Sammie finds a little bit of South Africa

Before Sammie continued on with her journey this week, I took her out to see some snow.  Since it's a whole lot warmer where she comes from, I had to dress her very warmly.  Lucky for me there were toy clothes from another stuffed toy that fit her perfectly.

As you can see, it's a completely white background.  That's Sammie sitting in a snow bank.  And if it wasn't for wearing something warm, she'd have a very cold bottom.

 As you can see, Sammie found the one thing that reminded her of home,  an elephant.  She was excited to find it and knew she needed to have some pictures with Jumbo to sow her Mom and family.

After seeing the statue of Jumbo, it did make her feel home-sick.  However, I told her that she would soon be on her way to the next foster family and closer to home.

Makenzie and Albert in Texas

It looks like Makenzie has arrived in Texas along with a buddy named Albert.  Here's the story so far..............

Howdy Monster Mommas Keldar5 and doggerham!
Makenzie and Albert arrived from their transatlantic journey from acandy on Saturday and Olivia arrived from noknitsherlock in California today.
It’s a good thing Makenzie and Albert were ready to go! I was worried that they might be too tired, but when “cake balls” were mentioned their ears perked up.

We joined some knitter friends at a local bakery and got right to work. Those little monsters make some awesome “naked” cake balls. Here they are right before we put them in the fridge to firm back up.

Then after dipping in chocolate. (note the monster cake ball in the middle)

We were all pretty famished. One of our group suggested Elevation Burger…so off we went!

Sunday we decided to use some of our piggy bank money to go for sushi! YAY!!!
Albert decided he’d prefer to stick with the udon bowl.

Makenzie dove right into the rolls. When our house roll came, Chris and I had to eat fast because Makenzie is one sushi eating monster!

We laid low for a few days after running around all weekend but made it to storytime at the local library branch.
(complete with a really awful iphone pic and a boy wondering what the hoozie)

Today we went with some other kiddos to explore a greenbelt area in a nearby neighborhood.
Albert donned the yellow scarf and climbed right up to the fork on this tree.

Makenzie was looking hard down the trial looking for other bunnies, but no luck today.

Somehow my two kiddos and two travelers were needing something cool to drink and had enough energy to tear it up at the Chickfila playground. Our Chickfila has their own vintage fire truck out front celebrating their new Spicy Chicken line. Everytime we go by Donavan screams FIRE TWUCK! (boy likes his trucks)

We got home to find a monster in our mailbox. We got the box in and quickly opened it up. When we did Albert said “HEY! I know that tutu!” Sure enough his sister Olivia emerged!
After some quick howdy’s and how yall doin’s, Olivia was quickly snatched up by the resident Princess for a twirl.

Dinner ended up being out (due to my poor planning and the big L). So we took the monsters to Cabo Bob’s. Why yes, we go there a lot. We almost had a hot sauce debacle due to a mislabeled bottle but I was the only one that got flamed on a big bite of 66 Red Exxxtra Hot. Thankfully it was rather quick to discover and we got the right bottle. The spoon is holding the remains of the really hot stuff (it’s habanero and chipotle v. just chipotle)

Everyone got a quick drink of Aleah’s cherry limeade which she insisted that they all try, just in case there was too much spicy in their monster mouths. I think Aleah even shared her fish tacos with them.

ETA: While were were at Cabo Bob’s one of the local firestations came in for takeout. This place has at least three of the local stations rolling through. So all the monsters and kids stood out front when they blasted off in that big ol truck. A pumper engine this time (there is a ladder crew and another regular pumper that comes through too). They waved and flashed the lights for the us. My kids love fire trucks and firefighters.
Everyone is headed to bed now, monsters included. Have a great night yall!

Sammie the South African Monster

It's been a while since I've had a visiting monster.  Pemberley has gone off to Texas to visit her next foster family and is most likely enjoying the warmer weather.

The new visiting monster is Sam from South Africa.  Of course, the weather right now in South Africa is quite a bit warmer than it is here in London, Ontario.  A few days of below freezing and anyone would want to go back to warmer weather.

Since she's been here, I've taken her to a couple of the knitting groups that I regularly go to.  Janelle (Hermionejelvis on Ravelry), is one of the regulars at the Wednesday night group.  When she arrived and saw Sammie, she immediately proclaimed "Mine!".  It would have been very difficult to send Sammie onto the next destination if I hadn't kept an eye on her.

The Friday night group at the   Little Red Mitten fell in love with Sammie and her ears.  The ladies at the group had proclaimed that this was the best visiting monster yet.  I did hear a few of the ladies say that the best thing about Sammie was her ears.  I think they are too. 

Here she is looking at shawl pins and buttons.

If it's not too cold, I may take her for a little trip to St. Thomas.  I'm thinking she might be a little home sick at the moment.

Makenzie's Scarf

Little did I know that Makenzie would become a model on someone else's project page on Ravelry.  I knew she had a new scarf for when she came back to the cold weather but to model it.  Whoohoo! 

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/DancingStarlight/scarf-for-makenzie-2



Anyone with a Ravelry account will most likely see the project when they click on the link.  However, I've got the pic for those who can't.

I'm even surprised too that Viola is sitting next to Makenzie.  I didn't think she'd meet any of the monsters that would be visiting me.  I hope she and Viola had a good visit.

Pemeberley's Pot Luck Meal

I'm starting to think that Pemberley is a party girl.  She just came on the week were I've got pot-lucks and meals out somewhere.  I think she's going to need to go on a diet for the new year with all the food she's been around.

Of course, Pemberley has written another note to her Momma TwistedString on the Danger Craft group board.  Here's the message.



Hi Momma
I’ve had a busy week. Momma Keldar took me to her Wednesday night knit group but they didn’t go knitting. They went out to a place called East Side Mario’s for supper. I didn’t see anything that was Tex-mex or BBQ.

But Momma Keldar tried the Firecracker Shrimp Penne. And I got to try some beer.

I didn’t drink too much of it. But it was tasty. Then there was a pot-luck at work yesterday. There’s was lots of food there. Water chestnuts wrapped in bacon and dipped in BBQ sauce, spring rolls, pasta salad and cookies. Then there was the pot luck at the local LYS. I had my veggies and dip there to balance the other stuff I ate. Non, nom, nom!

I meet Frieda Queen of Chaos at the Little Red Mitten too.

Her Momma, suequeenofchaos said I should be wearing my snow pants all the time because of how cold it is here. That I don’t need to get sick and pass germs onto the next person. I did have fun looking around in the store though. There was one spot that I could have stayed in all night.

It was so nice and soft. Then there was a funny looking tree.

I don’t think any of the hats would have fit me. Before I left we had to celebrate with a piece of birthday cake . Frieda’s momma had a birthday and she got cheesecake for a cake . Nom, nom, nom.

Miss you
Pemberley

Pemberley's Early Christmas

Since my family had Christmas early, I had to take Pemberley along for the hooplah.  With snow pants and hat securely worn, we drove out to Norwich, Ontario.  Of course, with the weather being cold outside, Pemberly was dressed very well.

Since my family had Christmas early, I had to take Pemberley along for the hooplah.  With snow pants and hat securely worn, we drove out to Norwich, Ontario.  Of course,  Pemberly was dressed very well for the cold weather outside.






After visiting for an hour or so, supper began to get ready for the table.  Of course, Pemberly had to see the turkey before it got cut up.

She didn't want to stick around too long.  It didn't look too good when the big knife came out of the drawer for the carving of the turkey.  Pemberley made a quick dash to the Christmas tree to hide out until everything was ready.

She had a good little chat with the Santa in the tree.  Santa wanted to know what she wanted for Christmas. Pemberley  said Lorna's Lace yarn was yummy to have.  And it's the best thing to get anybody at any time of the year too.  Soon enough it was time to sit at the table and eat.

Before anyone could eat, there were crackers to open.  Inside the cracker was a sewing kit and a riddle.   Why did the cookie go to the hospital?  Because it felt crumby.  That's a bad joke.

Nom, nom, nom, nom.......Yummy food!  Turkey, turnip, potatoes, stuffing, peas and salad.  Miss Pemberley had lots of good food to eat and would go hungry for some time.

Then there was dessert. 

All those desserts and so many good treats, it's hard deciding what to eat!  Maybe one of everything and seconds if there's room

After all the eating came presents.  Pemberley had to hide in this gift away from the kids.  She didn't want to get lost in all the wrapping papper.  It was fun to watch though.

Keldar5 did pretty good for Christmas gifts too.  Some candy, money and a gift certificate for a local yarn store.  Pemberley has been suggesting a few yarn choices. 

Maybe on the weekend she'll see the yarn shop and play in the yarn.

Makenzie's Travelling to South Africa

I just got an update from Dancing Starlight about Makenzie.  She's on her way to South Africa.  Before she went there was a family portrait taken.

Here is a monster family portrait, taken just before Keldar5’s Makenzie left for Deepest, Darkest Africa to visit ACandy.