Trick or Treat!

Hunter and Cavan spent the last few days practicing their Trick or Treating skills and it was all put to good use this evening. With snowsuits on under their costumes, they hopped into the gator and hit the town.... well actually only about 20 houses. What a heap of loot they came home with. Tonight the Treat Fairy will be coming to replace their treats with some new Might Machines movies. The Treat Fairy, aka Matt the sugar fiend, will be taking it all to work with him. We let them have a bunch tonight and I am pretty sure they ate more chocolate tonight than they have in their entire lives!

The Puppy and Chicken ready to hit the town:


Move outta the way mom! We need to get the candy!


Our Puking Pumpkins!! They were a big hit with all the kids.


Trick or Treating in Style!!

Trick or Treat In Style from Kara Went on Vimeo.

The Dance Recital

For the last couple of months a local high school student has been teaching dance classes to a variety of age groups. Hunter only made it to about half of the classes with us being in and out of town this fall, but he still loved them! All the little girls would show up in the frilly tutu's, and would follow directions and dance their little hearts out. Hunter.... well he would show up in jeans (and once in a huge yellow foam hat) and spend most of the time pretending to be a train by speeding along on his knees yelling, "CHOO CHOO!!" Thank goodness the dance teacher has heaps of patience!

On Friday, all of the age groups put on a fabulous recital. The turn out to watch the event was impressive with more people standing than there were on chairs. Cavan spent most of time trying to get up there with the dancers! Hunters performance was hilarious. I laughed so hard at him and the other little kids up there I nearly peed myself. Between Hunter not really doing anything, my friends kids nearly duking it out part way through and the girls in their tutu's it was quite the performance.

Thank you so much Cayla and Dana for your hard work getting the kids ready for this!

Enjoy the video everyone! Hunter is in the middle of the group.

Dance Recital from Kara Went on Vimeo.

Halloween Party and Prep

Today the town put on their annual Kids Halloween Party and the boys had a fabulous time. It was just for kids aged 10 and under; later tonight there are parties for the older kids. There were some games, but mostly the kids just ran around the gym in their costumes having fun. It was over lunch time and there was quite the spread of snacks for the kids and parents to enjoy

Hunter taking his swings at the pinata:

The shy little puppy:

My pumpkin carving assistants:

Cavan enjoying the pinata too:

The cutest little chicken in town!!

Winning Bid

Last week some playground equipment in Faro came up for tender. We put bids in a couple of pieces of equipment and ended up winning both! We turned down one so another family could have it and are very pleased with our win. It is a pretty large play structure and we only paid $505 for it. There is a one week timeline for removing the equipment so Matt started at it today. It is actually going quicker than we though. Since the posts are cemented into the ground, he is just digging down and cutting the posts off.

I finally conceded defeat with my hopes of having a level in the backyard as my gardening spot. Matt pointed out that since I couldn't even keep four hanging baskets alive this summer that gardening should be put on the back burner for a while. He does have a very valid point! So that level in the backyard will be prepped in the spring and this piece of equipment installed there. I found slides that you can buy at Home Hardware that we will put between the two levels. Are we cool parents or what?? I cannot wait to see how it all looks next summer with this installed, grass, flower boxes.... oh my!!

Our win!! Matt had already taken off the two slides and some other accessories:

My Head Is Going To Explode....

Hello. My name is Kara and I am a mac-addict.

It has been nine days since my last mac use and I don't know if I can handle it for much longer.

Sigh. My beautiful macbook pro is in for repairs. Something about a logic board they say now. Which is just gobbilly-gook to me. I could have burst into tears when they said today, a week after it arrived there, that it is going to be at least another two weeks before it will be repaired. A real pain in the arse. I had projects to do, pictures to post, housework to procrastinate from...

Thankfully my husband has a little netbook that I have commandeered from him. It drives me nuts with its itty bitty key board and enter key that is all wonky. But at least I can get on the internet and get some stuff accomplished.

I need to figure out how to put pictures on this gadget. While I was away in Mayo for the last week, I did some serious sewing! I made four pairs of adult mittens and three pairs of kids mittens that just need liners put in, four pairs of baby booties, and the bottoms for another pair of mukluks. I am awesome!! Last week I had my first customers on my Etsy site and sold a pair of mittens and a pair of baby mukluks. Sure hope they like their purchases.

AND!! My new leather sewing machine arrived in the mail today. I am so excited to pull my new toy out of the box and try it out.

AND AND AND.... check out my guest post over here at Johanna's beautiful blog.

Off we go to condiment town!

The kids and I are almost all packed and ready to go! We are off to Mayo for a week. Matt is already up there working right now and the boys are excited to see him.

So our week will be filled with walks, visiting with a new baby, sewing projects, playground visits, satellite tv, supper with friends, books and hopefully the odd visit to a computer with internet! It should be a fantastic week.

Now hopefully I have everything. House/cat/fish sitter has been arranged, kids stuff packed, my stuff packed. Just need to fuel up the truck and pack up the fresh stuff from the fridge and off we go!

Have a great week everyone!

Using the Elk Hide

I was finally brave enough to cut out some of my elk hide to try another pair of mukluks. And another snazzy result!!

I am going to find something else to use for ties. I don't like using the leather- just doesn't tie tight enough. Other people use yarn, but I am no good at making those yarn ties. My friend has some laces she said will work well with them, so hopefully that works!

So here is my smoked elk hide, canvas top mukluk in a men's size 10 with a store bought felt liner good to -40C inside. Who wants to buy it? :)

Mukluk Completion!!

Remember a while back when I said I wanted to make something like this:

Well I made a pretty darn nice version myself!

Next I will make a pair with smoked elk hide.

Since this hide isn't really thick, I have glued on a waffle rubber sole so they can be worn outdoors. Still not the best foot wear if the snow is wet though. Best for cold weather and dry snow conditions.

They are lined with a felt boot liner, size 10 mens.

I am patting myself on the back today for making a pair of mukluks that I like. Soon I think I will be able to start taking orders!

Mukluk Madness!!

Success! Finally!

After a few failed attempts, I have come up with my first fantastic (well I think so anyways) looking mukluk. I just need to cut ankle ties for it tomorrow and finish the other one. This one is a size 10 mens.

Since I didn't dare cut another chunk out of my smoked hide, I made these out of a polished cow hide. I have a rubber waffle sole that I am going to try gluing to the bottom so that they can be worn outdoors. When I make a pair out of the smoked elk, I won't have to add that to that.

Now that I have figured out one size, next comes the fun part of figuring out how to make other sizes!

Kitchen Helper Version 2.0

The boys fight for chair space to help me in the kitchen when I am baking or preparing meals. And I mean it turns into an all out war with them screaming, pushing each other off the chair, biting and eventually tears. I wish I had a bigger kitchen!!

Tonight Cavan got the prized chair space while Hunter played with Matt. My lovely assistant decided to eat the flour/sugar/baking powder/baking soda/salt combination. And I mean eat, not just taste. He was shoveling it into his mouth every time I turned away to reach for another ingredient. Hopefully the banana bread we were making tastes alright after so much of the mixture was removed!

Shoveling it all in:

Nope. No way, Mom. I wasn't touching it at all.

Ohhhh... who is that dashing boy hiding in the bowl?

Nom, nom, nom!

Playgroup Fun

The boys and I head down to the recreation centre in town twice a week for playgroup. There are usually around 10 kids, but we can have as many as 15. The kids get free, unstructured play in a huge gym with heaps of toys. They love it!! On playgroup days I try not to say it out-loud because otherwise they stand at the top of the stairs screaming to leave the house.

I love this time too. Having a chance to visit with other parents is a nice break from the daily routine. And the best part? The kids usually come home so pooped from that hour and a half that they both crash at nap time.

Hunter is in love with this wagon and pulls all the kids around... until he takes to crashing them and I have to take the wagon away!!

Wild-man rocking!

Playing bumper cars with his younger brother!

He has mastered riding a bike with training wheels!

Rub a dub dub- two monkeys in a tub!

Crazy Hoodies

The boys love it when I turn their shirts into crazy hoodies...

Brains! I need brains!

Okay, maybe a mum-mum will do...

Wonderful silliness...

Meltdown Recovery!

I have recovered from my Monday Meltdown! Thank you for all of the lovely and encouraging comments.

Cavan's canker sore went from horrible to not so bad yesterday and last night he slept so well. Today he was back to his regular happy, destructive self.

Yesterday they crashed together on the sofa after lunch without us noticing for a while. Wish this happened more often!

Tears of Exhaustion

Cavan has been a sick little guy for the last four days. He has a huge canker sore on the inside of his bottom lip. The sore makes it hard for him to eat, sleep and play. So for the last four days our lives have been pretty miserable. He will only sleep for half an hour at a time at night then wakes up screaming. He has been hitting, biting, kicking and all out waging war on Hunter, Matt and I.

On Friday I realized I really did not want to cook a big Thanksgiving supper. No one had invited us out, so I hit an all time low. I begged on facebook for someone to take us in. Yes. I really did. One of Matt's co-workers felt sorry for us and invited us to her big potluck. Hunter was on his best behaviour! Cavan.... not so much. He was into everything. Then I sat down on the floor with him and a huge plate of the most amazing food you could imagine. He kept pointing to the food, but every bite I put in his mouth he spit out onto the floor. The he started jumping around, screaming, pointing at food, turning away from the food and on and on. Then the grande finale- he screams and hits my plate of supper, dumping it all over me. I was on the verge of tears. I got it all scooped up on the plate, grabbed the kid, left Matt and Hunter behind and headed for home.

On the drive home I was in tears. I was upset that we couldn't enjoy such a lovely supper and worried about how disruptive we had been. Then I was in tears thinking maybe this is why no one invited us to a supper this year- because a toddler and little boy can be a bit disruptive. Then I was in tears when Cavan kept repeating the word, "Bad" from the backseat. Nothing like that feeling of being a horrible mother.

We got in the door, Cavan cried while sucking back a sippy cup of milk and I put his pj's on him. It was only 5:30pm, but I knew he was exhausted so I tucked him and his stuffed puppy and marten into the crib. He hasn't made a peep since.

After three nights of nearly no sleep we are both giving in to our tears of exhaustion.

This Video Says It All

I have so much to be thankful for, but first and foremost is family.

Enjoy the video compilation from this summer!

Summer 2010 from Kara Went on Vimeo.

Kids Who Hunt....

I just made these t-shirts online and ordered a few of them for our kids and some other kids we know for Christmas. I love them!

My saying won out over Matt's suggestion of:
"Your Kid Might Be An Honour Student, But My Kid Can Take Your Kid Out At 500 Yards."
ahahhaha I love my hubby! Might just have to put that on a t-shirt for next Christmas.

Delicious Food!

I finally had the chance to break out my new food dehydrator! Oh it is truly amazing. I had nine racks of fruit going and they all dried in record time or at least compared to the little dehydrators I owned in the past. I had a backlog of fruit in the house that I didn't want to go to waste, so I dried two mangos, five nectarines, a dozen apples and half a dozen pears- all at once! The mango and nectarine have already been scarfed and the pears will be gone in a couple more days. Delicious! Now I just need to come up with a name for this baby. I call my quad Betty and my 1hp meat grinder Bertha. I think another B-name is in order.

And now to introduce you to Bradley! This six rack digital silver beast smokes meat like nothing else. I tried something new this week with fantastic results. I boiled a gallon of water with half a cup of coarse salt, 1tbsp of curry powder, 2tsp onion powder and 1tsp pepper. After letting the water cool I poured it over bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts and sealed them in large ziplock bags. They sat marinating in the fridge for 2.5hrs. Then I took them out and let them sit on cooling racks to dry for half an hour. And the last step was a three hour visit at 240F with hickory chips in the smoker. Oh my god. They were so delicious! I will definitely be doing this recipe again. Maybe I will even be brave enough to try an entire chicken sometime!

Cheerios

I am not sure what I would do without Cheerios. Every morning our routine is the same. The boys wake us up at the butt-crack of dawn and they sit on their sofa cuddled up in blankets and surrounded by their stuffed puppies, squirrel and martin. We turn on either Mighty Machine or Thomas the Tank Engine and we fill them full of Cheerios. Specifically Honey-Nut Cheerios which are called Bee-Cheerios in our house. But I am a sneaky mama; I fill up my tupperware containers with a mix of plain Cheerios and Bee-Cheerios and they never know the difference.

Cavan even does a decent job of getting most of the cereal into his mouth, but I am still cleaning up floor-ios hours later. I am sure that sofa has been completely saturated in milk. Of course this is just their starter breakfast. Later on there is fruit, yogurts and whatever they steal off of our plates. And sometimes, okay actually more often than sometimes, they have Cheerios for supper too. They really do love them!

The Bed

We bought Hunter the most amazing bed this summer from JYSK in Grande Prairie. So glad it was on sale, because the full price tag way too much. It was a royal pain the ass to assemble, but worth the final product. We wanted a bunk bed, but not a ladder one. This one has stairs that double as drawers and a high side on it that has so far prevented Hunter from rolling out. This is a piece of furniture that will work for him for a long time and I am sure in another couple of years we will buy Cavan the same thing.

And it provides a safe spot for Cavan to hide when his big brother chases him with the vacuum!

Picture of the bed from the website:

How To Terrorize Your Brother

Vacuum from Kara Went on Vimeo.

My Butcher Shop!

My freezer is looking pretty darn full after two days of butchering moose! Matt had perfect timing shooting his moose. We had a full week of cool temperatures for the moose to hang, and then my mother arrived for a visit. Having my mother here to help me butcher is fantastic! Every year she butchers a number of moose, elk and deer of her own and for other family members. She is a pro!!

Over the last two days we have added to our freezer:

• over 80 packages of ground meat
• over 50 packages of steak/cutlets
• 22 large roasts
• 5 packages of tenderloin
• 50lbs of my mothers homemade sausage recipe
• 25lbs of Italian sausage
• 25lbs of maple breakfast sausage
• 25lbs of hamburger patties

Today we are going to pressure can about 24 jars of moose that I use in soups and stews over the winter. Then next week Matt and I will break out the smoker to make some delicious moose jerky with about 30lbs of nice pieces of meat I set aside.

Mmmmmm MOOSE!!

Near the end of day 1, I did a nasty slice to my pointer finger. Matt took me down to the Health Centre for stitches, but thankfully I got away with just having it glued together and a tetanus shot which hurt more than the cut!!

Wrapping, wrapping and more wrapping!

My little helper labeling packages for me:

My mom making burger patties:

Hunter learning the fine art of sausage making:

Cavan the Curious inspects the sausage making process:

Yum! I am thankful for a freezer full of meaty goodness!