It's been a few weeks since we ventured into the mountains skiing so it was fun to get away this weekend. E and L were cautious on the slopes at first but soon got into the swing of it again.

On this trip, Luke became particularly interested in skiing on the narrow paths and *jumps* between the trees, which was fine, until he decided to *barge* me out the way because he wanted to take the *jump* first. This little guy can pick up some serious speed and managed to catapult me off track into a tree. I wasn't hurt, bar perhaps my pride, but more so, I was seriously disappointed in him. Needless to say, little man was in big trouble.

It took me back to a story my Mum likes to tell about me at a similar age. We had a play park near our house with 3 big swings. They were yellow, red and mint green. The mint green one was in the middle and that was my favourite. On one occasion, my Grandad Day, my Mum's Dad, took me to the park and there was another little girl on *my* swing. I proceeded to walk up to this little girl and pushed her off the swing so that I could have it. I received a swift clip around the ear before being marched home to my Mum, without getting to swing on my favourite green swing after all. The entire way I remember telling my Grandad that I was going tell my Mum on him, and when she whole-heartedly supported his action, I remember being completely shocked.
I distinctly remember this moment like it was yesterday. My adult mind being trapped in a child's body. I can honestly say I had no clue that pushing that little girl off the swing was wrong until the moment I was reprimanded for it. From the way Luke re-acted on the slopes yesterday, I have a feeling it was totally the same for him. It just didn't occur to him that his actions were inappropriate which can be typical for a child with Asperger's Syndrome.
For the most part, Ella and Luke do very well socially, but once in a while they'll do something completely off the wall and we have to take the time to try and instill something that doesn't inherently come naturally to them.
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Today, Ella and Luke are home from school. It was Teacher Parent Conference week last week and so, for some reason or another, Ella has a day off.
It became apparent this morning that I wasn't going to get anything done so I decided to run some errands and tackle some baking. E and L assisted in making a chocolate cake using 2 favorites, Pamela's Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake Mix and Cherrybrook Chocolate Frosting Mix. I usually like to bake from scratch, but mixes are easier when E and L are in the kitchen and want to be involved and these are 2 of our favourites.
I also had a bash at new type of sweet treat: Raw Cookie Dough Balls. I've seen numerous variations of these on a variety of raw and vegan food-themed blogs and I like the idea of how these healthy sweet treats can be made in a snap.
I settled on Averie's Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls, but i think you could totally switch these up to create all kinds of concoctions. For example, choose any raw nut, any type of cereal, switch the chocolate chips out for dried fruit, add chopped nuts, extracts or spices such as cinnamon or nutmeg. So many possibilities!
My ingredient list ended up looking like this:
2/3 cup Raw Cashews
1/3 cup GF Oats.
1 tbsp each of Maple Syrup and Agave Nectar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate, chopped into large chunks
1/2 cup GF Oat Bran, for coating my little balls of dough.

What can I say? These got 4 thumbs up in our house, and if little man likes them, officially the pickiest eater on this planet, then they must be good. I liked that I threw everything into my Vitamix to create the dough, I stirred in the chocolate chunks and then E and L helped me roll them into little balls with a dusting of oat bran. They were ready in 5 minutes flat.
Thought I'd share this cool little eat.
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AlbumMagic is re-open for registration!

The first AlbumMagic class was so well-received that I will be teaching the class again 14th April through 4 May 2010. This 3 week classes teaches you all my tips and tricks for putting together cohesive albums in a snap. You can learn more about AlbumMagic here.
Read what some the students in the previous class had to say about the class.
Here's the album I created during and using the material from AlbumMagic.
You can also see how a few of my previous students used their skills to create this album and this album from what they learned during AlbumMagic.
Got questions about the class? Join me on Wednesday, 3 March 2010, at 8pm EST on ReneeTV.