ON THE HUNT FOR AN EASEL

We decided that we wanted to get an easel for Christophe's birthday that is coming up.  We looked online and narrowed it down to 3 then to 1...

Double Sided Art Easel from Scholars Choice

Art Easel from P'Kolino

And our choice....

Art Easel with Paper Roll from KidKraft

I hate to admit we bought it from Walmart but it was almost 20$ cheeper then any other location and delivery was under 1$. 

Afternoon Art

The C Monster received some PlayMais in a grab bag from a birthday party recently. This afternoon we took them out and started making things: a hammer (see video) and 2 rings. We spent the next 30 mins tossing the rings back and forth in the kitchen.

Boxes Boxes Boxes

I am slowly drowning in boxes here are some pics of the various stacks in our home; tomorrow the new house is all ours...

Old to you; new to us


On the weekend we made a trip to the annual Alpha School Bazar.  The C monster bought himself a marble run from Discovery Toys for $5.  This was definitely worth the $5 as he has played with it every day.  The only thing that annoys me about this toy is that their is only one distinctive start; so we made little flags out of toothpicks, paper and scotch tap to mark all of our starts.

Can you find the C Monster?

A really nice wine

I opened a bottle of Strut Well-Heeled White Wine year 2010 today that I picked up at the local Wine Rack when we were staging our home.  My real estate agent mentioned the wine rack would look better full instead of empty; now that the house is sold it's time to empty it again. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised; this is a really nice fruity wine. (most of the other bottles that we opened were a bit bellow average) I think I will have to pick up a few more bottles next time I am doing my groceries.

Portrait of Papa with a Movember

I guess since I've been working on a Mo for Movember, C decided to add it to his latest drawing of me (with some encouragement from Mama).

Interesting that the mo appears below the mouth.

C opens a baby gate

I Can do it

C Monster learned how to open one of the baby gates yesterday - in our defense we installed one part in the wrong spot now that it is fixed I think he can't open it anymore; but I will have to keep a close eye in him.  It's the gate at the top of the basement stairs.

C Monster has also fully mastered opening the screen doors - they must be kept locked at all times now.  I try to make sure he does not see me use the little lock leaver.

Art

Yesterday C Monster painted in the afternoon.  Now that the hot weather is here it's time to switch our days out in the morning and in in the afternoons.  The paint used was home made I really like this recepie.  We made it on May 8th and store it in the fridge - so far it's still good. 

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups water

1 cup white flour

1/4 cup white sugar

1 1/2 tbsp salt

food colouring

Directions

Combine first 4 ingredients in a sauce pan - stir very  very well

cook on medium heat for approximately 7 mins - constantly stirring

pour in little jars and add food coloring to tint

store in refrigerator

Oh so Hot

Summer is here so it seems - I finally caved in today and turned on the AC. Yesterday the cats were cooping in various ways some enjoying the hot sun and others trying to find the coolest spot - the sink.

Looking Forward To

Friday - and friends coming to the house

How to make glue...

How To Make Glue

When I was a kid we pretty much never bought glue my mom or memere would make it for us,  they used to just mix a bit of water with flour and that was it.  I wanted to find a recipe that I could make ahead of time and store.

Today I whiped up a batch; here is the recipe.

1/2 cup white flour
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 cup water


Mix all the ingredients until smooth with a whisk; then heat on low siring until desired consistency is reached.  Pour into an airtight container. 

This will make white glue that will dry transparent.  For the little ones that have a hard time understanding where the glue is you can add a few tablespoons of sparkles or some food coloring to make a more fun version of glue.  The sparkles or color help the little ones understand where the glue is on the page; also when they decide to use the glue as paint all is not lost you still have a work of art.

I will let you know if it goes bad before we go threw all of it...

Now That we Have Glue

C Monster spent parts of the day working on a mobile.  I collect various pieces from the recycling and we painted them green this morning.  Using the last bits of our store bought paint - so I guess I will be trying some paint recipes soon.  After they were dried C Monster and Grandma used the sparkly glue to attaches various ornamentation.  Once everything is dry we will turn it into a mobile for his room.

Looking Forward To

To my parents arriving - I think I said this before but I am really looking forward to it.

Menu planning? / art / and a bit more

Menu Planning - What's that?

I was asked by a reader a few weeks back -  "What does a meal plan look like in the wiseman house??How do you find the time to make everything??"

Lets start by answering the first question.  I will address the second half in tomorrow's post. We don't have a menu plan.  I used to plan all the meals every second Friday; then make sure the groceries were all bought and so on.  I found that I was spending too much time researching what to cook and then things would happen and the planned meals were not mad; then food would be wasted.  So sometime over this last winter I stopped pre-planning my meals.  I like it better this way - some of my best cooking comes from just opening the fridge and getting inspired but what's in there.

To give you an idea of what C Monster eats (he does not always eat what we do - he is 2 and 2 year olds are picky - at least mine is) I decided for the next 3 days I will post a diary of everything that goes in his mouth plus recipes if applicable.  As you will notice as you read C Monster food intact we are not perfect he also eats a lot of crap - well sometimes.

Saturday April 3rd - C Monster's Food Diary

Breakfast: 

Organic Spelt Waffles with Organic Maple Syrup 

Strawberry & Kale Smoothie

Breastmilk

Morning Snack:

12-14 Organic Raw Unsalted Cashews

1 PCO Toddler Berry Granola Bar

Strawberry & Kale Smoothie (left over from breakfast)

Lunch:  

He refused to eat

Glass of Organic Almond Milk

Breastmilk

Afternoon Snack:

Kiju Organic Apple/Grape Juice (%50 juice / %50 water)

Supper:

1/2 Slice of Cheese Pizza from Amato

Glass of Organic Almond Milk

Breastmilk

Evening Snack:

1 Square of Chocolate

1/2 Box PCO Raisins

4-6 Organic Unsalted Raw Pistachios

Homemade Herbal Iced Tea

Breastmilk

 

 Strawberry & Kale Smoothie Recipe

300g frozen strawberries (1 bag)
5 curly kale leafs vines removed
1 banana peeled
3/4 cups yogurt
1 cup apple juice
2 tbsp maple syrup

Place Strawberries in blender and crush using your blender's ice crushing mode. Once all large chunks are gone add Kale and half of the apple juice blends scraping sides occasionally until kale is mostly chopped. Add all remaining ingredient and process until smooth. Makes 3 - 4 smoothies.

I place C Monster in his sippy cup with a few ice cubes; when he done I put it in the fridge - he knows to ask for it when he wants it back.

Organic Spelt Waffles Recipe

1/3 cup Spelt flour

1/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup milk

1 tbsp melted butter

2 egg whites

1/4  cup plain yogurt

1/2 zuchinni, shredded 

1 1/2 tbsp mixed seeds

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In another bowl beat the egg whites until they are just stiff peaks (it’s better that they are a little soft than over beaten). Mix all wet ingredients (minus eggs) into the dry ingredients until just combined. Preheat the waffle iron.

Add the egg whites to the bowl and fold together quickly.  Brush or spray the hot iron with a little canola oil and then cook the waffles per your iron’s instructions.

Serve with butter, and maple syrup.

Makes 5 waffles.

Art - crocodile

Yesterday C Monster did some painting; I am particularly proud of this one.  He told me it was a crocodile. I see it do you?

Coxwell &  Fairford 

After some residents in our are complained about too much trew trafic the city temporarly blocked off one section of Fairford at Coxwell - to see if it would improve things.  The youth of the neighborhood did not waste time to take over this section of pavement that is now safe for them to play in.

 

Looking Forward To

Seeing Christophe reaction to his easter egg hunt and finally building a box around our vegetable garden tomorrow.

"Genius", Winners Find and Art (let's not forget Hockey)

"Genius"

This morning I had a long awaited appointment booked with the Apple Genius Bar. Ever since I have had my iPhone it's been glitchy - gets stuck in searching mode or just totally crashes on me. It took me forever - well actually 3 months to find a weekend that I could get away for the morning with C Monster and get my phone checked out. All I have to say is they are amazing. I waited a total of 5 minutes before the saw me and in about 10 minutes I left with a new iPhone. This is just another reason why "I am a MAC".

After my Genius appointment I took advantage of my me time to get some Starbucks and sit down and read. Right now I am reading Mothering Your Nursing Toddler - yup C Monster is still nursing and I am proud of it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is planning on nursing past 12 months; or who found themselves breastfeeding a toddler even-though they had not planned it. This book has helped me feel secure in my choices; gave me the courage to continue on those days that felt like C Monster only wanted to nurse and made me smile and laugh at great stories from other mothers just like me.

Winners

I used to be a huge fan of Winners for toys however that was before I decided that Melissa & Doug toys were being banished from my household. - Melissa & Doug have just had way too many recalls for me to bother with them. That being said if I find myself at Winners I always take a quick look at the toys just in case. Well this time it was well worth it as I found a great big pile of Discover Rigs by Sprig for 29.98 each. (these usually sell for around $65CND) We had money from my mother and father for a birthday gift for C Monster - so voila:

Thank you mom and Dad C Monster loooooves it.

Art

As always as soon as 6pm hits C Monster is climbing the walls. To diffuse this little beast we did art tonight. One of my favorite ways to let him glue stuff is make a mixture 50% white glue and 50% paint; that way if he ends up not wanting to stick anything to the page their is still a painting. One of the drop in teachers gave me this idea and we have used it over and over again. Tonight we used lots of little bits of various fun things that last week we cut up together when Christophe was practicing his cutting skills.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST - GO CANADA GO WE ROCKED THE GOLD BLING THIS WEEK AT THE OLYMPICS.