Olivia's Guitar and Rally Day

Olivia has been saving her money for a while. She checks on two dogs in our neighborhood, Taffy and Riley. At first she wanted to buy a new DS but then she decided on a much better purchase.
A friend in our Church ward, Julie has been teaching Olivia guitar. Olivia had been telling me that she wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Julie was so kind to come over and share her talent with Olivia. Olivia was using her dad's larger guitar but her hands were too small to stretch and reach all the strings and frets. So Olivia decided that instead of the DS she would buy herself a new guitar - her size. She even got to pick the colour - Blue of course.
Olivia is doing great at guitar. She has a great memory for the chords and she is excited to learn from anyone. Even one of our missionaries, Elder Burris showed her how to pluck a primary tune. I think she is going to do great,she even loves to practice.

Another fun happening in Olivia's life was the Girl Guide Rally Day on May 15th. Here's a picture of her and some of the other Guides riding on the Montreal Metro.

This was a special event because it was celebrated in major cities all across Canada that day. Girl Guides is a 100 years old in Canada and we were going to celebrate. I had initially signed Olivia and myself up to attend the rally in Montreal but for some reason it did not get there before the deadline and we were not able to go. Olivia was so disappointed because her best friends Erin and Emily were going and some of the other guides from her unit too. She kept asking me that week "what are we going to do on Saturday? I'm going to be so bored!" Then Sue, (one of the guide leaders) phoned me, so excited, because two of the girls had backed out and we were in. We were so ecstatic!
The Rally was amazing they had all these locations in the city we could visit. We had transit passes and maps. Our girls chose China Town, The Old Port and the Redpath Museum on the McGill Campus. We had so much fun in China Town that we didn't have any time to do the scavenger hunt in the Old Port so we just ate our bag lunch and bought Beaver Tails. We kept running into other groups while we were walking around and travelling to our various destinations. The girls had a paper where they could cross off the groups that they met. We were Campfire #2 but we ran into tent, turtles, foxes and many others from all over Quebec. Sadly I don't have any pictures of us at the Old Port but here are some from the other places.
Taiwan Museum and Temple was so interesting.

Chinese Water Garden!


Redpath Museum - here we were so exhausted but we had all these fun things to find and search for it was a great time.

The final stop was the Ville Marie School. There we met up with lots of Guiders the room was full to the brim with Sparks, Brownies, Guides, Pathfinders....etc. We had birthday cake, saw a fun fashion show of all the Canadian Guider uniforms and sang some campfire songs. Then it was one final metro ride back to our cars and meeting for pick up with the parents. Our feet may have been sore but our hearts were happy. It was a great day, one that we won't forget for a long time.

William sees the light!!!

William has glasses now. He says "the world has never been clearer". He is nearsighted and we didn't even notice until this year. He kept telling me that he couldn't see things that were farther away then five feet in front of him. Dad finally took him to the optometrist and he got these great glasses. He's so handsome in them - don't you think?

William's Keva planks have arrived so here are a few pictures of what he and Olivia have built with them.


This contraption built by Olivia is called the Cascade.

Tie Dye Cupcakes

Olivia and I made these cute cupcakes yesterday. We wish that our family were here to share in these yummy treats but sadly we live too far away so we shared them with our Homeschooling friends and my Brownie pack.
MY DIET TIP OF THE DAY - BAKE IT! then TAKE IT! out of your house.
I love baking so I can do it now and not feel guilty.
We divided white cake batter evenly between five bowls and added food coloring to make the different colors. I used the four neon colors and then made an orange with red/yellow mix. For just simple grocery store food coloring they really turned our vibrant.

Afer mixing in the colors came the fun part. We dropped some of each color into each paper cupcake. We did it quickly by doing each color one after another. Go Olivia!


Everyone enjoyed them cause they're colorful bright and just oh so cheerful!

Stephen's Surprise Visit

Stephen was lucky enough to go to a conference in Monterey, California. He was all prepared to go but didn't receive the okay until the Thursday before the week he was to leave. It was no problem packing up and leaving. He was ready for a little California sunshine.

The conference was great especially the location with its beautiful beaches and warm breezes. But the highlight really was that Stephen rented a car and drove to see Hamish. Elder Macpherson was at that time in the southern most part of his mission which happened to be only about two hours from Monterey.
Enjoy the pictures.
This was a rare opportunity for Hamish to have his dad visit his missionary apartment. I wonder if he cleaned before Dad came.

Hamish is on a biking mission so he is really getting both spiritually and physically fit!!!

THAT'S ONE PROUD PAPA!!!

A Chocolate Fix

I found this great recipe for a chocolate lava cake. You make it in a mug and cook it in the microwave for less than a minute. Mixing this up is so easy. I'm WARNING you though, you might find yourself making this too often. It's great for when you are really craving something chocolaty and homemade.

Try it you'll love it!!!!!
INSTANT CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKE
2 T. sugar
2 T. flour
2 T. cocoa pwdr
1/4 tsp. Baking pwdr
3 T. (soy)milk
1 T. oil
3/4 tsp. vanilla
1 heaping T. of choco chips
1.In a mug, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa and baking pwdr until well mixed. Add milk, oil and vanilla, whisking just until smooth and no lumps. Add choco chips and mix a little more.
2.Place the mug in the microwave and start with about 40 secs (my micro is 900 watts and it takes about 5o secs). The exact time will depend on your microwave. The cake is still cooking for a while so let it sit for about 5 minutes. This is really good with ice cream.

Microwave Cake

I tried to microwave a cake in my new silicone cake pan and it worked out great. Bonus was that it only took about 9-10 minutes. It looked so nice Olivia said we should show it on our blog.

Olivia and William are always excited to share my successes in the kitchen. I do like to experiment and it isn't always to their liking so it's nice to see them this excited. You can never be sure what I'm going to do next. But I always try to keep things interesting. Microwave cake was one of my more successful baking adventures.

Happy 14th Birthday William

William had an amazing B-day weekend. He had his two friends come and visit from out of town. They spent the time just hanging out playing video games and just doing the boy thing. They arrived Friday the 26th of March evening and William B. left Sunday morning and Austin left Monday evening. I didn't take pictures but the boys went bowling which they mostly sucked at. William B. got the hightest score and sadly the birthday boy had the lowest. They also went to see the movie How to Train your Dragon which they said was awesome.

It was awesome hanging out with his buds. And now with summer coming they will be able to get together more often. It's hard to believe that he is 14 already the time is going so fast. William is a great kid who loves to read and play video games all day if I'd let him. Sadly I'm a mean mom. He's very keen on these Keva planks that we played with in San Diego so I'm ordering him some. Check'em out!!