Decorating the House for Christmas

Our house is now decorated for Christmas. Our tree is lit and decorated.

Definitely no room in the inn! Standing room only!!

La Tire Ste. Catherine

November 25th is La Fête de Ste. Catherine. Time for la tire!

We've only made la tire once before and thought it would be fun to make some this year. I pulled out a recipe from Ricardo. Kyra pulled out the saucepan and the girls measured all the ingredients. They were allowed to stir the mixture initially but maman took over as the temperature of the candy mixture rose.

As I was surveying the thermometer, I suddenly noticed something wrong. The candy thermometer was cracked! Luckily it is just the outside glass tube that was cracked. But that means the first batch is no good! Off to the store for a new thermometer and back to the beginning. 

Take 2 

After visiting 7 stores to find a new thermometer, we restarted the recipe. It took a lot longer than expected to cool so the girls couldn't help with the pulling. The did get to pull small pieces. Hope they have fun distributing the candies at school.

Joyeuse Fête de la Ste Catherine!

Taiko

Last weekend was a taiko weekend. The girls and their friend Kai posed with Taiwanese character before performing their taiko song.

Halloween Costume Adventure!

I could have also used the title 'A trip to Home Depot and Two Trips to Michael's Later'!

It is Halloween week and we are just coming off a weekend of Halloween costume creation. Alia is a s'more this year and Kyra is a coal miner.

Our Halloween costume adventure began last week, when we went to Home Depot to buy a paint coverall for Kyra's costume. I thought I would dye it orange for her miner's coveralls. First trip to Michaels'  Saturday morning to buy dye and foam pieces for a living s'more! At home, I prepared the dye as directed on package and starting the soaking process for the coveralls.

While the coveralls were soaking, Alia created her s'more costume, with a little help from mom and a math lesson from papa called "How to best calculate where to put 9 points equally spaced on a square".

I checked in on the soaking cover all during the day and was started to fear my plan was not working. When I took the coverall out of the dye and followed the instructions to rince and hand wash item, I discovered that the coveralls remained white!!!!

Sunday morning saw me back at Michaels to purchase 3 XL t-shirts that were on sale. I cut the sleeves off 1 shirt and sewed them onto another shirt to make 'long sleeves'. Next, I took the rest of the now sleeveless shirt plus a bit of the third t-shirt and sewed a pair of pants. We used silver duck tape to cover the seams and voilà! Luckily we had Wayne, our Big Pit - Pwll Mawr bear to help us out.

Both costumes were a success and the girls had a fabulous time trick-or-treating with their friends from school. They braved the rain and came home with a bag full of treats.

Homework Woes!

Another school year has begun. Can't believe it is already the end of September! Another school year brings with it joy (Alia in Grade 6 this year and Kyra in Grade 4) and homework woes!

Climbing the wall

Kyra can tie her own safety knot and lead climb. Now all she needs is to grow a few more cm to reach the next hold!

La famille + le soleil = le bonheur!

Mmm! Gelato!!

Alia & Basil

Way to go Alia!

Alia and Basil jumping the crossbars this morning!

Bravo ma belle!

NYC in 45 seconds

This movie was inspired by our recent trip to New York City over March Break. The technique was inspired by something I recently saw on TED.

Famous and Not So Famous NYC Sights

Hanging out near a playground in Central Park.
Probably very similar to the one in which Fudge lost his two front teeth.
(reference from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing)

Ready to visit the top of the Empire State Building to find the love of my life.
(An Affair to Remember, Sleepless in Seattle)

Found him!!

Have You Ever Eaten a Dinosaur?

A strange question you ask? Perhaps. But then perhaps not.

We recently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. We were very happy with our last minute decision to join a free guided tour of the museum. Our guide was fabulous and really engaged the girls during the visit.

During our visit to the dinosaur exhibit, we learned that dinosaurs have a hole in their hip joint in which the leg bone hooks into. In order for an animal to be called a dinosaur, it must have this feature. Birds today have this same feature. Hence they can be labeled a dinosaur!

T-Rex: Yes, he was a fierce predator!
Just look at those teeth!

Hole in the hip = dinosaur

Our tour guide Wayne showing us an early non-dinosaur.

So the next time Thanksgiving or Christmas rolls around, you can inform your guests that you will be serving roast dinosaur with stuffing, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes!

March Break in NYC

We are back from our road trip to New York City. The whole family had a fabulous time! We did a lot of walking and saw many famous NYC landmarks. We were glad to park the car for the duration of our stay and let someone else do the driving!

So many choices at a local NYC diner!

Hanging in out in Times Square! So bright, you would think it was daytime!

Our hotel was a short walk from Times Square, which meant we were close to everything. The day it was raining we took a cab.
Things we did during our 3 days/4 nights in the Big Apple:
- visited the top of the Empire State Building (movie reference: An Affair to Remember, Sleepless in Seattle)
- walked up Fifth Avenue from 34th Street to Central Park
- visited the public library at Bryant Park: glad to walk up the main steps and not have huge waves rushing towards us or a massive tanker floating down Fifth avenue! (movie reference: The Day after Tomorrow)
- had a coffee break in the atrium behind the Trump tower
- danced on the big piano at FAO Schwarz
- visited the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
- visited to American Museum of Natural History (saw some the characters, including the Easter Island head from the movie "Night at the Museum".)
- strolled through Central Park on our way to visit the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Saw some interesting Egyptian artifacts there.
- saw Disney's The Lion King on Broadway. Fabulous!!!!!
- walked around Rockefeller Centre and visited the Top of the Rock at night.
- ate cheesecake at Juniors and chili dogs, pretzels and knishes from street vendors.
- cruised around the tip of Manhattan by boat, saw the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn bridge.
- let the cab driver do the driving!

At the top of the Empire State Building

Disney's The Lion King on Broadway! Hakuna Matata!

"There are a lot of taxi's in NYC and not a lot of cars and trucks."
(comment overheard from Kyra's conversation with Mana)