Holiday

I am away on summer holidays so I'm taking a little blogging break.  You can keep up with our travels on Facebook (if you're a personal friend) or on Instagram @SmacTO.

We'll be on the East Coast of Canada visiting with family and seeking out some Maritime goodies. 

Friday Favourites

Linking up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci for Friday Favourites.

E went to camp this week, on Monday morning he was ready to go!  They hung out at High Park, made pizza in the outdoor ovens at Dufferin Grove, shopped for smoothie ingredients at St. Lawrence Market, and attended a play at the Fringe Festival.  His friend was in the same camp and came home with us everyday for some extra play before his mom picked him up.

Q went to day care three mornings this week.  He had a great time with his new friends and teachers.  

I had drinks with a friend on the rooftop patio at the Park Hyatt this week.  The Gin and Tonic was divine, but so was the view.  I didn't get a great photo, but if you get a chance to go up there, take it.

This guy was a sweaty mess at soccer on Wednesday but he is really enjoying it.  He and his teammates are getting good at passing too.

We're heading on a road trip tomorrow! I've been getting ready cleaning the car, stocking up on snacks, downloading music, and coming up with some games for the car.  

Comfort

When you're looking for some comfort, here are some of the things that work for me:

Bob Marley - For some reason these easy going tunes are very soothing to me. I take to heart the lyrics "Every little thing's going to be alright" in Three Little Birds.  In the end, everything will be alright.

Popcorn and Tea - This is a nice snack to have in the middle of the afternoon when you're feeling dreary.

Watching an old TV show - My shows of choice are Sex and the City and Downton Abbey.  I find that familiar shows where you know what's happening make me feel better.  You can simply space out and forget about what troubling you for awhile.

I wrote about comfort food here.  Things like grilled cheese sandwiches and ham dinner.

And I'd be remiss without mentioning some comforting bible verses that always help me.

Workin' It Wednesday

I do a weekend recap every week, and I did this past weekend's on Monday.   But in keeping with the format of other Day in the Life posts I've done, I'm going to go through Saturday again with a little bit more detail. 

Q and I were up at 6:00.  No luck getting him to go back to sleep in our bed, so we got up.  I put on an episode of Downton Abbey while Q played around on the floor.    Then it was breakfast time.  I usually just blend up whatever fruit we have to add to Q's cereal.  I'm sure he could handle eating bits and pieces on his own but I feel like he should keep on with the iron fortified cereal for now.  

A little playtime after breakfast.  His favourite part of the dinosaur set is clearly the plastic scenery sheet.

Since he was up so early, he went back to bed for his morning nap before 8:00 so I had a few minutes to drink my coffee, eat my breakfast, flip through the LCBO magazine, and watch Wimbledon and the Tour de France.

I took a picture of this page because this is one of the rosés I like and I had this Sunnyside Session IPA at Bryden's the other day and it was very tasty, I'll have to look for the cans next time.

After Dave and E got up, I walked up the street to buy some ingredients to make some baby food.  Of course I bought all kinds of stuff and then remembered we were going away for two weeks.  I've made some baby food and also incorporated some into our menu.

When I got back, we all headed up to the Baby Point Club to attend a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle birthday party for one of E's friends.  They had a bouncy castle, lawn games, a craft to make your own nunchucks, pizza, and lots of buddies.   Bonus, on the way up, we ran into other friends at the playground who were attending a birthday party across the street. 

When we got home, we watched some of the Blue Jays game, and I made up some baby food.

Carrots and peas

Dave had the idea to go for a swim so when Q woke up, we drove down to the Sunnyside Gus Ryder Outdoor Pool.  E worked on his swimming; I think he just needs more confidence and practice without his floaty thing and then he will be okay.  

We stopped on the way out so E could climb on the dinosaurs

When we got home, I made a quick dinner for Q, and Dave and E had their leftovers from the night before, and then they went to play tennis.  The local tennis club has public hours on Saturday evenings so they went down to hit a few balls.  This is another sport that we'd like E to get into but he needs to mature a little bit first.  He took lessons last year that were semi-successful, but he wasn't super into it yet.  I think the Wimbledon watching has encouraged him to try it again though.

While they were gone, and after Q went to sleep, I sat outside with a drink and a book.  I'd love to spend more time out here but I'll take the small pockets of time when I can get them.  I must have been quiet because two chipmunks came to visit, one just ran under my seat, but the other one charged at skipped towards me from down the hill.  I screamed both times.  They're cute and all, but I don't want them that close to me.

After tennis, E had some dessert and licked the plate clean (with my encouragement).  

After E went to bed, we watched Snowden.  I wasn't sure if I would like it, but I don't know why I thought that, I love movies that are based on true stories, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is such a great actor.   It's one of those stories where I knew about it, but didn't really know many of the details, so it's well worth the watch. 

I can't say that this is a typical weekend day in the summer, we don't usually have a birthday party, and go swimming (and tennis!) all in the same day, but we do keep busy and we always have yummy food. 

Thanks for checking in!

Show and Tell Tuesday

Linking up with Andrea for Show and Tell Tuesday.

Today's topic is favourite recipes.  If you follow along here regularly, you know that I love food and I love to cook.  If you look at the web version of this blog, you can select the Food or Recipe label and see a few things I've posted about.  You'll see the Food label is large as it is a frequent topic. 

This pasta is one of my favourites.  It has unfortunately ruined me for carbonara at a restaurant, because I think this one is so much better with the sausage and pancetta.  

I blogged here about my favourite summer meals that I've found on Pinterest.  These are all still accurate, and we just made the Greek chicken and cucumber salad.  It is yummy every time.  We don't bother making the chicken into skewers; just cut the chicken breasts into a couple of pieces and grill them like that.   

I did a winter version of go to Pinterest meals here. 

This tomato and mozzarella on crostini is one of my favourite appetizers to throw together, it is a crowd pleaser.

I also love making this meal for a weekday supper or for guests.  I mean, I never would have thought to put these things together, but they are so good - cajun chicken, bacon, okra, feta, sweet potato, corn, and tomatoes.  We also cook our chicken like this all of the time just to add to a salad.

We make this granola often and we have some in our cupboard right now.  We cook it longer than the recipe calls for, and this time Dave just turned the oven off and left it in there for an hour or so,  and it is nice and crispy.

So many good meals but these are some of my favourites.  Even better if I can get some help in kitchen from E, or if I'm cooking for guests.

You can follow me on Pinterest at sarahamacd and I have several board related to food.

Weekend Recap

We finished our week off with a morning trip to High Park for the splash pad and playground.   Q had fun on the playground and then in the (cold) wading pool.  E ran around the splash pad with new buddies.  

After the splash pad we stopped in at the liquor store and grocery store for a couple of things and then home for lunch.  E watched some shows while I tidied up the house and made a dessert.   Then we hung out on the back patio.

We had some friends over for dinner, and it was so easy since we just ordered take out from Annie's Cuisine (Jane and Annette).  It's Jamaican food so we got jerk chicken for the adults, fried chicken for the kids, both served with rice and beans, and some patties.  Everything was so tasty, and we had lots leftover.  I would definitely recommend ordering from this place, you can get take out or delivery with UberEats.   Although we had to move inside because of some rain, but was had a good night. 

On Saturday we did a few things around the house in the morning and then we all went to a birthday party for one of E's friends.  He is also a neighbour so we stayed at the party to hang out with the parents.   It was at the Baby Point Club and the them was Ninja Turtles!  Fun was had by all. 

Before supper we decided to go swimming at the Sunnyside Gus Ryder Outdoor Pool.  It was our first family swim of the season. 

Wiped from the swim ;)

We got home, had supper (jerk chicken leftovers!), and then Dave and E went to play tennis.  I sat out back after Q went to bed for a few minutes. 

On Sunday, Dave went for a run but the rest of us had a lazy day.  We watched the Tour de France and then went to Home Depot to pick up some materials for a light sabre (foam pipe insulation, coloured duct tape). After lunch Dave did some stuff outside, I tidied the house, Q napped, and E played downstairs.  Our neighbours came over for a couple of minutes so I could give them some baby clothes and our bassinet.  

We walked up to the Swan for supper and sat on the patio.  

Bath time, light sabre construction for E, and then bed.

Busy week ahead, E has camp, Q has daycare on a couple of days, and we need to pack for our trip East.