Unicorn cake and cupcakes

I wanted to start doing a few cakes again because I missed creating edible delights for people but I didn't want to go all out like I did in the past, well first because I just can't physically, mentally or time wise. What I figured would be 1 or two a month this summer turned into one almost every weekend.

Of course I always do Jess's cakes for the kids and I love doing them. Mercedes cake and cupcakes turned out stunning, I surprised even myself that I was still capable of creating something that beautiful!

Here party of course was unicorn themed what else would a little girl want for a party!

Thomas Day Out

Day out with Thomas

Blaine loves trains and I have wanted to take him for years, but wanted to wait until he was old enough to actually enjoy and remember it. Turns out he has the best memory ever and brings up things that happened when he was 2 and can remember the whole event without help. Oddest thing ever, when he brings up things I forgot all about!

Well today is the day, we are off to ride Thomas, I got him the special package, he got a hat, a pez and a stuffy. GusGus ate the stuffy (shhhh I haven't told him yet), I can't find the Pez that he had, and currently looking for the hat as we head out the door lol. I know worlds best mom right here.

Nope! Worlds realest mom right here. Not perfect by any means and I really really hate when people try and call me that drives me nuts! No I am the same mom as everyone else, fighting daily and trying my damnest to keep up. And he spends too much time on my phone lol

 We will do this trip once more next summer so the girls get to go with us but after that we will never do it again.

There was a million people, we rush to get to our ride on time. The train was FULL, babies were crying, it was loud and crazy which means Blaine was very unhappy. We tried keeping him distracted by the things outside the train. Our saving grace was that it was a short train ride. There were some activities for the kids but not a whole lot outside, there were bounce houses and train tables inside as well as shows, Blaine wasn't interested in any of the shows and just wanted to spend the whole time in the bounce house.

Blaine enjoyed the bounce house and liked the train ride but wished it wasn't so loud.

This would be a great trip for a child big into trains that doesn't have sensory issues.

SK homeschool here we come!!!

Let me start by saying something I should have said a long time ago, I don't do school at home, I do homeschool.

There is a big difference. We do not have the same start time everyday, we don't have set snack or lunch breaks, we do not have forced seating or activities. We have things we do everyday and then I just follow his lead for the rest.

I do an assessment each year to see where he is at and what he needs work on, but we do not follow the classroom curriculum.  This summer I got to spend a lot of time with my good friend Sara and her family. I got to see how amazing ALL of her children are, how amazing of a mom she is (even if she feels like she is failing). If a mom who has raised those amazing children can feel like she is failing that means we all can from day to day.

She kept reminding me all summer that I don't need to apologize for Blaines behaviours and that its okay she understands. You have no idea what it means to have a mom friend who has children who have are "special" and you don't have to try to force your "special" child to behave a certain way or try to hurry him along so hes not in the way or bugging others. I can relax when I am with her and not always be on edge and worried about what Blaine is going to do next or how he might react. He has a special bond with Sara and it melts my heart and I am grateful that he has that bond with her.

Anyway on to school this year. We are not doing what we did last year, we are covering a wide range of topics as you will see lol. When planing Sara thought it was funny that I went from body parts to money there is no real reasoning to my planning other than doing a few different topics and seeing what will spark his interest. As he grows, learns and becomes more interested in things I can cater to those but right now he is just happy with whatever.

Some people are shocked to learn that most days we are finished "School" by 830am. This is because he is so young we don't have to do much seat learning, everything is play and hands on at this point. That being said as he grows somethings may be longer but maybe not depending on his interests. Will he learn to read? write? hold a pencil? spell? do math? you bet he will but why do those things have to be taught in a way that requires the child to sit in a seat for hours taking in verbal information?
OH WAIT IT DOESN'T. We learn by doing not by being told!

So this is our first week and so far we have done 2 days and things are going well, yes it takes a min to get him going but that's okay, he knows when there is an end! He can see when we are done!

Week 1
We are working in the Reading Readiness K-1 by the company I KNOW IT. (I likely got this at one of our local dollar stores.)
We are doing the sight letter "I".
We are using ABC Mouse
We are learning about bees!!!
Nature Board!

This week he is sick so our outings are limited.

Day 1

Sight word "I" flash card. I make my own flash cards from card stock. Not only do they have the sight word we are working on but they will have a short sentence using the sight word. Bee life cycle (this video). Nature board (this is a giant tree on Bristol board that we put a nature word on each day), book (counting bats), ABC Mouse, work book.


Day 2

Sight word "I" flash cards, label the bee body (this involves me asking Blaine were a body part is on the photo of a bee and me printing the word), we also recapped on the bee life cycle that we learned about yesterday, workbook, reading book (I Love Fall), we also did the book This Pumpkin. ABC mouse, Nature Board.

Day 3

Sight word "I" work sheet, why bees matter (video), Recap on bee life cycle and the bee body, ABC mouse, workbook, nature board, book (harvest time).

Day 4

Sight word "I" flash cards, Magic school bus bees , workbook, recap on why bees mater, bee life cycle and the bee body, ABC mouse, book ( School), mini golf trip with the homeschool group!


This week is a short week so we only have 4 days because Monday was labour day. What I didn't include on here is on the nights we have girls we do Science, I will do a separate post on that stuff. We also do learning activities when the girls are here and they range from games to exploring!

Real talk "Dry Drowning"

All kids swallow a bit of water while swimming it happens!!

A few years back I read a post and it scared the shit out of me, so much so that I would stay awake all night to check Blaines breathing after playing in the pool.

Fast forward to his year, he is far more into loving water and pools and slides and everything that comes along with it, including swallowing and coughing up water when he gets splashed in the face or does something silly.

Yesterday we were at the pool and through out the day as kids will he would cough or spit out water, I didn't even think about it really. As we were getting ready to leave he really wanted to do the big slide, I told him a million times he was not ready for the slide because it is a big splash and he will go under, well he does it anyway and of course he goes under and was fine not even coughing up water. I said see your not big enough, of course once the initial shock wears off he says Mom that was super exciting I want to do it again.

I swear to god he is trying to kill me.

Well we get home and hes tried and hot and of course, mom brain goes into panic mode. "OMG HE SWALLOWED WATER HE IS GOING TO DRY DROWN" So I decide instead of rushing him to the ER for being tired and hot I would google the symptoms of "dry drowning". 

LADIES AND GENTS SIT DOWN FOR THIS ONE!! Its not a real thing, yes I read 4 articles by 4 different doctors talking about it.

"Dry drowning came about from someone who poorly researched and wrote a paper"

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180606163050.htm

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180606163050.htm

https://www.kidnurse.org/dry-drowning/

https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-blog/2018/august/mythbusting-dry-drowning

 Now lets talk about what you should 100% take your child to the doctor for if your concerned about drowning, Vomiting, fever, coughing (more then they would for swallowing water the wrong at the dinner table), All day coughing, wheezing, trouble breathing, turning blue etc.

There is no reason to loose sleep because you are scared they might die in their sleep from swallowing water at the pool or beach, there is no reason to panic and run them to the ER because they are tired and hot and swallowed water at the pool.

You will NOT miss the serious symptoms that need the ER doctor to save their life.

Let them play, let them love water, let them learn water safety!

Drowning is a real risk not just for small children but adults too, safety around water should be taught at all ages! Swim lesson and close super vision of children is beyond import.

But don't let fear of swallowing water stop them from enjoying life!

Lazy Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I call it lazy instead of simple because when I made this pie I was feeling lazy but need a quick, easy dessert for fathers day.


I got my strawberries and rhubarb from Zekveld's Garden Market


What you need:
1 box of frozen pie crust (the ones with 2 crusts in a box)
1/2 cup sugar (unless you like it sweeter then do 1 cup)
Small handful of flour (about 1/2 cup)
2 stalks of Rhubarb
1 quart of strawberries

1 bowl
1 spoon
1 cutting bored
1 knife
1 cookie sheet
parchment paper for easy clean up

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

1) Chop rhubarb

2) Cut strawberries

3) Put them in the bowl and mix the sugar and flour in

4) Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper put your frozen pie crust on the cookie sheet

5) Dump your bowl of filling into the pie crust

6) Turn the second pie crust on top of your filling, let thaw a few minutes until you can press the edges of the pie crusts together.

7) Put slits in the top crust to let steam out

8) Bake for 40 minutes Let cool for 10 minutes

ENJOY!!!!

Pinterest try: Philly Cheese-steak Sliders

Trying new recipes is one of my favourite things to do, and when they turn out amazing it is even better and I just have to share with everyone so they can try too.

This week I tired out Philly Cheese-Steak Sliders. I have never tried a real Philly cheese-steak so I really have nothing to compare to but Connely said they were good and he likes Philly cheese-steaks.

This is a super simple recipe to so that is another big win. I think total time including cooking was 30 mins.

What you need:

1 pepper (I used red because that is what I had on hand)
1/2 med onion (I only used half because I am not a huge fan of overwhelming onion taste)
3/4lbs steak (I used the thin quick fry steaks)
Dinner rolls (I used what the superstore had on hand in their bakery section 12 buns)
Mayo
1 cup shredded I used Mozzarella but the recipe calls for provolone.
Garlic
Butter



Recipe:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2) Cut up peppers, onions and steak. Shred the cheese

3) Cook in frying pan until everything is nicely browned

4) Cut your buns in half and lay the bottom halves in your baking dish

5) Put Mayo on both halves of your buns

6) Spread your mixture evenly over your buns. Spread the shredded cheese over the mixture.

7) Melt your butter and mix with garlic. Brush on top of your buns.

8) Cover with tin foil bake for 10 mins. Uncover. Bake for another 10mins

ENJOY!!!

Greenview Aviaries: Homeschool trip

This is the last homeschool trip for the year with the home school group. We home school year round because every moment is a learning experience and how hard is it to do a page in a workbook each day in the summer.

Greenview Aviaries and zoo has a few playgrounds, a splash pad, picnic areas, food and animals. I was concerned that it wouldn't be something that I was comfortable with doing as I am an animal activist.

We spent most of the day playing on the equipment, in the splash pad and with the other kids. We did the animals for about 30 mins out of the whole day. They seemed well cared for, yes the pens are what I would consider small for a wild animal but they are clean, the animals show no fear of people at all and love to pet and attention.

neck scratching!

Personally we spent so little time with the animals we could have gone to a park with a splash pad/zipline and playgrounds and the kids would have been happy.

We got to fed the animals and they were all gentle and kind. I feel the pens should be larger for some of the animals but I also feel that about our own animal farm and they are well taken care of in both places. They all had food, fresh water, shade and places to hide from the people when they wanted too.

Will I go again? I am not sure, I might try to find somewhere that offers the same type of play without animals.