Celebrating Ma!

So yesterday was Mother's Day! A day to celebrate the very special ladies in our lives that we call Mom! I feel very lucky to have such an amazing Mom and feel blessed with the relationship that we have developed as I have grown up. Being the only girl in my family, my Mom and I HAD to stick together over the years, when it came to dealing with the crazy boys that we lived with!! Of course we have had our ups and downs (apparently grade 5 was a bad year for me...and I'm lucky I wasn't set 'free' ha ha) but I feel very lucky to know that my Mom is always there for me and always will be! 

We celebrated Mother's Day at my parents house this year with a yummy bbq. It was also our first Sunday 'family dinner' with Cody home! Yay! 

Me, Kellen, Cody and MOM!

Me and Ma! I'm not so sure
about my expression haha

Cody and Ma!

Kellen and Ma!
And Cooper...

A few years ago my Mom and I started a Mother's Day tradition. Instead of buying her a gift, we spend a day together shopping, eating, going to the spa, and just hanging out together. I truly wish we were able to do this more often, but at this point life always seems to get in the way! Last weekend we had our Mother /Daughter day and it was awesome!! We did a bunch of shopping and errands, went to our favourite spa for 'Royal Pedicures', went to Famosa for lunch and took our favourite little dog, Cooper, for a walk! 

Mother/ Daughter Day! 

Me and Ma hittin' the road!

Mmmm Famosa for lunch!

Pedicure Time!

Pretty toes! 

Happy Mother's Day Mom!! Thank you for everything you have done, and continue to do for us!! We all love you SOOO much!! 

Spring FINALLY!

Spring FINALLY decided to arrive this week!! Horray! 

We just got our new deck furniture so I decided I would try it out while doing some HLAT marking in the SUN! Being in the heat makes marking HLATS soooo much better!! 

Happy SPRING everyone!!! 

YAY SUN!!!!!

BOO MARKING!!!! HA! 

Mother's Day BLING!

Every year I struggle with finding the 'perfect' thing for my students to make for Mothers and Fathers day! I have been teaching for 5 years, and every year I have tried something new and different just to change it up! It seems like every year around this time I ask my own parents 'so what was your favourite thing that me and the boys made you for Mother's Day when we were little??' which always results in a comical conversation about our lovely homely looking art projects. Whats even funnier is that my poor Mom has kept all of our gifts!! Every.single.one. Yikes!! Although they do make a GREAT conversation piece, whenever we need a good laugh!!!

So this year was no different. I needed something for my students to make for Mother's Day, and I really had no idea what to have them do! I knew I didn't want to paint, because my group of kids this year are honestly the WORST painters I have seen in my life! Like SERIOUSLY! No more painting for them!! Your mother does not deserve YUCK on a canvas for Mother's Day!!!

Sooooo I decided on BRACELETS! 

Colourful and different beaded bracelets are very 'in' these days so I figured this would be a great gift! At first I was looking for some nice wooden beads, but had no luck finding any! But then I came across this big bucket of glass beads at Michaels! And they worked perfect!!

Bucket of Glass Beads and Elastic string!
Easy Peasy!

My students had a blast making the bracelets for their Moms! And it was neat to see them picking beads that they thought their mom might like according to a special color or shape. Cute!! 

I was VERY pleased with the final product and 

I think their Mommies will be too!!

Some of the bracelets! 

I'm thinking this Mother's day gift might be a keeper! 

Guess we will have to wait and see what the Moms say about them!! 

Cinco De Mayo!

We celebrated Cinco De Mayo at my parents house on Sunday! My Dad had been prepping for days for this special dinner and he even went to a special Mexican food store to get some ingredients. I LOVE me some Mexican food!!! And everything that my parents cooked for Cinco De Mayo was OUT.OF.THIS.WORLD!!! I was still in charge of dessert, so I turned to my dear friend Pinterest for some 'mexican dessert' inspiration! I ended up making two Mexican desserts, because I couldn't decide which one people might like more! This is what I came up with...

Mexican 'Un' Fried Ice Cream

What you need:

French Vanilla Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt

2 cups corn flakes cereal

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Chocolate syrup

Whip Cream 

Scoop the ice cream into a ball (about 1/2 cup each) onto a waxed paper lined cookie sheet.

Freeze overnight or until the ice cream is very hard.

In a plastic Ziploc bag, combine the corn flakes and cinnamon. 

Crush using a rolling pin.

Roll the ice cream ball in the cereal mixture until completely covered.

Place back on the cookie sheet, and into the freezer for 2 hours.

Serve with chocolate syrup and whip cream on top!

ENJOY!

And the final product...

These were SUPER yummy and a hit with everyone!!! I also made 'Tres Leches Cake' which is a Mexican 3 milk cake. It was also delish!!!

This is what the rest of our CINCO DE MAYO Celebration looked liked...

THE MENU!

Our friends from Alaska were visiting and staying with my parents, so they got to take part in the Sunday dinner celebration!

Damian and Kevin!

Appies! That cheese dip was UNREAL!!!

Nice hat Dad!! So festive!!

Damian, Kevin, Joe, Ma

Yummy Shrimp dish!

This was my plate! So yummy!!
 I was SOOO full after this!!

My turn with the sombrero!

All the boys! 

FIESTA TIME!

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!!

Family Dinner Dessert!

Family dinners are a BIG deal in my family! For as long as I can remember we have been having 'Family Dinner' on Sundays. When I was younger most of our Sunday dinners were at my Grandma's house (My Mom's Mom) and it was something we all looked forward to! Usually dinner was some kind of HUGE Ukrainian feast, followed by something fabulous that my Grandma baked or created for dessert. She was an amazing cook!!! 

Sunday family dinners have changed a bit over the years...Now we have dinner at my parents house, and they are the ones creating the delicious feasts for us! And I am the one in charge of dessert! Sunday dinner is still something we all look forward to...probably even more now, because it is the only time during the week we usually all see each other!! Sad...but true!! Life is just SO busy these days!! 

Soooo... I have decided that every Sunday I am going to blog about MY dessert creation for that weeks family dinner. I LOVE finding new dessert recipes and ideas, and want to share them with YOU! 

So here we go! My first 'Family Dinner Dessert' post! 

Pineapple Delight 

What you need:

2 cups graham crackers crumbs

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1/2 butter

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1 can (14 oz) crushed pineapple

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1 tub Cool Whip 

Preheat oven to 325'F.

In a mixing bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and melted butter.

Press the mixture into a 8 x 8 baking pan.

Bake for 10 minutes, then cool completely. 

In a separate bowl, mix together the icing sugar, butter, egg and vanilla.

Beat with an electric mixer. 

Spread the mixture over the crust and bake for 15 minutes. Cool completely. 

In another bowl, mix the cool whip, crushed pineapple, and coconut. 

Spread the whipped topping onto the butter filling. 

Garnish with a sprinkle of graham cracker crumbs. 

Refrigerate for 2 hours. 

ENJOY! 

I kinda forgot to take a picture of the graham cracker crust! Oops! 

Butter, icing sugar, egg, vanilla.

Beat using an electric mixer!

Put the icing sugar mixture on
 the crust and bake!

Then make the topping...

Mix Cool Whip, pineapple and
 coconut! YUM!

And the finished product...

This is the perfect 'Spring' dessert! Enjoy!!

Please let me know if you try it! :) 

Yay!

Woo hoo! My blog has 2500 pageviews! That means people actually read this stuff haha who knew?! Although I suppose all of those pageviews ccccccould actually be from my family...ha ha! 

Oh well!! I will continue to be excited about this anyway! 

But there is one thing I need to work on for this lil blog of mine....I NEED more followers!!! I have ONE! ONE!! And he is my husband...so he really has no choice but to follow ha! So pppppplease follow my blog! It will make me very happy!! And mmmyabe if you follow me I will pay you back in baked goods!! Deal?! 

Much Love! :) 

COUNTDOWN TIME!

The countdown is on...

14 Days.....

Until my little bro is home from school for the summer!!!

43 (School) Days.....

Until Summer Vacation!!!! YES!!!

80 Days.....

Until we leave for New York!!!

81 Days.....

Until our FIRST Wedding Anniversary!!!

99 Days.....

Until our 'Kunyk' family trip to
Cobblestone Creek Lodge in Radium!!!

My Mom reminds me all of the time that I should NEVER 'wish time away'....
and I'm not!!!
But I am certainly counting down the days to all of these super exciting things that we have coming up!!