Kim 365

I've had some Saskatoon berries stashed in my freezer since summer, with the intent of savouring the goodness of summer berries in the dread of winter. It turns out winter hasn't been all that dreadful this year, but I decided to get baking today anyway. I whipped up a pan of Saskatoon Berry Platz.
Having grown up eating plenty of good Mennonite food, platz was one that I was unfamiliar with until I worked at Ten Thousand Villages.
"You've never had platz?!" A co-worker asked, incredulously.
I had been missing out. So have you, if you've never had it.

Bailey has been waking up too early lately, and last night she went to bed too late. She gave up napping a few months ago, but the recent lack of sleep added up to a tired girl who fell asleep this afternoon when I was nursing Deacon. I left him to have his nap with her. Aren't they adorable?

My mom and dad arrived this afternoon, home from a winter getaway to Hawaii. They were gone for two weeks, and were missed terribly by this little crew! We spent yesterday making a welcome home sign: the finger-painting and foam stickers are their handiwork, I just made the letters :) The spelling of Gramma and Grampa was Markus' idea.

Now the big event on the kids' horizon is having a sleepover at their house next week.

Welcome home Mom and Dad, we're glad you're back!

My mission to create latte art saw a turn for the better today. It's a heart! A little bit pathetic, but a heart nonetheless! Now...if only I could replicate it. It's hard to make progress when I only make a few lattes everyday, but at least it's something.

I adore this little man.
He ls always happy. Smiles and squeals are the norm for this guy, and his joy spreads to everyone around him.

The time has come - these two are now roommates! Bailey was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement over having her little brother sleep in her room now. Little...he's nearly as big as she is!

I have absolutely loved having Deacon in our room, but I have to admit that lately it's not been working very well. He wakes more often now than he did when he was a newborn, so no one is getting a great night's sleep anymore. Hopefully he will transition without much fuss and we will be a well rested family again soon.

While I am not an expert barista, I do think my lattes are pretty darn good. While I would not classify Starbucks as experts either, they sure do have a lot of flavours to play with. So when I am in the mood for something other than my standard latte, I shell out $5 for something special. Okay, whoever works there and came up with the idea of the Salted Caramel Mocha? That person is a genius. I am even more of a genius for replacing the mocha with white mocha, and making it half sweet. Try it. You're welcome.

Markus has a sudden love for mazes. When I snuggle him before bed, he asks me to draw mazes on his Magnadoodle, so last night I told him we'd look online for some mazes today. I printed a bunch and made a book for each of the kids, an "Amazing Maze Book" for each of them. HUGE hit. It's a good thing we have a lot of paper and printer ink on hand, because I think more books are in our future.

With the windchill in the -40C range again today, we were not going anywhere. Bailey requested a tea party so I put on the kettle and we snacked and sipped with the boys. I think Bailey ate the most granola bar pieces, Markus drank the most tea, and Wyatt ate the most sugar - my little Sneaker strikes again!

The kids didn't appreciate the fact that their spaghetti was surrounded by mushrooms, but they made some fun out of it by pretending they were eating worms. Strangely, I don't find that motivating. I wouldn't really be excited about eating my food if someone said, "Come on Kim, it's just like eating worms!" I know I was once a kid, but there are times that I sure don't understand them.