A Toronto Weekend

Last weekend, Aleksy and I enjoyed our winnings from a draw at Aleksy's work. He put his name in and won: 2 tickets to the leafs game on Sat the 23rd (with awesome seats!), a hotel night at the Intercontinental hotel, and $100 spending cash!!

We arrived in T.O. at 2:30pm after being redirected off the highways twice because of accidents. It took us about 45 min to leave London that Saturday. Throw a little snow and ice on the roads, and no one moves.

We went immediately to our hotel to check in, and when we went up to our room, this is how close our hotel is to the CN tower: this is our window!!

After parking at the hotel and dumping our things in our room, we headed to the stores and of course, China town for some Dim Sum. It was a freezing freezing cold day, and although I'm usually all about trying different places, we wound up going to a restaurant that we have already been to. Too cold to search. But as always, amazing, variety of dim sum for only $25.

That sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves that's on our plates is seriously the best, along with those custard buns.

I don't know how to leave ChinaTown without going into the little pastry stores. I don't know why pastries are so darn appealing to me. They look and sound amazing (and are about $.80 each), but these ones weren't particularly delic. That coconut cream one was the only yummy one.

We did some shopping, but didn't purchase anything. I think going into the stores was more of a break from the cold than anything (because we're black Friday shopping TONIGHT and didn't need to buy anything at full price in DT T.O.). This was the closest we came to a purchase... garage decoration?

After finishing our dim sum, purchasing some pastries and new hats from the hat store in China Town, we headed back to out hotel and had a couple drinks before heading to the ACC for the game!

And our first Leafs game was friggin amazing!! It even went into overtime with a shoot out and the Leafs won!

When we left the game, we went back to our hotel and I began to read comments to a Facebook post of Aleksy's that some friends were staying in a hotel a block or two over. So we met up at a bar for one, or two, or three pitchers! We ditched the bar that had cover and went to this one.. I think loose moose?  Such a good (and amazingly spontaneous) night!

Christmas, Christmas time is here!

Only 38 days until Christmas! And all the signs of Christmas have been coming up over the past couple of weeks:

The Christmas tree went up the first weekend after Halloween! I felt a little deprived not being able to put up my tree until December last year (because we moved into our house Dec 6th of last year), so I decided to get the most of my pretty tree this year.

Watching Christmas movies just isn't the same without a lit up tree in the room!

We went to the Santa Claus parade on the 9th with my sister, brother in law and niece. She was all cute with her letter for Santa with everything she wants for Christmas. I figure Christmas season is in full swing after the Santa Claus parade. After the parade we promptly went home and watched Christmas Vacation.

I thought Santa and float looked much better this year than last year! This years parade was a little lengthy I found so by the time Santa came along, I was very happy to see him. Although this year I was prepared with my 4 extra blankets.

Another sign that Christmas season is here: we woke up to this on November 12th!! This is our backyard in the morning: bright and snowy. Too bad it melted within a couple days... Great for driving, not so great for Christmas festivity.

Yet another thing that is necessary for Christmas spirit when watching Christmas movies: candy cane oreos!! So tasty.

Now, we await egg nog. We have been searching high and low and have only found the PC kind that doesn't need to be refrigerated (which is just wrong) and the Mac's kind that is like drinking 18% cream.

And Aleksy waited for a mild weekend, and non-rainy day to put up the Christmas lights. They went up yesterday! It seems that many of the other houses on our street thought yesterday was a good day for Christmas lights too, because there are quite a few on our street now!

<--- This ladder/light situation is scary to me. Safety is not guaranteed, but it looks so much nicer with the lights at the top too!




And, Christmas shopping hopefully will be started and finished in 2 weekends when Aleksy and I brave the Black Friday in the states again this year. We plan to shop overnight Thursday the 28th just like last year!

Halloween 2013!

This post is dedicated to the exciting Halloween/Aleksy's birthday associated events!

At the beginning of October, we babysat our Rachel while my sister, Kenny and Brandon attended their friends wedding. That weekend, we harvested up our front porch with the Heemans porch package, and carved a pumpkin with Rachel!

Rachel and Aleksy unloading the pumpkin guts. Rachel told me I didn't have to because I may ruin my nails... so considerate!

We kept all the pumpkin seeds aside for a delicious snack with our Despicable Me 2 movie later that night (along with the chocolate chip cookies we made).

 We asked Rachel to design the pumpkin, and she was really into the circles. While she was ok with the job Aleksy did with carving the eyes, she informed Aleksy he did the mouth wrong (she even had a picture of her expectations for the pumpkin drawn down on paper!). Aleksy then added all these extra details like earrings and eyebrows to make up for her disappointment!

Because we carved our pumpkin the first weekend of October, by Halloween it was rotten and we had to throw it out (actually well before Halloween!).

And our costumes this year: Cruella Deville and her dalmatian, with our Joker photobomber!
This was our first Halloween party we went to: my Mom and her husband have a party each year and it was the weekend before our party (the 19th). We had our costumes all prepped for their party but the only difference is by our party the following weekend we were able to find a doggie collar that fit around Aleksy's neck!

My Cruella Deville costume: easy peasey with no sewing required and a total of about $28.

Aleksys costume: surprisingly the bigger challenge at the cost of about $25, running around to many stores looking for white pants/longjohns, and hours of sewing those damn little spots on!! Those pants (that I sewed) were thrown across our living room a few times!

This is the final products of preparations for Aleksy's birthday/halloween party at our place! I made a veggie tray look like a scary jack-o-lantern (and I got the 10 lb bag of carrots for only $1.88!), The little pumpkins are orange coloured chocolate that I melted and covered the pretzels with and picked out the green m & ms for the stem.
Unfortunately this year our good friend who makes the amazing cakes wasn't able to come, so I was left fending for myself for the creative cake. I made this pumpkin shaped cake: the face is from an icing tube and the green is melted chocolate! I dyed the icing orange with food colouring. I was quite proud of the way it turned out (its no Tabi cake, however i managed to make it look like a pumpkin!). I'm not going to lie though, the cake was from a betty crocker box, and the icing not homemade! And the last dessert in the picture with the wormies and dirt was a "puff pastry" dessert I got from a Facebook page with layers of crackers, cool whip, and pudding. We ate this for days after Aleksy's party. It has been a really unhealthy week!

All of our party people! This was the timed photo that we wanted to capture everyone and have no one left out! We decided not to re-take but clearly we should have because i see Al's hand in his face!
Here we have some b-dancers in the back (sorry zac and sam... can't see you guys past us :( ), Cruella and her dalmatian, Joker: Brandon (who was supposed to have a batman and catwoman to go with his costume but he got ditched by his parents):, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus: Steph, Al & Colton, 2 football players: Andrew and Nicole, a monkey & a whoopie cushion: Andzelika and Paul, a ghostbuster and slimer: Kenny and my sister, the cutest little firefighter: Rachel, and 2 army people: Chelsea and Warren!

And of course, later in the evening, Aleksy blew out his 7 candles (with the help of Rachel) and we all indulged in cake (which I continued to indulge in when everyone left at 1am).

Flights Booked!

Today was the day we made it official and booked our honeymoon! Next year after our wedding, Aleksy and I will both make our very first trip to part of Europe!!
We booked our 2 week trip from Toronto to London, England for the Monday following our wedding. I was quite impressed with the price of a non-stop Air Canada flight for under $1000 per person!

The plan for the 2 weeks is to visit each country of the UK: England (to start and to finish), Scotland and Ireland. We will have 1-3 nights in each city that we stay in to make the most of sightseeing in all 3 countries. To be more prepared, we will plan a bit of an itinerary before about places to stay (bed & breakfasts etc) and things not to miss!

So much to be excited for next Aug/Sept!

Ilderton Fair: Year 2!

After all of our enthusiasm about finding the gem of a fair last year in Ilderton, we couldn't miss the fair this year! We went on Saturday September 28th. We even invited our friends along so they could see what all our fuss was about.

 We took our little Colton for the journey too. Here's us with Colton, enjoying a little fresh apple cider.

We watched the same rodeo as last year with the little kids lassoing cattle. I feel that animal activists would protest this activity hardcore because I have to admit it hurt my heart for those scared cows!
One of the things that I did notice as we were sauntering about is that they did take the animals back to their farms at the end of the day (around 6pm) rather than keeping them couped up. That made me a little happier for the animals, but I also feel bad for them to have to drive in the trailers.

Here's Aleksy and Colton after watching the 100 lb kids try to move the 500 lb cows...

 I love the contests at fall fairs!! This pumpkin was over 500 lbs. In this same area was the best vegetable display, best oddly shaped vegetable, best couple vegetable (2 that look the same).

We also saw all the baked goods that in competition from pies to cookies to carrot cake to "anything baked by a man" (seriously).

This here was the only disappointing part of the fair. They completely sold out of turkey legs!! :( The turkey legs were possibly one of the best things about the fair. They must not have expected so many people because many of the stand were out of pulled pork too.

We got these pulled pork sandwiches from what we think was the last stand that had pulled pork, but they must have been running out of bbq sauce because there was hardly any on the sandwich and it was dry :( Luckily these delicious baked beans spiced up my sandwich when I put it on...

And of course, we spent some time in the beer garden for some cold beverages to go with our pulled pork, baked beans, and slaw. Even Colton loved it... look at that happy face!

The kids were singing karaoke in the beer garden just like last year!

We got this shot just before grabbing our homemade cookies and huge bag of fresh apples to take home. We have now gone through almost the whole bag and its time to go apple picking this weekend! Can't wait!

And with all the apples that we bought from the fair, I made a delicious apple crisp on Sunday! And after making this, I made chocolate banana squares. Yum!

And many more apple desserts to be made with all the apple we pick this upcoming weekend :)

Fitness & Healthy Eating!

I am able to write this post right now because I am skipping the gym. It feels great now, but I know future me would shake my fist at myself.... Weekdays after work, it has been the routine of the past 4 months to go directly to the gym. The only thing that would prevent this from happening is working late and/or weekend plans. Until now: my hip is preventing gym time! I think from all the running and general exercises that I have been doing, I overworked a muscle/ligament/joint in my hip. I can't even sleep on the right side of my body because it gives me pain. I'm skipping the gym to give it a couple days to heal. So although my hip sucks, it also shows all the hard work work that has been done, and I have been recording all my workouts since June:

Starting in June, I thought it may be helpful to record my workouts as a way to hold myself accountable to my fitness routine.
You can see that the weekdays I hit the gym most (after work), especially with all the weekend summer plans.

My workouts for July were very consistent: almost every work day with lots of running with some of these weeks running 18 miles +.

Unfortunately for August, the room where classes are held at the Athletic Club was under construction and my classes were not running. This means most of August, I didn't weight lift. I'm really bad at motivating myself to weight lift independently, which is why I regularly do the classes. But I still made it out to the gym most weekdays in August too!

September was a much better month for consistency and balance between cardio, weights, and yoga. I think the repetitive running must be the culprit for my hip situation, which I tried to counteract with yoga twice last week, to no avail.

I'll get back at it hopeful tomorrow or Thursday... can't make excuses forever!!

The thing that has made it the easiest to get to the gym everyday after work is routine and a change of lifestyle. It has become second nature to go directly to the gym from work and since Aleksy and I have changed our lifestyle, I have never felt better about my appearance, I have lost 10-15 lbs, and I feel less physically exhausted. In addition to out regular workouts, we keep a healthy diet as well. Grocery shopping is probably 80& fruit and veg. But lets be real, on the weekends, we fully indulge!! There has been no shortage of elephant ears, fries, smores, and other junk food this summer (but just weekends!). Here's a couple of our favourite go-to suppers during the week:

Our fav tex mex salad: romaine, tomatoes, red peppers, avocado, black beans (or sometime mixed beans), cheese and salsa in lieu of dressing... soooo delic and healthy!








And below is a concoction of chickpeas, quinoa, cauliflower, italian seasoning, and curry powder... also delic!

Our Engagement Party June 22, 2013!

So this blog has taken to long to write because I had it 50% completed and then my computer somehow lost everything that I had saved... and it was a lot of work too!! So unfortunately this post is not going to be as detailed as what I had originally planned because 1) It has now been a several weeks and I don't remember everything, and 2) I hate re-doing work that I already had done!! Ahhh! It takes me back to school when this would happen with papers...

In preparation for our engagement party, I went on pinterest for some ideas and I found the "love story" idea! We had this up by our food table for something for everyone to read. The last point has our wedding date... August 30, 2014!

Also in preparation for our party, we wanted to do some sort of activity that would allow for people to mingle. It was the first time Aleksy and my family were together and I thought instead of having everyone stay around those who they are familiar with, we would encourage getting to know one another. We divided everyone into teams and together they answered questions about themselves.

We also had these cards prepared for our guests where there was a story that was fill in the blank with some advise for Aleksy and I. Some of them were funny, some very thoughtful and some both! We have kept them all!

This prep work was done over many hours the days prior to the engagement party!

For the benefit of my sweet tooth, I made lots and lots of cupcakes for the party! Although the cupcakes themselves were from a box (vanilla and chocolate), I made the cream cheese and chocolate icing from scratch. And bought these little rings and tuxedos and wedding gowns on toothpick from good ol Dollarama.

Aleksy and I with my "bride" sash that I made for myself and my bridesmaids, and Aleksy's "groom" garter that he made for himself and his groomsmen. And Aleksy's bow tie that we bought at the street festival downtown from a vendor "Mac and Joel" who are also our photographers!

Aleksy put a lot of hard work into this banner! In case you can't read it, it says "She said yes". We got this idea (and the most ideas!) from Pinterest! I love it!

Group shot! This is everyone who attended our engagement party (well most anyways, some had already left by this time). Our closest friends and family members. Aleksy and I took this picture from our bedroom window!

Our friends surprised us with this cake with a picture from the day we got engaged and under it says "Congratulations Katherine & Aleksy". So thoughtful!

Aleksy's groomsmen! Warren, Kenny, Andrew, Zac, Al & Jon Jon!

And my lovely bridesmaids! My sister Steph, my friend Steph, Andzelika, Chelsea, Nikki, and Alyssa!

And Nikki's Mom was with us in spirit and provided me with a sparkly sippy cup that says "I'm getting married bitches! and Aleksy glasses that say "groom".

And we had to take shots in our "bride" and "groom" shot glasses! Aleksy had to take 2 because he didn't wait for the picture the first time... Ew, vodka shots. Following these shots, Aleksy and I had more drinks with Nikki & Jon Jon to follow (who stayed over!).

Also, my amazing bridesmaids made arrangements for this photobook (as well as a photo slideshow that was on display in my living room). All of my bridesmaids helped by contributing pictures from our adventures together! From Florida, to Chile, to Dominican, to Algonquin and Chile, there were a lot of adventures covered in this awesome book!