Mmmmm, Rollkuchen

I'm a sucker for my kids. Especially when it comes to grocery shopping. I don't give in to all of their demands but there are a few I can't resist. Watermelon is one of them. When a certain 5 year old's big brown eyes look up at me and ask if we can have watermelon and rollkuchen for supper one night as she's standing right next to the watermelon, it's really hard to resist! So needless to say, I had some super happy kiddos yesterday when we had watermelon and rollkuchen for supper. For those of you who don't know what rollkuchen is, the best way I can describe it is dough fried in oil. As far as I know it's a Mennonite "dish". I haven't met a non-Mennonite yet who has known what rollkuchen is. My kids are shocked that there are people in this world who have not had rollkuchen. Ever.

This was the cooking station on the front veranda. There is oil on the veranda now but the mess and the smell are better left outside!

We don't have patio furniture yet but our tv trays and lawn chairs work well.

This is rollkuchen. The ones with the slits in them are crispy, the way Ron likes them. The other ones are puffy, the way the rest of us like them. The syrup pours easily into the puffy ones once an end has been bitten off! You can also stuff a piece of watermelon inside if you don't want syrup. But let's be honest, who doesn't want Rogers Syrup in their rollkuchen??!!

I was told these were the best ones ever. That's probably because they were the first ones of the summer season but hey, why not get an early start on Mother's Day gift bribes?

Spoil Mom Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day. This is the day where you find out how your kids truly feel about you and what they take away from their life with you. Do they remember all the discipline moments, the learning moments, the "mom is so frustrated she doesn't know what to do with you" moments? Or will they remember the fun moments, the read-to-me moments, the "I'm laughing so hard I'm going to pee my pants" moments? Thankfully my kids remember the latter rather than the former!!

I had been given strict instructions on Thursday already that I was to sleep in on Sunday. The day started off at 7:50 with Larissa "sneaking" into our bedroom to wake up Ron so they could make me breakfast (not in bed, I don't like food in bed!!). They came to get me at 8:20. First I was given my gifts then I was treated to bacon, eggs, toast & jam, tea and orange juice. We went to church then out for lunch with two families, came home for a couple of hours and then headed to the lake where we met up with the same friends we had lunch with and had supper by the beach. It was a great day, I am truly loved!

Here are the gifts I was blessed with:

This one's from Nathan. The wall plaque he chose on his own from the grand re-opening of the church library. The card and bath salts are from school. The card has a haiku on it:

Mom

nice, kind

cooking, relaxing, visiting

I love my Mom

scrapbooking, reading, singing,

awesome, caring

Mommy

These are all from Larissa. I think if you click on the picture you can see what they all are. My favourite is  the "I Love You" card. Inside was fill in the blank sentences, here are some of my favourite answers:

My mom is "35" years old. (I'm not, but thanks!)

My mom weighs "55" pounds. (really??!!)

My mom's favourite food is "pantkacks" (pancakes, apparently)

My mom's job is "being a mom" (it's true!)

My mom really loves "me" (there were two lines for that answer, apparently only one word was needed!!)

This was Bethany's gift to me. It was so cute. She jumped up onto the bed and "read" it to me. She then said, "It's not true, Mom. My arms are longer so I love you more!"

Now the challenge will be to top this for Father's Day!!

More Construction

We are adding a sidewalk and patio to our house this spring. It was all supposed to happen last week, but as our luck would have it, it started raining! We told Josiah that if we needed rain all we had to do was hire him for a project. He's now booked for mid-July. Just kidding! The sidewalk up front is the only thing that's really progressed for now.

As you can see, the puddles are preventing work from getting done. I think the guys have been here about an hour a day before they get rained on....again.

This is our back patio area. It's tempting to just dig a hole and make a pool!!

I wonder how long that trackhoe will be a yard ornament....

Ron has said that we have had enough rain now to make up for the lack of snow this winter. We are not saturated like we were last spring, so that's good. We are just over half finished seeding and Ron's not in panic mode yet. The forecast is promising for the rest of the week so hopefully yard and field work can get well on it's way to being finished!