Tea House Trip

It's been another busy weekend, so this post is delayed a bit. Saturday we made the much anticipated trip to the Nilgris Tea House in Three Hills, Alberta. It's kind of a late birthday present for me and an early 7th Birthday present for Elyssia. The drive should have taken 3 hours, but we had two stops and road construction that turned it into 4. That's okay, there wasn't much fussing from the kids and a new story cd got us through the drive there. It was called "Buried in the Snow". Another dramatized story done by Lamplighter Theatre. I think this is my new second favorite.

I'll post pics from the trip first, then write a bit about what we enjoyed most.

Scott took the younger 3 to the park for a picnic lunch, while Elyssia and I were at the Tea House. Afterwards I watched the kids for a bit so that Scott could visit with Bro. Ironside. We ordered the homemade mac n'cheese with farmer's sausage and a side salad. There were so many good desserts to choose from that we ended up choosing 3 to share with everyone. They were all delicious, but I have to say the Carrot Cake was my favorite. I'd heard it was good and it definitely lived up to it's reputation:). Afterwards we went back to the park to run off some more energy and I got a couple good pics of the older two. I love sunny day pictures. The pictures just end up looking so much better than all the others.

Overall it was a really good weekend. There were a couple people at church that we hadn't seen for most of the summer and the kids were mostly good. The day went by pretty quickly. Yesterday was grocery sale day, so I went as close to opening as possible. There was some cleanup to do at home, but the kids were up early, so we got that done first. While I was gone they picked saskatoons and Scott made a potato soup with ham. Very yummy! When I got home we were able to cut up the fruits, meats, shred cheese, etc and get them into the freezer. We find that it saves quite a bit of prep time later in the month when things get busy. The older 3 were really good about unloading the groceries from the van. Garrison was packing so much each time that his arms were sore at lunch time. They had also worked together to clean Elyssia's room, which was a nice surprise. Unfortunately Kiersten and Caleb managed to mess it up again before bedtime, which was very upsetting to Elyssia. Today the boys are working on their room while I make buns. Scott had a job in town and he needed to take Elyssia, so it's a bit quieter around here.

Our garden has been doing really well this year! We've already eaten corn on the cob 3 times and I could eat it at least a dozen more. Last night we made extra so that I could cut some off and freeze for later use. Elyssia's been saving the silk, etc, to make a corn cob doll. We'll see how that turns out. The older 3 are getting really good at shucking corn:). They kinda race to see who can do the most. We also had some overripe bananas and extra whipping cream, so a batch of homemade banana ice cream was in order. If you've never tried it before, it's delicious! Very few ingredients and you don't have to worry about it going bad because there's rarely any leftovers:).

Well, I think it's time to work the bread dough and switch the laundry to the dryer. "Labor Day" is every day around here:).