Ciabatta

I baked this ciabatta last week using the recipe in Homebaking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World By Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. There was lots of waiting for the various risings, but the end result was worth it: 4 of these loaves.

Wearing blue at the zoo!

We went to teacher day at the zoo last Sunday. Lots of teachers and a beautiful sunny day added up to a busy place - we had to park in the overflow lot. This was Grace's first out-of-uterus visit. She really like the polar bbears. They looked like the fluffy dogs she's been admiring around the neighbourhood.

A new bike finally!

Last week I picked up my new Trek 7.5FX. It's truly a pleasure to ride to work these days (the beautiful spring weather helps too.) I've added a rack for my panniers and fenders for rainy days, but it's still much lighter than my old Bianchi. My old bike has served me well since 1992. It will now be relegated to winter service.

New Etsy Store - Princess Grace Bowtique

Just because I didn't have anything else to do...or maybe because I had/have so many things to get done and I am procrastinating...

Happy Easter!

Okay, it's been a month. We've been really busy and sick...right now there's not much time to catch up...but here's a collage of Grace's easter egg hunt.

The boys were already at church and had found their eggs as they woke at 7am...Grace was up a lot last night so she slept until 10 am.

Luke's Perfect Pancakes

Today is a P.A. day so I have the kids home. Dan has interviews.

Early this morning Luke was begging to do some more cooking from his cookbook so we made Perfect Pancakes for breakfast. This was all done and eaten by 9 a.m. and before I had finished my cup of coffee!

We have a busy day. This morning I am taking the 3 kids to Dr. E (our chiropractor), I have a haircut later this afternoon then Luke and I have hockey practice and then Liam and I are going to see a TCC main choir concert at 8 pm. I wonder if there's time for me to shower?

I'd better go - Grace hasn't even had her morning diaper change yet! I'm not sure if she was impressed with the pancakes. I think she was waiting for her regular morning egg with spinach to arrive...

Liam's Birthday Party

Liam had his much anticipated Webkinz party last weekend. He invited three kids from school that were also serious Webkinz fanatics like Luke and himself. We set out the afternoon just like how it would be on Webkinz except there were activities every 15 minutes instead of every hour. We made real-life versions of the online games and the kids had to win games to get Kinzcash to spend at the "W-shop." They were pretty serious about the whole thing!

For the cake, I did my best interpretation of the "Wheel of Wow". I am quite happy to be done with the February birthday month. We celebrated Liam and Grace's birthdays several times each! Now onto the other boys of the family for March: Big Peter (Dad) - today!, Little Peter (19th) and Tim (11th).

One Hundred Days of School

The first Friday of February marked the 100th day of school. As a teacher, this is a great sign that the year is half way done!!

In many primary classes, students count the days of school as a part of their math program. They look at patterns in a hundreds chart and use it to count by twos, fives and tens. They mark every day with a straw (or something similar) and then every ten days they bundle them together to make a group of ten. This is a great way to practice tens and ones. In my classroom, I like to take it one step further by relating it to money. Each day is a penny and then as the days pass, we trade in for nickels, dimes, quarters and finally a loonie on the one hundredth day of school. This way students can see the worth of one dime, for example, is equal to that of ten pennies. Kids are learners...they often think having all those pennies is worth way more than a small dime...simply because there are more of them!

So back to the purpose of this posting...
Liam and Luke both had homework assignments to mark the 100th day of school. Liam had to collect 100 objects and group them in some way. He had a clever idea (with the help of his Mom...to collect 100 items that Grace could choke on! He then grouped them by 5's and labelled according to categories like: money, game pieces, food etc.) Luke had to build a free-standing structure with 100 popsicle sticks. Here are their final products.

Music Cards

Who knew that a music card would be hours of fun? Well, Grace knows. Forget the toys and bring on the music cards! She loves them and bops to the various beats. Luckily I've kept most of them - so on a boring afternoon I can pull out some fun Halloween, Easter, Christmas or Birthday tunes. I'll download a YouTube video of Grace with one of the cards. Quite funny! And this is what she will do for twenty minutes at time!

Note: adorable red shoes we got for $2.75 at our local consignment shop. This is really the only age you can buy used shoes that are still in perfect condition. Grace has an excellent shoe collection!

GO CANADA GO!

We are enjoying many late nights watching the Olympics in Vancouver. Liam and Luke are really into it this year. Luke's favourite sport is the skeleton and Liam really loves the speed and figure skating.

Last night we watched the Canadian men kick butt against the Russians in hockey and tonight the women will prevail! During the games, Grace and her brothers were playing a little hockey in the living room. Grace was using a mini Toronto Marlies stick. Who says you can't play hockey before you can walk?