Summer Swimming

We went swimming for the first time this summer. And I know that's a strange thing seeing as its the last day of June. After our two other attempts at swimming I was a little scared. Its been over 90 degrees for two days, so I thought we could give it a shot. These are pics of the community rec center that we went to. It was very nice and only cost $13 for all of us. Way better than a trip to Splashtown, and no one got a sunburn. Also we didn't have any problems being cold. However, the pool is kept at 84 and the children's pool is 95 degrees. Luckily the children's pool was closed when we got there, because after I got in the children's pool there was no getting in the wave pool. The boys all had a great time. Mason loves "wimming", and the big boys got to do the slide and everything. And best of all we just walked to the car and came home wet. No changing because it was too cold outside.

Chicken Fried Steak

So, after reading the blog about Texas food I just had to try my hand at a Texas favorite. Chicken Fried Steak, mashed potatoes, and cream gravy. I have to say the gravy was awesome. I never have pan drippings to make it with, and usually just use butter, but this was so much better. The steak could have been a little better, but I've certainly had worse in some restaurants.

Oh, and you will be suprised to hear that I've only eaten 3 kolaches. We are saving them for the morning. And I even considered putting the gravy left-overs on one. I mean it tastes good on biscuits, wouldn't it be fabulous on kolaches? But we'll probably skip that idea since we have some steak and potatoes left over as well.

I did it!

Look at these Kolaches! And, I admit they aren't the best in Texas, but I guarantee they are the best in all of Canada! They are so good I'm not sure if I'm willing to share. I could put 2 or 3 in a bag and put them in the freezer and they could last me a few months anyway. They weren't terribly hard to make, but you do have to knead doh and wait for it to rise, about 4 times. Oh, and I found Polish sausage!!!! I had to cut them down a lot, but still, better than Canadian sausage.

Texas Food

We are helping a family move tomorrow, and I was thinking of what breakfast food to bring to get us started on the right foot. While everyone will likely have their own idea, I think Kolaches are the perfect "work to get done" food. And of course there aren't any in Canada. There isn't even any edible breakfast sausage. So I decided if I ignored the sausage issue and closed my eyes, just maybe I could make some Kolaches and make due with Canadian (Ukranian sausage.) So I set out in search of a recipe. And I found the most fabulous blog with everything Tex-Mex and Texan. With recipes tested by a transplanted Texan. In browsing around I also found a recipe for Texas Tortillas. I just can't explain how wrong the tortilla's are here. So now I'm torn, real breakfast tacos or Kolaches. And if they come out right, will I even be able to share! Here is the link for anyone interested in learning to make some of their Texas favorites, or wanting to know the history behind many of them. I'm starving now. Thankfully, I'll be home in a little over a week!

http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/

End of Year Ceremonies

The boys last day of school is today. They had end of the year ceremonies and awards this morning. The Grade 6 students will all be going to Jr. High next year.

These are all the Grade 6 students.
Grant getting his prize for this months Beat the clock winner. A draw is done out of all the children with perfect attendance.
Tyler getting a service award for being a safety patrol.
Tyler getting his graduation certificate.
The Grade 6s.

Mason will be so happy to have the kids home this summer. He has just about had it with them getting on the bus without him in the morning. Yesterday he kept yelling "wait Grant, wait" and then he turned to me and said "on, on." If Grant wasn't staying he was going with him!

Track and Field Day

Tyler and Grant had field day this afternoon. I can't tell you how nice it is to have field day when its 72 degrees outside! Everyone seemed to have a great time, and the weather was perfect.

See more pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/ccarrabine5/TylerAndGrantTrackAndFieldDay?authkey=XQ7rU4HqJB8

The Beach

It was over 80 today, so we headed out to the beach. Ok, maybe not what we consider a beach, but an Alberta beach. A nearby lake has another campground with a beach, Wabamun Lake. Pigeon Lake where we stayed last week had a rocky beach, so we wanted to try another one. We also drove over to Alberta Beach on another lake to take a look. This one was nice, but we weren't totally prepared. All are about an hour away, but we'll keep looking. The water was a little cold too.

Tyler thought the water was too cold.
Mason wasn't sure when the water got up to his shorts.
Look at Grant way out in the back to the right.
Grant wasn't scared to jump in and swim.
Mason spent some time digging.

Lipstick anyone

Mason found a tube of lipstick today. Luckily he only had time to put it on himself. He started with the lips, but ended with his knee. Turns out lipstick is very hard to get off skin.

Our camping

This is how we choose to camp. A meal completely cooked on the grill, and then eaten outside. And served on our new camping dishes. We get to sleep in our own beds tonight. Of courses this would be nicer in our backyard in Houston, but a lot hotter.

As you can tell, Tyler is still recovering from our camping trip.


We even had watermelon. All of this left over from our camping trip. And notice how brite it is outside at 7 pm.

This is a bag of ice from our cooler. I think we over did it. This was in the cooler for about 30 hours, and then on our back deck for 15 hours. It was finally completed melted after 23 hours. We could have taken ice cream camping and it been fine.

Camping

We got talked into going camping this weekend with 4 other families. Which, in theory, would be great fun, except we (Frank and I) hate camping. I had said originally that we would come out and spend the day, but somehow we ended up camping. They were staying Friday and Saturday night. We left Saturday evening (along with 3 other families, only the Canadians stayed.) I found out 2 days before the trip that the lake is bigger than lake Conroe, and they actually have houses to rent on the lake. Why I wasn't in a house I do not know!

Things I learned about camping in Canada:

1. Its cold!

2. The campsites on the lake are the worst ones. Its colder. Luckily we weren't on the lake.

3. When going to the boat launch/fishing area, drive! Turns out its quite a long way while pushing a stroller through gravel.

4. No one want's to take a shower when its freezing.

5. Everything smells like smoke.

6. The tent goes on the gravel ground, so bring lots of tarps.

7. There are no scary critters (no 'coons or opposums, or bears.)

8. Mosquitos are as big as horse fly's, but they don't really bite.

9. Cooking is not as difficult as it would seem, but doing dishes with freezing water is. Although keeping the bugs out of the cooking pot isn't easy.

10. If you bring a large pot to heat water over the fire and fill it with soapy water and use a wash cloth to clean the smoke off your face, it is the best thing ever, and probably would have helped you sleep had you done it before bed instead of after you got up.

11. Invest in the $200 off the ground air mattress, which we didn't.

12. If you must go camping, take a bunch of people so you don't see the kids for hours on end.

13. "Camp soap" is not necessary and no one knows what it really is, but since it was on the list I bought it.

14. The more you drink the more likely you have to pee at 4 in the morning, when its freezing, but at least the sun is up already.

And the final thought - get a hotel, RV, or house and save yourself all the trouble. Plus, it will be cheaper!

See all the pics here http://photoshare.shaw.ca/view/10305942467-1213497897-71682/

Mason's Birthday Presents

Mason's birthday present from Kennedy and Cooper finally came. Between the US and Canadian post office what was supposed to take 2 weeks took nearly a month!

Here Mason is eating his yogurt in his new truck shirt.

And here he is playing with his new squirt tools in the tub! He kept squirting me and when I would say I'm wet he would say "sorry" and wipe it with his wet hand.

More Rugby

We had Rugby again this weekend. After the boys had their game there was a game of adults, something like a semi-pro game. These boys were big, and they hit hard, you could here it from the stands. And their tackles were piles with fighting. Turns out the game is never stopped in Rugby so they are down until someone gets the ball back. Thank goodness the boys don't play like that!


And this is a "scrum", but it looks very different from Tyler's team. Tyler only has 3 from each team in the scrum, and they don't really fight much.

Crawfish Etouffe

Here is what has become of our crawfish boil. It turned out great, and wasn't all that hard to make. Amazing how these things we pay lots of money for aren't all that difficult. And my eyes were bigger than my stomach, so I'm completely stuffed. I will have to make this again! Of course the boys didn't eat it, and it wasn't even spicy, just for them. The potatoes and corn were also left overs.

"I drink"

This is how Mason spent his morning....

First, we had a few beers....
Then we had a few more...

All while saying, I drink.....another one....I drink....


Look at all my beer! (And before I get reported to the authorities, he's only "drinking" the water off the top from the ice in the cooler. - and if you ask him for a beer he will run yelling beer the whole way, and bring you back a rootbeer.
And after our drinks we had some quiet time with play doh from his birthday!

Crawfish boil

Last night we finally had our crawfish boil. We had three of our neighbor families over, and 2 families from Frank's work. In all we had 2 families from Houston, 1 from Miami, 2 from Canada, and 1 from Scotland. We had corn and potatoes with the crawfish, dirty rice, and lots of other food. Most everyone liked the crawfish. This is our left overs. I forgot to take the picture until everyone was done. The crawfish were frozen, pre-seasoned from China, but it was good. We boiled it with crab boil anyway. We peeled this batch, and I'm going to attempt to make some etouffe with it. We'll see how that goes.

We had rugby this morning, but I didn't bring my camera. Tyler's group learned how to "scrum" today. That's when they do the huddle thing.