piano practice

Felicity was practicing her piano tonight, when Gregory decided to join in with his cello. It sounded very nice and they even played a couple Christmas songs, too. Felicity and the Bosendorfer piano.
Gregory and his cello.

tie dye marathon

Felicity and Eva are taking an art course on Tuesday evenings for 1 1/2 hours. They each did some beautiful water colour paintings, and now they are just finishing a section on tie dye. They each did three small squares of fabric and now they are working on a larger piece. They had to take home some dye and finish more tying at home, as they ran out of time in the art class.
Their poor fingers were practically shredded, as the knots have to be very tight. The girls put band aids on their fingers, but they were still cut and sore. awww.
This is Eva's. It is pretty hard to keep the white on the fabric. This means that Eva's knots were really tight. Duuuuude! Awesome.
Felicity's is still tied up. The girls were working on this project till after midnight, with a short break for some chips & salsa. (got the munchies?) Nice job, girls.

Moroccan chicken

The other night I made Moroccan chicken, couscous salad for dinner. It is a pretty quick recipe and really good. We never have left-overs! Here is the recipe for the chicken.
Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in large skillet over high heat
Add 1 large onion, chopped, saute about 5 mins.
Add 1 1/2 Lbs sliced chicken. (I used skinless boneless chicken thighs)
Cook for 2 mins.
Add
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Cook until chicken is thoroughly cooked.
Place chicken on serving platter and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
I served the Moroccan chicken with a couscous salad that I made the night before, but usually I make a lentil salad, which is also delicious. Let me know if you try this recipe.

cuteness score of 10

Eva asked me if I would like to see the horse that she drew in art class today. I was expecting a sketch on a piece of paper, not an actual horse! Eva, Buckley, and Buckley's owner, who is also the art teacher. (Oh, it was 'hat day' at school)
Oh-my-gosh! BABY SHOES! **swoon** He is wearing the shoes because the floor would be too slippery. awwww....
Buckley is a 1 1/2 year old miniature horse. He is very soft and has a cuteness score of 10 in those shoes.

friendship day

Heather's class had a 'friendship day' today, and mums, dads, and grandparents could come in for a little party in the classroom. We did all sorts of fun activities, puzzles, and crafts. We all enjoyed the cookies, juice, and other yummy treats.The grade two class sang a lovely song for the visitors, too.
Having fun, Trinity?
After the festivities were over, the kids got to run around on the playground for a while.
Thanks for a super-fun time, Heather Jane!
Trinity had a blast, too.

ready for take-off, Captain

Thomas was busy making paper and balsa gliders last night. Dad helped out a little...
o.k, maybe a lot!
Good job, guys!
They tested it inside, made a few minor adjustments, then took it outside to really let it fly!
Awesome.

cup of tea, my love?

Trinity told me that we had to hurry home this morning (after dropping the kids off at school) because 'Polite Trinity' was coming over for a visit. 'Polite Trinity' has such nice manners! Here she is have a spot of tea with Eva, who is not feeling too well and is staying home from school today.
'Polite Trinity' eating an animal cracker with her tea.
We used our china tea cups that usually only appear on mother's day.
Oh, Felicity! Do join us, Darling.
Cheerio

the little princess

Trinity, the princess, is playing with Felicity's Playmobil Palace. I love listening to her chatter away as she is playing and in a whole other imaginary world, full of castles, kings, and all sorts of wonderful adventures. Even though it's a cold November day, Cin-Cin insisted on wearing her sparkly purple tu-tu today! She had a cape on earlier, too.

good clean fun

Today I was making the kids help me clean the house, when after the 15 minutes were up, Heather asked me if there was anything else she could do! *music to any mum's ear* "Umm...you could wipe down the front of the cupboards." I had no idea that was such an exciting chore for little girls. Grace and Trinity came running in, not wanting Heather to have all the fun.

After the cupboards were done the girls asked if they could please scrub the floor? Well, since I am such a wonderful mummy, and just hate to dissapoint my (new favorite) children, I said yes.Heather, Grace and Cin-Cin got in their bathing suits and a pair of socks and went skating/scrubbing in the kitchen. They did a great job, and had a blast, too. Earlier in the day, the kids painted their faces for a play they were making up.
Prima, very wisely stayed under the piano and out of the way of the three soapy sisters.

the green fairy

Greg and I bought some absinthe while we were stocking up the condo at Mt. Washington for the winter. Why not?... I am such a sucker for cool packaging! The absinthe spoon is pretty sweet, too.
O.K, so after pouring the absinthe in the glass, place a sugar cube on the free-with-purchase-absinthe-spoon, and pour an ounce (?) of water over said sugar cube.
As the water is pouring over the sugar, the absinthe turns sort of cloudy.
It tastes very good - it sort of reminded me of ouzo- except for the fact that the green fairy made my whole mouth numb...in a nice kind of way, though. Cheers.

Mt. Washington

We headed up to Mt. Washington last weekend and had a great time. The weather was crazy! I did not expect any snow, but while we were there, we had a big storm with thunder, lightning, and lots of snow! Before all the snow fell! Cin-Cin is enjoying a pear. Oh, hi, Prima.Thomas is playing outside with his soldiers. Somehow Thomas has his sisters playing soldiers, too. Having fun, Heather?

The next day....snow. Luckily Prima has a fur coat on.
Awww...Cin-Cin and Heather ready to go sledding down the hill.
Yay, Grace! O.K, I'm cold. Time to go inside. brrrr. The weather kept getting worse. The power went out on the day we were heading home, which meant (gulp!) no coffee! Yikes!

shelter from the storm

We had an invite to go to a friend's condo for a drink and a hot-tub, but the walk there would have taken at least 15 minutes, and it was really snowing heavily. The weather was WAY too horrid to go out in. Especially since the kids didn't have their snow boots with them. So, I chickened out and we stayed home.
I made some play dough for the girls, and they had a lot of fun making all sorts of interesting things. Grace has her winter hat on, still hoping that we will venture out. No way, kiddo.
Ha! Mary Margaret made a mug of beer.
A B C...smile...Thomas is playing his PSP. We also played a lot of games. I am playing 'old maid' here, with Heather, Grace, Cin-Cin, and Mary Margaret. Later on we ate chocolates and watched a movie. What more could you ask for, really?

genius

Gregory is a genius! We've had these crazy puzzle things at Mt. Washington for ages - and Gregory solved them. Both. I totally thought it could not be solved by a mere mortal. You had to get the gold ring off the rest of the puzzle. Difficulty level 9.
This one drove me bananas. You had to get the arrow off of the puzzle. Difficulty level 10. TEN!
Wowsers.
Here's Greg, resting the grey matter, with a cool beer and a book about Mick Doohan, a moto GP racer. Cute blankie, Honey.

a beautiful drive

I drive the kids to and from school everyday, (a 20 minute drive) and Greg showed me this shortcut to Duncan. There is hardly any traffic, and we go past some nice fields. We usually see cows, horses and llamas, too. Of course there are the deer, raccoon, squirrels, eagles, and once I even saw an otter crossing the road!
A cool tree. As a child, I called that green mossy stuff 'old man's beard'. I have no idea what it's really called, but it sure looks neat.
This was taken on a misty autumn day, with the sun shining brightly.

We drive right along the water through Cowichan Bay.

Calm waters. It is just so beautiful.

Sail boats. The marina is off to the right of the photo.