As summer melts into autumn

Back to school and slowly waning warm weather has been keeping us outside and busy in various ways. I make no apologies for soaking up every last drop of warmth and sunshine as the evenings and mornings grow darker.

That is not to say that craft and creations have come to a halt. There was a delicious apple cake which Z1 directed, funeral portraits for our dearly departed fish, a pirate hat for Husband from Z1 and we are currently planning for bat costumes* for Hallowe'en. 

I don't mind shop-bought costumes but I do maintain that there's a certain charm in homemade costumes that just doesn't happen with bought ones. Watch this space.

*links to other bat-mentioning posts, not brilliant bat costumes, you will have to wait for them.

Le Conquering of Les Crafts en France

 In the middle of August, me and the Zeds left work and school as usual one day and were driven by Husband to the airport. We took a 'plane to Paris, took a train to a town near our top-secret holiday hideaway and were collected by my venerable father and magnificent mother to be transported to the peaceful and green place in the picture. With multiple adults to watch the various children, warm sunshine, countryside and not much else, the pace of crafts here was considerably more relaxed than the 21 days of Christmas Conquering Crafts that started this blog.  In fact, though I was prepared to do more, we only really made a fairy house.




This was a scheme that I was rather more excited about than Z1 was. I thought we could do a stick collecting expedition as phase one with construction belonging to phase two but the phases merged. Z2 was good at stick-collecting but had to be persuaded to relinquish them as building materials as he likes to use them to fight bad guys.  The paint on the stones was from an outdoor painting project (painting sticks, in fact, using the stones as a palette for the paints) that Z1 did under my dad's supervision but they doubled up as good walls for the house.Interestingly, Z1 confirmed that she saw some items of fairy furniture, including a sofa made out of teeth, one morning when she checked the house. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a photo of this but it is, surely, a sign that the fairy house was most successful even if it didn't quite look like these .

Other relevant information:

• I did make the paper houses from this post with one of the other resident children
• I also made this delicious and delightful dinosaur cake but that was all my own work with limited baking resources.

Conquering Canadian Camping - Illustrated by Z1

Please take a moment to delight in the details of Z1's drawing of camping - the zip for the door to the tent, the torch hanging from the roof, the blue, bubbly air mattresses, the toasting of the marshmallows!

Conquering Canadian Camping

Me and Zeds

I consider myself something of a veteran camper. Not a hardcore, out-in-the-woods-with-nothing-but-my-tent, camper but a civilized-campsite-with-toilets-and-showers camper.

Throughout my childhood and up to my teens, I went camping in France on family holidays. I have innumerable happy memories of these trips - hot sticky car memories, Vivaldi's Four Seasons while feeling slightly carsick, early morning zip sounds, discovering unexpected playgrounds, smelling other people's dinners in the evenings, earning a franc for finding a forgotten tent peg, the joy of parents coming into the water to splash, speaking Irish to confuse small Dutch children who spoke good English, walking up to the campsite shop in pyjamas to buy bread in the mornings, terrifying and exciting thunderstorms in a rattly tent...  With all this and the addition of living in Canada where camping and campfires seem almost obligatory, it is no wonder I was keen to bring the Zeds camping.


Preparation really started last year when I bookmarked a tent so that I'd be emailed if it was about to become a bargain. I read the reviews and ignored the bad ones. I am quite good at that. As it was our first family camping trip and, as I only realised after booking the site and buying the tent, Husband's first camping trip ever, we picked somewhere close to home. We did a test run of the tent in the garden and the Zeds slept in their sleeping bags for the week before we were due to go.  I was more proud of getting the tent back into its carry case after putting it up than I was of putting it up all on my own (with a little help from Z1).

I packed up the car , thinking of my dad all the time as I tried to do it as efficiently as possible - squeezing squishy things into tight spots and making maximum use of the space. I had lists stuck up in the kitchen and ticked them off as I got things done. I was the queen of camping organisation. Z2 had just graduated from nappies meaning less bulk to pack but also leaving me wondering a little anxiously how far away the toilets would be from our tent.


The Zeds on site

Our site? Oh, our site was glorious - large, shaded, secluded, backing onto the little river, not too far from the toilet but not so close we could smell it. Glorious and wonderful. Never mind the noisy, radio-playing neighbours across the river. Husband hadn't really expected neighbours, let alone noisy ones.

We put up the tent with careful attention to which way the door should face and started pumping up the mattresses. I was very impressed with the luxury of the air mattresses - a far cry from the canvas and rubber lilos that I was used to. I was, in fact, rather excited to try out our grand queen size air mattress but that fell through when I unfolded it to find that the stopper was not attached. I valiantly attempted to keep the air in by leaving the pump attached and sealing with bubble gum but, in the end, the Zeds top-and-tailed on one single mattress and me and Husband shared the other. Thankfully, we are somewhat of a miniature family and it was reasonably comfortable.

For the Zeds, a lot of the focus of the camping trip was on marshmallows and s'mores. I had bought a fancy extendable toasting fork, Husband set the fire and the Zeds were assured that after the hot dogs and burgers, they could toast marshmallows. Our fire was very smoky indeed. In fact, I think it contributed to my worst-headache-in-the-world-ever ™ (with apologies to those who suffer truly debilitating migraines - that phrase kept echoing in my head all night as I tried to sleep). However, we had deliciously smoky burgers and delectably charred hot dogs. Turns out the Zeds don't really like (smoky) toasted marshmallows.



Not the weather when we woke
after our first night but later on

We woke up in the morning, ready for Nutella on bread for breakfast only to find that we had committed the rookie mistake of leaving our cooler bag in the open. There were no bears to worry about but a pesky raccoon stole all our bread, marshmallows and chocolate biscuits. This was not a great start to a rainy camping morning but, luckily for us, it turned out that some campers in another part of the site were putting on a free-for-all pancake breakfast so all was well.

Despite smoke, headache and no double mattress, despite rain and stolen food, despite noisy camping neighbours and more trips to the toilet with Z2 than were really necessary (not 'cause he has just toilet-trained, though, turns out there was a bridge on the way to the toilets and he kept saying he needed to go so that we could play Poohsticks on the way back), I loved it. I have already been researching other sites which are radio-free and further away. I had memories triggered from unexpected sources  (notably the blast of warmth and smell of toothpaste intermingled with toilets in the wash block) at every turn and I welcomed them all.

You may also be interested to know:
On our return, when packing up the queen mattress to be returned for a refund due to the lack of a stopper, I found the stopper. Perhaps I was not the queen of camping organisation after all.

In which I am the over-zealous parent at a party

In general, I quite enjoy going to the Zeds' friends' birthday parties. The reasons for this are multiple: 1. I usually get cake 2. I like watching children run around and be over-excited 3. I enjoy reminiscing about the parties I had and the ones I went to as a child. 4. Chatting with other parents is mostly pleasant.




Z2's had all the action on the back

       Pensive           Action shot
                              of the back

At a birthday party over the weekend (one of two - two birthday parties in one weekend is a bit much, even for me, I will admit), I fear I was the annoying parent. My first wrongdoing was texting the night before to say that Z2 and husband would come along "if that's ok" in addition to myself and Z1. The gracious hostess said that was fine and asked, apologetically, if I could bring a white t-shirt for Z2 to dye as the ones she had were accounted for. I assured her I would and not to worry as we'd bring a hankie or something otherwise. I also said I was excited about the idea of tie dye at which point she, quite possibly joking, said I could bring something along to dye myself. Here is my second wrongdoing - I did bring a vest top to dye myself. As I type, I feel slightly ashamed but I was very excited - I haven't done tie dye in years and this was to be spray dyes which I had never even heard of.



And me and mine

The wise mother-of-the-birthday-girl had organised the whole party in the back garden - 5 year olds and dye at a party in one's house could have been a little disastrous for the walls and carpet, I would imagine.  Z1 decided against the "tie" part of tie dye and just went freestyle with the spray on the shirt. She loves it and wore it a birthday party in the park the next day as well as to school on the following Monday. I think she carries it off with style and aplomb. I was very good and did not interfere in her creative process. Even better, despite being, perhaps  almost certainly, over-involved in the tie-dying activity (I had to remind myself a couple of times to wait my turn after the official birthday guests were finished), I did allow Z1 to ruin add her artistic influence to my top. Z2's contribution to his was chiefly in choosing the colours. So, who do you think wears it best?

You may also be interested to know:

• Other highlights of this party included this jelly goo stuff which entertained the small people for ages as they declared themselves to be lizard princes/princesses/queens and smeared it all over their skin, there was also a paddling pool AND ice cream with sprinkles and sauces in addition to the standard and necessary cake. Magnificent party overall (Thanks, Jennifer, if you happen to be reading!).
• There may be more tie dye posts to come - I have been inspired.

Impossible Coconut Pie

I didn't even need to think up a catchy title for this post as the name of the recipe is pretty catchy in itself, doncha think? I believe the pie is called "impossible" as it forms its own crust when baked and you don't have to make pastry. I found it in the ever-flowing fount of inspiration and was curious to try it but felt I should find a reason to make it.

I bought the coconut on Tuesday and was still looking for a reason to make it. The problem with baking in my house is that, while I usually have enthusiastic helpers in a Zed or two, they aren't usually very enthusiastic eaters of the results. I don't understand why as we've only had one baking result that was really and truly not worth eating. We do have willing neighbours, though.

Yes, I am cruel , I banished
these happy small people.

In fact, one neighbour, an old lady (84 on the 5th of July, I believe), gave me a perfect reason to make the coconut pie. We had a rather sad conversation with her on Wednesday about how her bingo was finished and she is at home alone all day and all evening and, though the neighbours are friendly, they are busy with their own lives. We pass her most mornings on the way to the bus stop and wave and remark on the weather but now we're making a bit of a bigger effort to stop for a chat...or, indeed, to drop off some coconut pie. So there was reason number 1 to make the pie - we could use it as a pretext to drop into B at the weekend. As it happened, I had also booked tickets for Z1 and me to go and see the Wizard of Oz this weekend but was keeping it a secret to avoid conflicts with Z2 (who, I felt, would be just as happy at the cinema with Husband) and to avoid over-excitement from Z1. From this a plan emerged - Saturday morning would be spent making the pie, once it was baked and Z2 was napping, Z1 and I would take the pie around to B and then I would casually mention to Z1 that we were going to the theatre. Marvellous!


After our usually summer Saturday morning routine of me getting the Zeds breakfast and then attempting a peaceful breakfast myself in the sun on the front porch (after growing up in Ireland, I cannot tell you how much I LOVE this proper summer that we get in


Breakfast on the porch

Toronto, despite floods and storms, it is WARM.), we set to work. As is usual when I bake with the Zeds, I got a bit more irritable than I should about them dipping fingers in the bowl and tasting and so on. In fact, I banished them after we finished mixing. It was for their own good. Also, the entertaining bit was over, really.



Slightly over-toasted
coconut pie

I baked it and then put it under the grill
(for slightly too long) to get the coconut toasty looking. I tasted it and approved. I sliced a bit for B and put it in a container. Z2 was put down for his nap by the Husband and Z1 and I set forth. B was out but I came prepared and we left it on her front porch with a  note. We went off to see the Wizard and B was waiting for us on Monday morning with the container. She didn't actually mention if the pie was good and the Zeds haven't tried it (though Z2 did express some interest in it this morning) so I can't give an unbiased report. Husband has said he will try it. I liked it, it's better warm. I tried it with raspberry coulis that I made for cheesecake and that was quite nice.

You may also be interested to know:
 - the recipe (halved from Pinterest) can be downloaded from the downloads page here
- Z1 loved the Wizard of Oz and I rather enjoyed it too. The merchandisers really missed a trick not selling ruby red slippers in the foyer, though.

Even Sadder Sunflower Story

It is with deep sadness that I write today. Yesterday, I went to check on our brave beacon of a sunflower that had been growing tall despite the odds, only to find it had been cut down in its prime, leaves chewed to pieces and stalk cut brutally. I blame the caterpillars. Next year, we shall be guarding our sunflowers with more care and attention. This year, we shall have to make do with white hydrangeas as big as Z1's head.

 

(For the full saga of the sunflowers, check out here, here, here and here)