Pig Ears

A lot of things have happened in the last two weeks, which kept me too busy (or too tired) to blog and there's just too much to try to play catch up. So we move right to the present.

For the 3rd Aug long weekend since we've been at the Liebenzell Mission we had the same Filipino Church group here for their retreat. We always have a lot of fun and enjoy their generous hospitatlity (Sat-Mon I only cook breakfast, lunch and supper we eat with our group).
So we eat a lot of rice, new and strange vegetables and yummy meats.
One of the camp leaders busy cooking. Salmon soup and some green veggie.

Katie could barely wait until they unwrapped the roasted pig that they brought out from a place in Toronto. She was so excited to try some, it didn't seem to bother her in the least that the pig still looked like a pig.

The piece of choice: the ear. Yup, they both loved sucking on the eat. They came up to us every once in a while for some rice, but they would not give up their ears. We really enjoyed the meat, and even some of the crunchy rind, but I don't think I could have munched on the ears the way the girls did.

This group comes all prepared with their own picnic shelter and a large outdoor stove/bbq. There are about 60 ppl of all ages and they are having a wonderful time.

Since Dad is traveling with his brothers from Switzerland for a couple of weeks, Mom came for an overnight visit. She got to enjoy the Filipino cuisine as well and then enjoyed snuggling with the girls during their bed time routine DVD.

I got some snuggle/reading time with the girls this afternoon. Normally Maya doesn't sit still long enough to listen to a story, but it looks like she got extra comfy and actually stayed put for a whole story (about 5 min;).

This coming week we are planning on building our shed for the rabbits. With lots of extra help it might just be done before we know it. We have my cousin from Switzerland and Jeff's second cousin (both 16 yrs old) here for the week. Jeff's parents for the day on Wed, Uncle Marc for the regular Tue/Wed stay, and our friends from Elmira for the day on Saturday. I'll be spending a lot of time in the kitchen I'm thinking. We're looking forward to it though, and the rabbits are growing so fast that the'll be needing their new home.
So I'll try to take pictures of the shed in progress for the next post.

Hope you'll have a great week.

Busy Weekend

First off I just have to share a couple of pictures of my silly girls.
I don't know what Maya thought was wrong with the couch, but I guess it was too soft and she had to sit on the springs rather than the cushion.

Katie also found a cozy place to hang out. IN the kitchen cupboard. Go figure

Our weekend kind of began already on Thursday with a great visit from my brother Chris, his wife Mel and their son Nathanael. It has been 9 months since we saw them last and it was so nice to connect in person again. 9 months also made a huge difference in the kids, Nate and Katie played so nicely together.

Dr. Chris is showing Nate what he would do should Nate decide to let Chris get close enough to his foot to try to pull out a sliver Nate caught. The demonstration was informational, but not convincing enough, and it didn't hurt that bad anyway...

Playing tag. They switched back and forth and both had equal fun chasing and being chased.

Playing in the sand box and sharing the toys so nicely. I was so proud of both of them.

Wagon ride. For now Nate enjoyed the ride and Katie demonstrated her stamina. Teaching her to let a gentleman do the pulling can wait a little longer.

On Thursday night we droped the girls off at grandma and grandpa's house for a couple of days. Jeff and I went to a wedding early afternoon on Friday and thought it would make a much more leisurly day if we didn't have to do the running around with the kids the same day. As it was I didn't get out of bed until 11 a.m. It was awesome!!

The wedding was fun but we headed out early (11p.m.) and then went to join the girls in Plattsville. On Saturday we had fun just haning out.

The main attraction was of course the pond they were not supposed to go to by themselves. It was too hard to resist though..

All the ladies went to the park before it got too hot and the guys went to check out some multi- funtion tool. (Jeff told me all about it and it sounded impressive, but I don't remember all the things it included-if you want to know, Chris? Rudy? you'll have to ask him)

Yee Ha! and Giddy up!!

Maya had fun on the swing, and she had to have a turn on the big swing, not just the baby ones. That kid has no fear (sometimes I wish she had some, but I hear boys are worse)

Posing in the girls' favorite spot in grandma's garden. On the bench with the puppies. Both girls go and check them out every time we visit.

Trying to get a family shot. Maya was just about done posing.

And of course we had to have a water fight. I think grandma had just as much fun as the girls.

I know there is a picture like this in almost every post. But how can you resist taking a picture of a face like that?? Chocolate pudding was the winner this time.

Back home. Today we make a banana-creamcheese frozen dessert (and I just remembered that we were gonna have it for a snack tonight - but it's after midnight and Jeff and Uncle Marc are already asleep. Oh well I'm sure we'll eat it tomorrow)

The girls had a quick preview/pretaste of it as I was making it, and based on their effort to get every last bit off the beater I think it might be pretty good.

Katie is sporting her new "baker hat" she got from cousin Nate. She likes it almost as much as she liked the sampling.

So, I'm off to bed! Good night everyone.

"Farm" update

My super busy week is over!!! We had fun at VBS (no pics), the 4 groups we had at the Liebenzell Center over the last 8 days are gone again, Jeff is fishing, the girls are watching a show before bedtime and I have time to sit and catch you up a bit.
This morning after the girls were all dressed for church we had about 20 min to play before it was time to go. Maya insisted on wearing her life jacket for the entire time. She was very clear that she was NOT interested in taking it off anytime I suggested it. By the time we left for church, she was ok with it, but only because I could promise her that we get to sing the VBS songs at church.

GARDEN

Our garden is doing great, but last weekend when we had a crazy, heavy rain thunderstorm our corn and sunflowers ended up on the ground. We staked the sunflowers up and hoped for the best with the corn.

The zucchini are flowering, hopefully we have better luck this year. Last year once the fruit formed it would just rot before it was anywhere big enough to pick.

Our garden, the corn and sunflowers are standing again, the potatoes are doing great,the second try at beans brought actual plants (no idea what happened with the first sowing) and the tomatoes are starting to produce fruit. Hopefully things will keep going like that. We could use a good day of nice rain though.

RABBIT UPDATE

Blackie is a great mommy and we only lost that one kit the very first day and the other 7 are now cute, with fur and open eyes. They are 2 weeks old and both girls are thrilled that they are finally able to hold them.

Yup, there are 7 bunnies in there (3 white, 4 black)

Katie is getting pretty good at holding the rabbits gently.

She has all the makings for a little farmer. We are happy that the girls will have the opportunity to learn about nature and life as they participate in this rabbit project.

Maya does better just petting the little rabbits. She does pretty good as long as Katie doesn't come and try to take the bunnie away from her. That is one "toy" I won't let them fight over!!

Next week looks better, but the social calendar is filling up quickly. We're looking forward to a BBQ with some new friends and especially to the visit with my brother and family from Moncton. The weekend is our weekend off for the month and we're looking forward to a wedding (without kids - they're at Grandma and Grandpas) and then the rest of the weekend is nothing planned other than hanging out in Plattsville on Saturday and at home on Sunday - that's the plan so far anyway.

Hope you have a great week too!