About Daddy

I asked the kids a few questions for Fathers Day, just too see how well they know their Daddy:-)

What is the most important thing Dad has taught you?
K: How to ride a two wheeler bike
B: To obey your parents
G: Ummmmmm...football

What do you like best about Dad?
B: I like when he plays football with me
K: I like that he works for us
G: hugging

What is Dad's favourite food?
G: Chips!
B: Hamburgers
G: Flench fwies
K: Pizza
G: And he loves dwinks too!

What does Daddy do for his work?
B: I know! What was the question again?...oh! He gets paid money if he works very hard
K: He works so we won't get poor
G: He dis works

...ok, but what does he DO at work?
(B & G = clueless expressions)
K: he works with tools

What is Daddy's favourite colour?
B: Blue
K: Green
G: Gween

What kind of truck does Dad drive?
B: That's a tricky one...
K: a Chef? Is it a Chef?
B: I know it's a truck, it's grey, it's a rectangle on the trunk park, and the top is similar to a square

What is Daddy good at?
B: sports
G: Yah, he does spoy-ts, he does dat
K: working

What is Daddy bad at?
B: That is a tough one...
K: He's bad at finding hairbrushes

What is Dad's favourite sport?
B: football
K: hockey
G: numbers

Who is Daddy's best friend?
K: I think Josh Dufek

Where is Dad from?
B: the United States!

Grandma Kennedy

My Grandma, Mary Francis (Lehman) Kennedy, would have been 99 years old today, if she were still alive! She passed away in February of 2007 (I was expecting Brooks in April/May). She lived her whole life in the Markham/Stouffville area, and was a very sweet lady. She was not known for her great cooking per se (ahem, don't eat the meringue!...there's no sugar in it!), but there were a few recipes she is family-famous for, like her beef barley soup! She outlived her husband by 24 years, and after he passed away, she became quite the world traveler. She would buy a  silver or gold sugar spoon as a souvenir from the various places she visited, and I have a few of them, now that she is gone. She is dearly missed! Love you Grandma - {eating a ju-jube in rememberance;-)}

Here is Grandma Kennedy, with her Great-Granddaughter, Kennedy! Kenna was the  23rd great-grandchild, and since her, there have been 17 more born, with 2 more on the way, that I know of. I have a LOT of cousins!

Ca'merican Art

Well, July is approaching, which means Canada Day and Independence Day are coming! Here are a few ideas for your patriotic decor this year...Since we are "Ca'merican", we mush all the patriotism together, of course:-)

I printed off the images at Costco (cheapest place to do so for prints, I think). For the American flag art, and the Liberty bell art, I made my own little "stand" for them. I adhered them to a thin chipboard - similar to a cereal box...and put a bend in it...like this:

A quick easy way to display something like this - you don't need a frame or other ...great for items you aren't leaving out year around.

So, I couldn't really find any Canadian stuff that I loved, that was available to print for free from online (like the American stuff) - so I made my own! I printed mine in 11x14, but you can also do 8x10. I really really love it! Here is the image, contact me if you want me to email you the full file for the best printing.

My cute, happy little patriotic display only took minutes to throw together! Very red & white & red & white & blue:-)

Catch Up

A few random pics from this week...

Tired from last weekends Chincoteague adventure, Brooks fell asleep on the couch, with his football, of course.

The pic doesn't show it too well, I guess, but I got a little crispy on my face:-) No makeup other than eye stuff on...and lots of moisturizer...put I peeled a bit anyway.

Grey thought this was a caterpillar, and kept it as a pet for about 30 minutes. It was really part of a plant, but there was no convincing him of that.

We are done with Sonny & May for the summer!

Ready, set, RACE!

It's very fun to drive your own remote control car directly at yourself, and then jump over it

A dead snake in the road. A rat snake maybe? Based on the shape of the head, a poisonous one. EEEEWWWW. I did *NOT* let Grey touch this one!

Pretty Flowers

I don't know what is wrong with me, I am not a photographer, and I never used to give a second thought to flowers and such.

But as I age, I guess (we'll blame it on age!), I really am beginning to see the awesome beauty and unique weirdness in God's creation, specifically flowers and plants. So pretty. Here are a few pictures from my yard, this week

This is on a tree, which I *think* is called a Mimosa tree. It has the most unusual  fluffy, Horton Hears A Who-ish flowers on them.

Fragrant Chicken Curry - Recipe

A really yummy Thai dish - I don't make it often, as it calls for some ingredients that aren't on hand, always, and are kind of expensive. We love it though, so it was perfect to make for our anniversary dinner at home.

Fragrant Chicken Curry 
3 T oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cl garlic, crushed
1 T Red Thai Curry paste
4 oz creamed coconut
4 C coconut milk (about 2.5/3 cans worth)
2 lemon grass stalks (2 T of the crushed fresh lemon grass)
6 lime leaves (or lime zest of about 2 large-ish limes)
2/3 C plain greek yogurt (or regular plain yogurt)
2 T apricot jam
1 cooked chicken approx 3 - 3 1/2 lbs (or equivalent boneless skinless breasts, cooked)

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onion and garlic and cook over low heat for 5-10 mins until soft. Stir in the red curry paste. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Stir in the creamed coconut and coconut milk, then add lemon grass, lime, yogurt and apricot jam. Stir well, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove the pan from heat and leave to cool slightly. Transfer the sauce to a blender or food processor and process until a smooth puree, then strain it back into the rinsed out pan, set aside while you prepare chicken.

Cut chicken into bite size pcs, and add to sauce, bring sauce to simmer again, and season with salt & Pepper. Garnish with lime leaves, shredded coconut and cilantro/coriander. Serve over Jasmice rice.

*Often, I prepare the chicken first, so all I have to do is make the sauce and add then the chicken at the end and warm it up. Also, often we put in julienne carrots and snow peas.

For our dessert, Kenna made us some Easy Bake brownies, all by herself:-) and they set us up a little table to eat at, complete with notecards full of math questions to answer. Just so we don't lose our mental edge, I guess. Nothing says a fun anniversary family dinner like doing math, right?!

 It was super cute and very sweet! We love those kids!!

DIY Candles

In the spirit of our wedding anniversary, I thought I would show you something I made for our wedding - it was part of the decoration on the tables, and doubled also as the take home gift for people! It was a very economical way to accomplish both of those things (table decor, and thank you gift for attendees). I say "I" made these...it was a joint effort, really. My dad did all of the cutting work, I did all of the decor part:-)

We made three sizes of candles, this is the tallest and the medium one. The cute shortest ones were all taken by wedding guests, I didn't have any of that size left over

So, we bought fence posts. Big, long, 3.5x3.5 fence posts from Home Depot. My Dad cut them down to size - 3 sizes (S, M, L), and then he drilled a shallow hole in the top, the exact diameter of a tealight candle.

After they were all cut, I lined them back up on the floor, as though they were still big, long, sticks of lumber, and I started painting them. When dry, rotate all and paint the next side, repeat, repeat.

An example of how I lined them back up end to end for painting

After I had finished the cream colour base coat, I applied painters tape, along the whooooole big long string of lumber - I did not do them individually, which I believe saved me a ton of time. Then I did the glaze coat. Once dried, remove tape, and then tape the next side, repeat, repeat.

Once all sides were painted, a glazed stripe put on, and all dried, I used a marbley-spatter spray paint, (found at Michaels) in gold, and sprayed them all, again, side by side, waiting until each side was dry before turning.

Since this was not only table decor, but a take home gift, we adhered this message to the bottom of each candle.

To finish it off, I tied a burgundy ribbon around the candles (our wedding colour), and we were done! The nice thing about this neutral candle, is that you can change the ribbon out to your desired colour to match any home or seasonal decor. Easy! The whole thing itself was really very affordable to make, and not very difficult at all. The only "con" to this, when making the volume of them that I was (I probably made 150 of these), is that it is time consuming. Not labour intensive, just lots of waiting time between coats of paint before you can flip them all for the next side.

Cute, simple, and I still use these in my home decor now!