather "never actually won or lost" back in 2001. Well, the score is well documented this time. The winner is clear. Grandpa later announced that he had trounced me...take a look big guy-here it is!

Once the doctor came by and checked him out, Grandpa was allowed to go home on a liquid diet easing slowly to solids over the next coupleof days. His little buddy was really glad when he came home.

Grandpa, we're all glad that you are home.

DPoD April 12th - Our first postcard

It arrived on Thursday and both obys were ecstatic. Big C moreso than Monkey since we met the mailman at the post box and he handed it right to him. We were sure to give Monkey a piece of mail as well so that he felt part of the game.

Thanks so much to the Triemstra's for having the first one in! I hope that it's the first of many and we all appreciate how truly Canadian this one was!

(though that squirrel sure seems to think that we're going to take his nut)

DPoD April 10th - More of Monkey Photos

Here are some of his recent photos from the camera he received at Christmas:

Monkey apparently getting ready for this dentist appointment next week

Daddy shovelling snow in the yard to get it ready for playBig C sleeping
up close and personal
'daddy, say cheese!'

Could this be arriving at your house?

Monkey and I worked on some postcards yesterday. Here are the 3 cards that he wrote out. Each says 'Dear ________, I love you, Monkey'
His penmanship and writing ability are really coming along nicely. His confidence in writing is also soaring, so if you get the chance to tell him either by voice or written word, please do so.
These 3 should be in the mail today or tomorrow, so keep an eye on the mailbox as one might be headed your way.
Hopefullly there will be more to follow!
(check out the trademarked pumpkin design on the front of each one!)

DPoD April 9 - MMMMM

The children are using smelly markers at school.
Any guesses as to how I figured that one out?

(check out the nose!)

The order of things

Mommy-monkey you're mine, I love you
Monkey-(gives mommy a hug)
Daddy-are you mine too sometimes?
Monkey-well no. I am grandma and grandpa's then
Daddy-oh I want you to be mine
Monkey-well daddy, when I am not here I go to grandma and grandpa's

It is so nice to see how comfortable and confident he is with his routines.

sent using my Blackberry handheld wireless device

Monkey quote of the day

Monkey-i want my stomach to be bigger because then I will be a grown up
Daddy-your tummy will get bigger as you eat more food
Mommy-every part of you gets bigger as you grow up sweetie
Monkey-not my eyes mommy. Your eyes stay the same size as you get bigger



sent using my Blackberry handheld wireless device

The Pyrex mystery

So the oddest thing happened this afternoon.
I took the pyrex dish out of the top rack of the dishwasher and put it away in the cupboard. It wasn't hot and there weren't any other dishes on top of it. No more than a minute later I heard a loud smashing, like a glass shattering into a thousand pieces. It was forceful enough to open the doors of the cupboard, though it quickly shut itself again. I looked inside to find the pyrex dish shattered into a thousand pieces, quite literally.
I was perplexed as to what caused this as there was no temperature change, no impact and no apparent weakness in the pyrex when I put it away.
Nonetheless, I called pyrex and they are sending a new one in the mail - no questions asked. I however am still quite intrigued.
Odd.
Very odd.

DPoD April 8th- Monkey and the Pedometer

Monkey found a pedometer in mommy's office this afternoon and has been keeping track of his steps moving around the house. He was proud to show off when he hit 100 (after about 15 seconds!) and then was off checking the distances between many items around the house. Here are a few shots of Monkey making sure that he's staying in shape: