The Tribbling Ladies host a baby shower for one of their babies

Another one of our Tribbling Babies, lovely Nicole is adding a baby girl to our extended family.  Our Tribbling Ladies are always looking for excuses to get together and celebrate and spill the odd glass of wine and talk about their children and husbands.  Now we can add in-laws and grandchildren to our repertoire.  Not that we ever ran out of things to talk about, but our tables now abound with phones being passed around with the latest pictures of the grandchildren.  

This being Nicole's first baby presented us with another opportunity to hold a baby shower and talk about our fond memories of our children growing up on this wonderful street.  

 

Lovely Nicole and her mom Claudia

Oma excited about the 4th generation little girl.

  

Always lots to talk about when we get together.  It turned out into a beautiful evening so we had appetizers, cocktails and dinner outside.  

I think it is impossible for a group of ladies to get together at a baby shower and not start reliving their own labours.  There was definitely some serious conversation going on.  

 We were so lucky to have a surprise visit from Baby Norah.  Lauren's lovely daughter was born in April.  She was more than happy to be cuddled by all the grandma's and the grandma's-in-waiting.  :)  And Lauren was able to give Nicole some advice that wasn't 30+ years old.  :)

Bob's famous Creamed Mustard Pork Tenderloin served with a rice pilaf and salad.  Delish

 Carrot Cake with rum infused raisins.  Carrot cupcakes with no rum nor raisins.  

And to my shame, my battery ran out before we started opening the presents.  Lots of fun things were opened.  A big thank you to Nicole for letting us join in your celebration.  

 I am so blessed to be a part of this wonderful group of ladies who met on a street 30 years ago as we were starting out with new homes and new babies.  Now we are celebrating our friends children's weddings and babies.  

xoxo from the Tribbling Ladies.  

Beautiful Bronte Village in lovely Oakville - A great place for an afternoon walk

How lucky am I, the nicest day of the year and I am heading down to meet up with 2 girl friends from elementary school for a walk around Bronte Village in Oakville.  The windows are open in the car, my coffee in the cup holder and my walking shoes on.  Amazing to actually schedule something and have it turn out to be so beautiful.  OK no more moaning about the weather.  Today is great.

Bronte Village has a lovely little harbour right on Lake Ontario and today was as still as you will ever see Lake Ontario.  We walked around 5000 steps through the Marina and along the waterfront.  We needed to work up an appetite for lunch.

There has been a fair bit of tearing down and rebuilding along the shoreline but thankfully nothing too gigantic has been put up.  In the actual village of Bronte you can walk for a long way along the waterfront, but then you run into the private homes which are amazing.  And I can just imagine some of the mighty winter storms they have had to withstand.

A day of reflections, the water was clean and calm, a mirror reflecting everything floating in it.

The baby geese have arrived.  There were a number of those little black bugs everywhere, hopefully all these little birds will help to curtail them.  

 

We ate at a restaurant called the Plank .  The food was amazing and very unusual.  I ordered the Punjabi Buttermilk Stew.  Honestly I almost liked the bowl the flavours were so wonderful.  The Plank is on the main street in town overlooking the harbour.  I was hoping to eat at the Compass next time, but I just read that it is only going to be used to host special events.  

The water was crystal clear I tried to talk the girls into going paddling, but no takers.  Next time.  The colours were almost like the Caribbean.  Such a different look to Lake Ontario when it is so calm.

This seems to be the year of the swan, they have come back with a "splash".  LOL.  No babies yet, I gather they don't start arriving until June.  Keep your eyes open, let me know if you spot any.

Thank you to Christine and Carol for taking me on a lovely adventure and rediscovering a wonderful part of the GTA.  I can't thank facebook enough for allowing us to get back in touch with each other after so many years (we haven't changed at all :))))

Get out there and explore(by the way there is a lovely "Lake Walk" on the 1st Thursday of each month in the summer at Bronte Village) is my motto going forward and amazing how many interesting places there are so close to our homes.  Cheers

A Walk to Willow Farm Pond

There are times when as a Canadian I am thankful for the harsh winters we have.  I know you are thinking I am crazy (my kids would agree with that assessment).  The weather this week to anyone who lives south of New York would just be OK.  But to me the only word that can apply to this week is GLORIOUS.  I feel like a kid on Christmas morning.  You truthfully want to stretch your arms out and twirl and say WOW.

It's not just me who feels like this, everyone I met on my walk was chatty and smiling and just all around "happier" than they were in March :).  

My goal this summer is to walk 5,000 steps every day and 10,000 steps - 3 times a week.  I am up to 78,000+ steps in 19 days, not quite up to my goal, but getting there.  Thank goodness the golf courses have opened, Jim and I will be starting our 7 to 9 hole after dinner jaunt over to the course.  As the days get longer and warmer it is a beautiful time to walk the course.

One of my favourite Aurora walks is down to the Willow Farm Pond.  It's down hill all the way there, which means I am doing a ton of huffing and puffing on the way back, so a great workout overall.  My other challenge this year is to leave my earphones at home and just enjoy the walk without all the clutter.  I realized the other day when I walked for 30 minutes and my song was stuck on repeat and I didn't even notice that maybe I wasn't listening very well.  

Spring is the true season of rebirth, the number of birds chirping and swooping through the woods was amazing.  Down at the ponds the ducks and geese were starting to nest.  Won't be long until we have baby birds swimming in the pond.  

On my way back I noticed this beautiful tree full of pine cones and not a needle on it.  Hopefully it will come back to it's glory days.

 I have bird pictures all through my house, bright red cardinals, the lovely blue jay, swans flying and I realized I had never taken a picture of a robin.  The harbinger of spring, is there anything better than seeing the red red robin back on our streets as the snow starts to melt.  It is always a part of our conversation as a Canadaian "I saw a Robin today".  Old man winter is on his last breath.  LOL

I feel blessed every day to live in this wonderful country and this wonderful town of Aurora with their marvelous trails.  Hopefully it will make attaining my goal easier :).  Time to put words into action, walk time.  

1955 was a very good year, one of my favourites

2015 is turning out to be a very good year.  4 60th birthdays - ok none of us are thrilled about that, other than it's a good excuse for a party.  3 weddings and 2 babies.  Lots of family and friends time, add in lots of girl time and what more could you ask for in a year.  

Jim loves a party but not for him.  So I had to be very careful about his birthday celebration.  The kids had organized his family dinner at Harbour 60 so it was just up to me to organize a small dinner party with our friends.  We will be spending a lot of time together this year with all the celebrations happening.  Amazingly everyone was available on short notice and the party all came together on Friday night.  

 It has been a long winter and everyone was in the mood to have a little fun and be a little silly.

Everyone who knows Jim knows that he is never short for words.  He thanked everyone for coming, for their gifts and most importantly for being such good friends to us for the last 30 years.  It is times like this when you realize that the most important things in life are the people you surround yourself with and we are lucky to have these wonderful friends sharing our celebrations this year.