Twisted Pearl

It’s been a very busy, hectic summer so far.  I have lots of updates – I’ll start with the bad stuff:

Dave’s dad was diagnosed with cancer earlier this month and they are saying it is terminal. The family could use your prayers.   And for those who don’t know, we lost my cousin Debbie to cancer a few weeks ago and the same day my grandfather was killed in a accident.

So far, the summer hasn’t been all bad though. I’ve been working a lot but I’ve found time for some down time anyway.  I spent a few days out in Ottawa for my grandpa’s funeral and it was really nice to see family that I haven’t seen in years.  I am very grateful to Dave, my parents and my friends who helped make the trip possible for me.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the summer so far (From my trip, the local fair, the Blumenort fair and here at home with the kids)

And a video – my boyfriend burning up the tires on his truck. Cause he’s a little redneck like that. He won first place at the Burnout Competition during the Blumenort fair last weekend. This video is from Gerald’s after party where he burned off a second set of tires.

Today was St Patrick’s Day and I had the kids for the evening. We celebrated by cooking up a batch of green cupcakes and icing them with green icing. I had planned to serve them up with green milkshakes but I got vetoed and so we enjoyed root beer floats instead.

Enjoy! – Click to see a bigger version – and yes, print versions will be handed out over Christmas

Well hello there! I realized today that it’s been over a month since I last blogged – opps.    I guess it’s been a busy month lol.  So here’s some updates and such.

1. Work – I decided to slow down a little on the working so I quit cashiering at Safeway. I’m still working there Friday nights 2-3 times a month but that’s about it. It’s been nice having a little more down time

2. Social – Next weekend, Nov. 13 – is a fundraising social for the Steinbach Humane Society. It is at LaBar and tickets are $10. If you want to come, let me know and I’ll score you some tickets. CHeck out the awesome poster I designed for the event (click on the image to enlarge)

3. Halloween – This year was a weird Halloween. We had Halloween stuff 4 days in a row lol. Thursday as the kid’s party at Southland, Friday was at the mall, Saturday we went to a Halloween party where even Dave and I dressed up and Sunday the kids went trick or treating with my parents.   This year Ariel went as Queen Elizabeth the Third, Kahlan went as a ninja and Rayelle went as a princess.   For the party, Dave went as Waldo’s Evil Twin – the Waldo You Don’t Want To Find. One of my friends went as a vampire and I went as her victim. I wore a shredded wedding dress and she painted bite marks on my neck.

We have officially reached the end of Birthday Season 2010 lol – well mostly. For those who don’t know – our kids have their birthday Sept 20, Sept 20 and Sept 8 – with Dave’s  birthday just a week earlier lol.  On their actual birthdays we give them gifts and have a special supper and cake just the five of us. Then we normally have one big party with all the aunts and uncles/grandparents.     This year was Dave’s 30th so we also had a party for him and because everyone was so busy, we ended up splitting up the Unrau/Williams parties.  So here’s a photo recap:

BBQ For Dave’s 30th Birthday on Aug 28

Rayelle’s Birthday on Sept. 8

Cupcakes with the Williams family on Sept 12

Lunch at the Unrau’s Sept 19th

Ariel & Kahlan’s Birthday on Sept. 20

Now – time for Christmas lol

Today we took a trip to Oak Hammock Marsh. The last time I went was 14 years ago – and Dave doesn’t think he’s ever been. We took Rayelle and Kahlan (Ariel is in Texas at the moment) and my parents joined us along with Keira and Cody. Here are a few of the highlights:

A pictures showing the top of the building – it has grass growing on the roof tops to help it blend into the area and be less intrusive. The top roof and most of the area around are planted with natural prairie grasses and are not mowed so in the fall, its much longer and more natural looking.

The kids loved this display in the entrance – it showed both above and below the water and included fish, turtles, ducks, snakes, rabbits, deer, fox and more.

The discovery area was a lot of fun. This first picture is a storm maker. Basically it is set up so one half is a natural wetland and the other half is a wetland/marsh that has been drained to make farmland. When you press the button, the cloud rains and flashes lightning and the water movement shows how the side that has been drained is effected (flooding issues, erosion, etc). The kids loved making it storm lol.

The observation deck is at the top of the building and you can see the whole marsh – so gorgeous!

And last  but not least – critter dipping. Definitely one of the highlights lol. The kids spent about half an hour searching for critters in the water. Rayelle even caught a water scorpian (CREEPY looking thing).

So – yesterday the kids and I were online surfing cake pics on Google, looking for cake ideas for their Unrau party when we came across this awesome M’n'M/Kit Kat cake on Paige’s Pantry. The kids LOVED it and so I agreed to try to make it.  It was pretty simple – I made a box cake (yeah – I cheated) and they picked a vanilla with candy bits in it. I made to thick layers and iced them with vanilla icing. Then, I cut Kit Kat bars into 2-stripe pieces and wrapped them around the cake. I found ribbon in at the dollar store that said Happy Birthday on it with a dot border in similar colors to the M’n'Ms.  Then I covered the cake top with M’n'M and used a little extra icing to stick an M’n'M to the bottom of each KitKat stick.  It was quick and simple though in retrospect – chocolate icing would have been better. It would have blended in with the chocolate more .

This weekend Uncle Bill & Aunty Kaye were out from Alberta so they joined us for the kids’ Unrau birthday party. Aunty Kaye is Dave’s maternal grandmother’s older sister.

Uncle Bill & Aunty Kaye are best known by the kids for their cards. For decades now, Aunty Kaye has been sending cards with Laura Secord chocolates in them to all her nieces/nephews and great nieces/nephews for birthdays and every holiday from Valentines to Halloween lol.  Over the last few years, she hasn’t been able to send as many but she still sends homemade cards for birthdays and the kids love them.  So – when they heard that Aunty Kaye was going to be there today, they decided to make cards and they took some of their birthday money down to the corner store and bought chocolates to put in them.  It was so cute!