Tuesday 30 September 2014

Gracie's 5!! Part 2

Here's a few shots from her birthday. 
She opened her presents from us in the morning, had a special breakfast, and then went to kindergarten. 
Brad took the day off so she got to show him a little bit of her school when we dropped her off. 

After school, she came home and GG and Granddad were at our place. We ate lunch, she opened a few more presents, and then we headed to West Edmonton Mall for the afternoon.


Thank you Auntie Linda!!


Even Emma got one ;)


And GG and Granddad!

We went to the Sea Life Caverns in the mall. Who knew there were this many animals underneath the mall??




After that, we headed above ground to the sea lion show.




Sea lions have ears, seals do not... don't get that confused folks!


Gracie got to throw a frisbee to the sea lion and then got her picture taken with him.


wait for it....


Splash! He jumped right up beside her.


Lucky birthday girl!


After that, she went to Build A Bear and made this giant, purple unicorn. It's name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, if you're wondering. 

What a day!

Sunday 28 September 2014

Gracie's 5!!

Since you only turn 5 once, we had to do something special to celebrate. 

When Gracie fell asleep, I prepped her door.... and then I laid awake all night worrying that my awesome plan would backfire...


Haha! In the morning, I flushed our bathroom toilet (because a toilet flushing wakes her up every time) and ran down the stairs to capture her reaction. 


Haha! Good morning, Birthday Girl!


Saturday 27 September 2014

Grams and Papa's


Gracie spent 5 days at the farm with my parents this August and she had so much fun! I need to get the pictures from my mom, but here are a few:


Grams took Jada and Gracie to a salon to get their hair done one day!


Gracie loved it! She keeps wanting her hair curled now. 


Super sweet!

They went to the Tyrell Museum, did some shopping, picked veggies from the garden and made vegetable soup, and who knows what else.... I think the best part was that she spent lots of time with her cousins and Grams and Papa. Lucky girl!

Thanks mom and dad for having her down to visit! She loved it!




Thursday 25 September 2014

Pizza Night at the Malacko's


We love pizza night here. The kids like to 'decorate' the pizzas and they eat them up like they're made of cotton candy, so we have them on a fairly regular basis. 


You may wonder why I have these photos....  Our meals, and us enjoying them. 


I like to send Brad pictures of what we're eating while he's out on a call... I like to think it makes him want to hurry home to see us and eat the meals he missed. 


Perhaps, it just makes him hungrier when he's humping through the bush with no food.


Mean wife, I know. 


But it's sooo good :)







Wednesday 24 September 2014

Happy Birthday Mom!!

To the best mom ever, hope you have the happiest of days! 











We love you!!!!!!
XOXOXO








Tuesday 23 September 2014

OMG! I have a blog!!

Right.... I may have forgotten about you guys.... 

Are you still there? 

Anyone? 

Anyone?

Sorry. It's been a whirlwind around here lately. Don't be offended half the time, I don't remember my name. I tried to check Emma in for Gracie's doctor's appointment yesterday...

I'm officially losing it.

Okay, now that I've confessed, look at some cute pictures, while I try to get this blog back on course.


This little messy-haired cutie is enjoying herself immensely since Gracie went to school. 


All the toys to herself, mom to herself, life is good!



Gracie went to the amusement park in West Edmonton Mall with a friend and they thought the roller coaster was too loud, but they rode the kiddie one 9 times!!


Gracie is horse/unicorn crazy and even volunteers to hook herself up to the 'carriage' to pull her sister around.


Snow, then suntans, that's what the weather's been doing here. Gracie and her buddy had an outside craft date the other day, but I sent her to school with mitts last week....

So, that's a little update. I'll get blogging back into my routine and hopefully, keep the gaps to a minimum.


Tuesday 9 September 2014

Corn on the Cob!!

Thanks for the garden grown corn Grams and Papa!!! We loved it. 


 It's perfect for teething babes. 


We added it to our homemade Chinese food, since we had no baby corn :) 


PS. We do eat from actual plates, only the kids have plastic ones, this was Emma's meal. 
Also, if I haven't given you the recipe for these turkey meatballs, here it is. It's yummy. I love it, the kids love it, and it's easy and a little different.


Chinese Style Turkey Meatballs


Yield: 24 meatballs

Ingredients
Meatballs:

1 pound ground turkey

2 scallions, very finely chopped

1/2 cup very finely chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 cup fine, dry bread crumbs (unseasoned)

1 egg, lightly beaten



Sweet Soy Dipping Sauce:

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

2 or 3 slices fresh ginger smashed with the side of a heavy knife


Directions

To make the meatballs:
Heat the oven to 400.
Gently mix together the ingredients then form meatballs by rolling tablespoon-sized scoops between your palms.
Arrange on a lightly oiled or parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes, until well-browned and cooked through.
Serve with toothpicks for dipping.

To make the dipping sauce:
In a small pot, stir all the ingredients together over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves.
Simmer 3 or so minutes, stirring frequently, until the sauce thickens a bit.
Fish out the ginger and serve in small cups for dipping.

Sunday 7 September 2014

Frickin' Delightful!

I just tried some local made, delicious donuts the other day and they're very yummy! 



I took a picture quick before I opened the box, because once it was open, there was no time for pictures ;)

You can get them at the Strathcona Farmer's Market every second Saturday and at Whimsical Cakes Bakery. Yum! 

These beauties were all made with tea infused icing. If you know me, you know I don't like tea, I LOVE tea. Tea and donuts. Perfection!

Thanks to Nadine for posting about them on her blog so I that they were on my mind for weeks....


Friday 5 September 2014

Last of the TM Kit!

Okay, here are the last of the layouts I made with the kit. I made 12 pages in total and I realized I missed one sheet of 12x12 paper in my kit, so if you bought the kit, you got one more than me!

These three are all splattery.... I used mists and watercolour to add some colour to  my pages. 


I layered splatter drops of a few different colours of watercolours, using a blank sheet of paper to block the spray so it only hit part of the page. I added my favourite wood veneer piece, a title, and peeked a journaling block out from behind the photos.


I love these photo filters from Crate Paper that are in the kits. See them? I used them on the smile tag and the 'from me to you' envelope. I usually like them on photos and that was my plan from the start, but I didn't like the tint on these photos once they were in place. I played around and ended up liking them better elsewhere.


I made the background paper by misting over two doilies. Simple way to add some interest to your cardstock.


Just a few quick splats of paint on this one to add depth. I love this paper! I just slid my photo, a journaling tag, and a feather on and dropped a few splats of mist and it looks so much more interesting than that!! 

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Gracie's first day of Kindergarten!


 She was excited! A little quieter than usual, but still pumped to go off to her first day of school. Emma was excited too. I'm not sure if she knew what was happening, but she knew Gracie was excited, so she was going to be excited, too!



Big smiles for the camera!



I dropped her off and she was happily playing with Lego. No worries. The only hesitation was when I said I'd pick her up at the end of her day. She got kind of grumpy and said, "I want to take the bus."
Sigh.



Her teacher is great and when I picked her up, she said she had fun and was back to talking a mile a minute, so I think it was a success.