Just things and thoughts: April 2015

Thursday, April 30, 2015

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.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

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.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

The Wedding Journey Continues: Wedding Party Meet and Greet

Let's have a party!. What better excuse, as if I need an excuse. I love parties especially if there is wine and cake :). The easiest part of this get together was the guest list. 32 in the wedding party. Family is very important to Jay and Rachel so they decided to include their siblings in the wedding party. Also meant there weren't any good excuses for them not showing up. It helped that I kept sending Andrew and David pictures of the food, always the best way to their hearts.

Picking the theme was a little more challenging and then I remembered Pinterest and Google. Seriously how did we manage before the internet. And then I remembered that Jay and his family are big MOVEMBER supporters and get right into the spirit of the mustache growing event every November so why not support mustaches at this party too.

I must admit by the time I cut out 32 mustaches and lips for the name tags I was starting to feel like a brownie leader again.

The menu, again back to google, just type in Wedding Brunches and tons of ideas come up. Rachel and Jay came up Friday night (pizza night of course) so I had 2 little helpers to put the final touches on everything.

I LOVE finger food. Pop it into your mouth, oh look another one, in it goes. It's like those little egg salad and salmon sandwiches with no crusts cut into triangles. I would never eat more than 1 sandwich for lunch, but those little triangles amazingly I can eat about 12 of them.

Rachel recommended a Mimosa Bar and we definitely needed a "Beer Boat" for Jay. Poor Jay, his groomsmen and future brothers-in-law just happened to have an all day event on the Saturday (which meant we were just glad they got out of bed on the Sunday). Being a little cool, we loaded up the bottle bins with ice and then Jay had to cart the beer and champagne up the stairs from the cold cellar. (I do think he likes this kind of stuff - at least I hope so :))

Everyone is here and the table is ready to go. Tinkle the beer bottle to get everyone's attention and give a little speech. LOL - yep throat locked, face went red, started waving my hands but with a little help from Jim made it through it. Luckily when I do a little welcome it is never very long :). I'm practicing wearing heels and giving speeches to get ready for the wedding.

Rachel's Maid of Honour Annie and her husband Jordan couldn't make it they were back in Michigan after the weekend bridesmaid shopping and Jay's groomsman Matt and his wife Kelly are living in London, England so they had to pass as well. Looking forward to meeting them at the wedding.

Being a wee bit sentimental whenever I host a family or holiday party I think of my mom and mom-in-law and fond memories of their celebrations. Nana's cheese and onion pie and Victoria sandwich cake and Granma's country style potatoes had a place of honour on the table.

The Dad's - what do you thinking. Talking about the tux or suit they will be wearing, what kind of shoes lol. I'm betting - golf, blue jays or some sporting event.