Friday Favourites

 

A few favourites from the week to share with you today.  Happy Friday!

Q and E played frisbee in the backyard on Tuesday night and then went to the park to play on Wednesday night. It was nice to see them playing together.

I went to one of my favourite places in the food court for lunch, Freebird Market. I enjoyed my pizza and salad.

Q got some cool new shorts (he already had the sweatshirt).  It's a baseball brand with some fun prints.

I picked up these little pottery dishes at Simons a few weeks ago. They are perfect for putting a few nuts in for a snack (or more accurately Mini Eggs after Easter) or to hold olives on a charcuterie board.

I was cleaning out a closet and found these little Italian amaretti cookies that I had bought for my mom for Christmas. Oops, guess I need to eat them now!

I went to Q's baseball practice with him last night and went for a walk around High Park. I checked in on the cherry blossoms and they are just about ready to bloom. I bet next week will be the week for Sakura. 

Linking up with Andrea and Erika.

Weekend Recap

Q had biked to school on Friday so he brought some friends home with him and they played around in the backyard (and then inevitably came inside to play on the PS5), but then he biked his friends home when it was time to go so lots of outdoor time was still achieved. 

(You can see where we have cleaned half of the back steps with the new power washer. We will do the rest but wanted to see the difference first.)

I walked up the street at the end of the day to get a few things for dinner - roast beef sandwiches on ciabatta buns with some new mustard, some produce, wine, and new library books.  Meanwhile we were also watching the Masters.

On Saturday morning we drove downtown to meet Dave’s aunt for lunch. We passed the Art Gallery of Ontario, this statue is made out of leather couches apparently. 

Found a cool playground.

And this steeple.

We went to Fox On John. 

Nice to see Aunt Isabel. 

In the afternoon I decided to empty out Q’s closet and bookshelf and sort through everything.  It took longer than I wanted, but I was successful. I kept a bunch of good picture books even though we aren’t reading those often anymore, and then put the books that Q reads on his own on the shelves, instead of where they were, stacked up in big piles on the top. 

I went to church that morning and then we went downtown for the Blue Jays game with Q’s rep team from last year. It was fun to hang out with the kids and parents (because the game wasn’t great for the Jays). 

I chose this beer because I love marketing. 

E and V have been playing together for 3 years, but will be on different house league teams this year. Hoping to get on the rep team so we get to keep hanging out at the ball field. 

It was Jr. Jays Sunday so we stayed for the kids to run the bases. The cut off is 14 years so this was probably E’s last time. 

We got home to watch Rory’s second nine at the Masters (recorded) and loved seeing him win. 

Friday Favourites

Happy Friday! 

This week was like I was on a work trip but got to come home to sleep in my own bed. It was the annual mining conference, PDAC, in Toronto. I went to the trade show on Monday, and then some social events in the evening, on Tuesday my company hosted a daytime social event and then I went to some things in the evening.  And because we had everyone in town for the conference, our executive team had two days of strategy sessions and crisis management training. So I am happy it is Friday and although will have some work to catch up on, appreciate it is a slower day finally.

One of Monday night's events was hosted at Canoe on the 54th floor of the TD building. I got there in time to catch the last of the sunlight, it's was so pretty.

Negroni? yes, please!

Caught up with a former co-worker on Tuesday night at Real Sports.

And somehow I ended up at karaoke in Kensington Market until very late, I won't disclose the actual time here, haha. My colleague and I sang a bunch of songs, including Shallow and it was so much fun! 

Wednesday was a bit of a rough day for me, especially since I needed to sit at a table with my entire executive team all day and be engaged in our discussions.  However the venue we were at had the Cloud couch from Restoration Hardware and I definitely took a little a moment to lie down when we had our lunch break.

On Thursday night we went to the new Piano Piano location in Bloorcourt. We did the family style menu and it was delicious, way too much food, and a great way to cap off the week.

With the family style meal everyone gets a glass of Amaro, a digestif. I have had this before and it really is a nice treat.  And the my Mexican colleague got us some tequila shots, and I said no way!! 

In case you missed it, I did a past yesterday, gratitude journal prompts, and on Monday I shared my January and February books.

Linking up with Andrea and Erika.

Weekend Recap

I went to the office on Friday. I had stayed home on Thursday and didn’t feel very productive so I wanted a change of scenery and went downtown instead.  I did much better there on Friday. We had some brief periods of blue sky and this view of the Canada Life building was framed by the pretty sky.

I got home in time to do a workout before dinner.  We decided to keep it simple and walk up to Kinton Ramen for dinner. 

Q enjoyed his bowl.

And so did E.

We got everything ready for skiing when we got home, which always takes longer than you think it will, but finally Dave and I were able to start the movie Jay Kelly. 

We got up to the ski hill on Saturday morning. They had had some rain the day before but the conditions weren’t bad. I ran into Q on one of my trips up the chairlift.

We did a couple of runs with the kids after their training was over but then hit the road.

We had leftover chili for dinner and then we watched the rest of Jay Kelly. 

Dave was off to Vegas for a work trip the next day so it was just me and the boys skiing. 

It was colder that day and of course we ran into snow on the way up, starting in Barrie. 

Snow was great though!

Q had a practice race along with the rest of the U10s and U8s.  He was pleased with his run and came 8th for the U10 Boys (out of 21).  One of our friends in U8 got 3rd place, not bad for her first race!!

I skied by myself for the afternoon with a goal of doing all of the runs on the Moonstone side.  Then I stopped to see E’s group on the terrain park and found out that one of his teammates had fallen on the jumps and was waiting for the ski patrol to take him down in the sled.  Unfortunately he had to go to hospital with a broken leg. Season over for him, which is too bad, and E will miss his friend. 

We drove through snow again but it was fine. After we got everything put away, I decided to do a bike. Like basketball and hockey players preparing for playoffs and jumping on the bike after a game, I need to prepare for our ski trip so even after skiing all day, I wanted to do more exercise. It was a tough ride but I did it!

Then we ordered pizza for dinner and settled in to watch the Golden Globes. 

I need to see more movies, but I enjoyed the awards show, like usual.  I am always happy to see all of the celebs. 

Meanwhile Dave was in Vegas, he got a few photos from his plane.

 

Christmas Recap 1

Our holiday kicked off on Friday, December 19. School was out, I had the following week off, and my mom had arrived that day.  After I wrapped up my work I had to mix up a negroni.

We started our Christmas puzzle that night too, which is tradition.

We ordered Chinese food that night for dinner. 

The next day my mom and I went out to Costco and pick up a few gifts.  We stopped in at the golf club for lunch too.  Dave and the boys went skiing. 

Why not add a project to the festivities?  I had noticed the drawer where we keep our recycling and garbage bins was coming apart so Dave took it apart, glued the bottom and then ordered new hardware for it.  

After church on Sunday we walked to Bulk Barn to get some decorations for the boys' gingerbread houses and then they got to work.

The finished products.

Q's house.

And E's - based on Stranger Things.  This is the Byers' house.

And this is the upside down

The next day, Monday, Dave's sister flew in, and his parents drove up.  We decided to have our lobster dinner that night and they went home the next day.

Some pre-dinner dancing.

And crokinole.

And I got the lobsters ready.

Dave made his delicious roasted potatoes. 

I got a photo of everyone with their lobsters.  Dave can't eat lobster and he had steak, but I forgot to get one with him!

We had Christmas crackers as well, and we had been telling E he needed to clip his nails and then he got a nail clipper in his cracker!! Hahah, a hint!

We had another special meal in the morning before Dave's parents and sister left - smoked salmon on bagels.

I had to run out to do a few errands that morning. While I was gone the kids and my mom decorated the new batch of gingerbread.

Mom took the boys out for lunch. 

And I got pretty much all of my wrapping done. 

 

And we finished our puzzle, another important milestone. 

When Dave finished up work that afternoon we decided to go down to Tilt Arcade Bar. We all played a few games.

Then we went up the street to The Drake for dinner.  It was very nice in there with a live pianist playing.

The next day was Christmas Eve.  I had E help to make the breakfast for Christmas morning this breakfast casserole.

In the afternoon we stopped in at a little Christmas Eve party, hosted by people we know from the golf club. This is their tree.

And then over to church. 

Q had the Joseph piece of the Fisher Price nativity to take up.

We had oysters and appetizers when we got home.  A few of the oysters had spoiled, which was too bad, and although we did eat most of the others, it wasn't as fun of an experience as it usually is as we were all a little cautious of the rest of them.

We played Pictionary using the iPad casted to the TV.

This one is Nana, she is making muffins.

E grabbed a bunch of sausage rolls. We watched Office Christmas Party.

Setting out some things for Santa and his reindeer.

Then off to bed! Check back tomorrow for a recap of the rest of our holiday.