Day in Brockville

We decided to take a wee break from regular scheduled programming and take a little day trip
And we thought our favourite Arnprior girls could come along.
After a bit of investigation we thought Brockville (Ontario) would be a lovely spot to walk thru the streets and have a bit of lunch.
Altho there were a few pretty areas we were very disappointed in the "historic" downtown.
Yes there were lots and lots of historic plaques but there were no quaint shops to explore.
All we found were Chinese restaurants, pubs, Thrift stores, and suspect looking nail and hair salons.
One saving grace was the Buell Street Bistro

We sat on the patio.

Sipped a glass of Pinot Grigio, ate a chicken club panini, and watched Miss D colour and do some people watching.

 

 

We were going to just beaver home when I thought "Hey we are close to Merrickville ----- Home of the famous Mrs McGarrigle's.


Let's GO!!
So we did.
What fun.
My one heartbreak is that Miller's Crossing is closed . It was such an awesome shop full of interesting little do dads.:-(
But we checked out above Mrs McGarrigle's and may have bought a thing or two.
There is also a fabulous Christmas shop




 and at this time of year they include Halloween too. Halloween is Siobhan's fav time of year so she was very happy.....



Bapa and Miss D shared some ice cream while momma and I looked around.

Then it was home to Arnprior ----- a Domino's pizza ---- half a movie ---- then Nona and Bapa headed home.
It was a fabulous day. Everyone was pretty pooped but happy.....

Hope you all have had a great week.



ciao for now
susan

A Few Things that made me Smile This Week

Wine on the patio.   Supper on the deck with my Sweety.    Daylilies.

 

Knitting Emoticons.   Sparty in a tutu.    A new deck colour.

 

Silly faces.   Picking backyard raspberries.   New front door dec.

 

 

 

what made you smile this week?

 

 

ciao for now

susan

Weekend with Nona and Bapa

As we are leaving for two and a half weeks for Alberta. to so spend long awaited time with our other two G kiddos we had Miss D for the WHOLE weekend.
Mommy and Daddy brought her Friday night and after a play and Daddy put her to bed they went home.
Bapa and I were anticipating a few Jocelyn (its what we call the soother) retrievals during the evening.
BUT she slept til about 4 and once had her Jocelyn slept til about 6;30 ---- YAY
Up we got and came downstairs to the kitchen after opening the front curtains to greet the glorious morning.
We made coffee and fed the cats.... Miss D munched on a few pieces of banana.

After playing with blocks and having a few concerts it was time for her morning nap.



Bapa was all set when she woke to take her to store for pizza ingredients
so after a quick snack and a wee bum change off they went.....

When they got home it was lunch time .
I think groceries were exhausting because she ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich, a wee bit of yogourt, and applesauce.
Another wee play and a few stories ..... then a 2 hour nap.

Of course after such a fantastic nap it was time to get lathered up and get outside to play.
We splashed in the pool ... ate some grass ... dug some dirt (may have eaten a bit of that too) ... crawled all around the backyard ... watched Bapa shingle the shed ... had a popsicle ...



Then helped Bapa make pizza ... got ready for bed ... read some stories ... in bed at 6:30

Slept through til 6:30 the next morning.
Sunday morning Bapa made pancakes with raspberries and blueberries.
After the morning nap it was time to clean up and get ready to go home.

It was a fantastic weekend and we look forward to the next one -----

Click here to see how happy she is to be home!




ciao for now
susan

Friendship and a Canopy Installation

Another wonderful weekend @ 44.
Friends were wanting to sell a patio canopy in lieu in getting an upgrade.

HB and I have been chatting about getting one to extend our sitting time outside
What a windfall for us...
and all we had to do was have a terrific evening with them with good food and fabulous wine.

 HB  was totally in charge of dinner.....
Started with crackers topped with fig goat cheese and a piece of bacon --
D-E-L-C-I-O-U-S

BBQ Steaks
Homemade pasta with pesto made with basil from the garden
Wonderfully roasted veggies
Homemade bread ---- a new one he tried --- Filone

So they showed up with the canopy in hand ... a bottle of cote de Rhone .... fresh baked muffins.
Then to make it even better Paul arrives in the backyard with all the tools to put it together....
True true friends...

 

Yes I made cheesecake topped with a mango sauce and rascal berries....

Now you say what could possibly top that ...

Yup a weekend with our Miss D.
She is cruising now and it appears in no time those first few tentative steps are just around the corner.

Sunday it was pizza and yup she was right there chewing on Bapa's homemade za..

 

And ice cream for dessert....

We get to have her visit us ALL next weekend....
Nona and Bapa will be pooped .. but happy..

Thanks for visiting ---- leave a quick comment so we know you have been here :-)


ciao for now
susan

Victory and Green Jackets

So this past weekend was the Masters Weekend

Now I am not I repeat am not a golfer but HB is pretty avid.
So he had a brilliant idea of having Siobhan (the other half of P and PD) Will, and Miss D
for supper.

I am always up for a theme party.
Even better we were able to have a self imposed long weekend.

Will took Monday off so they were here for 2 nights!!

Saturday we ate pizza and watched our Ottawa Senators win their game to sneak into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Us hockey fans are pretty stoked as this team was kissing the bottom of the barrel but after a coaching change and stand in goalie ( who has surprised EVERYONE) they are on their way.....

Sunday after a light breakfast @ 44 we took a wee walk down our lil downtown

Being Sunday and us being a small town no shops were open
But our lovely café The Good Food Company was
Miss D enjoyed watching all the people and REALLY enjoyed listening to all the conversations

We enjoyed delicious coffees and some at the table enjoyed  a bigger breakfast

Once we got home it was such a gloriously warm and sunny day we pulled the chairs to the patio and had our John Daly's there ( 1 and a half ounces of vodka equal parts iced tea and lemonade topped with lots of ice)

Of course it all tastes better in a mason jar .... I think I have found my cocktail glasses for summer ....

Even Miss D enjoyed a bit of outside time in her "baby jail"

Our Masters meal

Grilled turkey Burgers ... with green salad tossed with walnut oil and balsamic .... shoestring fries

Turkey Burgers
ground turkey
1 egg
small handful of bread crumbs
1/3 cup or up to you chopped sun dried tomatoes
same amount of crumbled feta
salt and pepper

And Siobhan made these awesome lemon cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing topped with a raspberry.

And Miss D has discovered Mum Mums..... From the excitement that happens when she sees them I think she likes them..

ciao for now...
susan

Vanity and Spring Cleaning

Had an excellent last weekend ...even though it's still pretty chilly out. Sorry it took so long to post this, I'm busy jeeeeeze.

I hadn't started ANY spring cleaning at all so I took the opportunity to do some. Although my mother considers spring cleaning to be wiping down the walls and scrubbing the baseboard...we rent...and they treat us like crap...so I intend to leave a greasy fingerprint covered wall art for them when we leave.

I consider cleaning out my closets and drawers to be my spring cleaning. Out with the old in with the new, right? So I also bought some new clothes with the birthday money I got from my parents. I guess it's about time to accept that this ol' body of mine will never go back to it's pre-baby stretchmark-less glory days and get some clothes that fit!

Shelley loves cleaning days. All the cats do. Any chance to get into the bedroom, which is normally locked because a certain someone likes to take dumps in the closet 

*cough* MacG *cough*

Daphne also seemed to enjoy the hustle and bustle in the bedroom. The reason I started cleaning this weekend is because we decided to move our bedroom around a little. After three years the set up was getting a bit stale. Alllsoooo...I finally got my vanity!!! Will has wanted to buy me this vanity for 2 years but it's never worked out. He's always wanted to buy it for my birthday but birthday month is always car registration month. Which means $$$ to the gov't every March. But this year everything worked out!

Took him two days to built it...because......

The mirror came broken. UGH! After 3 calls that weekend to the incompetent idiots Rogers calls customer service reps I was in NO MOOD to call IKEA about this. Thankfully Will called them up and they said it was no problem. Took about 15 minutes at the store and they gave us a brand new mirror...frame included. Which is great cause I now have the spare frame to use somewhere else. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, but stay tuned...eventually I will find a way to use it!

And there is it all finished! It fits perfectly in the bedroom. I am planning to go to the dollar store and get some containers/vases/pots/glasses to hold and organize my makeup. I also need to get a garbage can and a magnifying mirror. I'm quite excited about it and so is Will. He told me he is sick of watching me do my makeup on the floor har har...maybe I was in his way.

I would call that a successful weekend. I didn't even mention the beautiful diamond studs he also go me for my birthday. Exactly what I wanted. What a nice guy, eh. I think I'll keep him.

--Siobhan