March Birthdays and Events

We started this week off with Rachel's birthday celebration after work on Monday March 13th.

We had all the good birthday stuff to celebrate... some Dominos pizza, cake and presents. Rachel was quite the popular birthday girl for the weekend with multiple birthday celebrations 4 days in a row!

I took Rachel to Archies for lunch on her birthday too!

This gem was sent from the nephew. Logan refusing to eat pizza but still feeling the party. Aren't kids supposed to love pizza? Not this kid...
Aleksys face is pretty great too.

 After a long day on St Patricks Day at work, I headed up to Waterloo for my night out in a hotel with friends! The plan was for 3 of us to have a girls night hotel party but it ended up being just me and my Nikki Nikki...  randomly in Waterloo! Thats where Tabi lives but coudln't make it that night so it ended up being the most random location for us London/Burlingtons residers! But the drive was nice and sunny that day! Spending the night with Nikki only made sense since St Patrick day is basically Nikki day!

I got to Waterloo about 6pm and checked in to the room solo (hence the picture). Then when Nik arrived, we hit up the lcbo and Swiss Chalet before heading back to the hotel room! All the good stuff...

And once we got back, we busted out the food colouring for some festive coloured drinks! We were prepared in case we wanted to go out to party, but once we ate and had some drinks, it was already 9|:30 and we ended up talking until 2am! We were due for a catch up anyway!

Just a random hotel night away! We headed back to our cities the next morning around 10.

The next day, Sat the 18th was Lincoln and Mason's 1st birthday party at the Boys and Girls club. Here's Colton and Chase checking out their cakes -they smashed these and we ate the cupcakes!

I think they liked the trucks and diggers on tops of the cakes!

The first portion of the party was the swimming portion. I was too lazy to swim - like put on my bathing then get dressd after... that's a lot of work. So I watched and helped get Logan changed after instead. There were about 40 swimming spectators on the sidelines anyways so Im glad i didn't bust out the bathing suit!
Logan was SO happy in the pool. Can't wait for the summer so we can take him to the wading pols - I loved doing that this summer!

Hey look, it's Mommy!

The second portion of the birthday activities was gymnasium play - there were tons of activities and Logan was happy as can be dragging his little plastic hockey stick all around the gym, not minding if a basketball may hit him! There were almost 100 people at the birthday so the gym was super full! But for so many people the boys and girls club accommodated nicely (and for such a reasonable price!)

The Osborne kiddos (and their Mom!) hit up the rock climbing wall - the 2 year old wanted higher than the 3 year old!

Having our supper with our friends -the food was SO good - pulled pork, cold cuts and cheese, salads, fruit and veg. So Logan friendly too.

After supper the boys smashed their cakes and were not afraid to dig right in!

Sunday I made the most amazing clean treats! Just with these 5 ingredients and put them in the food processor. these little energy balls are so healthy and satisfy the candy craving. I just wish it was easier to make more than '10 balls. Im going to make more this weekend. The best!

Neighbourhood Watch

Hide your gum, hide your $20 sunglasses, and hide your loose change... but not all of it. There's some hoodlums in my hood and our car was broken into last night. Granted it was our own fault, because we left the doors open. They took my old sunglasses, some gum and half of the $5 in change that was in the car (and scattered the important stuff like ownership, garage opener and house keys).

Probably some teenagers that did it all in 3.5 seconds (how else would they leave a dollar and some change behind!)

But now... we will be more diligent in locking our car and I get to buy new sunglasses.

A Disney Day!

My bro got us tickets to Disney on Ice for March 4th! It was a family affair with all the cousin kiddos (except Brandon who may not enjoy Disney on Ice so much anymore at 18).

I picked up Emma around lunch and the cousins got some visit time in before  we had to leave for the show.  Logan was just waking up from his nap when we got home so they had some late lunch together. Logan loved having Emma and she was such a little helper... even carrying him around!

And this is how Logan spent the 2 hour show. Just kidding! We had this great idea that we would pack lots of variety of snacks, his water bottle, some books, and even a couple toys to give him some distractions when he lost his attention span. Then we left it at home by the front door. We didn't even have a diaper (this was a dangerous situation as Logan hadn't pooped yet).

So these moments of Logan watching the show were such good moments for all. There were quite a lot of scenes that caught his 1 1/2 year old attention!

After about 2 walks each between Aleksy and I during the first potion of the show, at intermission I saw that they were selling Goldfish at the canteen!! Best discovery ever. I didn't check the price and bought 2. I would have paid $10 a bag for those magical crackers.

Between the goldfish crackers, Logan getting used to the environment and me and Aleksy self-talking to cool our shit, the 2nd portion of the show was so much more enjoyable! He even spent more time sitting and watching the show than going for walks! Particularly when the characters were swinging in the air (this surprisingly happened a few times).

Did I mention my brother got us the best seats ever? So close to the action we could basically reach out and touch them.

And the goober enjoying the show. These VIP seats were so convenient because the normal seats in the stands are so close to one another and these were way more spaced out for easy in and out.

Rachel and Emma had such a good time at the show too. They were treated by Mike to some slushies and cotton candy (for the bargain price of $60 or something... but they came with souvenir cups/hats!). The Frozen scene seemed to be the girls fav!

Fun fun food

Sometimes food is boring... like the black bean and corn salad we've had for supper every Monday for the past few years. But sometimes new ideas are found and I make them and they're delicious and new (bonus if they only take around 30 minutes!)!

Stuffed pepper deliciousness. Got this one from Ashy Bines. Its ground turkey, shredded zucchini, shredded carrot, onion and cheese at the bottom and top of the pepper. Good AND healthy. And quick too!

Ok maybe this ones not so much on the healthy side (but not the worst!) but themes are fun and this was southern style supper - bbq chicken, green and brown beans, corn and corn bread. Must be served with beer for full experience. This is a weekend kind of supper for us.

After a long time, I finally tried out cauliflower crust pizza. Its pretty simple actually... I think the most time consuming is cutting the cauliflower and food processing it. After its all chopped, I just added egg, parm cheese and some seasoning. It was a good healthy alternative for supper but we decided that if you're  looking for a pizza replacement that it doesn't quite do the "pizza" craving. Pitas would be better for that. But I will add this to our weekday supper line up!














Since the new year, Ive actually managed to make a weekly supper menu and kept to it... every week! It makes it so much easier during the week to know what we are having each night after work... and also for grocery money savings!

Valentines Day with my Baby Valentine

This post is actually about Valentines day and activities that happened before and after that were loosely associated with the holiday!

The weekend before Valentines day, we had our friends over for breakfast/brunch and a Valentines craft (we were going to toboggan but it was a -10 degree day!). Logan here is doing his heart toilet paper roll painting.

 All the kiddo's creations! Some good hearts... some smudges.

And Logan had a play date with the L crew buddies before Valentines day - Landon, Logan and Levi! Best buddies since they were newborns. They are all eating fruit in this picture. Distracting with food is the only way to get 3 15-18 month olds to sit together!





This picture below makes me smile! Logan being the poop disturber that he is finds some cupboards he wants to open. His buddy Landon joins him to make sure he doesn't miss out on anything good and then Levi crawls his way over becasue he can't be left behind... This is the action shot! So friggin cute. Little boys are never up to any good.

Logan filling out all his Valentines for his friends at daycare! He made his little make on all of them! His Valentines were Peppa pig - it was between Peppa and Paw patrol and we thought we'd go with Peppa because of the popularity of Paw patrol... to be different from his friends (and one of the daycare kiddos had paw patrol!).

Logan with all his cards ready to go on Valentines morning. Also with his dress shirt - looking good for his Valentines at daycare! He crinkled his cards so much before giving them out!

<--- this was Valentines supper. I know.. a bit random. I had this great idea of taking the afternoon off work to make something yummy for supper. Then I worked until about 12:45... then I had to hit the gym. So it left not muc tim so I bought some odds and ends at Angelos since it was right beside the gym. I got the bruschetta, salads, pad thai, and Logan's special chicken pot pie (which he refused to eat... because he's recently given up all foods except yogurt, applesauce peas, raisins and peanut butter, which he'll sometimes take on a cracker or rice cake but mostly on a spoon). Also a red velvet cupcake and rum ball for dessert. Then when I decided we needed some meat to go with, I randomly got some meatloaf and pulled turkey from Remark. Im usually so good at coordinating my foods...

Logan brought home his own cupcake he made at daycare so we gave it to him after supper (and Aleksy and I shared the other half). He really liked the cakey part, but the icing he spit out.. too sweet I guess (is this my kid?)

Logan brought home his Valentines from daycare in a little paper bag that he decorated and he was obsessed! He loved the little cards he got and trying to put them in and out of the bag (with intervention because he was ripping the bag like crazy!). He was so enthusiastic about his little treats (he got some chocolates, Valentines, and some fruit snacks and a pencil!)

Why April is going to be Awesome

Obviously April is awesome anyways because its my birthday and I really like my birthday, but this year its a little extra exciting because we booked our trip to Vegas!! This is the weirdest vacation to book.. I actually felt hesitation booking it because I knew it isn't a baby-friendly type of vacation :(

My goober is going to be away from us.. for 5 days!! He will actually probably be having his own little vacation at his Nana and Dziadeks... they are going to spoil him no doubt. We are going on a Monday and don't get back until Friday at 6am. There is going to be some serious baby missing when we're there! I have the week after off too though so I can catch up on the time I missed and have Mommy/son playdates.

But... so excited to finally get to Vegas! We have big plans to walk the strip and see a bunch of hotels (with maybe a little casino visiting but honestly not much), see hoover dam and the grand canyon and of course have some awesome quality time at the pool! We chose a hotel with an awesome pool too - Mandalay bay has a lazy river, multiple pools including a wave pool and a sandy beach! 2 months!

Food and Wine Show 2017!

The tradition continues... drinking multiple glasses of wine with the family all before the supper hour! Sat Jan 21st was the show. The day started off a little unusual. I was all ready to go by around 11:15am and headed over to my Moms - Aleksy was driving us since we couldn't drive home. From there we headed over to my sisters for 11:45am - just in time to make it to the show when it opened at noon. But there was no sister at home! Sister was missing! We waited and even went to the bank and came back and then finally left for the food and wine show around noon to meet up with my Mother in law Lorraine.

We continued to get our glasses and start filling them with wine immediately - the routine. And my Mom found a make up stand with free "makeovers" & she took them up on it! She was very excited about the make up booth. They even had a photoshoot at the end.

All this happened before the sister texted or called back.

It seemed like the sitting this year was much more plentiful than other years - we landed a spot in this big sitting area a few times that day!

Here with our white and some forty creek cream (like baileys... yum!). Lorraine took our Mother-Daughter pic!

And through our wandering, I saw that the Icarus restaurant had a booth at the show and a friend who works there was working it and hooked me up with the goods - spanokopita and meatballs. Acmazingly delicious.

I'm so glad I stopped to eat this when I did too, because even though we absolutely insisted we would be better at buying food this year, we weren't. I only had this and some cheese. I came prepared having eaten breakfast this year though! The wine is so much more readily available!

And shortly after this... during a washroom break.. the call came in: 1:30pm. Steph has woken up and is getting ready to finally join us for the 12pm date! Ha!

We signed up for the first show of the day - the 2pm show at 1pm. We even asked them to save a ticket for Steph... you know in case she showed up.
Then when we got there at 2pm, there were no spots open! They overbooked! So we were lucky enough that we got 4 to the 3pm show, and Steph was able to go too.

Steph came around 2:30 and this was our 3pm wine tastings. These are sweeter wines... not our usual go-to's but good to try something different!

See... she made it!! 

And the filling of the wine glasses continued... we even switched to red for a bit at the end. This was an end of the day picture taken at 6pm just before we left. We found our favourite booth that filled the wine glasses double for the same amount of tickets too - score!

This year we noticed a few of things were different - The sister was only present for 2/3 of the time, Lorraine couldn't drink becasue of a Dr.'s orders, they didn't have the cheese tasting that they have every year (which is something we really look forward to because who doesn't love cheese with wine) and the Girls night out booth wasn't there!! Thats the fav booth - they even give us free softlips every year! Lots of differences this year!

The annual photobooth picture.

I do have to say this year I did a better job managing the wine. I stopped at 6pm, could eat lots of pizza upon my arrival home and hydrated before and after. I think Ive got this down...

Until 2018...