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!!

Impromptu Road Trip and Some Food Buys

Today is Family Day here in Ontario so NO WORK for us!!  Hooray!  We aren’t doing anything much as most everything is closed, but we did go on a fun adventure yesterday!  DS had a soccer practice yesterday morning and we found out from one of the other Dad’s that the Washington Capitals were playing in Buffalo in the afternoon.  Said Dad convinced us to buy last minute tickets and so the adventure began!  We kinda felt like the Griswald’s heading to Wally World on the way there, but it all worked out in the end.  :)  Here’s how it went down, in point form;

• flew home from soccer practice and ordered tickets online
• hopped in the Jeep at 11:15 am for a game that started at 12:30 (did I mention that it was a 1.5hr drive??)
• waited for tickets to be emailed to us on the drive down
• call ticket seller to find nearest FedEx location to the HSBC Centre so we could print the tickets once across the border.
• beautiful, sunny drive down
• 30 minutes from the border a rock shot up at our windshield and chipped it
• 10 mins from border have to stop for gas (left home so fast we didn’t think to check the gas tank!!  DOH!)
• get to border and encounter a 40 minute wait to cross.  (The last few times we crossed on a Sunday afternoon we didn’t have to wait at all!)
• PASS HSBC Centre  to get to FedEx, print tickets
• FINALLY get to the game half way through although we did listen to the game on the radio in transit.

Comical or what?  But it was 100% percent worth it because the Capitals Ovechkin is DS’s favourite team player ever!  Pictures! Yes, we were CANADIAN’s in Buffalo cheering for the WRONG team.  LOL  That earned us a few dirty looks.  But you’d be amazed at the amount of Washington fans that were there!  And I found it amusing that each time Ovechkin was on the ice he got booed.  HA!  After the game we met with our soccer/hockey family at the front doors and walked over to TGI Friday’s for some grub. None of us had been before and we all enjoyed our meals.  I ordered a bruschetta pasta which was divine.  I didn’t take any photos there, but I do have a picture of my leftovers that I ate at lunch today.  There’s also a small piece of my hubby’s salmon from his meal on my plate: And the 4 kid acting like hams before leaving the restaurant: Truly a fun, spontaneous, amazing way to spend a day that started out having zero plans.  I should mention that I live pretty much smack dab between Toronto and Buffalo.  The drive to the Air Canada Centre is the same length of time as the drive to the HSBC Centre.  However, NHL hockey tickets are MUCH cheaper to buy for games in Buffalo.  We are fortunate to have the option, though….
It’s been a very long time since I posted about any groceries on Krista’s Kraving’s, so I took a few photos after I shopped at Costco and the “big” grocery store on Saturday.  I still haven’t done our regular grocery run, yet.  By “big” grocery store, I mean the one across town that stocks certain items which I love/need that my regular store does not carry.  Costco was a big haul this time because we needed stuff like toilet paper, toothpaste, etc… 
I was thrilled to find the individual Greek yogurt’s.  I have Kristie the thank for that.  She keeps me in the know as to what our Costco is carrying!!  :)  And from Zehrs; Nature’s Path and Kashi are 2 of my favourite brands and are well stocked at the “big” grocery store.  I bought other items as well, but mainly stuff for the kids lunches, etc.  What been popular in your grocery cart lately??
I’ve been enjoying some pretty fab eat, too.  Check them out! Well folks, that’s the end for me.  I’m off to do some laundry, make some muffins for the week and hang out with my fam!  Have a great rest of the day!
Bye for now!!