She's a Winner!

It was Grand Prix at our last AWANA meeting! It had been scheduled earlier in the year, then had to be moved because of a snowstorm, so at long last, the AWANA clubbers got to race their cars! For those of you who don't know, the Grand Prix is when children in the AWANA club get to make a car and race it! Emmi decided to make a car this year that was in the novelty ("Unique" at this church) division, which is, cars that aren't really cars.

Emmi's car was a tea trolley. She painted it white, then glued white lace on the sides, and glued (I did this gluing actually with the hot glue gun, but I placed the things EXACTLY where she showed me!!) a little teapot, cup and saucer and milk pitcher on the trolley. I cut down some sugar cubes to size, she then picked the best ones (Pip was very pleased to eat the rejects!!) and glued them on the trolley! It looked pretty good! She added white paint in the milk pitcher, and then a piece of tape with brown paint from the spout of the teapot so it looked like it was pouring into the cup!

Here is a sequence of the racing. The cars are handed up to a leader who places them on the track, then he releases a lever and all the cars race down the track to the end, where the nervous builders look on! Emmi's trolley was not very fast, it finished second once, but last in its heats the other times.



However, speed isn't everything at the Grand Prix! Emmi won first place in the Unique division! The other winners were a bumble-bee car and a feather-y creation! Emmi was pretty pleased with her trophy, and I think a good time was had by all!

Daily Living Around Here

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." Colossians 3:17

More fun with Grandparents!

We also had some fun with Granny and Granddad recently! We went bowling! It was the first time the Marshwiggles had been bowling, and we had a great time! We tried 10 pin bowling, because it was close to our house and convenient.

All the adults bowled on one lane, and next to us the children bowled on their lane. They had the gutter-guards up so they had a much better chance of knocking down some pins. The balls (of course) were very heavy, so they tended to use the push-from-between-legs techniques, and even so, a couple of Pip's balls got stranded mid-way down the lane and had to be rescued by helpful bowling staff.


Here are Granny and Emmi preparing to bowl, Emmi has a child-sized 6 lb ball, and Granny a "light weight" adult ball - only 9 lbs! It still felt pretty heavy!!



Tim is preparing to bowl, while Ben and Granddad look on.



And the winners.... in the children's lane Pip had the highest score! And I managed the best in the adult lane! I think everyone was suprised by the results! Some pizza at one of our favourite restaurants finished off a great evening!

Fun with Grandparents!

On Valentine's Day we had a visit from some of the people we love the most - Grandma and Grandpa! And one of the best things to do with people you love is .... read! Ben's reading is coming along, and he was very excited to be able to read to Grandma a "real library book"!



Grandpa then got a turn reading, and poor Grandpa! Tim asked him to read a Tintin book, and so Grandpa did - he read the whole thing!! Those of you who know Tintin, know they are long, with lots of little word balloons. We didn't time him, but I think he spent over an hour on the couch with Tim and Ben (Pip didn't have the stamina). Then Tim appeared with another Tintin book! But this time Grandpa said no! One a day is more than enough!

What is this man doing in my kitchen?

I found him in the kitchen one evening - valiantly attacking the Kleenex box. The next day he was gone...

Life with little boys!! On Saturday I found a knight in my boot as I tried to put it on (a different knight). And I regularly find little cars lined up here and there, under a book case, on the lines on the carpet, etc. It can be a lot of fun here!

Sous chefs

I had a batch of helpers in the kitchen the other night. I had planned to make Thai Fish and Corn Curry for supper, and as it turned out, I did very little of the making of it. Emmi got the rice going in the rice cooker, Ben loaded the food processor with lemongrass and garlic and cilantro, Tim operated the food processor (with supervision), Emmi cut up the fish fillets (with scissors), EVERYONE had to help stir, and loved seeing the coconut milk go in, and the final result was YUMMY!! I had planned to send some leftovers to work with David for his lunch, but there weren't any!

Here are two of my sous chefs working on the cilantro garnish for the dish:

Everyone looks pretty happy with how it turned out! I think they were happier to eat it too!

Knitting Project - socks

In my Christmas stocking this year was a knitting magazine - "for inspiration" said David. It worked, I became inspired! But I thought I had better use up some wool I had on hand before buying any more. I had some brown sock wool, that I am trying to turn into socks for David. The first one is started, and gets worked on in spare time (not much of that!) or in the van (while David is driving - not me!!). I have read that knitted socks are the most likely to be singles (because the second one never gets knit) and I am hoping that this sock will avoid this fate. Maybe at some point there will be a post about the finished pair!