Friday Favourites

 

We celebrated E's birthday with a party on the weekend and then his actual birthday on Tuesday.  I had already made the traditional "birthday" waffles on Sunday so on Tuesday I picked up another of E's favourite breakfasts (and my coincidentally) smoked salmon. 

Our 14 year old, dragged out of bed to open gifts. 

I posted this little throwback on Instagram.  What a cutie :)

We went out for sushi for E's birthday meal (Dave was travelling, hence his absence)

They had this little special going!

Speaking of those Blue Jays - how about a trip to the WORLD SERIES!!! We are all so excited about it. I, of course, remember the World Series back to back wins in the '90s so it's pretty great my kids get to experience this feeling too. 

Getting tickets was impossible, so instead I bought myself this new sweatshirt.  Girl math means I saved money!

Q did some math test prep this week. 

On Thursday I needed to be downtown for a lunch and wouldn't have enough time to get home for a meeting, so I borrowed a room at our external counsel's office and was treated to these views from the 63rd floor. What a city!

Other highlights - dinner out with friends at Joey on King.  What a fabulous new restaurant!  And also a walk to pick up Q from school one day, I hadn’t been outside all day so I took the opportunity to walk.

Linking up with Andrea and Erika

How We Get Through the Week

The internet is full of people sharing helpful tips like how to be efficient in the morning, how to get your 'quiet time', how to schedule your lives to the nth degree, and as helpful as those things are, there are some of us who are just going through it, some weeks more than others.  At a bare minimum, people are fed and we are on time for things.  As a bonus, sometimes we have more elaborate meals, rooms get cleaned, we spend extra time on school work and music practice, and we have free time to watch a movie.

Meal Planning and Groceries - This is the best way to make sure people are being fed.  On the weekend I’m usually able to plot out our meals for the week, making adjustments for our plans, and then go to get groceries or place an order for pick up. 

Family Calendar - We have a physical calendar posted in the kitchen (or rather on the way down the stairs to the basement) where everyone can check to see what is on the agenda for the day.  I try to get everything on there as soon as I find out about it to reduce forgetting.

Lunches - I make Q’s lunch in the morning, and usually get something for E to take along most days, although I am not packing the typical bento box style lunch for him now that he’s in high school.  Lunches are kept pretty simple nowadays - frozen pizza, pasta with cheese, and bagels.  

Workouts in the early morning - If I want to get a workout in the only way is to set my alarm for 5:50 and go down in the morning for a quick 30-45 minute workout.

Laundry on the weekends - Each person’s laundry is done separately and it may or may not make its way out of the dryer, into a basket, and then into a drawer folded (hopefully!).  

I feel like we are in a time of life where we take it each day at a time, without being able to plan too far in advance and each day is a little hectic.  Somehow birthdays and holidays are planned, we make plans to hang out with friends, trips are taken, sports equipment and clothing for growing boys is procured, and bills are paid, but in no way do I feel like these things are carefully curated. We scramble and fit in what we can as we go. The word “routine” should not be taken literally. I know that as the kids get older, our time will even itself it out and we will be able to be more deliberate about how we do things, but for now, we embrace the chaos :)

 

Happy 14th Birthday E!!

Our little guy, as we used to call him, is 14 years old!! E is just a wonderful kid/young man. He has a good head on his shoulders and demonstrates maturity in many different ways.  He is creative and clever. He's pretty easy going but can be sensitive about things. He is getting along just fine in high school, managing his assignments, learning new skills, attending school events, and joining the robotics team. He is fortunate to have a nice group of friends at his high school, but still keeping in touch with people at other schools. We would prefer he reprioritized his time by putting his phone down more often, (don't we all parents!) but he remains a good sport about doing family stuff, keeping his phone out of his room, and not signing up for social media at this time. 

A few photos of him over the past year. He's really grown up.

Weekend Recap

This recap starts on Thursday.  I had tickets to the Leafs game and it was E’s turn to come along, plus it is his birthday this week so it made sense to have a special night out.  Since the Blue Jays were playing I wore my Jays jersey to the game.  We saw many people doing a mix of Jays and Leafs.

We ducked into the Platinum Club in the second intermission to catch some of the Jays game.  

Carlton Bear!

They put the score of the Jays game up on the board. 

#44, my favourite player 

E took a rest on the front yard on our way home, it was a late night :)

Another Jays game scheduled for Friday night (not as positive as the night before).  I grabbed Q from the Y to run out to the Halloween store to find a costume and pick up some dinner.  We opted for the Batter’s Box from Mary Brown’s chicken (marketing works on us).

On Saturday we were having E’s birthday party so that morning I made his cake and then ran around to get a few more supplies for the party. 

We hosted his friends at our house for pizza and cake first, and then went out for go-karting.

Apparently you’re supposed to pinch out the candles, not blow them out.

We went to K1 Speedway at Downsview.  Q was too small to race with the big kids, but he didn’t mind watching and playing the arcade games instead.

Getting suited up.

And Dave got to race too!

On Sunday Dave was out early to head to Vancouver for the week.  I stayed home from church so I could take Q to his baseball.  But first coffee!  The baseball place is near a Balzac’s so I took the opportunity to stop in. 

Some conditioning and batting practice. 

With some rain in the forecast I made the boys go out for a walk down by the Humber River.  It was a pleasant walk with pretty leaves.  We took the woods trail and I always feel like we are outside of the city. 

We saw a deer just sitting there.  He let us pass by quietly without being bothered. 

They like to climb up this steep hill.

The salmon are still jumping.

We had a nice relaxing afternoon after that. I put on the F1 and fell asleep, the boys played games, and then we got ready for the Blue Jays game!

What a game! Bring on Game 7 tonight!