A Three Meal Birthday Celebration!

This past Saturday was Jason's birthday (one more year until a "big" one!!).  We had planned a nice dinner out, but one birthday meal turned into 3!  It's all good.  We don't eat out often and all the meals were thoroughly enjoyed.  It all started with lunch on Saturday.  Sarah was in a volleyball tournament and we had gone to watch one of her games, which wound up starting abut a 1/2 hour late.  This got us to the mall to have Noah's skates sharpened for an afternoon game over the lunch hour.  While we waited for the skates we hit up Thai Express for some shrimp Pad Thai:

Pad Thai has got to be in the top 5 of my favourite meals to eat.  I just love the stuff!  Noah didn't finish all his so guess what I ate for lunch today?  ;)

After a hockey game and some more volleyball....Sarah's school was the only elementary one out of 10 and they placed second in the tourney!!!....Jason and I made our way to Milestone's for a nice, quiet, AKA no kids fighting, meal out.  First up was a much needed peach Bellini:

It was bigger than that, but I realized too late that the flash ruined the first photo.  Can I just say that Bellini's are da bomb??  Milestone's has a small gluten free menu from which I usually order the salad with a salmon fillet.  This time I tried the Mediterranean chicken...

 It was stuffed with goat cheese and served with chickpeas, cherry tomatoes and bok choy.  I was a fan!  And gluten free options meant I ordered some delicious DESSERT!!

Chocolate Ganache Torte with a pecan crust and caramel sauce.  Silky, smooth, decadent....everything you could want in a dessert!  Jason had steak, shrimp, mashed potatoes, mushrooms and his birthday dessert, vanilla bean ice cream with chocolate wafer cookies:

His sparkler went out before I could snap a picture!  LOL  We basically went home and flopped on the couch afterwards!  We were up and at'er early Sunday morning for Noah's soccer practice.  No sleeping in for us!!  Seeing as the kids "missed" dinner, Noah decided that we should all go out for breakfast.  So here we have meal #3!

I munched away on a 3 egg mushroom & Swiss cheese omelette.  I traded most of my potatoes for more grilled tomatoes.....I like those much better!

So there you have our 3 birthday meals!  And just as a side note; my crack is back!

Bye for now!!

Somebody Turned 10!!

It's official; this past Saturday Noah turned 10!  Double digits, yo!  Somewhere along the line my kids have grown up on me.  Yikes!

The birthday boy started his day off lounging around the house playing video games and just chilling in general.  Between school, hockey and soccer he doesn't see much down time so I'm glad that he had the chance to just relax for the morning.  Later on in the afternoon he had a hockey game which cut into any "birthday party" time we could have had.  There's no way I was going to let the day go by without some friend festivities so I got the OK from his coach to bring in cupcakes and juice boxes for the boys to enjoy in the change room after the game.  Let me tell you; 17 nine year old's (Noah is the "oldest" on the team) can sing Happy Birthday pretty damn loud!  LOL

Noah's choice of vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting topped with peanut butter M&M's were a HUGE hit!  Silly me didn't even think to take a picture before hand!  Oops!  You can just see them here:

We hung out at the rink to watch another game before heading to Noah's restaurant of choice, East Side Mario's for dinner.  Not my fave.  In fact, I haven't been there since I was preggers with him!  BUT...the fact that he's never been is why he picked it.  And he LOVED it there so it's all good.  We ordered some stuffed mushrooms to share:

I ate one of those.  Would it be sad to say that the one mushroom I ate was the best part of the meal???  Moving along, East Side's famous salad and bread was up next.  I actually do like the salad they serve...

The rest of the family ate Caesar salad and the bread, of course.  Seeing as this is mainly a pasta type restaurant, my dinner choices were limited to say the least.  I ended up choosing the salmon with veg and potatoes in place of fettuccine Alfredo:

Dry salmon, deep fried "roasted" potatoes and veg drowning in....something.  Ugh...so not worth the $18.96. I will say though that I took the leftovers home with me and had them for lunch yesterday.  They tasted much better! Sarah was so impressed with her lasagna that she took a picture of it for you guys!

This was actually a HUGE piece.  My girl can eat and she only made it halfway through this beast.  Hehe!  Noah ordered good ole spaghetti and meatballs which he loved, loved, loved.  He said they were the best meatballs he's ever eaten.  I'm not at all offended by that.  *wink wink*  I somehow didn't get a picture of his pate....hmmm....trust me when I say the portion was as extravagant as Sarah's lasagna and that he's enjoyed his leftovers 2 days in a row in his Thermos.  The best part of the night for all of us was dessert.  And this is only because of the birthday cheer they sing at East Side.  The waiter brought a birthday brownie decked out with a sparkler and after having Noah stand on the seat had all the staff and restaurant goer's sing happy birthday.  Aside from being a little scared of getting burned, he sucked up the attention like a champ!

All in all a GREAT day!  I just can't believe how fast a decade flew by.  Seems like yesterday that he was still in diapers.  HAHA!  Have you celebrated any birthday's lately?

Bye for now!!

The Works

This past Saturday we went out to dinner (and a movie) to celebrate Jason's birthday.  A new burger joint called The Works, which originated in Ottawa, just opened up in our area and we'd heard rave reviews so decided to try it out.

What a GREAT place!  The service was top notch, the decor funky, the atmosphere laid back and the food spectacular!  Check out the neat salt & pepper shakers:

No sooner did we get the menu's that the kids zoomed in on milk shakes.  I was leery on letting them get one because I didn't want the bellies too full, but the waiter convinced me that the small ones were not too big.  And wouldn't you know that they came out in Pyrex measuring cups?!  Noah went with Oreo (even though you could create you own combo!):

Sarah was a tad more adventurous and ordered chocolate, chocolate chip blackberry:

Even my water came in a 2 cup measuring cup!

Now, I had heard that the menu options were quite extensive; 60 choices to be exact, so we all took a peek at the menu online earlier in the day.  Here's what they have to say about their patties:

And the protein options to choose from:

Armed with our decisions, we order right away since the place was filling up and we needed to out of there in time to make it to our show.  Noah ordered the "Mac & Cheese" which we all assumed was just that.  Oh no!  What came out was a burger TOPPED with mac & cheese and cheddar:

After giving it a really strange look he shrugged his shoulders, grabbed the ketchup and proceeded to polish it off.  He didn't make it through the fries, though!  Sarah, who unlike me loves meat, ordered the "Richie's Butt Burger" which was topped with grilled Canadian back bacon and cheddar cheese:

She made short work of that!  I just can't figure out where she puts it all!  Jason went with the "Sorento Sunset" which had fresh avocado slices and Monterey Jack cheese on it:

I chose the "Johnny Be Goat" with no bun.  Thankfully, there burgers are gluten free!  Mine was topped with roasted red peppers, spinach and goat cheese:

As delicious as it was, I'm just not a huge fan of meat so I made it through most of the burger and ALL the toppings.  Jason had no problem finishing of my patty.  ;)  We all had sweet potato fires except for Noah who had regular ones.  And now for some goofy family pictures!

The movie we went to see was "We Bought a Zoo" with Matt Damon.  what an amazing movie!  Have you seen it yet?  When we got home there was just enough time for Noah to get a quick snuggle from Pepper:

Have you tried a new to you restaurant lately?

Bye for now!!

An EXTRA Long Weekend!!

Bonjour!!  I finally found a few minutes to type up a post!  Life continues to be busy, but in a good way now, unlike a month ago.  So Monday was a holiday here in Canada which meant no work (YAY!!) and I took Friday off as well so it was like a mini holiday for me.  It also felt like Sarah-fest as my baby girl turned 12 on Friday and the “party” continued over the course of the 4 days.  
How it happened that she is already 12, I have no idea.  My hubby and I are stumped as to where the years have gone.  Yikes!
We had to go to Toronto on Friday for an appointment with Sarah so we decided to make a day of it.  We were done at the hospital by 11am and seeing as the weather was beautiful we walked a few blocks over to the Eaton Centre for some shopping.  I snapped some photos along the way…
    The kids were starving so we stopped at a random Swiss Chalet for some eats.  I rolled with a chicken wrap and side salad:
I didn’t care much for the white wrap; it was like glue on my teeth….but I did eat the insides.  Noah put back a 1/3 rack of ribs and most of his Caesar salad!  He was a hungry pussy cat!
At the mall we walked and shopped and walked and shopped some more!  My back was KILLING me by the time we left.  Look how tired everyone was!!  
I did find a few things that I bought which I think are pretty sweet!  These ever so comfy pair of Gee WaWa flats: The ever popular NARS Illuminator in Orgasm:
BTW, this stuff is GREAT!!  Totally worth the dinero.  And we couldn’t leave without hitting up Lululemon, of course!  I behaved this time and only bought a t-shirt and tank, both in red:

These are 2 of my favourite styles at Lulu.  The racer backs are AWESOME on their own or for layering.  The best purchase of the day made the birthday girl VERY happy; a Blackberry Curve! See that grin?  HA!  She had no idea we were buying that for her and was clueless when we went into the TELUS store because she though her Dad was buying a new case for his iphone!  LOL  We rolled into town around 6pm and made one last stop for dinner at Kelsey’s where I enjoyed a fresh, delicious salad: We did start the meal with some calamari; another b-day request!
Saturday was demo day…we’re redoing our rec room.  I’ve been taking lots of before, middle and after pictures for another post, but here’s a glimpse at what I spent most of the day hauling from the room up a flight of stairs to a dumpster in our drive way: Once we were showered and presentable we made a Costco and Home Depot run for BBQ and reno supplies.  We spent the evening thoroughly enjoying the nice weather out on our deck.  At 9pm hubby and I decided to go for a 4 mile walk while the kids watched Ace Venture: Pet Detective.  I swear they could watch that a thousand times and not get sick of it!  HA!
Sunday was family BBQ day for Sarah’s birthday.  We kept it casual with 3 salads (Caesar, pasta & corn), sausages, burgers and an Oreo ice cream cake; birthday girls choice.  Around the goodie table!!   Here’s a look at the pasta and corn salads:
I threw the pasta one together with ingredients I had on hand; 2 cups cooked pasta, 1 head of romaine, a yellow bell pepper, half a red onion, black olives, feta, cherry tomatoes, Italian parsley and green beans.  I dressed it with Kraft Fig Balsamic dressing.   The corn salad was from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry.   It’s got a Southwestern flair that I love.  Every time I make it the kids think I’m cooking tacos!  LOL  Table snacks included cherries (no photo), Food Should Taste Good multi grain chips and PB stuffed pretzels:    Here are some photos from the night!
Monday was a glorious, free day!  A no make up, hair in a pony tail, comfy clothes kinda day!  Our new windows were installed in the rec room.  They look awesome!  While my hubby and his buddy were at that I did some weeding, transplanted a few plants, baked 2 batches of muffins, read magazines that have been accumulating and watched TV.   Eats looked like this:
Before I take off I wanted to show you a little pick me up gift that I received in the mail from a fellow Canadian blogger!   Carla knew that April was a rough month for me so she hooked me up with a homemade coffee cuff and coaster! 
How awesome is that?!  She’s a great seamstress to be sure.  I also placed an order with her for a custom table runner for my new dining room sideboard:
I emailed her about this on a Thursday night.  By Friday morning she sent me some fabric samples, I picked the combo I liked and she had it in the mail for me by Friday night.  How’s THAT for great service!!  Check out her site; My 1/2 Dozen Daily….you’ll be glad you  did!!
Well, I’m off to get some blog reading done before I catch some zzz’s.  Take care!
Bye for now!!