Happy Birthday Moto-Moto!

Yesterday Moto-Moto celebrated his birthday Dino-style ! CJ decided that he should have a dinosaur party "not because he's old, because I'm studying dinosaurs at school." So, we planned a picnic trip to the University and had lunch in the "Dinosaur Building" (Geology Building) among the dinosaur fossils.

We wanted to make a huge sub so we baked our bread in this ...

We wanted to decorate him more with cucumbers for spikes and other veggies but Moto-Moto doesn't like them so this is what he ended up looking like...

CJ also made and iced dinosaur cookies for dessert... she even made extra to share with her class tomorrow on their last day of dinosaurs.

We love walking around the University and we LOVE Moto-Moto...

Back at home CJ planned to free a dinosaur from the Ice Age, notice the protective eye wear ~ that's my girl~safety first!

Moto-Moto wanted brownies with peanut butter for his cake so we mixed some mini reeses cups into the batter and topped it with a Dinosaur! EASY!!

Happy Birthday!

Thanks for sharing your day and life with me!!

We LOVE YOU!

Happy Spring!!

CJ and I are hoping that by creating these dragonflies we can hurry Spring on her way to town. We found the great idea to make dragonflies out of Starburst candies here . If for whatever reason that link isn't working on your end try it this way http://chiccookiekits.blogspot.com/2009/03/oh-so-easy-dragonfly-toppers.html We've packaged them up and they are ready to take flight to spread some spring joy. Maybe some will make their way to your house!

Tomorrow is Moto-Moto's birthday... wait and see what CJ has planned for that!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

CJ made some chocolate shamrock lollipops for a little treat today, she did a great job but had a hard time waiting for them to set up before she could eat it!


Little CD was thrilled with hers and devoured it in no time... no surprise!

CJ was sure that she'd catch a leprechaun this year! She decided she needed that pot of gold so she could go to Disneyworld. She created this trap out of a tall can...

She even made sure that he knew where to get the gold ...

Her gold was glued on top of a paper trap door... "when he falls in there is no way he can get out because it is tall and slippery inside." She made a few homey touches by making him a little cotton bed and using one of her pet shop chairs inside.

At 6:50 this morning I was woken to

"Mommy hurry, I think we got him this year!"

It would appear that he was caught and we were about to collect our pot of gold and start packing when we noticed this tiny little grappling hook on the side.

Darn that little trickster!! He also turned the water in the toilet green as well as the girls yogurt for breakfast... He was nice enough to leave some gold coins, the tiniest note I ever saw, and a St. Patrick's Day outfit for Abasuti (one of CJ's many Build-a-Bears.)

Did any leprechauns visit your house?

Trivia Question

Today I was looking through some exams and noticed this bonus question:

In an enclosure at the Forestry Farm you view peacocks and pigs.

There are 30 eyes and 44 feet. How many of each animal are there??


There were some very interesting answers I must say!


So, how are your math skills?
Can you figure it out and what method did you use??
Moto-Moto used trial and error but I came up with a formula!



Good luck!!



(Assume that both animals are not missing nor gained any body parts.)

CD'S Big Accomplishment

The following post contains explicit material intended for Mommy audiences.

Viewer discretion is advised.

The girls were enjoying their Lush bath with this ...

... when we noticed that CD seemed to be very still and quiet so we whisked her out of the bath, dripping and bewildered and put her on the potty...


Much to our surprise

CD #2-ed on the potty for the first time!!

CJ has had many a bath that we had to evacuate so this accomplishment was just as big a victory for her. As reward CD received high praise, got to phone Daddy (how she loves to talk on the phone!) and a Hershey's kiss. I am in no hurry to get her potty trained, she is only 16 months but if she's interested then I'm all for it!!

Future Scrapbooker

CJ and I had a little time to spend together while her sister was napping and Daddy (Moto-Moto) was out grocery shopping. CJ decided that she wanted to do some scrapbooking... she did a great job!! She picked out most of her own supplies and away she went! It was so nice to spend some time creating and visiting with her.

Yes, these really are the pages designed by my 5 1/2 year old!!

Thanks to Pam for the goodies she used on her Miley page. CJ had fun doing the rub-on letters. Can you tell that she's been checking out scrapbook pages by Pam with me?

We really are lucky to have such a wonderful daughter! She is so kind hearted, caring, loving and FUNNY. She makes us laugh everyday! How proud I am to be her Mommy. I love you CJ!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Hope you spend your day snuggled up with those you love!!

Class Treats

As promised, here are the Giant RK Kisses we made for CJ's class treats on Friday. (When I pulled out the recipe it occured to me that I've been creating these for well over 10 years! I think that we first made them at the home where I nannied. "My" oldest boy has a birthday on February 13th and he took them as his birthday treat in grade 1 ... well that young boy is turning 20 this week!! Happy Birthday Jon! Yikes, how time flies! )

I struggled with how to get a good picture of them, the foil really threw things off. BUT here it is:


You need a few funnels, available anywhere ~ the cheaper the better!

Caramel RK Treats

16 cups of Rice Krispies (set aside in a huge bowl)

I thought that I had regular RK but it turns out that all I had was the

Holiday RK so my kisses look a little festive ... wrong holiday though!!

Tee Hee. They'll taste fine and I'm sure the class won't care!

Add together:

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup butter or margarine

1 3/4 cups light corn syrup

Boil 3 minutes, remove from heat.

Add one can sweetened condensed milk.

Boil 3 additional minutes.

Pour over RK and mix well.

Form kisses by first greasing your chosen size of funnel (first time only). Scoop up the RK mixture.

Then turn onto waxed paper immediately. Do this approximately 49 more times. (I used the itty-bitty funnel for most of them but made a huge one for Moto-Moto. I think that it would make about 50 class treat size ones.)

Let set up for at least on hour but beware of little ones helping themselves!

I give them a flip to dry the bottoms too and leave them another 1/2 hour. Clean up the dishes, making sure you get all the caramel off the spoon.

Wrap them with foil, add a little personalized note in light blue font so it's like the real deal. Well, I'm off to finish cleaning the kitchen without my helpers and continue to wrap the rest for Friday's party.

Teacher Valentine Treats

Tonight CJ and I finished packing up treats for her teacher and all the helpers in her classroom. We snuck our own personalized messages into premade fortune cookies. You could make your own but it was pretty easy to sneak our messages into these ones. Of course, we dipped them into chocolate and added heart sprinkles. Everything tastes better with a little chocolate.
We packed them on shredded red paper (from one of the finest stores) in little take-out boxes ~ we picked up a whole sleeve of them for cheap cheap. I think you can get them at wedding stores now or bigger ones at Michaels... added a little ribbon, a foam heart with a button & more ribbon. I think they turned out pretty cute!

This was also a "teachable craft" ~ it gave CJ practise at the first step in Shoe-Tying 101. Look at this darling at work ...

Just put it here ...

Cross it over, poke it through ...

PULL ...

And ta-da, I did it!!!

It was a good night. Little sister played quietly (well, not so quietly) with her puppets while we got this little job done. Stay tuned tomorrow for class treats Giant Caramel RK Kisses. You should have time to make a shopping list and make them for all your little friends too!

Valentine's Day Party

CJ had a few friends over for a Valentine's Party today. She hasn't seen some of her daycare friends for awhile since Daddy stays home in the morning to play with the girls and I'm home in the afternoon. When the girls first got here we played: CJ has been waiting to play Twister with someone who is way more flexible than her Mom! None of the girls had played before but were anxious to try and had a great time!!

Craft time ~ we decorated our "Love Shacks". We didn't make any gingerbread houses at Christmas time so I pulled out our gingerbread village cookie cutters (found at a garage sale for $3) and made a little shack for each of the girls. I think they ate as much candy as ended up on their shack!

Viola, finished "Love Shacks". You're all singing the song right now aren't you!?

"Valentine Colours" was our next game, thanks D for the idea, the girls loved it! We started with "pink", player one touches something pink and sits down. Player two touches the pink item selected by player one then a pink item of her own, player three touches items by player one and two and one of her own etc, etc. Lots of fun! Then we played "Pink heart, pink heart, who has the pink heart?" (Our Valentine version of "Button, Button").

Snack was little heart shaped chocolate bowls filled with strawberries topped with whipped cream and their initial. I'm quite happy with how the bowls turned out. I picked up the heart silicone form at Dollarama (it was a dollar) then poured a couple of tablespoons of melting chocolate in it and brushed it up the sides. A couple minutes in the freezer to set up and carefully released them. The initial topper was an idea from pal Saucy . And of course they had "love potion" in pink sugar rimmed cups.

We ended with The Frog Prince puppet show and some giggles!! Hope you girls had fun!

Thank you Auntie Viki for ALL your help!!
After supper tonight CJ thought it time to demolish the Love Shack, she thought it was pretty tasty!!