Ready-for-summer headband

I just made one of these fun headbands this afternoon and now Adrienne is ready for the heat!!

The tutorial at Old Red Barn Co. is perfect, easy with lots of photos. The only adjustment I will make on the next headbands is the width of them, a bit too wide it seems on Adrienne's head...

Here is the link for you : headband tutorial.

Spring Blooms Mini-Quilt Swap

I am ready to send this little butterfly to my secret swap partner...I really hope she likes it! This little mini quilt was a lot of fun to make for her. I didn't follow a pattern, just had an idea in my head. I decided to quilt only along the wide border, leaving the butterfly "free"!

Oh MY...that was delicious...

I decided to give Jamie Oliver a try after finding his book called "Jamie's Food Revolution" at Costco. I had a few minutes to look through it while Celeste and her daddy were looking at something else..and I really liked what I saw! So Jamie came home with me! Now I understand Carol :)
Last night, I asked my husband to pick a recipe from the book to try for dinner. We only needed a couple of ingredients. We hopped on our bikes, put Celeste in the bike trailer, and headed to the grocery store. We ended up getting soaked by the rain but had a great ride.
Anyway, this isn't about our bike ride but about the recipe we tried. "Baked Camembert Past".

It was very simple to make and so so so delicious. Not very good for the figure, but so worth it.

First, you need to cut off a bit of the top of the Camembert. Jamie tells in his book to discard that top...hmmm... I discarded it in my tummy (I am french after all, can't waste perfectly good cheese!). Next you slice some garlic, add fresh rosemary and drizzle olive oil on the Camembert. Put it in a small oven safe dish and bake for 30 minutes.

Isn't that beautiful? It smelled even better than it looked! I love cheese...and garlic too.

While the cheese was cooking, I cooked the pasta and spinach, and added a very basic olive oil-Parmesan sauce to it.

The last step is to mix the two together, you could leave it like that and just spoon a little of the melted Camembert onto each individual serving of pasta. We just mixed it right in. I did remove the rosemary leaves, because I knew my kids wouldn't like them much mixed in. They like the flavour, but not the crunchiness.


The final picture. "Baked Camembert Pasta".. not an everyday dish, but oh boy...delicious!

Wordless Wednesday

Sketch Tuesday ~ Buttons

Book Sharing Monday

This little collection of books is adorable and I am so glad I still have them! The publication date is 1976, and I probably received them as a gift around that time. One of the books is a counting book, the other describes the life of gnomes, and the last one is a little story.
These are french adaptations of Gnomes by Wil Huygen and illustrated by Rien Poortvielt.

Harry Houdini books and links

Andre had to do a little biography project for public school. He narrowed down his choices to either Albert Einstein or Harry Houdini...After a quick search at our library website, he chose to do his project on Harry Houdini.

I would like to share with you a few books and a couple of links for websites that we have enjoyed over the last two weeks. This would make a fun and interesting unit study. My son and I have enjoyed learning more about this magician. I am sure there are other wonderful books available on Houdini, but these were the ones available to us at our library.

Here are the books:

"Houdini, World's Greatest Mystery Man and Escape King" written by Kathleen Krull and illustrated by Eric Velasquez was my son's favourite book. A mixture of picture book and biography, he read it again and again!



"Harry Houdini, a Magical Life" by Elizabeth MacLeod was the perfect book for my son's research. It does cover Houdini's life from his birth to his death, including many photographs of himself, and of his props (handcuffs, milk can, etc), posters, newspaper clippings, maps, etc.. Very interesting book.

"The Secret of The Great Houdini" by Robert Burleigh is a beautifully illustrated picture book, telling the story of a young boy that watches Houdini perform one of his tricks.

"Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini" was full of photographs and posters from his acts, along with the biography written by Sid Fleishman.

I don't have a photo for the next book, it was due back at the library, but it was an interesting one as well. In the format of a graphic novel, it captured my son's interest.

"Houdini: The Handcuff King" by Jason Lutes.

Last, we haven't read this particular book yet, but I thought I would share it anyway. It looks like a fun series. "Danger in the Dark" is the first in the Houdini and Nate Mysteries series.

A few links :

Houdini, the PBS American Experience film website

a.k.a Houdini (online companion to a museum exhibit) - also has teacher's resources and a "try this at home" section!

Hair donation

Adrienne, who is almost 12, has been letting her hair grow for the last 2 years. It was always her idea to let it grow, and when she was ready to cut it, she would donate it to be made into a wig for cancer patients. Her braid is going to be sent to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Here are a couple of photos from tonight. The night of the hair cut!

BEFORE

AFTER

Wordless Wednesday ~ Mini Spring Quilt Swap (in progress)

Sketch Tuesday ~ Something Plastic

Adrienne chose to sketch one of her plastic figurines and at the request of Andre, I tried to sketch the Wii remote!

Book Sharing Monday

This is a classic and you might have read it already.. I haven't read "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery in many years, but I still consider it one of my favourite books. You can read it online at Project Gutenberg here.

"Au matin du depart il mit sa planete bien en ordre. Il ramona soigneusement ses volcans en activite."

My baby turned 5 today!

Celeste is five years old today!
It was a wonderful day...opening presents this morning, watching the birds, walking along a trail, and then some yummy chocolate for dessert tonight! A perfect birthday!

We all went to a provincial park, I will post nature photos shortly from our hike.

Never too old to play with bubbles!

Update on my medical drama...

If you read my long rant post ten days ago "How I wasted a perfectly good Tuesday morning..." , it is time for an update! This time it won't be a rant, but it does leave me a bit uneasy...

So, to go back to my story, the following day I arrived at the clinic to get my blood drawn between 2 and 3 pm. The technician lets me sit down in the chair, and then gives me a funny look. Not again, I think..This is a different technician than the day before, so she doesn't know my story. She does tell me that she is sorry but is not able to complete the whole test requested. The first part she can do and have it delivered, but the second blood test requires freezing and she doesn't have a freezer. My jaw just drops. She continues to explain that I need to go to to the city and get my blood work done at the lab there. WHAT??
I didn't know what to say, so I think I might have been just starring at her for a few awkward moments, because she started repeating the instructions and giving me the address of the lab. I asked her if she had a minute so she could hear my story. She did, so I went on! She felt really sorry for me by the end, and called the lab to find out when the best time would be for me to come in, without having to wait too long. Now was the perfect time. Great, I drove over to the lab, found it, and got the blood work taken all within about five minutes. I was so glad to have this done and over with, I forgot to feel dizzy!!
The three days it took for my blood work to get properly done (can't those lab people/nurses just read the whole requisition and advise their patient properly the fist time..grrr) and this past week waiting for the results have been stressful to say the least.
Yesterday, I was scheduled to see my doctor for the rest of my yearly physical, I am a huge wimp when it comes to that, but I thought at least I might find out the results of this blood test. Our family doctor is new to us, but I like her already, she is just an easy to talk to type of person. Anyway, she comes in and starts prepping her stuff for the physical and I ask her if she received results from the second blood test. She looks at her paperwork and says ...
"ah yes! you know I think there is something wrong with this."
Oh great I think..what is wrong??
"you know" she keeps going "I really think they made a mistake on your first test, from the clinic. Your platelets were very low, around 30 (I think she said), which would mean that me poking my finger on your arm would basically cause you to bruise, and which is why I sent you for further tests, because that is way too low. But the second test, at the lab, shows your platelets around 170, which is perfect. There can't be such a difference in the levels between only a couple of days"
I asked her which test she thinks is the right one, and she didn't even hesitate to say the second one.
I have perfect platelets. It was a medical error. Don't get me wrong, I am relieved there is nothing wrong with me, but it doesn't make me very confident in the medical world..which I never was to start with...(but that's another story).

Wordless Wednesday ~ Daddy's girl

Coming up in June : Destruction!

I took part in The Next Chapter blogging book club, almost finishing the 12 Secrets. Even though I didn't finish, it was perfect. The next selection for this online book club is very interesting!

We are going to work through a book (well actually a journal) called "Wreck This Journal" by Keri Smith. We can share as much or as little as we want on the Next Chapter blog, really open and relaxed. I like that!

A few weeks back, the kids and I were at Indigo (book store) and I thought I would take a look at this journal/book. My son Andre (he's 10) was curious by the title and so, as I flipped though it, I would share some of the assignments. He told me I just had to do this, and that he really would like to participate too, in my journal, together. I wasn't surprised, and I think it would be a ton of fun to do some of it with him. He volunteered to do the "eat a colourful candy and lick the page" right away, and a few others, but I don't want to spoil the fun !! The journal is full of wild and destructive instructions like that. Should be interesting!

We start June 5th and I will be posting pictures as we go along. If you are interested in participating too, you can still sign up at the Next Chapter blog site, and let me know too, it will be great seeing your wrecked journals!!

Zendalas!

I didn't know what these were until I read about them on LaPaz Home Learning's blog and watched this video on Youtube:



I knew I wanted to try it, and after sharing the video with my kids, they did too. Even my youngest daughter Celeste, almost 5, tried it out. The first photo is her creation. Next to it is Andre's, he liked the spider web idea, and added a ghost and a pumpkin!



Adrienne wasn't sure she was going to enjoy this style of drawing, but she did. I did too, it reminded me of when I used to cover my school notebooks with doodles!

♪♫ A perfect birthday ♫♪

Today is my birthday and we have a little tradition in our family. For each of our birthdays, we take the day off, from school or from work. The kids stayed home from school today, and my husband didn't go to work until late afternoon. The birthday person always decides what we do for the day as well. My choice was to be in nature. I love going for a hike and being surrounded by nature, its smells, its colours, and its sounds.

Here are a few photos from our fabulous hike: