The Weekend Update!

I think last weekend was the most popular weekend for going to the sugar shacks around here. You know how boxing day is the most popular day for shopping and Dec 23rd is the busiest day for flying. Well around here some weekend in March is time to sugar shack! Just check out Beth's blog, she went... :)

We went to Domaine L'ange Guardien just north west of Gatineau, and while the grounds are nothing to write home about (or photograph for that matter) the food and atmosphere is GREAT! It's an all you can eat breakfast with everything from french pea soup to pancakes to sugar pie (just in case you didn't get enough sugar with all the syrup and taffy, they have to throw in classic Quebec sugar pie!!).

On Saturday we had our own little sugar shack operation going on at our place. We (Eric) tapped about 6 trees and after two weeks we had enough to boil off. Saturday morning, Eric got up early, set up the fire and boiled for most of the day. His set-up isn't the most efficient, but it's sure is rustic and traditional, giving our homemade maple syrup a unique smoky flavour to it. Very good! Girls loved it, and spent most of the day outside!

Weekend Recap # 4

I have to do another "recap" post, because I haven't posted in a while. Friday was a work day, nothing too interesting happened, just the usual work, but we did get to go out for Thai at lunch - which is always yummy! We also had to have some of our nicest trees cut in preparation for the septic tank and new well installation that will hopefully happen over the next few weeks. It was quite sad coming home and seeing that our big pine was no longer standing. I hate cutting trees. But we had to do it, and so it was done. Eric had hockey, and I really just felt like flaking in front of the TV. But what really happened was that I fell asleep after putting Abby to bed. I was more tired than I thought so I passed out for almost two hours, work up to have a tea and watch Gray's Anatomy, then went back to bed. I was planning on getting ready for out chili party, but didn't!

Saturday was packed full of to dos, because we were hosting a big Hike and Chili party. Unfortunately the forecast didn't cooperate and it poured rain all day forcing us to cancel the hike. But of course, the chili dinner was still on. I went to gymnastics in the morning with Abby, then got started preparing the food. We were pretty organized and had everything ready by 4:00 giving us some time to dance with the girls in the living room (they were dressed up in their pricess dresses, so we pretended to be at the Cinderella ball. Daddy being the prince of course!)

Drizella attacks Cinderella for stealing away the Prince

After that everyone started piling in - we had 14 adults and 8 kids - which is a lot for us. At one point it was like a bomb had gone off in the playroom! Hopefully fun was had by all, we certainly had fun. It had been a while since we invited so many people over!

Today we are just cleaning up, doing laundry and Eric is outside busting his butt getting the property ready for the work. I have a feeling he'll be very sore tonight, so I should pull out the Ibuprofen now! And tomorrow it's back to work!

See all you bloggy lurkers later!

Busy but fun weekend.

This is really just a boring update of our weekend! Nothing too deep or insightful here, just a recap with a few pics to illustrate!

I returned from a good trip to Toronto on Friday. It was quick and I was walking around a lot, but overall good. The conference trade show was interesting, however having to talk to sales reps all day can be very tiring.. it's hard to cut through the sales crap (no offense Richard, you of course never talk crap - you keep it real!). On Saturday night I met up with Richard, Deirdre and Evan (my cousins) for dinner at Sushi Queen. It was very yummy and I ate too much! Afterward I went back to their place to chat, which was nice because I never visit them enough so there is a lot to catch up on! What was really fun was that I got to play with his $8000.00 camera!! Wow, cool. I had dreams about the wicked fast shutter speed that night! 15 RAW files/3 sec or something ridiculous (Richard can correct me if I'm wrong on that, but whatever it's lightening fast!) Too bad they are so pricey!

I returned to Ottawa Friday night to three beautiful smiling faces (Eric was smiling because I could now relieve him and he promptly took off for hockey!!). Saturday morning was Abby's second gymnastics class. We switched to the earlier time, which was full initially, but all the traumatized kids dropped out, leaving space for us!! Yeah, separation anxiety!! It is not only at a better time, but it's also at the same time as her buddy Savanna. So I got to hang out with Phyllis (our daycare provider and her foster Mom) which was fun.

Sunday was packed full of visits, first Eric's cousin Chris, Beth and their kids William and Sophie came for a visit. They also live in Toronto and we rarely see them! William and Abby had a ball raking and jumping into the leaves! Again the pile was taller than either of them, and for a while we couldn't even find William because he was completely buried by the leaves!

Putting the kids to work raking up the leaves.

Suddenly William disappeared!

Gillian looks on in amusement.

Leaf jumping!

After Chris and Beth took off, we got ready to host dinner for our friends Den and Alexei and their children Harrison and Sophie. It was their condo we stayed at in Maine back in July, so it was a very belated thank you dinner for them! We had a yummy roast beef with mashed potatoes and strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert.

After they took off, we basically crashed! Burnt from a fun but busy few days!

Weekend Recap

We had a nice weekend. Friday was "Girls Night" here. And by girls night I mean, Abby, Gillian and Me - no crazy partying, don't worry! Eric plays hockey on Friday nights, so it's just the girls, and we usually have a good time. This was a short girls night, because Eric came home right after his game ended at 6:30. The rest of the night was spent watching the Olympics.

Saturday we did errands in the morning, we dropped pants off for hemming, Eric got his hair cut, and various other things at the Rideau Center. We went early enough so it wasn't too busy. I took Gillian out of the stroller to walk on her own and she did a pretty good job staying on track, only veering off into a couple of stores and stopping outside of Aldo to dance to the music blaring inside! People were giggling at her and I had to keep one woman away from grabbing her. What is with people needed to grab and stroke your children. I know they are cute, but hands off buddy!! When we returned home we had some lunch, Eric went for a run, and the three of us got some much needed nap time in.

Saturday night Shawna and Paige came over at the last minute for supper. Her hubby Scott was away camping for the weekend, so she didn't want to be alone.


We whipped up a delicious meal of stir fried garlic shrimp, braised baby bok choy and steak. After supper, we gave them all a bath which was cute!




We put Gillian to bed, then lit our outdoor fire, which we had prepared the other day, and roasted marshmallows for dessert. I love when we have a fire, I really don't know why we don't do it more often, it's so relaxing and unique to be able to do that right in our backyard! Abby didn't stay up much longer, but Paige could not be separated from our little slide. She kept going back over and over again! Hopefully she slept well that night for Shawna.

On Sunday, Eric volunteered at the yacht club, and we played outside all morning. In the afternoon we went to Eric's parents place for a swim and ended up staying for supper. I think Abby will really become a water bug, because we couldn't take her out of the river, even when she was shivering and chattering her teeth!

Overall it was a nice weekend!