dust

A new park is in the works near our house and I just received, in the mail, a lengthy dust advisory notice. (?!).  Here is a snippet "every effort on our part will be taken to minimize this inconvenience and we would ask that you make necessary preparations in anticipation of dust."  Although I'm not entirely sure what the "necessary preparations" are in this type of situation, I do know that this means a construction site.
Jacob will be out of his mind.

So starting on October 1st,
I know where our walks will likely lead us.      

twosome

This troublemaking twosome drove me a little crazy yesterday.  Naps were skipped and poor Hailey was chased, sat on and chased some more.  (I keep trying to explain to Jake that Hailey doesn't have arms and cannot play catch with him!  But it's a work in progress).  And what three month old does't like to sleep on the go!?  It looks like this may be the end of stroller naps.

Good thing they are too-darn-cute and such hugable little things!

happy birthday husband

I am so happy you were born!

And I'll admit, I'm pretty tired of hearing "can you believe I'm still in my twenties and you're in your thirties" from you.  So welcome to your thirties, old man!  It is nice to have some company here. 

Although there is not an arena full of people to sing happy birthday this year, we are still celebrating with a sushi lunch downtown and (in Jake's words) a happy birthday cake.

roasted creamy tomato soup

It's too hot for soup, really.  But my dad brought us these marvellous heirloom tomatoes from my Grandma's garden.  I would probably describe them as perfect and that's saying a lot because I don't even like tomatoes.  When you cut into these, they are meaty, deep red and juicy - with hardly any seeds at all.  My Dad calls them "Gigantiums" and although they are humongous-baseball-sized-tomatoes, I'm a little sceptical that is their actual name (sorry Dad ;).  What I do know however, is they are authentic tomatoes; the seeds were smuggled straight off the vine from Italy. 

So that's why we are enjoying homemade tomato soup (yes, oddly enough I like the soup but not fresh tomatoes) on a such a nice warm day.

My Grandma makes the BEST tomato soup so naturally I was going to copy her, however late in the game I realized I was missing a few key things so I decided to wing it, sans recipe, and it turned out pretty nice.     

First I sautéed one finely chopped onion and two garlic cloves in butter while roasting the tomatoes in the oven.  

Then I removed the skins and added the tomatoes to the sauteed mixture.  Let simmer.  Add basil, salt and pepper. Simmer some more.  

Remove from heat and add cream and a tablespoon of parmesan cheese.  And finally, blend 3/4 of the mixture until smooth, return to pot and enjoy!  Perfect with a fresh salad and grilled cheese sandwiches.  

... 

Fun fact: my Grandma harvested around 100 pounds of tomatoes from her garden!  Can you imagine?! 

life according to the iphone

Billy has been working for three weeks now and the time really has flown by.  And the best part is, he's really enjoying it.  The first few days had Jake a bit turned around.  He would ask "where's dad?" and then he would reply "Daddy's at Save-On-Foods!".  Not exactly.  Last week he said "No daddy today.  Daddy's at work" so we've made significant progress.

At home things are going smoothly, we've been keeping busy and making lots of plans.  However, there are moments when having two sets of hands would definitely come in handy... last week we had a moment where both kids woke early from their naps, both kids had poops that needed changing and both kids cried and cried while being changed.  Oh boy.  But aside from that, things have been pretty pleasant.

My parents came for a few days and I enjoyed a couple of sleep-ins and homemade porridge while Jake enjoyed quad rides with Grandpa and walks to the coffee shop for banana bread.    

Watching this made me hold these sweet kids of ours tight and just drink them all up. (it also made me cry, so be warned).

treasures

This blanket, tucked away and stored for many, many years finally has a new home in Avery's room.  It was my baby blanket.  Lovingly made for me by one of my mother's close friends.  It even has my initials carefully embroidered on the underside in pale, butter-yellow thread.  It is soft and worn thin and made from such a pretty old floral print.       

And this too was mine.  Badly in need of a polish, but oh so sweet.  

Thanks to my Mom for saving them for all these years
(and through four moves, no less).

autumn list

Can anyone else believe it is the thirteenth of September already!?  I mean, seriously!  When did that happen.  There is a chill in the evening air and we spotted a few yellow leaves nestled amongst the green.  I forget what Autumn is all about.  After spending the last four years in Europe, I've noticed that Fall isn't always a gradual thing.  In the cities we've been fortunate enough to live in, it seems that all the sudden, the leaves are falling and there wasn't that colourful build-up to really start the season off.  And so I am eager for autumn and eager to see it unfold here.

I've made a list of things I'd like to do this season:

ONE | visit a pumpkin patch
TWO | roast pumpkin seeds
THREE | make soups
FOUR | plan a nature walk
FIVE | pumpkin recipes
(This, this or this)
SIX | puddle jumping
SEVEN | make chilli
EIGHT | collect fall leaves
NINE | bake pecan pie or these
TEN | apple picking. And maybe bake this

...

What will you be doing this fall?
Click here and here to see some other great ideas.     

Photo by Mikkel Vang        

celebrating three months

 

   "My love is so high, and so wide and

so deep, it's always right there, even

when you're asleep" 

...

- Wherever You Are My Love Will Find You 

by Nancy Tillman 

visit

The last long weekend of the summer and Aunty Kaity NEEDED to see the kids.  She packed-up, woke at five in the morning and came for a visit.  Hooray.  Jake stuck to her like glue.  It was a weekend full of reading, snuggles, stickers, play doh, swimming, sand castle building at the beach, tortilla pie (to die for) and butter brickle (also to die for).

We are already looking forward to her next visit in November!

he dreams

Jake says some of the cutest, most unexpected things.

The other day after his nap, Billy asked "how did you sleep" and Jake response was "Daddy, I had good dream.  I dreamed about cows.  Cows and kids"  Ha!

I wonder where he came-up with this?
And I wonder if he really was dreaming of cows!?

Here are a few more...

"I dreamed about birds.  Birds flying (insert swishing sound effect here) with big digger".

"I dreamed about two cats and two planes. Wow".

Wow indeed, Jake.

And while we are on the subject of sleep, both kids have been napping at the same time in the afternoon!  What a success.  We are on our fifth day in a row of this and I have my fingers crossed it will continue.  Oh the things I can get done in two-and-a-half hours...

morning on the water

earlier this week, we took turns on the paddle board, made and destroyed sand castles, hauled bucketfuls of water onto the beach, dug rivers and ponds and brought home a lot of sand.  Avery snuggled with Aunty Brenda on the shore and we enjoyed the shade of a huge willow tree.  It had us wishing that summer was just beginning.    

Don't be alarmed.  Bill and Jake are in shallow water here.  Jake's recommendations to "go deeper, dada"  were ignored.