board games, high park zoo and duck confit french toast

this weekend, as do all good weekends, went by too fast. but it was a good weekend indeed. the type i wish i could just put in a jar for a rainy day.

doug did have to work saturday, so that day was low key. chaeli and i took hobbes to the vet for a routine heart worm check-up. not fun for him since they had to put a needle in his hind thigh to draw some blood. the poor guy starts to shake whenever he’s on top of the examining table.

nothing special happened for the majority of the afternoon. chaeli had homework and i had housework. but then, being the amazing, domesticated mom that i am, i told her to put socks on because we were going to wendy’s. and not just eat food from wendy’s. but eat there.

which is fun for a kid. for me? it just means the garbage can be disposed of THERE and not at HOME. and the mess, should there be a mess would be THERE. and no, not at all at HOME.

i made up for my lack of domesticated skills after dinner though. well, sort of. my intent, in order to win mother of the year, was to just turn on netflix and veg out in front of the tv.

chaeli, however, wasn’t in the mood for tv. she asked, “can we play board games?”

i looked at her and replied back with a question, “really? with just the two of us? don’t you think it would be more fun if we did family game night with daddy home?”

“no… it can be fun with just two people.”

i will admit. i took a moment to think of all the excuses i could think of. i had my heart set on being lazy in my pj’s, lying in bed watching whatever netflix had to ofer, at least for kids. plus, do you know what it is like to play boardgames with kids? they either don’t follow the rules or they take a long time to decide on their move or they whine when they lose.

well, maybe not all of them and not all the time. the potential for any of these things to happen can very well happen.

but suddenly, i was in the mood to play myself. and i’m glad we did play that junior scrabble game, even though it forces you to limit your choices to the words already on the board. because it was a great way to spend the evening.

the next day was quite nice. we met up with ada and hoa at high park so doug could go for a run with them. while they ran, chaeli and i took hobbes to the off-leash trail to get some fresh air and move our muscles a bit.

i was not at all feeling guilty for the fact that i wasn’t joining them. in fact, i was rather happy to announce, “i don’t run. yoga, p90x and wimping out on gym cardio machines… that will do it for me!” they’re all marathon/triathlon types. or at least 10K types. and due to this, doug has been eating healthy and cutting back on the luxuries that happens to be beer. that’s why i don’t do marathons. i like to eat.

ada only did 30 minutes with them and then text-ed us to meet up with where ever we were. which was good. chaeli wanted to go to the zoo but with hobbes, i have to keep him away from the fenced in animals. ada was able to stick closer to her while i stood back whenever hobbes got overly excited from seeing an animal which he probably took as being a very, very large dog. except when he saw the turkeys and peacocks. then he just took them as very, very large birds.

we ended up at origin afterwards for an awesome brunch.

duck confit and french toast… heaven!

sunday ‘ooz’, library and retro-judy blume books

ooz.

this is what doug started to say for ‘zoo’ when chaeli was young. it was a way to say, “hey, think we should go to the zoo this weekend?” while around her so that she didn’t pick up on the word ‘zoo’ and get her hopes up in case we weren’t able to go.

of course, in the past couple of years, she knows that ‘ooz’ is just ‘zoo’ pronounced backwards. and now calling it ‘ooz’ has just become our thing.

while doug worked his sunday shift, that’s exactly where chaeli and i found ourselves yesterday morning. she came up just after 8:30am to wake me up. the zoo opens now at 9:30am (shorter hours past the summer season) so it was just enough time for us to get ready and head over for breakfast.

chaeli brought her digital camera and spent the hour and a half taking as many photos as possible, spending most of her time taking shots of the polar bear cub. he’s grown a bit but still so small compared to the three adults. and very cute with a whimsical, playful temperament.

of course, of the 100 or so photos, most of them came out too dark or blurry but i told her not to worry. we can weed them out later. so she took a few shots of certain animals or scenes to be on the safe side. in the end, about a third were actually quite good. so i opened up a flickr account for her and uploaded the photos to share with family.

here are some of the highlights:

cub swimming

cub was enjoying deep dives

a mid-morning snack – picking at the flowers

one starfish and one sea anemone-mone-mone…

hobbes would object to the word ‘dog’ in their names

the bunnies were all still sleeping when we visited them

just chillin’ out on the rocks

we came home for a couple of hours before heading out to a library in our area – one of the many main ones in the city that happened to be open on sunday’s.

for chaeli’s grade 3 leading log, she went through four chapter books in two weeks. we do have a lot of books at home but with the rate she’s going, they won’t last her the school year. nor do we have that much space to continue purchasing books (and we don’t want to get carried away with how much we spend either). i will continue to buy some books from scholastics but going to the library is a great way to balance things out.

the usual library we usually go to does not open on sunday – this gave us an opportunity to try a different location. i’m glad we did. the entire first floor is dedicated to children and young readers with one section dedicated to early readers. it pretty much carried all chapter books and contained the perfect selection for grade 3 and 4 level reading.

chaeli chose three books which i think should last her for the next two weeks. she was quite excited – especially as she got to use her own library card and check out the books at the self-checkout area.

the rest of the day was spent with her reading and playing while i uploaded her zoo photos (and camping photos). as well, i read two chapters of tales of a fourth grade nothing (my own copy from when i was 9 – and i still have superfudge, too) before dinner plus another chapter of it before bed. we were also able to get in one UNO game done before bedtime.

it was a great mother-daughter day!

more than halfway…

it’s amazing that summer is already passed the halfway mark. back to school ads and promotions are starting to hit the stores and my inbox. and yet, i feel like we only just started school break last week! sad. very, very sad.

summers like this – you have to make every bit count.

last saturday, we went to tko and B’s place for a delicious rib bbq – both pork and korean short ribs. we brought a spread of cheese and pate. di brought a smores pie. SMORES! PIE! the combination was deadly.

i’m very happy to have the chance to see my friends this summer – i was afraid our weekends were booked solid with our own things plus my family (plus doug’s family since chaeli was there for over a week). but i think in the end you find a way to make time for your friends because as important as doug and chaeli are to me – and the quality time we spend as a family  unit – the summer would not be complete with out a couple of get-togethers with good friends.

this past weekend was an easy weekend. doug worked saturday so chaeli and i went for brunch and some a.m. shopping. the rest of the day was devoted to the olympics (and laundry – never can i escape doing laundry on the weekend).

sunday, after doug came home from his shift, we went to the zoo. chaeli and were already there last sunday morning (while doug was working then as well). we definitely are not wasting our annual membership. anyway, she really wanted to see the sting rays and sharks (a special exhibit that’s only hear during the warmer months – and extra $2.50 per person but quite worth it if you’re adventurous enough to pet the species in the very large, shallow pool). i wanted, however, to wait for doug so we could all experience it together which is why we went back this sunday.

no worries – nurse sharks are the friendly type

$2 more bought me a three pieces of raw seafood to feed the rays. tip: keep fingers flat with the food sticking out between two fingers. i knew this but didn’t get the food in place in time. in other words, a couple of my fingers were sort of sticking up when one of the rays swam by. in went my finger – just sucked in like a vacuum!

it didn’t hurt, though. thank goodness they are toothless but the feeling was quite weird and took me by surprise.

red curry mussels, date in the woods and bbq-pool party

with chaeli visiting my PILs, doug and i had a date-weekend rather than just a date night. we actually hummed and hawed about going out for a nice dinner but by the time the end of the week rolled around, neither of us actually felt like leaving home.

friday night, we ended up making some thai red curry mussels for dinner. we accompanied it with a fresh baguette and some apple riesling wine. i can’t tell you how amazing it was! to dip the bread into the spicy, yet savory, creamy broth. we’ve been trying to replicate the first time we had red curry mussels from the san francisco food-haunt, fog city diner. which is still the best we’ve ever had. this recipe is about the closest we could fine. i recall the red curry ‘soup’ from fog city diner was thicker – creamier. i suspect it was just them adding a heavier type of coconut cream (or just cream on top of the coconut milk).

definitely a lovely dinner. and before that, while having a pre-dinner drink (gin & tonic), we sat in the living room and talked. i mean… really talked. a nice conversation. no serious stuff but just one of those good talks one finds with a best friend. luckily for me, this best friend also happens to be a life partner.

saturday, we went just on the outskirts of our city, north of us, to a conservation area. it was an idea i had awhile ago, to check out some of the trails at the bruce mill park. while most of the time, our hikes involve chaeli, i have to admit it was also nice to go just the two of us. we can cover more mileage and be a bit more adventurous. in other words, we got lost. not on purpose, but we certainly didn’t seem to care to follow a direct path. it was good – just over 3km in an hour with some hilly areas to boot.

hobbes definitey got his workout!

we stayed home for dinner again – this time making maple glazed, buttermilk grilled chicken, kelp chips and some small potatos. doug made plenty for leftovers (which was eaten tonight). a good recipe – the buttermilk really does marinate the meat, making it nice and juicy.

sunday, our friends, di and rick, had a bbq pool party. it was such a good time – with a crazy amount of food! of course, like most weekends, food is a symbolic part of our lives. i made a pasta and asparagus salad with a lemon-honey dressing (definitely better to make the night before to allow the acidity of the lemon rind and juice mellow out a bit). i left the pasta in just a smidge too long to be on the al dente side but after chilling in the fridge it surpassed. it was my first time making this recipe – next time i’m going to up the garlic and lemon a little and use less pasta. even though i used a whole bunch of asparagus, i felt it could have used more – it would certainly pump up the nutrients!

as a bonus, we got go hang out with rita, harry and their boys – they live in the connecticut and it was just so nice to catch up with them! i definitely miss it when they were living in TO.

tye-dye, sea monkeys and berry picking

as usual, i’m late in posting this – but even so, our canadian long weekend was special for me. i, therefore, still wish to document what we did that hot and humid weekend of june 30th to july 2nd, 2012.

doug did have to work on both Friday and Sunday so there was some minor disruption during our family weekend. but we made the best of it.

saturday’s highlight was visiting with cathy and her family. the three kids had a blast,  making tye-dye shirts and playing together exceptionally well. cathy’s daughter, M, is  around the same age as chaeli – they are both very gentle girls and are a good match in both age and temperament. though, that was not always the case. i still remember when they were toddlers, chaeli loved M very much. maybe a little too much?

this is actually M’s tye-dye tank top – we took the wrong one!

i still remember photos of chaeli ‘hugging’ M. though, it looked more like head locks!

as adults enjoyed some yummy cheese and pate – wine for us ladies, beer for the men. then a feast was laid out before us. yummy!

sunday morning, chaeli and i went for her haircut. she got about 8 inches chopped off – just in time for art camp. afterwards, we did a little shopping – i promised her at some point i would buy her a sea monkey kit and was lucky to find one $5 less than the previous place. at the end of our shopping, we had lunch before leaving the mall.

a very mother-and-daughter day out (well, aside from the dog park we went to with hobbes later in the afternoon)! i have to say that age 8 bring a whole new world for our relationship. shopping, lunch dates, manicures, trying on shoes… fun!

hiking through the rouge

monday was our day as a family, after doug came home (and we had a energy-filling brunch), we went for an hour hike with hobbes. it was a beautiful hike! while the weather was hot and humid, we were able to spend most of our time in the woods, therefore, sheltered from the sun.

if i had this tree in my backyard i would so have a pot of cascading flowers spill from it

after an hour or so rest at home (plus a light snack), we went to whittamore farm. it was their last day of strawberry picking so i’m thankful we weren’t too late. there weren’t an abundant amount of strawberries to pick but what we did get was sweet and juicy! we also picked some raspberries which just opened for picking that weekend. before leaving, we stopped at the farmer’s market to pick up some fresh potatoes and carrots for dinner (to accompany the very thick AAA grilling rib steaks i picked up the day before at costco’s). plus, we brought home one of each pies – blueberry and strawberry. they did not disappoint at all!

bye-bye strawberries – see you again next year!

these little berries go great in gin & tonics. just saying…

it was such a great weekend – and i’m starting to see a trend in our canadian long weekends together as a family. they make such awesome memories to look back on!

worshiping the sun

this weekend was the perfect type of weather. not at all hot but with the right amount of sunlight to make it warm and beautiful. we found ourselves outdoors quite a bit – not wanting to miss the chance to worship the sun.

i started my saturday morning with yoga – a routine that included some very nice sun salutations for warm-up. quite fitting, if you ask me, for the type of weekend we had.

after doug came home from his shift and we had our breakfast, we headed over to the rouge to continue our love for the hiking trails and bio-diversity of nature. it was officially our first hike of the year. we saw many species of birds and butterflies, as well as a slithering gardner snake.

there was one part of the trail that divides into two paths – a lower one taking us to the bottom of the forest/valley and a higher one that continues along the ridge. we opted for the lower one and then found an area clear enough but off-path to exercise our legs as we made the steep climb up.

chaeli wasn’t exactly thrilled about this part but as she started to get use to her body and balance (and learned that on the really steep parts, it’s okay to use her hands on the ground – nature’s dirt, after all, isn’t as dirty as it looks), she started to enjoy herself. at the top, another valuable lesson was learned – pushing forward and positive thinking will get you through it. and yes, she CAN do it. she just had to try. on the way back, she twittered on about how she was able to climb such a steep hill.

as for me, it was just simply exhilarating. moments of feeling my feet about to give and slip away, only to catch my balance right at the last minute and climb my way out of the tricky area – yeah, that felt good. a winter-long period of strengthening my legs seemed to work. but until i had a chance to test it out, i really hadn’t see what my hard work amounted to.

saturday night, we went out for wings, fries and beer (beer is a definite treat – i rarely drink it and when i do, it’s just the occasional one to two on a weekend). chaeli enjoyed her plain wings and shared with us the poutine appetizer we bought. topped off which chocolate milk and eating all our carrot sticks, i say she was well fed.

sunday morning, doug woke up before us and headed to work. the weather continued to bless us and i refused to spend our time inside.

chaeli and i headed to the zoo (thank you zoo membership – once again, you serve us well) and enjoyed our breakfast at the peacock cafe just inside the entrance and then a leisurely stroll to see animals from both the indo malay and african safari areas.

i thought the zoo would be a bore to chaeli by now – what with our almost yearly, annual membership from the year she was born. but now that she is older, she’s more interested in animal facts and so as we stopped to take a look at the different types of species (anywhere from fish to snakes or from birds to lions), she had questions of which i was able to answer most of them (thanks to my own upbringing from my father – who taught me to respect animals, nature and to understand how everything works together).

she’s also much more sensitive to all the ones that are endangered. sadly, a lot of our stops had one of the following signs – endangered, vanishing species or high risk. what will become of our world?

we came back for lunch and some light house choirs (and chaeli had to study for a french spelling test) before heading out to a dog park in order to get hobbes some fresh air and a chance to stretch his legs.

hobbes is not at all worried about helping himself. all the other dog owners laughed at him as he continually came back to help himself with every single water dish that was available. compared to all the dogs there, he was running around the most – made sense that he needed the most water.

it was a great day with chaeli and hobbes – we missed doug, though. on such a beautiful day, of course we wished he could have spent it with us. that said, i’m glad that the reason he had to be away from us was because of his job. not just his job, not even just his career now, but his lifestyle.

extra loooong canada day weekend

i’ve been on vacation since last tuesday evening. and as we’re nearing the end of our july long weekend, i’m wishing for just one more day off.

it’s been a fun pack five days.

some best friends, ada and hoa, stopped by tuesday night for dinner – they were on their way from vancouver to welland for the dragon boat nationals. ada happened to have a lecture at UofT (btw, it’s so cool to have a friend who does university lectures – i wonder if one of these days, i can attend? how wicked would that be?)

that was the kickstart of mine’s and chaeli’s long-long-extended-weekend. doug had to work on the thursday but was able to get off early so we could go for the dog park and consume yummy sushi and japanese food at our favourite korean-run-japanese restaurant. it’s the best of two worlds – we get both kimchi and sushi.

the rest of our mini-vacation included chinese lunch with my parents, two trips to the dog park down at the beach, another dog park out west plus yet another one up north, lots of ice cream, swinning at my parents’ community centre (well, doug and chaeli went swimming – i use to go when it was salt water, but now they’ve added chemicals and i’m allergic to that), bbq steaks at my parents’ place, movies on netflix, fireworks, picnics at the beach and lots of sunshine!

we only bummed around thursday morning – since doug was at work.

the highlight was visiting fort york on canada day (free admission for that day only) which is a historical site the british built for protection from the invasion of americans in 1813. this site was what started the progression of our city. i hadn’t been back to it since my grade six 3-day trip. all i remember was dressing up in period costume, eating food made like it was made back in the early 1800′s and sleeping in the bunkers where the soldiers use to sleep.

kind of creepy when you think about it.

chaeli had a blast – especially as there were some special events during that day. one of my fave was actually a shadow puppet put on by a performing arts community of the first nations. the music had a spell on me – quite powerful and beautiful.

front gates of fort york with toronto in the backdrop

flag raising ceremony

chaeli helping out in the kitchen

rifle demonstration

view from inside a window in the mess building