Happy 13th Birthday E!

And just like that we have a teenager!  E is 13 today.  We are so fortunate that he is such an easy going kid, especially as he gets older and has more things going on his life.  He golfed a lot this summer and played house league baseball, he's enjoying his guitar lessons, and will of course be back to skiing this winter.  He is pretty well rounded and although we would love if he spent less time playing video games and more time playing outside, I think that's pretty par for the course. It will be different when he goes to high school next year and he may have a rude awakening when it comes to schoolwork, but for now he seems to be doing just fine. His friends all wrote nice messages to him in his birthday cards and it gives me hope that the kids are alright.  He is a good friend and gets along well with most people.  He's also a great older brother to Q, who can be that typical little brother. 

Cheers to 13!!

I asked E if he was too old for the birthday quiz but he was happy to oblige.

 Favourite Colour
Yellow.  Really? You changed favourite colours? No, it's still red.

Favourite Stuffed Animal

Cuddly Pal

Favourite Thing to Sleep With

My weighted blanket

Favourite Thing to Eat for Breakfast

Waffles and Avocado Toast

Favourite Thing to Eat for Lunch

McDonalds - Big Mac

Favourite Thing to Eat for Supper

Sushi

Favourite Dessert

Pie and Cake

Favourite Drink

Shirley Temple

Favourite Animal

I don't know, what did I say last year? Q. Haha, yes Q.  No you have to pick a real animal.  Q is a real animal. Never mind.

Favourite Book

Ready Player One

Favourite Song

Crazy Train (the song he is currently learning on guitar)

Favourite Game

Geocaching

Favourite Video Game

Starcraft and Fortnite

Favourite Sport

Golf

Favourite TV Show

What If? It's a Marvel show about what could happen if certain things happened. 

Favourite Movie

Ready Player One

Favourite Thing to do Outside

Geocaching

Best Friend

Do I have to pick one? No. Q, just kidding. Pedro, Aiden, Sidney, Max, Kyler

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Starcraft Pro Is that a real job? Sure! 

Favourite F1 Driver

Lando Norris

Anything else to share?

No

Friday Favourites

It was a short week, which is always nice, and a bit ordinary. 

Among the “ordinary”, here are a few things that brought some joy this week. 

That leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwich. Isn’t it just the best?  I put a schmeer of cranberry sauce on one of the slices of bread and it really elevated it, I thought. 

A mid-morning chocolate chip cookie.  Q and I made cookies on the Weekend and we enjoyed them this week. 

Seeing my breath in the morning.  Our cooler temperatures are here and we had a frost warning on Thursday morning.  Interestingly we live in a little valley and we sometimes don’t have any frost when the people up the hill do.

Our Halloween decorations are out and I thought this ghost needed a little coffee.

The cooler temperatures are bringing the colours, this is the schoolyard.

Had to drag Q home from school, he was having fun playing outside.

We finished The Tragically Hip documentary this week and then coincidentally it was the anniversary of Gord Downie’s death yesterday. I didn’t ever really know the band that well, I just enjoyed the music, but this really made me appreciate the other members of the band, it really was a whole band, not just Gord.  The doc was really well done - try watching the last episode or the segment about Fiddler’s Green without crying. 

Linking up with Andrea and Erika

Recipe - Sausage Pasta

We had this meal last night and it was so tasty I wanted to record the recipe here so I could make it again.  Since I wasn’t planning on doing this post, the only photo is what was left after we ate!

1 medium onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 lb mild Italian sausage meat (out of casings)

1 650 mL jar of marinara (I used President’s Choice)

1 410 g box of rigatoni 

8 slices of fresh mozzarella 

Fresh basil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook pasta according to instructions on box. Place frying pan on medium heat, drizzle in some olive oil. Cook onions until tender, add sausage meat and garlic, cook until sausage is cooked through.  Add jar of marinara. Add 1/2 cup water to jar, shake to loosen any remaining sauce (with lid back on), and pour into pan.  Heat through. 

Combine cooked pasta and meat sauce, and pour into 9x13 baking dish.  Top with mozzarella slices and a few basil leaves.  Cook in preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Optional, add more chopped fresh basil when serving.  Serves 4-6.

Simple but delicious!

Media Wednesday

The media I am currently consuming...

Streaming TV - The Tragically Hip Documentary, Nobody Wants This, Emily in Paris, Chef's Table: Noodles

Network TV - Doctor Odyssey, Baseball Playoffs, Maple Leafs Hockey

YouTube - Hot Ones Episodes, Fleabag's Last Scene, Denzel Washington's "I'm leaving here with something" clip

Library Books - Denison Avenue by Christina Wong (Canadian!), Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan (Crazy Rich Asians author)

Podcasts - 1996 Movie Draft on The Big Picture, Slime on Flightless Bird, Jam Session on the Ringer Dish (Harry and Meghan on divorce watch?), Andrew Garfield on All There Is with Anderson Cooper

Instagram Algorithm - Andrew Garfield, Barry Keoghan, Maggie Smith

News Stories - US Election, Canadian Parliament (prorogue by Remembrance Day or no?)

Music - My Fall Playlist

Peloton Workouts - Coldplay Artist Series, '90s Pop

Pinterest Pins - New York City, Fall Soups/Chilis

Weekend Recap

Thanksgiving weekend is one of my favourite weekends of the year.  The fall weather combined with delicious food can’t be beat. 

I was out first thing on Friday morning to make sure I could get a turkey, which I did, and decided to buy some flowers as well. 

After a somewhat busy day at work, it was cocktail time that evening. 

It was homemade pizza night which we had not done for awhile. 

Q was first up to make his pizza.

Opened up a nice bottle of red wine to enjoy with our pizza. 

E was up next.

A little dance party broke out (ignore the shop vac!)

Silliness on Saturday morning. 

I made our two pies for Thanksgiving dinner. 

After lunch we loaded our bikes onto the bike rack and drove downtown with plans to bike around the Toronto Islands.  We took the Hanlan’s Point ferry over. 

What a beautiful day!

Loving the view of our city.

We biked from Hanlan’s Point to Ward’s Island, stopping along the way to check stuff out. 

Stopped for an ice cream.

And then back on Ward’s Island ferry to the mainland.  We grabbed an early dinner at The Great Lakes Brewhouse before loading the bikes back up for home.

On Sunday morning E decided to sit in the balcony for the service instead of going to Sunday school. I went up to see him between choir practice an and the start of the service. 

I made this wrap for Q for lunch, where fold it into quarters.

I prepared our Thanksgiving dinner all afternoon and watched the football.  The boys played some Monopoly and video games. 

Ready to eat!

I was going for a colourful plate but unfortunately the green Brussels sprouts and the red beets were a bit darker than expected, oops. Everything was good though.

We watched The Village and had our pie.  

On Monday morning I finally tackled the boys’ dressers and cleaned out their clothes.  Here is the pile of things that were removed from Q’s dresser.

Dave was golfing the afternoon so the boys and I went out.  First stop was the McDonalds at Dundas West Station. 

Then we went back to High Park and ate our food there and walked around.  I said E looked like he was doing a photo shoot.

This is Q reenacting a scene from The Village.

Just a few trees have changed colours.

We looked for some geocaches and that took us all over the park.  We spend a lot of time there but I think there are still parts of the park I saw for the first time. 

This was a steep hill we had to go down.

Q and I made cookies when we got back. 

Then I did a small workout and we had leftovers for dinner. I hope you had a fun weekend too!