Father's Day Coupons

C could not wait to give hubby his Father's Day gift that she made him at school. So Friday after she came home, she requested if she could give the present to him early. She was just too excited to wait. She had made a coupon book in class of things that hubby could "rip a coupon out and ask for". Hubby and I had a good laugh reading them.

This coupon is good for...

...Dad's day out
...make breakfast in bed
...I'll take you out for dinner
...games
...back scratch
...tuck him in at night
...me making lunch
...Tickle party
...bedtime story
...movie and popcorn

It was so cute, because in her mind I'm sure she was thinking that she enjoys these things...so daddy would too.

Quest for Curls

A few weeks ago our church organized a Princess Tea Party for all the daughters of the King. C was very excited about going to the party. We planned to wear matching dresses (thanks to my sister who had made C a dress for Christmas from the material left over from her wedding) and C wanted to have her hair curly for the event. Now C did not get my curly hair...she got hubby's dead straight hair. I didn't think it would be that difficult to curl her hair, but I was so wrong and very glad that we experimented ahead of time.

First I tried to curl C's hair with a curling iron. This has always worked very well for me, but curling curly hair is totally different than trying to curl straight hair. I wrapped her hair around the curling iron and waited a little bit. When I released her hair, there was only a little curve at the very bottom of her hair. I wrapped the hair around the curling iron again and waited longer. This time I got a little more curl...but not a lot. After about 5 minutes, I gave up on the curling iron.


I then tried to curl C's hair using hot rollers. I've never used hot rollers before and didn't really know how to use them. My initial attempt looked pretty pathetic. My second attempt was better as I figured out how the pin worked to keep the roller in place. The hot rollers did give more curl than the curling iron, but the curl quickly fell out.


My sister-in-law told me to try rolling C's hair in foam rollers and have her sleep on them. So I went and purchased foam rollers from the Dollar store and rolled C's wet hair in them. In the morning, C was quite happy with the outcome and I was impressed with how well the foam rollers worked.


The curl stayed in longer, but by mid afternoon it was droopy. I figured if I used more rollers and put less hair in each one, I would be able to get a tighter curl. So the night before the Princess Tea party, I put 30 rollers in C's wet hair.

I thought the curl would fall out of her hair if I took the rollers out too early, so I waited until 45 minutes before we were to leave for the Tea Party to take the rollers out. We both got the shock of our lives as the curl was so tight, her hair sprang up above her ears.

She was NOT impressed and quite upset. I tried to stay calm and reassure her I could fix it (even though I wasn't convinced I could). I tried to pulled some of the curl out by running my fingers though it to separate it. But it was still really tight. So I pinned the sides up so that they didn't fall in her face and hoped the curl in her hair would start relaxing soon. It did and looked great.

The Garden Battle

Here are the gardens in our backyard. Actually, just half of them as there are more gardens along the back of the house and in the front yard. The previous owners planted them all.


You probably think it looks really nice...except maybe the sandbox in the middle. Lets take a closer look.



The weeds and plants are out of control. Every year we battle to keep the weeds out of the garden and the plants out of the lawn...but it looks like this year they have already won. It looks awful and extremely overwhelming. We have avoided using pesticides for the last 3 years thinking we could control weeds without the use of chemicals...but now realize it's impossible unless we plan to spend all our free time in the garden. So this year, we were going to use pesticides to regain control of the yard...but can't because pesticides have been banned in our area. So all I can do now is covet my neighbour's beautiful garden free backyard which also has a really nice deck and shed.


Although the task is daunting, I still love to see the new growth of the wanted plants coming back.


C was a great help in the garden this weekend...digging weeds and pulling out dead growth. I was a little shocked though at what she chose to do when she wasn't helping...cutting worms with a stick, or cutting an ant with the snipers, or poking holes in snail shells because she wanted the slug to come out. After I requested numerous times for her to be nicer to the bugs, she got upset and told me I never let her do stuff like this.

Sharing Jesus

The other day C told me about how she tried to witness to a friend on the school playground. It went something like this...

"I asked L ... Do you go to church? She said ... Sometimes. I said ... cause if you go to church then you are going to come with me to a new earth because this earth will be destroyed by bad people. L started to freak and said ...I CAN'T leave my mom and dad!! I told her...Your mom and dad are coming too! L kept freaking and then told the teacher. The teacher said...Some people go to church and some people don't. It's our job to be nice to each other. That's not true. It's our job to tell other people about Jesus!"

I was then amazed by the question C asked me after her story was done....

"Should I tell my other friend about Jesus?"

She was not going to let the teacher's, or L's, reaction discourage her from telling others. I asked her why she wanted to tell her friends about Jesus. I was curious to know what the motivating force was...or rather how she would explain it. She became emotional and said that they were her best friends and she didn't want to leave them behind.

There are some days where I don't know what to do with my feisty firecracker of a kid...and then there are days like this where I see her boldness funnelled in a good direction. I have to smile as I realize she's getting it...the important it. She might not get it yet that bedtime is not the time to be goofing around...but she understands that people need Jesus.

Wordless Wednesday - Love at First Sight

Happy Birthday / Blogiversary To Me

This blog and I are another year older today. I thought I would share a few pictures from birthdays past.

When I think back to some of my childhood birthdays, I think of cakes. My grandma would often make our birthday cakes. We'd ask her to make the cake a specific theme and she'd try her best to do so. The cakes probably weren't anything special to a cake decorator, but to us, they were awesome.

Marshmallow Truffles

C loves to help cook. I'm not sure if she loves it because there's always the possibility of getting messy, or because she loves food and realizes that helping usually means sampling. For C's class Valentine's party, we made marshmallow truffles. I came across this really simple recipe on the Kraft website and knew it would be the perfect thing for us to make. Nuts are not allowed in the school, so we improvised and tested out some other options. Sprinkles, coloured sugar, Oreo cookie crumbs and drizzled pink chocolate (which ended up looking more like candle wax than chocolate). We also experimented and used mint chocolate chips instead of bitter-sweet to coat some of the marshmallows. These ones were really yummy, but the chocolate didn't coat the marshmallow as nicely as the bitter sweet chocolate. Next time we make them, (and we don't have to be concerned about nut allergies) we'll probably try some coconut and chopped nuts. Any other suggestions?

Wordless Wednesday - Cousins

Dear Jesus, please put a rainbow in the sky...

Here's a story from my pre-blogging days (Spring 2006) that I thought I would share here.

C has become quite fascinated with rainbows.

On Saturday night we drove to the lake. Saturday had been a cloudy and rainy day, but as we got closer to the lake...we got closer to being out from under the cloud cover and we could see the sun shining. Perfect conditions for seeing a rainbow. So I said to C...

"It's raining and the sun is shining...we might be able to see a rainbow."

So we watched out the car windows, searching for a rainbow. It was during this time that I over heard C praying quietly as she looked out her window.

"Dear Jesus....please put a rainbow in the sky...amen."

Then she announced quite loudly and confidently...

"Jesus is going to put a rainbow in the sky!"

I searched the skies harder. After hearing her prayer, I really wanted her to see a rainbow. Within a few minutes I spotted a rainbow out C's window and yelled at hubby to stop. We pulled into a parking lot so that we could point the rainbow out to C. She was so excited to see her first rainbow. As we left the parking lot, I heard C say...

"Thank-you Jesus for putting a rainbow in the sky".

It is so neat to see that God cares about the prayers of a 4 year old who wants to see a rainbow. And to see Him answer her prayers with an awesome rainbow. A rainbow that was vibrant and arched high in the sky, unobstructed by clouds or buildings. You could see the entire rainbow from one end to the other. It was beautiful.

C's Life Plan

"I'm going to move in with H and S (two friends from school) when I'm 20. We're going to live on a farm with a cow, 3 dogs, 13 pigs and 100 cats. H wants to have 90,000 babies. I don't want to have any babies or get married...just have a boyfriend."

"Why don't you want to get married?"

"I don't want to have my stomach stapled. Will you live with me?"

"...Sure."

For some reason she associates babies (stomach stapled) with getting married...to the point where she's seen a bride in a park getting pictures done and asked if that's the girl having a baby.