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Fun Stuff to do with Kids

5 Minute Chocolate Cake

A girlfriend of mine sent this to me the other day.  And well, I just had to try it.  It is a recipe for a chocolate cake in five minutes that she found on a blog called Dizzy Dee.

A chocolate cake in five minutes?  Hubby would be so happy that we could whip him up some cake in no time flat.

Despite the fact that J does not eat cake and would not even try it (even if it tasted almost exactly the same as the brownie Bear Paws he ate for snack that day) he did want to help bake it.  Apple and J put on aprons and we set to work.

 Here is the recipe:

4 tbsp cake flour

4 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp cocoa

1 egg

3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp oil

1 Mug

Instructions:

Mix together flour, sugar and cocoa in the mug.

Add egg, oil and milk.

Stir until smooth.

Put in microwave for 3 minutes on maximum power (1000 watt).

Wait until it stops rising and sets in the mug. (I couldn’t see inside my micro to see if it stopped rising, I think I should have left it a few minutes longer).

Tip contents out onto a saucer and enjoy.

It was very good.  Apple and I ate one and Hubby ate the other.  It is best while it’s warm, but there were no complaints here.

3 comments
Categories: Fun Stuff to do with Kids, Recipes

We made it!

To Winterlude.

To Beavertails.

But, not to the slides at Jacques Cartier Park.

J was feeling a little better today, so we decided to bundle him and Apple up in their snowsuits, with heavy blankets and put them in the stroller.  J is almost too big for it, but we wouldn’t have been able to go without it for sure.

We started out at Dow’s Lake at 9:30am (it may have been 9:45, but it was early enough for me to question having a Beavertail straight away).  There was almost nobody out on the ice, the parking lot was almost empty so we took advantage of nobody in line for Beavertails and got them.  J tried a few bites and enjoyed it, which we were happy about since he doesn’t try new things often.  And Apple was asleep since she got up at 4:30am so she didn’t get any.

We finished up our Beavertails and had they not been $4 a pop Hubby was assuring me he would have had five.  We headed down the skateway.  About two kilometres in, J was all cuddled up in his blanket and we wondered if we should turn back.  He insisted that he was warm and wanted to push on.  So we kept going.  All the way downtown.  That is about 5.5 km (3.4 miles).  A lady took our picture by the 0.0km marker at the end and we turned around and headed back.

Apple was awake by this time and the sun was in her eyes, so she was starting to cry.  We pushed on trying to go fast on our tired legs to get her out of the sun.  About halfway back as we were getting out of the sun, Apple was fine.  Only now J was crying because somehow his fingers were really cold.  We still can’t figure it out, it was warm out, he had his mitts on that he has worn all winter yet his fingers got cold.  We tried to get him to curl them up in a ball and tuck them under the blanket more, but he just wouldn’t do it, so he cried for 2.5km.

As we were nearing the end where we were parked, I saw an opening in the crowds and headed towards the side.  Somehow, my skates caught something.  A crack, a piece of straw, something that made them stop short.  My feet with up behind me, and I flew flat out through the air and landed flat on my front, knocking the wind out of me and bruising my elbows and one knee.  I am fine now, but for a few minutes I was really dizzy and trying to look like I was fine to the few hundred people who just witnessed me flying through the air.  Hubby is still trying hard not to laugh about it, he keeps saying, “You looked like Superman”.  Thanks.

Once back in the car, J’s fingers warmed up with the help of my warm hands, Apple was happy with no sun in her eyes and Hubby and I were happy to spend a Family Day together, outside.  That and we took turns having a nap once we got home.

*Full sized photos on my Flickr page.

4 comments
Categories: Fun Stuff to do with Kids, Long Weekends, Winter

A Trip Downtown

After assessing J’s cold and deciding that he could go downtown for a treat, we packed everyone into the car and headed out.  I have been trying to get the family downtown since Christmas.  I did make a trip with my Sister’s, but all I got to see what the mall.  Not that the mall isn’t nice, but I would rather see the crowds and walk around.

And I really wanted a Beavertail!

I didn’t get one.  The lines were really, really long.  I can go again, by myself, in the middle of the week.

 I put together a little mosaic of photos, with J and Apple added in for the mix.

I didn’t get many shots downtown as J was shivering and our assessment wasn’t good.  Although his fever had not returned since the day before, once we were outside and walking around, it returned.  So we took a few minutes walk, bought some candy treats, saw my Sister and called it a day.

The mosaic is very interesting.  From my previous post I mentioned that Ottawa had so many parks that you could essentially visit one a week for a year.  Well, in our short drive from my house to the Market (23 minutes) we passed seven parks and a canal. With so much else in between (actually, there are more that we would have passed had we taken a different road, but I am sure you are getting the picture).  Not to mention that our winter festival, Winterlude, is in full swing right now, thus the millions of people on the skateway and waiting for Beavertails.

And oddly enough you can visit each of these places in any season and get a little something from it.  I didn’t get a photo of each place, but I will list them for you, just in case you are ever visiting here and want to check out any of these places.  And you can do all of this in one day or once a week visit a spot and stretch it out for a couple of months.

  1. Black Rapids
  2. Mooney’s Bay
  3. Hog’s Back Falls
  4. Dow’s Lake
  5. Rideau Canal
  6. Arboretum
  7. Commisioners Park
  8. Confederation Park

Now, lets hope J gets better enough for tomorrow, we were planning a trip to the Winterlude slides at Jacques Cartier Park in Gatineau for Family Day.

**Well, that was a linky post!

2 comments
Categories: Festivals, Fun Stuff to do with Kids, Long Weekends