Snowing Inside

On the days that the wind was blowing really hard the front kunichuk door kept getting blown opened. (The kunichuk is the space between the inside door and the outside door. It helps keep the house warmer and can serve as a shelter for someone who is lost or being pursued by a bear. Most of the homes here have them.) The boys had shoveled it out the day before and this it what it looked like when we woke up.

Just a side note: the snow dune outside our front door has grown several feet the past few days. It is now almost as tall as the fiveplex.

Mexican Mac and Cheese and Slushies

Here are some new fun recipes to try. 

Mexican Style Mac and Cheese:

2 boxes of mac and cheese (we really like great values thick and creamy style)
1 can of Mexican style crushed or diced tomatoes
1 can of corn1 can of red beans or kidney beans (or whatever kind you like)
1 can of re fried beans

4 slices of American or Velveeta cheese.

Make up the mac and cheese as directed
Meanwhile put tomatoes, corn, red beans and re fried beans in a pan over med heat. DO NOT drain the tomatoes or the corn but drain and rinse the red beans. Heat until re fried are mixed in all they way. Add cheese and heat until melted.
Serve bean mixture over mac and cheese or mix it all together.

Slushies:
Next time you have canned fruit like peaches or pears save the juice for this recipe. UsuallyIf you use fruit with added sugar you may want to decrees the amount of sugar the recipe calls for.

1-2 cups of fruit juice from canned fruit.
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of sugar
about 1/4 packet of kool-aid

Combine ingredients and freeze in ice trays. When it is frozen place cubes in a cup and break them up by stabbing them with a fork. Add a few table spoons of hot water and mix. Enjoy!

Wind Day

Yesterday the wind was blowing so hard that they canceled school. It was gusting up to about 53 miles per hour and there was so much windblown snow that you couldn't hardly see anything outside the window. One of the teachers who left for school before they got the message out even got lost in the blizzard. Luckily she was able to find a shed to warm up in and eventually found her way to the school.

Several of the snow drifts are now taller than the houses, which are even lifted above the ground several feet to begin with. Here are some pictures of all that piled up snow.

Three of us ladies from the building went to the store the other day. We pull our groceries home on the sled but this last time there was too much of a drop down to the house that we had to stop the sled and pass the groceries along to the door. 

We keep telling Chalyse we can't got to the park because it is covered in snow. As you can see the snow is about as high as the fence.

Chalyse is 3!

Chalyse had a birthday!

She got play dishes and food

and a new princess dress.

We had a  princess punch party

We made princess hats

And had princess cup cakes

A few of Chalyse's favorite people came: Emily, Shea, Nessi, Cheryl, Regina and Don

Ellora on a Sugar High

This morning I put the girls in front of a movie while I got a few things done in the kitchen. Unlike usual Ellora  immediately zoned out staring at the screen and looked as though she might be very happy there for some time. I went in the other room and for a few minutes all was quiet then I heard a strange sound. It was Ellora panting and huffing. I peaked around the corner to see what was going on and found that she had spread her blankie on the floor and was dancing some sort of strange jig on it...or maybe it was a new form of aerobics.

Twirling Tutus

Happy Valentine's Day! We found this in our last bag of potatoes.

Anyway, here is my latest project:

After seeing the nutcracker Chalyse was asking for a tutu. They retail for about $30 if you get a full one like this so instead I ordered some tulle for like 95 cents a yard and made some of my own to give to the girls for Valentine's Day.  Each one only took me about an hour and a few dollars to make.

Here are the girls twirling in their new tutus.

If  you are interested on making your own here is what I did:

I used 4 yards of tulle (in two colors, two yards each color) for each tutu. Mine were for toddlers so you may want to use more if you are making one for a little girl. I cut each piece of tulle down the middle length wise so that I had 4 strips of fabric that were each 2 yards long half the original width. Then I layered them every other color and pined them down the middle. I folded them in half and moved the pins to about an inch from the folded edge. Then I sewed along the folded side leaving a gap big enough for the elastic.

I used inch wide elastic cut it to be slightly shorter than the distance around the girls waists. I threaded the elastic through the tube I had sewed in the tulle then sewed the ends of the elastic together. I made sure the tulle was evenly gathered then I stitched a wide zigzag stitch over the elastic to keep it from sliding around. Make sure you stretch the elastic while you sew so the thread doesn't break when they put it on.

You can leave it like that but to make it more full, to separate the colors a bit and to help hide the elastic here is what i did:

I flipped the whole thing upside down (so the elastic is flipped inside) and fluffed half of the layers going the other direction. Then I sewed them down to the what used to be the inside of the elastic (but is not facing out) with another zigzag stitch. I fluffed the rest of the layers down and tacked them down to the elastic with a short stitch about every 3 inches. Then I sewed on a flower by hand.

And there you have it: a pretty tutu for a fraction of the price.

This morning Chalyse asked if she could have the last little piece of bacon. I knew that Tom had, had his eye on it so I told her she needed to ask Dad and maybe he would share with her. She said, "and then he'll say 'here you can have the whole thing.' and I'll say 'Oh, thank you!'"

What a nice dad; he gave her the whole thing.

The girls haven't been out in 2 weeks; Poor things! They are doing surprisingly well about it though. We have plans to go to the school tomorrow and eat lunch, visit, do gym time with the ECE and then go swimming. It is -20 today, lets pray for no wind or we wont be going

Chalyse says that her ears are ringing because her daddy went to school.

A word a day

Ellora is learning a new word daily. Today her new word was "sippie". We usually just call it her "milk" because that is usually all she has in her sippie but she heard us say it and started to call it that instead. I asked her what was in her sippie she said "um, milk."

Yesterday her word was "fun". In one word sentences she told me she was having fun while playing while she was supposed to be taking a nap, and later she said that it would be fun to play on the slide (a leaf to our tabel that we prop up against the couch...don't tell.)

Some other new words: "Ew" and "gross." She usually uses those words to decribe these spider rings we have left over from Halloween.

The other day, upon finding some cups on the floor I exclaimed, "Oh gosh, I just picked these up," and threw them back in the cupboard. Ellora came in and said "I see...'gosh!'... I see...I see gosh!"