It's Feeding Time....

This is Olivia posing with her calf 'Livi'. This tale starts out a little sad as the reason Olivia has to feed her calf by bottle is because the mama heffer died this spring. When our girls were babies their Opa chose to name a calf after each of them in honour of their Daddy who runs the farm. This has been a wonderful experience for our girls, and will be for Isaac one day too...once one of the girls' cows has a bull then maybe we'll name him after Isaac and get him going on a calf too. The girls love going to the farm and checking up on their calves and they get really excited when it's calving season! As Olivia's mama cow was already 8 years old, she'd had a few calves along the way but it was hard to see her go this year. We're not sure what happened to her. The vet came out a few times to help but she didn't make it. Abby's mama had her first calf this year too so that was pretty exciting! Her's was a bull calf that she named 'Arlyss' after the renter at the farmhouse! This is where I should explain that on our farm if you get a calf named after you it's an honour! Anyway, since Olivia's mama calf died shortly after her calf was born, we needed to get it onto a bottle so it would stop sneaking milk off other mamas. Rob got the calf used to the bottle and then introduced Olivia and now that little calf calls to Olivia when it sees her, then kicks its legs up and runs on over to greet her! It's the most wonderful feeling for Olivia. The feeding process is fast but messy! By the time Olivia was finished feeding yesterday her shoes were covered in white foam from the calf drooling! Having a daddy who's a farmer has been such a great experience for the kids....and I have to admit that even though it's had its tough moments, I love the career he has and that I've been able to be a helpmate to him in his job all these years. He is a wonderful farmer and is so passionate about what he does.

Preschool Performance...

Today was a special day at Abby's preschool! The Moms were all invited for a special "performance" followed by a lovely snack buffet! We were treated to some cute hand-made flowers as well as real ones! First the children sang a few songs for us....M-O-M-M-Y to the tune of B-I-N-G-O, and another one about pussy willows, then they recited a poem for us. They sang one song with shakers then came and gave us the shakers that had seeds in them to plant in pots that the children had decorated and filled with soil. It was a fun morning and a great way to spend some much needed one-on-one time with my girl. Abby is a fun-loving, sweetheart of a girl who loves to perform for me! The kids even served us punch and snacks...wow, what a treat! I'm the one used to serving snacks and juice! I'll never forget how proud Abby was to see me there and be able to 'spoil' me for an hour. This will be a special memory for me!

Tea Time....

Spring is finally here and that means tea time for our women's ministries team! We start planning the tea months in advance and it's always a fun evening! This year our theme was a Country Fair. There were exhibits of all kinds of hand crafted items from quilts to photography to canning and preserves! We had about 130 women attend and we raised money for a local teen crisis centre. We had special music by the 'ditzy' chicks, our own homegrown group. Food is always the highlight at these things and this year was no exception! My job? Strawberry tarts...mmmm. This is one of my favorite things to make in the spring and summer...if its not strawberry shortcake then its strawberry tarts! So, here's a few shots of the making of the tarts....its quite simple really, there's no family secrets here! Although I would much rather use local berries they aren't quite ready yet, so California berries here we come. I think all said and done there were about 150 tarts here. I bought the frozen tart shells, and the glaze mix, chopped up the berries, mixed it all up and voila...strawberry tarts! Now, I prefer a little dollop of whipped cream on the top but that's a last minute add on and I couldn't do it at home. The fun part was transporting them all to the church...no sharp corners or fast stops!