Family Photos

Since these last 2 weeks are of the last times that we will be all together until Phil comes back home, we took the opportunity to take some family photos in the park. We hauled a couch with us

and used it to pose nicely

And then to have some fun:

Camia even got some couch time:

Got some nice shots of Phil:

And of my bean:
The sbilings:

And there was some couch tipping involved.

Me and my sis. I tried rotating this picture, but it seems to have not worked. Hopefully you are able to crane your neck...

My brothers and my husband. I've been wanting to try this shot for a long time now...So excited I could try it on my family!

My mom and dad:

And we got a family photo:

Pop Corn Twists and A Gourmet Dinner

In honour of Phil being home one last time before he is deployed to Afghanistan on his second tour, we have been having some family time all last week and have more planned for this week. He goes back to his base in Edmonton on Sunday and on October 8th gets sent to Afghanistan. On this past Saturday, we had a gourmet dinner. Before dinner, Camia got her favourite snack from Opa and proceeded to throw the whole bag

on the floor. Dad had fun helping her clean them up:

Dinner:

What some people cooked:

And a picture of the 2 oldest in our family:

China Town Stir Fry

The evening before we headed out to Smithers, the family went out for dinner in honour of Ryan's Dad's birthday. We went to Mr Mikes in Langley, the newest location. I had been wanting to go there for quite some time, so I was pretty excited. I went online to check out the menu, and decided that I was going to go out of the box and go with the China Town Stir Fry. It was well worth being adventurous. So yummy! I decided that I was going to try to duplicate the recipe since it was so yummy. I went online to search for recipes, and found one that looked simple enough. So, I went to Costco and bought a stir fry mix since it is cheaper to buy the frozen mix than buy all the individual veggies and cooked it up, adding pieces of chicken that I marinated for 30 minutes prior to cooking. As a side dish I made sweet and sour pork. Here is the end result:

This recipe made it into my favourite recipe book.

Cards

After Mill Lake, we headed to Melissa's where the kids ate cookies on the floor

and we made some cards for an event that Melissa was planning in a princess theme. I haven't made cards in quite some time, so I got to thinking that perhaps it was time to put sewing on the back burner and whip out some hand-made lovelies. We made a mess,

But produced what we set out to produce! 9 princess birthday party invites!

Sidney and Camia played so well together. I can see many play dates in the foreseeable future. They will be in the same grade, but not at the same school, so that will be a bit of a bummer. Perhaps I should send Camia to the school where I attended when I was a little girl...just so they can go to the same school AND be in the same grade...

A Walk In The Park

Last week on our 'day out', we headed to Mill Lake with Jennifer, Melissa and their kiddos. It was such a beautiful day for a walk, the air was cool, requiring a sweater at first! Along the way, there were ducks that would eat out of your hands. Camia didn't want to try that, so we just threw food at them.

She hung out on the wall with her friend Sidney:

And Sidney watched the ducks. So cute!

After the walk, Sidney and Camia got to play on a toy together. I was worried about Camia wiggling the toy so much that Sidney would fall off. But she did pretty well. Sidney stayed on until we took her off.

Early Dark means fall??

Yesterday marked the first official day of fall. Which in my mind means hot chocolate, tea, fall decor and snuggling up with a book or project in the evenings when it is too dark to go out and do something. Since I have had my fall decor up for about 2 weeks now (far too early I think, because it's seems to still be summer out there),

I am left with my only options of welcoming fall by having a mug of hot chocolate (which someone randomly left hanging on our front door this evening. Yumm! Just need to add that bit of peppermint schnapps to give it that extra little flavour. With that added, it tastes just like my favourite Christmas time chocolate: After Eights! Which, by the way, taste just as good before eight as they do after eight. Especially when they are washed down with a delightful cup of tea)

and my personal fall/winter favourite: a good old classic cup of tea.

I had to take 2 pictures so you can see that I was actually drinking tea at this time, even though the temperature out there was around the mark of 28 or 29 at the hottest time of day. So, even though I drink tea now and its not fall, in my mind it's supposed to be fall, so I am enhancing that thought by brewing tea in the evenings, when it cools down to typical daytime fall temperatures.

I have also been spending more time on sewing than I should be since this sunshine will only be here for a few more days (or weeks, at the rate we're going), but suntanning or going to the beach just does not give me the boost of get-go that it does come June or July. I am ready for scarves,

sweaters,

and snuggle quilts! (This is a picture of Camia's new quilt...I am still working on my fall snuggle quilt.) and all those other lovely things that go with fall like crunchy leaves (I am super excited for those leafy fall pictures. A perfect photo op for Camia!) I finally got Camia's quilt ready for binding. There is a class in November that I hope to take that will teach me how to do binding properly. Then I can bind this quilt and my fall quilt, and have them 100% done. Putting the back on this quilt proved to be a bit of a challenge. Sewing the back to the front was the easy part. It only had to be re-done once because the first time I forgot to put the batting in the middle. I had an argument in my head debating whether or not I should take it apart and put the batting in, and I decided that I should otherwise I would always kick myself for not doing it. Then when I tried to 'adhere' the back to the front by sewing the three layers together, the backing puckered like there was no tomorrow. I suppose this might be because its super stretchy and fleece. So, I ripped it out again. This time only the additional lines came out. In the process, I ripped a hole in the back of the quilt (oops)

so now I have to cleverly disguise that. (To sew, or to do my first applique?) To be honest, I wanted to cut it to bits and start over. But that would not have pleased my husband since that would mean purchasing new fabric and would not have pleased me after I did it because that meant buying new fabric and sewing it all together again. No, that would be a baaaaaad idea. Hmm. Now I have to think. In the mean time, about that puckering? This is what I did to take care of that minor set back:

No more puckering...until I sew the binding on, that is.

This is what I am looking forward to sewing:

I was going to wait until my table got cleared, but then I thought about it and, really, if I want to enjoy it yet this fall, I need to get my butt in gear. My original goal (other than emptying my table) was to have it done by November 14, since that's when the binding class takes place. But, if I wait until that long, I can take out my Christmas decor only a short 2 weeks later. So, I am bumping all my other 'to do's' down a notch, and getting this done first. The other night I couldn't sleep, so I got it all cut out and ready for sewing:

So exciting! I can't wait until its done!

Those lazy (??) days of summer still linger...

Today resulted in yet another long hot day at the greenhouse. The temperatures were predicted to reach 28 degrees today, and as the temperature flirted with the 30 degree mark out side, the temperature inside the greenhouse reached a sweltering 36 degrees. In an effort to stay cool, we filled a basin with water so Camia could get wet. And lets be honest, we filled it so we could splash around and get our feet wet too. Since she got introduced to the spray nozzle last week, it's almost the first thing she went for this week. At first she daintily sat on the edge, just getting her feet wet.

And lets not kid ourselves.

It's hot, so she went all the way in.

And played with the spray nozzle some more.

Last night when we were getting her bath ready, she decided that Stuffy should have a bath too, so she chucked him over the edge into the water. Stuffy had a tumble in the dryer before bed. Then again today she decided that Stuffy needed to cool down with her. Unfortunately, since this occurred before her nap time today and I didn't have access to a dryer, Stuffy went to bed with her wet.

And then Camia found some dirt. With all this dry weather, the dirt in the greenhouse is like powder and sticks to everything like glitter does to glue. As she was walking after her dip, she tripped and landed in the dirt.

She is not sure what to do with Stuffy since he is soaked and filthy at this point, so....

he got a spin and a rinse in the basin.