Bubbles

Yesterday afternoon I made up a batch of bubble mix to a recipe passed on by Rose's 'Teacher Jean' at play group.  Today we tried it out in the back yard.  As you can see it was alot of fun.

So far it works really well with the big wand in the pitures but not great with a little one from a pot.  According to the instructions it will continue to thicken over the next few days.  Here is the recipe:

3/4 cup 'dawn' washing up liquid (any will probably do)
1/4 cup corn syrup (I googled this and you should be able to use golden syrup)
6 cups of water
Mix it all together and let it sit overnight.  Keep in an airtight container, the longer it sits, the thicker it gets.  NB 1 cup = 250ml.  Makes almost 2 litres for about $1.50.

As a bonus, I also discovered that bubble mix production can be a good indicator of a slow running/partially blocked U bend and that you can have lots of fun erupting mini volcanoes on one side of a double sink whilst trying to wash excess froth down the other side.

Jacob Post: JIL News

Today, in JIL (a distant imaginary planet of mine) there's been a big hit movie series called Hitabration. It has already published 49 episodes. In one episode, Phineas and Ferb rebuild Roary the racing car after all my animals and Fifi and all the flowertots start digging up the road to find dimonds. Also today, an XM satilite radio satilite crashed into the sea!

Trouser lengths for ladies

As a change of scenery we went to the splash pad in down town Grand Bend this morning.  Down by the beach there is a great area for the kids, there are picnic tables and toilets and a really great splash pad and play area.  The only down side is that parking is $4/hour which is extortionate over here.  As I am a cruel parent and make my children work for their treats I park up near the school and we walk down to the front, a whole 10 minutes, the up side for them is we pass about 70 ice cream shops so invariably stop on the way back to the car for a snack.  Its a good way to soften the boredom of a trip to the supermarket on a hot morning.

fun at the splash pad

they're on there somewhere

On the way home I stopped at a ladies clothes shop called 'Merry Rags' to look for capri pants.  Everyone seems to wear them over here, I don't know whether its a Canadian style statement or its to do with full length trousers just being far too hot in the summer, but I felt like I ought to join in so off I went.

To be honest its not an item of clothing I ever really thought I would consider purchasing as anything that is neither shorts nor trousers gives me hideous flash backs to the 1980s and marroon, velvet pedal pushers.  You will be glad to hear that although they seemed to have pretty much every colour and length you can imagine they had no velvet with elasticated knees so I couldn't accidentally buy any.

After trying about 10 pairs on at high speed (the kids had opted to sit in the car with all the windows open and shout at the tops of their voices) I went for a black pair that are quite slim and end about 3 inches below my knees.  I think they look ok but it may take me a while to bond with them.  In fact I may have to go out and buy new shoes and a few tops to go with them - isn't it great when a quick shopping trip opens up so many more retail opportunities.

Boring but Informative

I haven't given much thought to tonight's blog, it has been a busy day.

Took Jacob and Rose to the beach this morning quite early while Tom was watching the race.  It was glorious, nobody else there and just starting to get pleasantly hot.  It was so clear that you could see right up and down the shore of the lake so far that it appeared to be turning in on itself like you were at the centre of a huge bay.  Little, fluffy clouds, deep blue sky and a bit of a gentle breeze keepng the humidity off - perfect.  Jacob made a hill, Rose lay on a towel periodically shouting at us to 'be quiet, I'm concentratin' on laxin' and I made a giant's foot sculpture.  If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

On our way home from visiting Grandma I cleared the top forgotten item on my shopping list for the past few weeks, and just in the nick of time.  It is garbage day on Tuesday and I have no tags left, in this part of Ontario they won't take away your garbage without an official Lampton County garbage sticker, purchased at an official stockist, stuck to it.

I don't think its a very popular policy but I think its a great idea.  The curbside recycling is really good and collects paper, cardboard, glass, tins, aluminium foil and rigid plastics numbered 1-6 in the triangle.  They take as much as you like of this for free as long as it is in your blue box or a blue bag (we put out 5 bags of packing paper a couple of weeks ago and it was whisked magically away), but they will only take landfill rubbish if it has a bona fida tag that cost you $2.50.  It really makes you think about what you throw out.

Jacob Post: Visiting

Today, we went to the beach. First, we went in the water. It was cold. Then I made a mountain. I played meteor shower. I used my ball for the meteors. Mummy and Rose made a foot and a cupcake. Then, after lunch, we went to see Grandma in Sarnia. We went to the park with her. Then we went walking around. After that, we went home. It was fun.

Jacob Post: Today and Yesterday

Yesterday, in the afternoon, we went to the beach. We made a sand duck.

Momo the sand duck

 I called it Momo.

Today, First, we went shopping (boooooooooorrrrrrrrrring!!!) Next, after lunch, we went on a lllooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnggggggggg journey to Sarnia to see Grandma. I also saw Aunty Sandy and Grandpa. They were not ill like Grandma. We met them at a hospice. We walked, talked and played a lot. Then, we met the non-ill people at Crabby Joe's. I'm stuffed. Rose told me her story and I wrote it down. It was about Evelyn Burpyburpmouth.

Teaser

Wasn't going to blog tonight as am pretty pooped but Tom is out visiting his Mum and TV is rubbish (I know I've said that before and it won't be the last time) so here I am. 

Also, I realised that there has been no photo for a couple of days so I'd better put one up.  I thought Jacob was going to write tonight because he was very excited about what we did on the beach today.  I will leave him to tell you all about it but here is half a picture as a teaser - can you guess what he is looking at?

Ooh aren't my feet pretty

The highlight of my day was that my dining room chair slip-covers arrived.  It has been fantastic moving into this house full of someone else's beautiful furniture and although it really is beautiful furniture most of it seems to be pretty robust and child resistant.  It was a blessed relief that the owners decided to put away their two antique rocking horses, Rose could really have gone 'Yee-haw' with those!  After an hour and a half of ironing and bow arrangement the dining room now resembles a small and very rustic wedding reception.  However, this will be better for my stress levels than the immaculate cream, chenille finish upholstry that I would never be able to get the ketchup stains out of.

Laundry and Records

Everyone is fed and bathed, the house is tidy (if you look in the right direction) and silence has fallen.  I have just removed the laundry from the drier and discovered an interesting imbalance of clothing.  This is what was in it...

• 3 sets ladies clothes
• 3 sets mens clothes
• 1 set small boys clothes inc. half set of pyjamas
• 7 pairs girls trousers, 6 girls t-shirts, 1 girls dress, 2 pairs girls socks and 10 sets girls underpants

I thought this kind of thing started at the teenage period, its a good job Jacob doesn't smell yet and Rose is very small.

No photos today as we have had a quiet one.  We went to the library and Jacob got out the 2011 Guinness Book of Records, he then regaled me with facts about the largest bowl of pasta, greatest distance spitting a champagne cork and one I thought you could try in a quiet moment at home, longest distance you can blow a malteser in a straight line with a straw.  It made me think of records I would stand a fighting chance of setting and here's a few I came up with...

• Most times shouting "Mummy says NO" in a single day (or even an hour)
• Longest time a single item can stay at the top of the shopping list without being purchased
• Greatest weight of batteries that can be transported in handbag before remembering to recycle them (at the library and I forgot again)
• Greatest distance a letter can travel in same handbag before being posted

 Tomorow I shall try to use less bullet points.

Jacob Post: Stories

Today, the Agents have 2 more members, Agent Q1 and Q2. That's Nana And Aunty Tam. Yesterday, we also got an agent F. Agent C and K seem to be doing well at training (exept Agent C who's ill, she used to be though.) Now we have 18 agents!!! About 2,000,000 lightyears away, bad guys seemed to invade the Quack Sector (in Quack Quack Galaxy)! Luckily, we can hold them off with shields.

quack quack ship

TB or not TB

This morning the kids and I whisked off through the magic wardrobe to Sarnia to see a nice Dr who said that in his opinion I haven't got and have never had TB and he will write to whoever he needs to and confirm this.  Hurray, although I shall miss my time dallying with fawns and talking beavers, lions etc.

On the way home we discovered that our free trial of xm satellite radio in the car is now over, I shall miss this too.  We had discovered a kids station with a slightly seedy chipmunk called Dirk who Rose was fond of and who played some truly bizarre music.  It gave me this joke that Dad will probably like... A three legged dog walks into an old time western saloon and says to the bar man (with cowboy accent) "I'm a lookin' for the man who shot ma Paw".  Ah dear.

Walked to the beach this afternoon.  It was supposed to be a quickie but somehow it took an hour and 5 minutes to walk home, lots of stick collecting and discarding, moaning, ritz cracker eating, more moaning etc etc.  But we did see painted turtles basking on logs in the Old Ausable River and also picked up a parcel from Kathrin (not in person, it was in the mail box) - the ball was much enjoyed and the skipping rope was 'just perfect'.

The beach was busy today...

... lots of people swimming too

Jacob Post: Blue Prints

Since I got to Canada, I've been working on blue prints for a climbing frame. I visited Uncle Bob a couple of days ago. He gave me the idea to add a solar panel on the roof and lights and a TV and lots more eletrical stuff. My blue prints are now of a clubhouse called Parkers' Clubhouse. It's even going to have tiles on the roof!

What to do in the evening

Today has been a quiet day. We waited in this morning because our landlord came around to pick up some bits and pieces. Typically the place was pristine at 9.30 but by the time he arrived at 10.30 I had just baked and there was dirty cake paraphanalia all over the kitchen and the kids were in the middle of it all because they picked that moment to need a snack, on top of that the phone had just rung.

After tea we went round to see Grandma and also Tom's Uncle Bob who was visiting. He talked at great length to Jacob about security systems, smoke alarms, solar panels and vast amounts of other 'interesting' stuff that you will no doubt hear about very soon.

I am now deciding whether to sit and stare vacantly at nothing for a while or watch 'Longmire'. TV is so bad out here that I am reduced to recording crime dramas about worn out sheriffs in Wyoming or somewhere. They have good trucks and I am becoming a little obsessed with big pick up trucks so I record it to watch when Tom is out.

Mini Golf and Jam

I have to say I'm surprised Jacob mentioned going out today at all, he didn't seem to enjoy it much.  You know when you get up in the morning and think "I know, I'll do something really nice with the kids and we'll have some lovely, cozy family fun" so you try but the ice cream is the wrong sort and the mini golf is 'ug' and Jacob becomes irate because Rose is 'cheating' and Rose announces as soon as you pay your money and set foot on the green that she is thirsty but you left the drinks in a cooler in the car, in the car park up the road.  Well.  It was one of those but here's a couple of golf pics anyway...

I must tell Jacob to stop resetting the date on the photos.

I consoled myself by making peach jam this afternoon, it was only 29 degrees in the kitchen so it seemed like a good idea.  I've been very excited to use my new jar you see.  I discovered to my amazement last week that President's Choice pasta sauce comes in a lovely 600ml mason jar, it even has measures embossed up the side, so I went to Home Hardware and further discovered that I could buy 12 lids for $4.  Wow.  I will be jamming and pickling like crazy now and the family will be eating a LOT of pasta sauce based meals so I've got another 11 jars for my lids!

Jacob Post: To the Centre of Grand Bend

Today, me and Rose made a traintrack. We played a game where you had to deliver random things to different locations.



Then we went to a playground. Then we went to get an icecream and go mini golfing. After 1 stroke Rose put the ball next to the hole and hit it in. Then, when we got home, we played traintrack again. In it, the school/library/best start were being biult and there was a big beach getting opened. My animals are fantastic exept Duck, who is  ill and cross.

Jacob Post: Beach Day

Today we went to the beach. The beach is realy fun. Today, it was wavey, so me and Daddy went wave-smashing. I also made a hole that I called a hot tub, because strangley, the water in the lake was freeeeeeezzzzzzzing and the hole was booooooiiiiiiiiillllling! Then I put Rose in it. She liked it in the 'hot tub'. Espiecalywhen she smashed the edges. Mummy found a sand bank 25m from the shore and it was only 1' deep!

Rose enjoys this!

Then we went to Grandma's and Grandpa's house. There were 11 people there including me, Mummy, Daddy, and Rose. They were us, Daddy's cousins, Aunty Sandy, Grandma and Grandpa.

Since I got to Canada, I've been writing Agents, Animals Adventures, Clara and George Adventures, Jacob's Imaginary Life, Quack Quack I , and Bone collector I. My animals are OK. Rose is a member of Agents(Agent DOG) and Quack Quack(Quack)!

Animals meeting!

Testing

Well, here I am at 6.37am, Tom is still asleep and the children have got me out of bed so that they can go and watch Phineus and Ferb and ignore me. Can't complain too much as I'm sitting in the lovely sunroom with a coffee and I can't hear children noise at all, if only it wasn't so early. Thought it might be time well spent if I checked out how to do this blogging business from the iPad. So far so good but I am going to try to take a photo then upload it in a mo so there may be some muttered bad language, viewer discretion is advised... Took the photo just fine but no idea how to upload it. Have stopped trying before I get cross. Must sit and drink lots more coffee now as the beach has been promised this morning and I must be awake in just over an hour and a half.

Going to Goderich

We went to Goderich today to see what was there.  It is the prettiest town in Canada apparently and has a unique octagonal town 'square'.  To be honest it was difficult to say what it looked like today as we accidentally went during a sidewalk sale and vintage car rally event.

We wandered about pretending to look at it while actually trying to find somewhere to eat until we found a great place called West Street Willy's where they had ginormous cooked breakfast for Tom and toilets for Rose.  Jacob found a second hand Star Wars book, Rose found the materials to make a new crown and I found somewhere to buy the yarn for my Xmas sock production so everyone was happy.

The kids both picked a favourite car...

I think this kind of suits J

Can you see the number plate?

We checked out the beach and the play area, didn't swim and came home and BBQed.

A day in the life of the Parkers, it doesn't sound like it should be as exhausting as it is.