A couple of weeks ago (just around when I was getting really sick) we had friends from Alberta visit. My friend J and I went to business school together eons ago. We at first made an unlikely pair: she, a fitness buff putting her way through uni selling her cattle, and I, a environmental consultant and domestic goddess. But we grew to really appreciate and enjoy each other’s company.

J would come over to my house and run accounting and math homework with me, and I would cook for her. Back then she was an accounting whiz (I still am not) but she couldn’t cook much! lol She has the funniest story about us meeting in a math class the first day. Apparently I ran in almost late (never happens - ) and plomped down beside her wearing a big flowing scarf. I turned to her, stuck out my hand and introduced myself, and then we’ve been friends ever since. That’s the way she told it at Jrock and I’s wedding, anyway, when she was a bridesmaid.

She ended up marrying and settling down right in the same rural Albertan community she gre up in. So when her husband J(male) and J(female) came to visit, it was a little like a bit of a trip home for us. We talked cattle and farming and house-building and kids… and it reminded me why we were such good friends in the first place! And Jrock enjoyed a bit of “back home.”

I hadn’t met her youngest son and her oldest was only 2 last time I saw him. So our kids essentially met for the first time… and got along famously. I can’t wait to take my urbanite girls back to Alberta to play with her farm boys next time!

Well, J-female) emailed me after our visit and asked for my granola bar recipe, since I had shipped them off with some homemade granola bars for the trip. I have diligently not replied – until now.

I have to admit – because she reads this blog – it’s my sister’s granola bar recipe. And I’m happy to share with all of you. I make a batch pretty much every Sunday night, and have some in the oven right now. From our BC home to yours in Alberta – Happy Baking my friend! We won’t let it go that long next time.

Easy Granola Bars

MIX:
3 cups quick oats
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 cups other stuff

Other stuff can be seeds, nuts, dried fruits, chocolate chips, etc. If you only use 1/2 cup chocolate, apparently it meets the “healthy schools guidelines” (whatever those are.)

Press down into a cookie sheet. Mine fill about 3/4 of the cookie sheet, and I use a sheet liner for easy removal.
Cook at 350 for 20 minutes, or until they are just a little brown at the edges.
Cut them right away, before they cool. Let them rest in place to cool. Then break apart to store and eat!

Daddy started helping out with the girls’ new room too – he’s very good at hanging shelves! So I still have a few things left to do, like sewing lining into the drapes, building posterboards, sewing a few cushions, etc. but soon the girls should be able to move in.

We noticed how many toys they have accummulated. Much of it is second hand, so it’s not that we’ve invested a lot of money or anything! But all those little trinkets and Sally Ann stuffies sure do add up.

So we made a deal – he girls would donate five stuffies to the Sally Ann, and then they could pick out a new one. Sounds crazy – but now we’re down a net 12 stuffies.

When they move upstairs, Sugar and spice are prepared, in theory, to do some more weeding. Then again, we’ll have to see when we move if they actually will put anything in the donation or “for little brother” piles! lol

When the girls helped me put the shelves together, I impressed upon them that they should never rely on a man to help them – that girls can do anthing boys can. I figure you are never too young to learn how an alland wrench works. And never too young to be empowered to use your own power tools. The power drill lessons continued upstairs.

I’ve been playing with the design of our girls’ new room for the past few months, and last week we finally set the transformation in motion. NO – we haven’t recieved a referrral for littl’ bro yet, but we decided to move ahead with their “big girls” bedroom anyway!

First, we picked some awesome chairs – they were really the inspiration for the whole room… and they arrived in September.

But the we planned the rest out – I love planning!!! It’s a really long thin room, and it took some thinking how to make it work.

The I got all my creative and fabric ideas together…

Then picked up the bunkbeds and desk at IKEA two weeks ago. Yesterday the girls and I put their desk and 1/2 the bed together, and today Daddy helped finish up the bed. We’re off to a great start! I’ll post pics when we are all done – probably not for a couple weeks, though. We have to make a lot of shelves, first…

ED: And in case you haven’t seen their current awesome room (which you can see will make a very nice little boy’s room!!! Here’s a link.

I mean, seriously – there is something in Spice’s DNA that just makes her a rocker.

I don’t know what it is – but whatever she wears, she wears with panache. Her outfits always seem cool, even if she’s composed something a little offbeat. Her favorite hairstyle is her “fro-hawk” (althought when she started having recess with the big kids on the playground, she wanted blend-in hair for a week or so.)

Her hobby is even a little rocking – funny to say piano lessons are cool, but she seems to make it that way. Her teacher is a wonderfully funny, laid back lady who is always exceptionally well-dressed. I can see Spice as an artisit in a industrial flat with all sorts of creative friends and many many parties in her future. (Her sister will be catering and telling her to go to bed early.)

Funny how amazingly individual your kids can be! I just enjoy them so much!

Sugar is nicknamed my “sous chef”… she loves cooking and wants to be a chef when she grows up (yes, this the fung fu girl!)

Tonight she actually made supper ALL BY HERSELF – so proud! All I did was pour the water for the pasta and monitor the stove. She cut, chopped, stirred and served everything else! And she even made two phonecalls during chopping the onions. Now, seriously.

On the menu – tomato sauce on pasta. Simple, yes, but what the heck. She’s 5 and she’s really cooking.

For her birthday, we gave her this super cute cookbook that she just loves – I highly recommend it for budding chefs!

I’m at Kung Fu watching Sugar, who is at rapt attention. She’s watching a VERY muscly woman teaching to say ” stop! Back off!” then punching and kicking a dummy.

I want to sure about the whole martial arts thing… But we needed a high energy activity fir Sugar that she could cal her own. I don’t really like the idea of sparring and competing in tournaments really isn’t her personality. But the when I was at spice’s piano lesson, another piano mom said her twins went to King Fu. And voila! It was perfect.

It’s like speedy Tai Chi. There are no tourneys or sparring until years from now. It focused and she is very attentive. She gets to run around like crazy and has a strong kind female teacher. And there are kids from all walks of life and just as many girls as boys. Perfect!

It seems like the September long weekend is years ago – but this week when I was writing our yearly Xmas newsletter, this weekend factored into our top six memories of 2011.

We went with many friends from the adoption community to Whatshan Lake for four days. My parents graciously lent us their trailer, since we sold Gordon our 19 footer earlier this summer (adoption cash) and they even joined us for a couple of nights.

Mehaber is the complete opposite of Harambe Camp. Harambe, during the Canada Day week, is a wonderful jam-packed culture camp in Naramata. (You can see pictures from this year here, here, here and video.) It’s invaluable, because it has so many cultural activities, parent training and many brown-skinned children as peers and mentors. That said – it’s exhausting. You go from dawn until dusk. And then after dusk.

Mehaber, on the other hand, is just a bunch of friends getting together and camping. We decided to cap it at 20 families, but this year I think we only had 12. Everybody mostly knows each other, and their is no schedule. Mostly we hit the beach in the afternoon, and each family brings some kind of activity of craft with them. I brought orange chocolate cakes to make over the fire, a very messy and fun campfire activity. One family brought their boat and did tubing. Another family brought Tshirts to decorate. You get the idea. And there is a lot of time spent in lawnchairs drinking wine, and the kids have free rain of the whole camp so they zip around on bikes all day. Pretty awesome.

Anyway – that’s Mehaber. It means “we all get together.” Good name… great relaxing time.

Spice actually loves raking leaves – she goes out after school and just works away at it… then jumps in!

I saw a picture on Facebook of snow back in Alberta where we used to live. tee hee. Have fun with that.

Meanwhile here in the Okanagan (yes, I am rubbing it in!) we’re enjoying a gorgeous fall. We had a garage sale on Saturday, thinking that it is probably the last nice weekend of the year… but who knows? This weather could continue for some time.

On a side note, when you adopt older children, you get to enjoy so many firsts that otherwise might pass you by.

We have some good friends who just brought home their teenage nieces and nephew from Ethiopia – and they are amazed at all the awesome firsts. The kids are 16, 17 and 19, and this month they’ve had first fall leaves, first Hallowe’en, and so many other awesome firsts.Look at their faces!

I don’t know who is more delighted – the big kids or the small ones!

The Ethiopian teens….

They are finding the colours and the changing of seasons relly remarkable.

Spice, M and Sugar – giving the big cousins a run for their money.

Too fun! and then rake it back up again…

Ok, so the girls had the cutest Halloween costumes ever. This year, it was full-bore run around the neighbourhood from house to house to house! Jrock and I had so much fun just trying to keep up with them. Then we let the lion and tiger gorge themselves on candy until the passed out in sugar comas later in the evening.

In the morning, they woke up with candy hangovers and were in dire need of some tums. “That was SO much fun!!!” Sugar the lion decreed.

Sugar the Lion

Spice the Tiger

Out on the prowl

This time, the mood was a little different. Almost all of his old buds have children 6 and under, so it was quite the preschoolers party.

We stayed at the Banff Springs Hotel, which I just love. (Thanks to our friend N and her friends and family rate!!) The girls were greeted with princess crowns when we arrived, which they were delighted with. We had been telling them that we would be staying at a castle, and they believed. In fact, they didn’t take their crowns off for three days. lol

Then on the way home we stopped for an overnight at my sister’s house, and it was great to see her and her hubby.

Now this week we’ve been trying to get back into the swing of things…

As of the beginning of October, Jrock is now home much more than I am, so it’s a big adjustment for everyone. The girls are loving having him around, but they miss me, and he’s a bit cagey, understandably. Overall, it’s nice to be home.