Emma's Pumpkin

 

Our craft product for the first week of Halloween was decorating pumpkins. We bought some glue spray and glitter and allowed Emma to pick her color. She selected the purple and had a fun time decorating it. I had to keep her from trying to pick up the big pumpkin because she wanted to put glitter all over it too.

Baytown Nature Center

Daddy's Girls

A Sweet Thank You

Nana and Emma mixing cake batter.

Emma learning how to handle a hand held mixer.

Emma taking a break with her own sweet treat. A Candy Corn Rice Crispy Treat!

Pink Lemonaid Cake Balls.

Reese's Cup Cookies and Chocolate Chunk Cookies!

Pink Lemonaid Cupcakes. 

After being gone a week in Canada. I decided to make these Yummy treats as a special thank you to my team. I know it is never easy on other teachers when there is a Sub. No matter how OCD I am in my preparations the level of stress goes up on  these days when we know a fellow colleague is out. With me being out for 4 days (Friday was in-service) I thought they needed an extra something sweet. I will say that my students did well, not perfect (but who could blame them) we know what it was like for us as kids with a sub. 

Gifts from Canada

We went to several stores and picked up a few things for our loved ones and Brandie's students. We started giving them out as soon as we got back. We did pick up some additional items not pictures above but with our shopping we did realize that things were more expensive in Canada than the United States, but we did not realize how much more it would be until we started spending our cash.

Niagara Tripe Day 5 - 9/28/12

Raptor Run Mini Golf

Brandie's Hole in One

Brandie's first Mulligan

Testing for the wind

Looking beautiful on the course

Ray's Hole in One

The last day was a travel day for us, but our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 2:30pm, so we slept in a bit and then went to play miniature golf.  This is something Brandie has wanted me to take her to do for a long time, so it was great that we finally got to go do it.  The course was dinosaur themed, as the pictures above show.  Brandie wanted to play the expert course, so off we went.  I gave Brandie honors, and showed her the proper way to hold the putter and line it up.  She then proceeded with her first shot...and hit a hole in one!  I started calling her a ringer, that is until her second shot, which ricocheted off a rock and into the water.  I eventually got a hole in one of my own, and after the final tally (and many mulligans), Brandie won by one stroke!  While on the course, we found out our flight was delayed, and went to enjoy a movie, then made the drive back to Buffalo for our flight home.  It was a wonderful trip, but we were glad to get back home to our girls!

Niagara Trip Day 4 - 9/27/12

Dressed up for the gala

The Hernder vineyards

Hernder Estates Winery

 Day 4 was the last day of the conference.  After the seminars, we went to the conference gala at the Hernder Estates Winery.  Before dinner, we were taken on a tour of the winery.  They make over 30 different types of wine, including ice wines.  Ice wines are made when they allow the grapes to freeze, which apparently enhances the sweetness, because the ice wine we samples was sweeter than any dessert wine we ever had!  We enjoyed wonderful wine and food, as well as good conversation with people from all over the country!

Niagara Trip Day 3 - 9/26/12

Brandie enjoying hot tea with breakfast

Ray's breakfast

The Maid of the Mist

The American Falls

American Falls

Approaching Horseshoe Falls

Niagara Skywheel

Brandie on the Skywheel

View of the Falls from the Skywheel

Today was a lot of fun!  We started off by eating breakfast in St. Catherine's at a restaurant named The Bleu Turtle.  It was in half of an old industrial building and only had 9 tables in the entire place, but the food was excellent!  It was a gourmet chef that ran the place, and we had a wonderful breakfast.  Brandie had crabcakes and poached eggs, while I had lobster scrambled eggs with hollandaise sauce. 

After breakfast I went to my seminars for the day.  Afterwards we went on the Maid of the Mist boat tour of Niagara Falls!  It was fun and a great way to experience the Falls up close.  The pictures above were taken while on the boat, and the video is when we approached the Horseshoe Falls.

Once we were finished, we went to the Clifton Hill tourist area to ride the Niagara Skywheel.  It is a huge ferris wheel that gives a great view of the area.  It was a busy day, but a lot of fun!