The stars of the supper were the five Kindergarten kids who sang their little hearts out! Mrs. Kaiser had each of the children introduce themselves and say what they want to be when they grow up. When the mic got to Calum I was sure he wouldn't say anything or do his usual and cover his eyes and mouth! But to my surprise he said, "My name is Calum and when I grow up I want to be a policeman and a........dad!" Well, the audience just about died with how cute that was, we got it on video and after he said it you could hear the crowd in unison say, "Awwwwwwwwwwwww!" When it came time for them to sing their song they did such a great job and I could even hear Calum! He is so taken with his teacher that I know he wanted to please her in every way! He asked her last week if she could go to Grade One with him! The evening was a huge success, and it couldn't have gone as well as it did without the help from everyone on the board!! The meal was delicious, thanks to Sean for cooking the amazing Prime Rib and Jen and Deena for buying and orangizing the potatoes, vegetables and buns! And to them also for all the beautiful Valentine's decorations! The center peices for the tables were made by the Kindergarten kids and turned out so cute! We also had a live and silent auction which faired well, with a huge thanks to Delilah and Melissa and their group for getting all the donations! I made a Blackforest Cheesecake Cake for the silent auction! A new recipe but so fun to make! In between the chocolate cake layers was a layer of baked cheesecake swirled with cherry pie filling. And then the entire cake was iced with a cream cheese frosting. With the remaining cherry pie filling spread on top. It was bought for $75!! Jared said that he hoped it was good for that kind of money! I decided to make a miniature version for our anniversay this past weekend and we decided that it was in fact very good! Myrna also donated her super yummy buns and cinnamon buns which went for over $20 each! It was a great night, lots of fun and a great success!
Tuesday night Jared and I took our open heifers down to Lethbridge for the auction the next day! We had those heifers so packed in the trailer Jared was a little worried about the gate popping open while we were driving, we really didn't want to make two trips if we didn't have to! So Wednesday the boys and I headed to the big city to watch our heifers sell! They did very well, and even with the little runt in there we averaged just over $1000 an animal! Next week we will be taking our steers to the auction and since I don't work on Wednesday, the boys and I will have to go again! I really love going to the auction and seeing the different ways people bid! Some will raise their hand, though not many, others nod, I even saw one man wink! Quite unique!!
The next big project was getting ready for the kids classroom Valentine's Parties! We found a cute printable Valentine card on Pinterest and so we printed it out! It was a picture of Master Yoda from Star Wars and on it said, "Yoda Best Valentine" so we attached a glow stick to it for Yoda's light saber! The kids had fun giving them out! I was also asked to send some kind of treat for their parties so I decided to make more sugar cookies and dip half of them in chocolate! I used red chocolate wafers for the Sweetheart Supper cookies so I just did that again but this time drizzled milk chocolate on the undipped half of the cookie! Thank goodness I sent a ton of them to the school because I could not stay out of them!
On the actual Valentine's Day was the Champion School Ski Trip! Since Jared just started his new job he couldn't go with Emry so I went! Though I sat in the lodge she was still happy I was there with her. There happened to be a young couple there with their 14 month old daughter! They would take turns doing a run and after watching them do this a couple of times I offered to watch their little girl while they did a couple of runs TOGETHER! I assured them I wasn't a creep, which my sister said was not convincing!! But alas they decided they could trust me. She had the cutest name, Solstice because she was due on the winter solstice! She was so pleasant and we had fun together! It turned out to be a great day all around! Emry had a blast skiing with her best friend, though they didn't leave the green chair (big bunny hill) they had fun! We stopped at Boston Pizza in Pincher Creek on our way home and I ordered two heart shaped pizzas to take home to my boys! I was presently surprised to see a little note from Jared on my dresser with an array of chocolate! Including a 1 pound chocolate bar! The little note said Happy Valentine's Day Ammu (you can't eat flowers!!) A truly nice day!!
Saturday I was scheduled to work so I went into Vulcan to open the Pharmacy and put together the dossettes that needed to be done and then I went home to help Jared separate the steers and heifers! I also had some time to make my mini blackforest cheesecake cake before heading back into work to close the pharmacy! Sunday was our 12th Anniversary so I made our favourite Chicken Cordon Blue, soooo yummy! We invited Myrna over for dinner and had a nice time visiting with her!
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| The one I took to the Kindergarten Sweetheart Supper looked MUCH better!!! But despite the sloppiness, it was delicious!! |
Since the kids were off school that week my sister and I took the kids to Calgary to the Lego Store! My kids have been asking to go quite regularly since we went last year! Since Gil and Lily haven't been we decided to all go! We had to make a quick stop in Okotoks to pick up a fancy dancy bander for our steers! Only it took us quite awhile to find the place! I was on the phone with the lady and we got cut off midway through her telling me the directions. I figured I knew where the building was so I didn't bother to call back. Once I realized I didn't know I put the address into Google Maps though for some reason it only picked up Okotoks, Alberta. I didn't actual realize this until we were right in the middle of Okotoks! Oops! So we headed back the way we came and still couldn't find it so I called!! When I didn't hear after we got cut off the first time we talked were actually the most important part of the directions! With the right directions we found the place lickety split, though it cost us about an hour!
Once we got to Chinook Centre we met up with my dad and had a quick lunch in the food court! Then to the Lego Store, the kids had so much fun looking at all the sets and building three of their very own mini figures! Armin made at least nine guys, he had so much fun picking out different things and putting them together! We stayed for quite a while and then each of the kids got to pick out their very own set thanks to Grandpa Glen! Calum and Armin both picked a small set from The Lego Movie, Gil got a slightly larger set from the same movie, Lily picked out Lego Friends Brave set and Emry picked a Lego Friends tractor set! They had even more fun putting them together when we got home and played all day the net day with their new lego!
The Monday after the week off the High School boys and girls had their last home basketball game of the season! So we took the kids! It was a great game for the boys, quite close the entire game so very exciting! The boys ended up winning, making it even better!
Tuesday we took our steers to Lethbridge for the auction on Wednesday. I left work early so I could help Dave load the first load of steers. Everything started out super smooth but turned ugly quite quickly!! The steers did not want to get on the trailer. After they got by us the first time we noticed that the trailer windows were closed so we opened them so the steers would think going into the trailer was actually a way out!! Getting them to the trailer with the windows opened worked better as we were able to get six on and get the door closed as the remaining four turned again on us and ran back. We remembered that the trailer had a divider and got it closed on the six steers already in the trailer so we would be able to put the four that got away back on! We decided it would be better to not try those four again and put them back in with the rest of the steers and took out four new steers! Third time is most definitely a charm! Dave and I got the remaining four on and off he went to drop them off at Balog's! Dave got back to the farm at 6 and had to leave so he would make it home in time for Blake's Cub Activity...making their Kub Kar's!! So Jared and I loaded up the remaining 10 steers so he could take them to Balog's! This bunch had the four naughty steers Dave and I put back! It was getting pretty dark so they were much more skittish than earlier! They turned on us once and weren't going to stop, Jared was able to pull himself on the nearest gate though he slipped and rolled his ankle. I could tell he was badly hurt but before I could even ask how bad it was he was limping past the steers to try again! We were a little more forceful with them and were able to get them through the barn and past the maternity gate so we could close it on them! They were now stuck in a much smaller area just before the trailer. It took lots of jumping up and down, waving our arms and saying "Come on, let's go, get up there..." rather loudly!! Finally they all got on the trailer and Jared got the door closed! It's usually a little sad for me to see them go, but I was more than happy this time....these steers have been a huge headache!!!
The boys and I went to the auction the next afternoon to see them sell. They were definitely some of the best looking animals there that day! Big and fury with clean looking fur! Others looked rather ratty! Some had large clumps of matted mud and poop in their fur, others had bald spots from lice and some just looked rough! Our steers did very well, averaging $1.91/pound! With them gone Jared hasn't had to haul water to them which is a huge blessing especially since he hurt his ankle!
Yesterday Emry had her first ever 4 H speeches! She wrote her own speech about feeding cows with her dad! It was really good and she did a great job, though she was nervous she stood up there and delivered her speech loudly and clearly! Her impromptu speech was very short and didn't meet the 1 minute requirement but she did really well! I was proud of her! Now that she knows what it is all about next year will be even better!
With today being the last day of February I did something super dumb! Emry was invited to go to her friends house who just lives down the road. On our way to his house we went to break the ice on the bulls water. I thought it would save tons of time if we just drove down the trail that connects Fireguard Road to the road where the bulls are! I honestly think I turned off the common sense part of my brain! We made it half way when all of a sudden the van got stuck...really stuck. It didn't save time at all! Jared happened to text me then and asked what I was up to today. I don't think he expected my response to be "Well, we are actually stuck in a snow drift on the trail by Burt's house on our way to Cale's." His answer was "Seriously?" Then my phone rang. It was Jared and he said I was really lucky that he was on his way to Twin Valley to do his end of week check. He came to rescue us only to get his vehicle stuck too. He made the 2 1/2 mile walk back to our house to get the tractor so he could get his truck out. It was a success and an hour and a half later Emry was on her way to her friends house. Jared took her in his truck while the boys and I took the tractor home. We will go and get the van tonight when Jared gets home. He will have to go down the trail from the end we drove the van down or else he will end up getting the tractor stuck too. Sometimes I wonder where my mind is, I never drive down that trail and I don't know why it really even occurred to me this time especially with all the snow and wind we have had this winter.
This has been an exciting month full of lots of adventure. I look forward to what March will bring, I hope it is a little less exciting than February has been!
