Gingerbread playdoh

One of the moments of Mummy genius over the Christmas holidays was to take the 5 mins needed to make some Gingerbread playdoh.  We often make gingerbread and spend hours decorating it over day and day and days.  There was no way that was going to work this year, but I was directed to someone elses blog post about making playdoh that smells just like ginger bread.  Yum. So after making some as a gift to take to friends on Christmas eve, and a sweet girls plea, I mixed some up in 10mins flat, and it is was the best fun of the season.

play doh gets dry really quickly here because it's so dry, but not this stuff.

my pie, it smelt too good to only be a spectator

hours and hours of fun

Here's the recipe, more for me for next year, as I will likely forget where I have stored it, but you may be interested.

• 1 cup all purpose flour (plain)
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. ground cloves (didn't use)  Spice wise just use 2tbsp on what you have
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp orange extract {optional}

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan whisk together dry ingredients. Next mix in the water, oil, and orange extract and stir until a thick batter is formed. Cook the mixture over low/medium heat until a thick dough forms. Turn out onto parchment paper and knead until smooth. Makes about 2 cups of dough.

Copyright © 2010-2011 Sweet Sugarbelle.

Boxing day hay ride

 

 

 

 

terrible photo of me, but hey ho, the 4 eldest Hindles setting out on the hayride

not as cold as it looks, Honest!

the lovely ladies and some gentlemen we'd come to see, all munching away

driving right through the middle of a whole bunch of cows

beautiful friends

We were invited out to our good friends on Boxing day.  One of the treats of the day was a hay ride.  We had a wonderful time, the little boys were sleeping in the house and the rest of us piled onto the trailer behind the tractor.  Bit of fresh air, lots of games, good food and good company.  If you can't be home for Christmas, the Hansma's boxing day is the next best thing.

Another reminder that we are back. 

Fun in the s___ (now)

You should always be glad when you have the chance to use sand toys all year round. Granted I would like to have been using these at the beach,but the stingy side of me is glad that at least I am using them! Snow castles are fun too.




These were taken late last week. Today is -33 with a wind chill on top.

It was not fun to shovel the path. I had left it 24 hours since snow had fallen and it had to be done.

It was fun to find parcels in the mail box. Thank you everyone, you made my frozen hands worthwhile.

Working cattle

Tom was helping move cattle on Sat, so we all tagged along for a fun morning out at the farm.
There was a slightly stressful start when I set the alarm an hour late, and so woke the house with cries of 'Get up, we have to leave NOW'. In the end we were the first there! The mornings are so dark these days that it was still dark when we got there, but it was a time to make precious memories like these.



I have a movie of Heidi riding Honey but I can't get it to load, will keep trying. It is a huge blessing that our girls have places to run and play and ride in wagons safe. I had a teary eye watching my big girl chase after the kittens in her little wrangles and red ladybug sweater. We have much to be grateful for.

Is this the future?

 

Guide to Stampede

You must start Stampede the way that Stampede is supposed to be started, down town, ridiculously early and with 300,000 other people to watch the parade.




Because it is the hottest day of the year so far, you eat strawberries in the shade, the best way you know how. And you can hose babies off, because it is so hot.


And then on Sat. morning, you get up early again, and go to the Bowness parade (still in Calgary, just a specific part) and get a free breakfast before the fun begins.
Doesn't Tom look like he is having fun?

It is the perfect time for babies to get their first pancake, although it should be rescused off the plate before the syrup is slathered on!


Then the fun part of this parade begins. Sweets are thrown by every float, and all that the kids have to do is run run run and collect more sweets than is good for anyone.
And the adults sit and direct the kids as to where to run to!

These people were cute, and threw good candy!

And this girl thought all her Christmases had come at once!


Then on Monday you drag yourself out of bed again, and head down to the Stampede ground to do some watching of your friend

And see her win these in the Miniature horse show. Cool outfit Sarah!

Then there's fake horses to ride.....

And cute babies to watch you ride them!

All this would be enough, but you must must press on for the most free meals in 10 days, and so on Wed we headed out for another pancake breakfast. All ran according to plan, except I brought home a little member of the armed forces. Can Brits be in the Canadian armed forces?


Not sure I'll have the camera for the breakfast tomorrow morning, but I will be there. Free food is a must!

Learning new skills

Hopie watching the world cup!


Life has been super busy here.
We have been watching the world cup, but not with the excitement that we had hoped!
We have been hanging out with friends, and sharing some good times watching children playing and laughing in the sunshine.
And we have been helping friends to lay a laminate floor! This has been an involved kind of help, of late nights and early mornings and other people babysitting your kids kind of help. And I have learnt to use a table saw and a chop saw and a mitre saw and a jigsaw and how to measure and fit and bang into place with a rubber mallet! It has been really good fun, and I am excited to have learned something new. I guess the main problem is I have no idea what the power tools are called in the UK. Guess I cant do any floors at home!
So now I think we should return to some kind of steady gentle life, to recover and to take stock and get back into the routine of a day in the Hindle house.
At least for tomorrow, there's an England game on at breakfast time on Wednesday....

Somedays it just seems like a good day to have Micky mouse shaped pancakes :)

Chopping wood

We had a happy busy day on Sat, helping Mike and Nicole get their veggie garden plot a bit more usable for the coming year.

There was taking back one row of Cotoneasters (keeping in the little ones though for me to dig out for a free hedge this spring!)

Hope helped by sleeping well in the fresh air, well as fresh as it gets being parked next to the compost heap!

I missed getting a picture of Tom with the axe getting down around 30 poplars, here's the stumps that are left. He plans to chainsaw the stumps when more of the snow is gone.

We hauled the wood out to the waiting truck.....

And chopped it up into firewood.

And the best part is that there's brush wood waiting to dry ready for a giant bonfire :)

One of those precious days when the sun is warm on your back, you are amongst friends, the children are playing happily and you go to bed exhausted!

Just a typical Tuesday?

Today was the day that the Olympic torch made its way through Calgary on route to Vancouver for the 2010 winter Olympics. The winter Olympics are huge here, although for the most part the sports seem dull to watch they were fun to play on the Wii!! We have friends who live on the parade ground so we joined in the celebrations.

Getting ready to watch the flame being run down the street

Here it comes!

Worth all the wait? Well I wouldn't have stood out for hours like some had, but popping out the house a few mins before and running in afterwards for lunch was fun. There were lots of people lining the route and so there was lots of noise and excitement.

Although our tiny Canadian was thoroughly unimpressed!