Drive-by Birthday

This past weekend we celebrated my husband's birthday.  The weekend started off wonderfully.  K got home early on Friday which meant that he was able to take Prima to catch the bus for her orienteering competition.  It's so nice when I don't need to get all the kids in the van just to take one where they need to go.

So, on Saturday Prima was away for the whole day at an orienteering competition.  We figured that this was the perfect time for K to take Secundus to the city to see a movie.  Secundus had indicated earlier that he would really like to see Frankenweenie.  As it turned out though, he decided to see Hotel Transylvania instead.  It ended up being a great birthday treat for K because Secundus took his own money and treated them both to popcorn and candy.




On Sunday the girls and I made a truck birthday cake.  I had to be a little creative with how to make it into a decent truck but I think it turned out alright, especially for a somewhat last-minute design idea.  














The cake itself was butter pecan with brown sugar frosting, a family favourite.  I just make the cake from a mix but the icing is from scratch.  Someday I'll just put the icing in a pan and make it into fudge, it tastes so good.








Speaking of fudge, the absolute best place to buy fudge is The Market Cafe and Fudge Factory in Bancroft, Ontario.  It's made on-site and it's absolutely amazing - creamy, rich and sweet.  They have lots of flavours also.  My personal favourite is penuche - a fudge made with brown sugar.  They don't always have penuche made up since it's not one of their big sellers.  They usually have it in the summer though.  My other favourite is chewy praline.  One of my sisters loves it so much that when she buys a box (which will normally hold four flavours) she just gets all chewy praline.  They also often have seasonal flavours - pumpkin in autumn, candy cane at Christmas.  

If you can't stop by the Market Cafe in Bancroft another option is The Madawaska Art Shop in Maynooth (which is part of Hastings Highlands municipality).  They are owned by the same people so the fudge is the same.  There's not as big of a selection but the store and gallery itself is really cool to explore.  Plus, there are a lot of other neat shops in Maynooth.  If you're there on Saturdays in the summer, you can even stop by the farmer's market held at the old community centre from 8am - 1pm.  Last year they also started having an indoor market one Saturday per month in the winter.  I'm not sure what the plan is for this year though.

Digging In

This past week I've been getting the house in order from our visit to family.  Sometimes I wonder why I go away since it's always so much work when I get back.

This week I was fortunate in that the man got back from work early enough so that I didn't have to go pick up the rental car - yay!  Unfortunately, his work was having the annual employee breakfast meeting on Saturday so he wasn't around for the whole morning.  It would be so nice if he could just be home for one whole weekend, is that really too much to ask?

One of the exciting things that happened this weekend is that Prima had her first official horse riding lesson.  I really like the barn where she's taking lessons.  She has been to a couple horse camps before but not actual lessons so I can't really compare the lessons to those at other barns.  One thing I love though, is that Prima is learning how to safely get the horse from the field (without letting the other horses our too).  She's learning how to properly tack the horse and lead the horse and all kinds of other things about handling horses.  Prima really enjoyed her lesson and is excited to go back in two weeks.

I've been focused on getting the yard work finished before the ground freezes and the snow falls.  I like to get everything tidied up before it gets covered in snow.  I have a few plants from my sister's house that I still need to get in the ground plus some of my own plants that still need to be moved around.  I had hoped to order some fall bulbs this year but I think that will have to wait for next year.  I'm so excited about my garden next year though.  It will be fun to see all the plants from this year come up in the spring.  My goal is to never have to mow our front lawn and it's so nice to see the progress.

Whirlwind Weekend, Putting Things Away

This post will be much shorter than planned.  I am in dire need of getting the house in order.  We went away for Thanksgiving weekend.  It was really nice to visit family (and get a bunch of plants from my sister's overflowing garden).  Now it's time to tidy up, get some groceries and get all those plants in my garden.

Making a Schedule

You'll be happy to hear that I spent yesterday making a schedule.  No longer will you have to wait two or more weeks between blog posts because I have now scheduled them in.  I plan to post every Monday.  We'll see how that works out, I may change the day but I am committing to post every week.