family

Our household has been such a busy one since arriving back home and we are just loving all of our company.  Jake has been so spoiled with grandparents, cousins, aunties and uncles.  He has someone to play with at all times and is loving the attention.  I cannot imagine how quiet it is going to be once everyone is gone.  It will take some getting used to.  

 I need to be taking a lot more pictures but I'm having camera troubles.  I am going to have to send it away for a few weeks to be fixed and, needless to say, I will be so sad without it.   

spinach, feta & tomato quiche

Quiche is perfect for breakfast, brunch or lunches and is really easy to modify with your favorite ingredients, so give it a try.  You won't be sorry you did.  

Note: The custard base in this recipe is from the Food to Live By cookbook and I decided to add pesto, spinach, tomato and green onion.  However, this is a really easy one to modify.  Stick with the eggs, half-and-half and fresh ground pepper and add your favourite combination of ingredients.

You will need:
1 pie crust (homemade or store bought)
1 tsp. oil
4 - 5 packed cups of baby spinach
3 large eggs
1 cup half-and-half
1 tbsp. pesto
fresh ground pepper
3/4 cup feta cheese 
1/2 cup cheddar
1 tomato, sliced thin
green onion

……………………………………..

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 375°F.  Roll-out pie crust and place in a 9 inch pie plate.  Pierce crust with fork and freeze for 30 minutes.

Heat oil over medium heat and add rinsed spinach for 2 to 4 minutes, until wilted.  Let cool.

Whisk eggs, half-and-half, pesto and pepper.  Add cooled spinach, 1 cup of cheese; stir and pour into pie plate.  Sprinkle with green onion, arrange tomato slices on top and spinkle remaining cheese.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 40 - 50 minutes.  Once set, remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before cutting into slices. 

easter brunch

This is our first Easter at home and we feel so happy about it.  We hosted a little Easter brunch at our place yesterday and have a big dinner planned tonight at my Aunts.

Brunch was a lot of fun, we only wish Billy's family could have been here with us as well.  Jake loved the busy house and the food went quickly; fresh fruit, chocolate chip banana bread, sugar cookies, mini eggs (we are obsessed), spinach feta and tomato quiche, baked french toast with maple syrup and mimosas. 

It was also the loveliest, springiest, sunniest day.  A beautiful 18 degrees.  So with family, lots of food, and sunshine we couldn't have been happier.   

The quiche seemed to be the family favourite, followed closely by the baked french toast, so I will try and put the recipe up soon.

Wishing everyone a very happy Easter. 

daytrip

Today Billy, Jake, Kait, my Mom and I all piled into the car and drove to Osoyoos to visit Opa and then Oliver to have lunch with my Grandma.  It was a nice day and the Great Grandparents 

really enjoyed Jake.

Jake checking out Opa's walker

Easter chocolate for Jake that we ate on his behalf

 Family Photo

Showing Great Grandma some of his toys

world maps

I have really been obsessed with world maps lately.  Maybe because I have lived in thirteen different cities and five different countries.  Or maybe because our world is such a spectacular thing!  Who knows what sparked this fascination but here are a few of my favorites maps for kids.

Perfect for Jake's room.  

Familie Summerbelle's hand-cut world map print.  So amazing.   

Cute chalkboard word map from Etsy

Mr Perswall World Map wallpaper.  

settling in

We are busy settling in.  

Relaxing a little, now that our bags have been emptied and sorted.

We are finally on the right timezone, sort of.  

And we are thoroughly enjoying the comforts of home. 

home

It feels so nice to be back home.  And thankfully getting here went much smoother then we anticipated.

The hardest part of the entire trip was checking-in at Charles de Gaulle.  There was not enough room in the line for us to bring the bags through, the ticket lady couldn't figure out how much to charge us in excess and had to refer us to a different area of the airport and then half the luggage had to be checked-in at the opposite end of the terminal.  She was probably a little overwhelmed by us.  I'm sure she was hoping she wouldn't get the family with five hockey bags, car seat, a dog and a baby, but she did.  Once that was all sorted, things went smoothly.

Our flights were pretty much on time and Jake did really well on all three plane rides.  He napped on each flight and even though his naps were a little shorter then normal we were just thrilled he napped at all.  He spent the rest of the time playing and making friends with the flight crew.   Billy and I didn't really sleep at all, which was completely exhausting, but it probably helped us a little with the jet-leg.    

Since arriving back home we have all been waking-up at six every morning and are busily unpacking and getting settled.

If my camera hadn't died during the trip I would have had a picture to post here.  I was super disappointed until Billy reminded me I could take another travel picture in a few month when we travel back.  Ugh!     

one long day

We have one very long day ahead of us.  Twenty-four hours of travel, if all goes smoothly.  We have been packing-up the final few items and doing a lot of cleaning. 

The key to our packing success?  Hockey bags!  And lots of them.  Four to be exact (the fifth is thankfully staying in storage here) and one duffel bag.  They are so much lighter then rolling suitcases and so much roomier. This way we can pack more and still (hopefully) remain under the fifty pound weight restriction. 

Just imagine us in the airport with all this stuff plus a diaper bag, laptop, stroller and Hailey.

We pulled-out the "suitcases" a couple of days ago and thought Hailey was handling everything really well.  Then yesterday she peed on the floor and threw-up, so she is not handling the stress as well as we initially though.  Poor girl.

Unfortunately the key to our traveling success is unknown to us.  Patience maybe?  Lots of snacks for sure.  Especially for Jake and I because we are likely to be the crankiest.  All we know is this could go very badly, but we hope not.

celebrating eleven months

Jake is eleven months big today!
but still very much my little bundle of joy.

Thank goodness for little boys,
especially little toddling ones.  

brillat-savarin

We had a few people over for wine and cheese and had a delicious time!  We stuck with a few of the cheeses we have already tried, but did add one new one, Brillant-Savarin.  It was wonderful.  It's a triple cream brie from Nornamdy and is almost like butter.  Seriously creamy and everyone loved it.  

How could you not?!

I was glad it turned out to be so nice because when I was purchasing it the smallest portion I could get was half a wheel.  Although you cannot tell from the picture, it was a whopping chunk of cheese but we happily devoured it.   

I am already looking forward to trying some new cheeses 

when we return on August. 

deux dents

Jake is the proud owner of two super cute teeth.  Still no pictures though.  These teeth are moving nowhere fast. The first one is about a millimeter and the second is around half a millimeter.  Seriously slow.  I don't exactly know what I was expecting really, but thought progress would be a bit more substantial.

So enough about the teeth. We are trying to soak-up a little more warm weather before we get home. It's still a little cold in Kelowna so I have been rubbing our super hot weather in a little to my mom. Guess what mom, is was 24 degrees yesterday!

the city of lights, flowers and macarons

We decide to go into Paris one more time before leaving.  Travel wise, it's the easiest and quickest day-trip for us (minus dragging the stroller up and down the Metro, which is neither quick or easy, at all).  It is a wonderful day-trip though, and I don't think we will ever run out of things to do there.  There are still dozens of sights we haven't seen yet.  Really so unbelievable to me. 

Spring is the absolute prettiest time of year and this was especially true in Paris.  The city was in full bloom.  Meaning it was not a good day for Billy's allergies, but so so beautiful.  

Here we are, in a small beautiful park on Île de la Cité.  Rows of benches under landscaped trees, gorgeous spring flowers and perfectly trimmed hedges.  Behind us is the back of Cathedral Notre-Dame.  So lovely.  The highlight of Jake's day was chasing pigeons here.  He was having the very best time.  Squealing, pointing and waiving at birds and people. 

 

Prior to the park, we went to Galeries Lafayette and all we came out with were macarons from Pierre Hermé.  These were by far the best macarons we have ever had!  They also had the most unique assortment of flavours, but I was so overwhelmed by the choices, I made a quick no-fail selection.  We took them down the street to Starbucks and enjoyed them with our favourite drinks.  

        
How deliscious do these look!?  Caramel, Creme Brulee & Rose

We also went to see the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, Isle Saint Louis to enjoy Berthillon ice cream, le Marias for window shopping and falafels and were so tuckered out at the end of the day, we ended up at the train station forty-five minutes early and enjoyed some pastry before departing. 

happy retirement dad

Congratulations to my wonderful Dad!  Today will be his first Monday as a retiree.  What a nice feeling it must be to get up on Monday morning and not have the obligation of work.  Although in true Egon fashion, he will probably be busier then ever in his retirement, likely even busier then he was while working.  No one would be surprised by this in the least.

As a matter of fact, Jacob shares his love of constant motion.  We are lucky to get him to sit still for 2 minutes and because of this Billy sometimes refers to Jake as "little Egon".  Thanks a lot Dad.   

The very best part is this will give my Dad lots of Grandpa time and we are excitedly expecting a visit from my parents next season in France.  I cannot wait.  

la fermière

The French do a lot if things really well: pastries, cheeses, wines and champagnes.  However, I was surprised to add yogurt to this list.  

That's right, yogurt.  Not only is this la Fermière yogurt so delicious, it comes in these adorable tiny lavender ceramic pots.  I don't know what I'm going to do with them yet but we will continue to enjoy the yogurt until we leave.  It is like ice cream in yogurt form.  Made with just whole milk, cream, sugar and vanilla.  Yum. 

 To give this picture a little scale, these cute little yogurt pots are about three inches high.  Just slightly larger then a single serving yogurt cup back home.