This moment

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

More Games

 We had scooter boards, and resistance cushions, bean bag toss, balance beam work and sliding.  We tried to make this as much fun as we could this week.  The children also made medals and we will be handing those out next week at our closing ceremonies.  I am still hopeful for some snow so that we can get our last activity of snow shoeing in.  The weather hasn't been ideal for it.  GO, Canada GO!

Game On

 Olympic fever is in full swing at our school right now.  In fact we about to kick things into high gear this week!

Last week we had our children work on flags so they could represent a country.  That work will continue this week.  The children will get to wear their flag later this week when we do our version of the biathlon!


A couple of week ago, Melanie and I were at an all day work shop on Book making and extended art ideas.  It was a good workshop and we came away with some new ideas.  One of the ideas the presenter was expanding on was using all kinds of material to apply paint with.  Are her Centre, they used Large plungers.   I thought in the moment what a great idea that was and filed it away.  Later int he week i found myself at Canadian Tire for something completely different and happened upon small plungers.

Olympic Rings at the Art Table

The Light bulb went off and I bought two sets of five.  One for each campus but also lots for painting projects.  I thought they would be a brilliant way to make the olympic rings and I was right.  The children have enjoyed making their version of the olympic rings.  I especially love how unique each and everyone's version is.  We have the stamping set up at Quinpool Rd this week.  We will also be making our own medals for the closing Ceremonies at the end of this week.

 On Thursday I am sure your children came home and told you about all the puck shooting they did!
My husband has been working on making a rink in our back yard at Quinpool and we finally had a window to use it.  Plans are already underway for something bigger and more permanent for next season.  With the threat of rain for Friday, I pulled  the plug on other plans for the morning and we went off to Ardmore park to shoot pucks.  Each child had many turns and it was a fun morning.

Quinpool Ice

Shooting On the Net

 Truth be told, I am a hockey Mom and my husband has coached our children all the way through.  We were always worried about self esteem and coaches that yell alot.  There are a lot of things wrong with hockey for young people these days and so we always felt if one of us was on the bench it would be better.   My oldest is six feet tall at thirteen and will probably only play for another year or two.  Our youngest is eight and finding her feet and really enjoying learning about hockey.  Hockey is a great sport for girls and it has done wonders for our girl with confidence and self esteem.  Anyway, more great stuff coming this week.   Stay tuned!

Cork Street Ice

This Moment

{these moments} - A Friday ritual. Single photos - no words - capturing a moments from the week. Simple, special, extraordinary moments. Moments I want to pause, savor and remember.

~Ms. Michelle

Handmade in the Heart of Winter

 I have been wanting to make crackers for a long time with my children.  I needed to show the children that they didn't just come from a box or package.  It was a great practical life lesson to make and roll dough out and cut it up into cracker size.

I am not even entirely sure the children believed me when I said we were going to make crackers.

I must confess that I follow a few blogs, and two people I love to read and follow have made crackers and I only had to read one of the blogs to know it was about time I got on it myself.  Such a simple, quiet exercise and so very rewarding.

We had the children take turns rolling out the dough and we used a pizza cutter to cut it into cracker size pieces.  Next we used a fork to poke holes in our dough and brushed it with water.  Lastly, we sprinkled with a tiny bit if sea salt, cracked pepper and sesame seeds.  We baked in a hot oven and watch the dough puff up .

 You can check out this link for a how to on CRACKERS.  There are lots of recipes online and get creative with them.  Cheese crackers would be yummy and are my next planned batch.  But mostly, let your children help you make them.  It really is a lot of fun!

 It was all very exciting but not as exciting as tasting or having with our roasted squash soup that day!

Roasted Squash Soup

Prepare all the following ingredients and place in a roasting pan:

Heat oven to 400

3 or 4 Ribs Celery

3 Onions

3 or 4 Carrots peeled and chopped

1 or 2 Sweet potatoes Peeled and chopped

5 or 6 cloves garlic, chopped

2 lbs squash, chopped

Salt and pepper

Drizzle all with generous amount of Olive Oil to coat veggies and sprinkle with herbs de provence (that is the big secret)

Once vegetables are nicely roasted place in a stock pot with 8 to 12 or more cups of vegetable or chicken stock.  Sometimes less stock or more depending on how much you bulk out on the vegetables. 

Roasting the vegetables makes this soup especially yummy!

Simmer for about 30 minutes and puree with hand blender

1 Tbsp fresh parsley for serving.